Mozart operas

[Marc]

Very strong female trio in Solti's figaro: Te Kawana/Popp/Von Stade

And young Samuel Ramey is a very charming Figaro! Just love his voice.........

Agreed with everything! I fell in love around 25 years ago with Lucia Popp's voice thanks to this recording. Also Von Stade, Te Kanawa and Ramey are indeed a delight to listen to .... but there is even more to enjoy. I think Thomas Allen is superb as a young virile count, Robert Tear is the ideal bootlicking Don Basilio, Kurt Moll is a great grumbling 'daddy' Bartolo and don't forget Jane Berbié (Marcellina) as conniving bitch.
And listen to that touching L'ho perduta by Yvonne Kenny .... lovely.

[DarkAngel]

The Solti Figaro should arrive any day now, was not cheap purchase so it better be good  

Some more activity on Figaro sets:

Selling (Troyanos as Cherubino does not work for me, horny confused teenager? )

Order placed for these two

[DarkAngel]

My Figaro collection will soon include:

[Marc]

The Solti Figaro should arrive any day now, was not cheap purchase so it better be good  

Already the ouverture will tell you that this most certainly is a folle journée!

Some more activity on Figaro sets:

[image of Karl Böhm's Figaro set]
Selling (Troyanos as Cherubino does not work for me, horny confused teenager?)

That's a pity.

Von Stade will work though, don't worry.

Popp, Von Stade, Te Kanawa, Kenny, Berbié .... good heavens, I'm falling in love with them all continuously, making me even more horny & confused than the Cherubin him(her)self!

[Que]

When I saw this, I wondered why not the Jacobs instead? But your subsequent post cleared that up!
Still, for another HIP Nozze, I would have opted for Östman:

 

Q

[DarkAngel]

When I saw this, I wondered why not the Jacobs instead? But your subsequent post cleared that up!
Still, for another HIP Nozze, I would have opted for Östman:
Q 

I have all my Jacobs/HM bases covered for Mozart opera 

I already have order in for Ostman/Lyre Magic Flute......if that goes well the Figaro may soon follow.

[DarkAngel]

Von Stade will work though, don't worry.

Popp, Von Stade, Te Kanawa, Kenny, Berbié .... good heavens, I'm falling in love with them all continuously, making me even more horny & confused than the Cherubin him(her)self!

Von Stade vocal style is nearly ideal for trouser roles like Cherubino.......she has long performance history playing this delightful mischevious rogue

[Que]

Spotted at jpc: an facsilime edition by German publisher Bärenreiter of seven Mozart operas in Mozart 's autograph! It's a collaboration between the Packard Humanities Institute and the Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg.

It seems ordering from the PHI is a lot cheaper than getting it from jpc ($175 vs €248) - info HERE.



Q

[knight66]

Does that sort of indicate that Mozart wrote at least seven operas?

Mike

[Marc]

Spotted at jpc: an facsilime edition by German publisher Bärenreiter of seven Mozart operas in Mozart 's autograph! It's a collaboration between the Packard Humanities Institute and the Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg.

It seems ordering from the PHI is a lot cheaper than getting it from jpc ($175 vs €248) - info HERE.Q

Hmm, a lot cheaper ....

If I were a rich man ....

Nice initiative, though!

[DarkAngel]

Don't think there are many Solti fans here...........but after listening to samples I decided his Figaro and Cosi are quite good:
Plus I need one good Kiri Te Kawana opera for Mozart, so Figaro will be it

One problem with the Solti Figaro is that there are not enough tracks, recititavo and arias are lumped together into longer tracks 
Much prefer them to each have thier own track so you can easily control your listening sessions, perhaps a future remastered edition will correct this..............

Booklet has 366 pages!

[DarkAngel]

Yes I have checked that later live Bohm Cosi and it does seem better than the famous Schwarzkopf/Ludwig version.
Are you referring to the VPO version?

I really like this Cosi, can tell right away from first male trio "la mia dorabella" that I was going to like this. Herman Prey & Peter Schreier make wonderful pair of fiancees, loved thier sound right away...........the sisters Janowitz & Fassbaender sound just as great as I had hoped, no let down.

The only caveat is 1974 live performance has the usual bumps/thumps noises of singers moving around the stage, but you can hear through this pretty fast since we have great energy only live versions can produce.

[DarkAngel]

I think it is time to energize this thread with a new infusion of spending
Anyone purchase the Jacobs/HM versions of the major Mozart operas, comments?

After listening to these three as well as 4-6 other highly rated versions of each opera, these three Jacobs/HM performances are going to be the core of my collection. They are expensive to buy, but they are well worth it and the packaging sets the standard, first class all the way.........

Cosi
This is the best performance of the three operas by Jacobs for me, and is the best overall Cosi fan Tutte I have heard.
The opening overture is extremely fast paced but things quickly settle down to a more manageable tempo, the sound quality is very transparant allowing all kinds of detail to emerge. Vocalists as a whole are the best cast, and I love the charm and the dramatic energy this performance conveys, absolutely beautiful, an essential Cosi!  

Very familiar with Gens and Fink from thier Handel opera/cantata recordings, so I was expecting good things to happen

[DarkAngel]

Figaro
The Jacobs version is very good, but the competition here is much greater than Cosi........
Not yet prepared to declare Jacobs my favorite

Don
Again Jacobs very good, but in this opera it is all about who sings Don.....
Cosi and Figaro is more a cast of vocalists but Don lives or dies on how well the title role is carried off

[DavidRoss]

I happened on this fine performance of Der Hölle Rache by Natalie Dessay at the Paris Opera and thought others here might enjoy it as much as I:

http://www.youtube.com/v/9qqDKUKvoIs&NR=1

After that, I just had to have another look at Diana Damrau in the same scene:

http://www.youtube.com/v/DvuKxL4LOqc

There's some damned fine stuff making its way to DVD these days.  Wonder how long it will be before live streaming broadcasts are available?  

added--just heard/saw this fine performance by Erika Miklosa, too:

http://www.youtube.com/v/ERsjRsCBlBo&feature=related

[DarkAngel]

Hard to top the purity of those high notes from Damrau......she feels and acts the part with an evil intensity.
Also the queen of the night costume she is wearing seems most appropiate to the nature of the character.

At first I wasn't sure that the new Davis version would be my favorite DVD version, but after trying several others
I cannot find any to surpass it overall.......wish we had a different Panmina however (Roschmann)

[DarkAngel]

40 sopranos compared.............
Check this cool you tube video which has short samples of 40 sopranos doing the Der Hölle Rache aria.
The different costume designs is equally interesting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pe9UTxyGbk

[DavidRoss]

Hard to top the purity of those high notes from Damrau......she feels and acts the part with an evil intensity.
Also the queen of the night costume she is wearing seems most appropiate to the nature of the character.

At first I wasn't sure that the new Davis version would be my favorite DVD version, but after trying several others
I cannot find any to surpass it overall.......wish we had a different Panmina however (Roschmann)

Röschmann might be packing a few too many pounds for the ideal Pamina, but her vocal performance is hard to beat.  Yes, I think we all love Damrau's intensity and I agree that the costuming is terrific.  Keelyside's Papageno is first-rate, too.

[DarkAngel]

next

[DarkAngel]

Röschmann might be packing a few too many pounds for the ideal Pamina, but her vocal performance is hard to beat.  Yes, I think we all love Damrau's intensity and I agree that the costuming is terrific.  Keelyside's Papageno is first-rate, too.

Love the Keelyside character Papageno also..........
Roschmann seems to be hard to escape from in recent Mozart opera DVDs, she is also in the new Figaro: