What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Tsaraslondon]

Excellent question. I think maybe A Midsummer Night's Dream: it's got the fascination with night, dreams/nightmares and treble voices; it's got the loss of innocence idea, as the lovers 'grow up' in Theseus' palace. It has amazing orchestration. It was 'occasional music' (i.e., sort-of thrown together in a hurry for the re-opening of the Jubilee Hall). It's tuneful, but definitely 'modern'. It harks back to Purcellian use of counter-tenor, and Purcell was one of Britten's idols. It isn't perhaps his best opera (I think Turn of the Screw tends to get that award, though my personal favourite is probably Peter Grimes), but I think it probably sums him, his interests, his psyche up more than any other.

Yes, that's a good point about A Midsummer Night's Dream. It isn't my favourite Britten opera either. Personally, I'd find it hard to choose between Turn of the Screw, Peter Grimes and Billy Budd, and I like Gloriana more every time I hear it. I also think the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings encapsulates a lot of what I think of Britten's style. Maybe it's because, along with The Turn of the Screw, it was the work which really pulled me into Britten's soundworld. I had it on this LP and just looking at the cover brings up a host of memories for me.

[Tsaraslondon]

Ah, the old Samuel Palmer cover! Borrowed exactly that one from a central library back in the day (somewhere in the late 1970s, I'm afraid!)

I love Billy Budd, too, but the one I'd pick as favourite if it wasn't Peter Grimes would probably be Albert Herring. It took me a very long time to enjoy it, largely because of Sylvia Fischer's voice on the 1964 recording. I just wasn't able to listen to that wobbly, shrieking, coloratura soprano voice for very long! But you get one's ear 'in' over time and it gradually becomes less of a problem. Now, I like my Lady Billows to be as billowy and blustery as possible! And the score is a wonder, considering the resources available to him, and there's plenty of wry humour in there I now love. I mean, it's never going to be a side-splitting comic opera, but I do now find it very funny   But all that said, whilst it's a great example of his art, I don't think it's very typical or 'encapsulates' much about him. It was his only comic opera, after all... though, to be fair, his lapse into profound grief at the last act's threnody is much more typical Britten!

I've seen it once and borrowed the Britten recording once from a library, but it never quite did it for me. Maybe it's time I gave it another try.

[JBS]

I've seen it once and borrowed the Britten recording once from a library, but it never quite did it for me. Maybe it's time I gave it another try.

My introduction to Albert Herring was Glyndebourne on VHS. The DVD incarnation is this

I did eventually get around to getting the Britten Decca recording.

My own feeling is that sonically and vocally the Glyndebourne is better.
There's a live recording from Copenhagen 1949 conducted by Britten that I've never heard, nor the other three recordings listed by Amazon.

BTW, I count Paul Bunyan as a comic opera.

[JBS]

I suppose I have a broader definition of comedy--but a lot of comedies revolve around a main character (and sometimes others as well) acting like a fool and then realizing it. To stick to opera, there's Ford and Falstaff in Falstaff, the Count and Figaro in Nozze di Figaro, and Eisenstein in Fledermaus as obvious examples.

[Mirror Image]

Excellent question. I think maybe A Midsummer Night's Dream: it's got the fascination with night, dreams/nightmares and treble voices; it's got the loss of innocence idea, as the lovers 'grow up' in Theseus' palace. It has amazing orchestration. It was 'occasional music' (i.e., sort-of thrown together in a hurry for the re-opening of the Jubilee Hall). It's tuneful, but definitely 'modern'. It harks back to Purcellian use of counter-tenor, and Purcell was one of Britten's idols. It isn't perhaps his best opera (I think Turn of the Screw tends to get that award, though my personal favourite is probably Peter Grimes), but I think it probably sums him, his interests, his psyche up more than any other.

Interesting choice. For me, and this may be a strange choice (or not), but I think the work that sums Britten up is Death in Venice. The darker nature of the subject is right up this composer's alley. The orchestration is simply exquisite and harkens back to The Prince of the Pagodas with the Gamelan influence, but it's taken to newer heights in Venice. I realize that this opera isn't for everyone and the subject matter does raise an eyebrow, but I love it and remain haunted by it.

[Mirror Image]

Ah, well: when I'm visiting the Red House archives in May, I've specially requested to see the manuscript of the end of Act 1 of Death in Venice, precisely because it's such a profound moment in a great, great work. So I concur that it's right up there as a masterpiece. I just don't think it "encapsulates" the man as well as AMSND, but obviously there can be a range of opinions on the subject!

Ah, but isn't what is hidden within a man's heart, where his true self lies? Death in Venice, for me, represents what Britten felt deep within his soul and it's certainly revealing to say the least. More so than any other work of his I've heard.

[JBS]

One of my least favorite operas

Recorded in 1954 in mono that  almost sounds like stereo. Two of the singers in the minor roles I've heard of: Anton Dermota as Narraboth and Walter Berry as the First Soldier.

[JBS]

One of my least favorite operas

Recorded in 1954 in mono that  almost sounds like stereo. Two of the singers in the minor roles I've heard of: Anton Dermota as Narraboth and Walter Berry as the First Soldier.

After action debriefing-
Still not keen on the opera, but not nearly as screechy as Nilsson/Solti and Studer/Sinopoli, which are the other two recordings I have.

I'm not sure, but this seems to have been its only previous CD incarnation as an individual release.  I have not yet figured out whether or not the new Decca box uses new remasterings.

[Wendell_E]

One of my least favorite operas

Recorded in 1954 in mono that  almost sounds like stereo. Two of the singers in the minor roles I've heard of: Anton Dermota as Narraboth and Walter Berry as the First Soldier.

Goltz was the Salome on the first recording I bought of the opera, on LPs "compatible for stereo and 4 channel quadraphonic equipment". But it was a different recording, Keilberth conducting the Saxon State Orchestra, on Olympic Records. Kurt Böhme was one of the Nazarenes, otherwise no big-name singers. The recording doesn't give a date, but according to Wikipedia, it's from 1948,

[Tsaraslondon]

Two recordings, one on modern instruments and one on original, featuring two of my favourite singers, Dame Janet Baker and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

The Anthony Lewis recording is rightly considered a classic and for many will be a top choice for anyone who doesn't object to the use of modern instruments and Baker's Dido is without peer, though Hunt Lieberson runs her close. The problem with the McGegan recording is the witches, who are ridiculously characterised and a serious blot on the rest of the performance. Still, I enjoyed hearing this for the original instruments, McGegan's sprightly tempi, Michael Dean's youthfuly heroic Aeneas and Hunt Lieberson's movingly heartfelt Dido. Lewis's version, despite the use of modern instruments remains my favourite though.

[Tsaraslondon]

After action debriefing-
Still not keen on the opera, but not nearly as screechy as Nilsson/Solti and Studer/Sinopoli, which are the other two recordings I have.

I'm not sure I'd apply that description to Salome, though it might apply to Elektra. Have you heard the Karajan recording with Behrens? It's very beautiful.

[Que]

[ritter]

Revisiting after many years the first ever grand opéra:



My train last week from Naples to Herculaneum (the beautifully named Ferrovia Circumvesuviana  ) stopped at Portici, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, and this awakened an interest to relisten to Auber's La Muette de Portici. The cast is starry, with Alfredo Kraus as Masianello and June Anderson as Elvire (the muette remains uncredited, though  ).

[Florestan]

Revisiting after many years the first ever grand opéra:



My train last week from Naples to Herculaneum (the beautifully named Ferrovia Circumvesuviana  ) stopped at Portici, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, and this awakened an interest to relisten to Auber's La Muette de Portici. The cast is starry, with Alfredo Kraus as Masianello and June Anderson as Elvire (the muette remains uncredited, though  ).

Свята любов до батьківщини,
Дай нам сміливість і гордість;
Своєю країною я зобов'язаний своїм життям,
Він буде винен мені своєю свободою'

[André]

Rimsky-Korsakov's last opera, never performed during his lifetime - he died before the censors approved the work in a modified version. It was performed for the first time in 1909 and remains one of his best loved works. The familiar 4-movement suite from 1913 contains the opera's greatest hits, arranged and orchestrated by the composer's son-in-law Maximilian Steinberg and Alexander Glazunov. In the context of the full opera the familiar tunes sound less like Pops material, being integrated in the opera's overall flow and vocal/choral textures.

The  staging here is that of a japanese kabuki play, with masks, headpieces, stylized gestures and colourful costumes. The singing calls for some special vocal casting, the role of the Astrologer (an eunuch) to be sung by a tenor altino, rarely used since the days of Rossini. Everybody performs very well and Nagano conducts with finesse and a good sense of flow.

[Tsaraslondon]

Dreadful sound, but astonishing singing from Callas at least. In fact if there weren't this recorded evidence, you'd honestly think it wasn't possible that a voice of such size could sing with such corruscating brilliance. Admittedly the tenors aren't up to much and I have to say I was quite pleased that Fillipeschi's character died at the end of Act I, but, for Callas, this set demands to be heard.

[Florestan]

Rimsky-Korsakov's last opera, never performed during his lifetime - he died before the censors approved the work in a modified version. It was performed for the first time in 1909 and remains one of his best loved works. The familiar 4-movement suite from 1913 contains the opera's greatest hits, arranged and orchestrated by the composer's son-in-law Maximilian Steinberg and Alexander Glazunov. In the context of the full opera the familiar tunes sound less like Pops material, being integrated in the opera's overall flow and vocal/choral textures.

The  staging here is that of a japanese kabuki play, with masks, headpieces, stylized gestures and colourful costumes. The singing calls for some special vocal casting, the role of the Astrologer (an eunuch) to be sung by a tenor altino, rarely used since the days of Rossini. Everybody performs very well and Nagano conducts with finesse and a good sense of flow.

Very interesting, thank you.

[Tsaraslondon]

Like the excellent and contemporaneous Gui recording, this is cut and the edition used is anything but authentic. However I believe that many of these joyful Rossini recordings from the 1950s have in them a deeper authenticity in performance that has nothing to do with editions used. A short review on my blog. http://tsaraslondon.com/2017/01/08/il-barbiere-di-siviglia/

[Ganondorf]

The Salome performance last month made me notice several things which I hadn't much thought about earlier: namely, how freakin' funny it is. In a dark and macabre way of course, but funny all the same. The opera's latter half starting from Herod's plea to Salome to dance for him starts this ludicrous yet hilarious carrot-and stick fate pattern with Salome, Herod and Herodias. Salome says: Okay, Herod, I will dance for you. Herod is overjoyed. Herodias disapproves. But the price will be Jochanaan's head. Herodias is beaming, Herod is desperate. So Salome gets Jochanaan's head. But in the very moment of Salome's and Herodias's triumph Herod wrests the victory from them by ordering guards to kill Salome before Herodias's eyes. I believe there is even a fast allusion to Herodias's leitmotif in the score after Herod's last words when guards rush to kill Salome. Maybe I'm just a bit silly in the head but this is just hilarious black comedy. No-one gets what they want, in the end.

And don't even get me started on the Jew Quintet. 

[André]

After Rheingold and Die Walküre from Keilberth (Bayreuth 1953), this:



Solti's Das Rheingold from Decca. With a fantastic lead trio: George London a commanding, incisive Wotan (better than Hotter IMO), Kirsten Flagstad's sumptuous, voluminous tones as Fricka, Gustav Neidlinger again as Alberich, none the better than here - and very good secondery roles: Erda, Loge, Froh, Donner, the two giants and the Rhinemaidens, albeit slightly less alluring than on the Keilberth set. There's no denying the thrill of the splendid orchestral playing and beautifully produced soundstage. The Nibelungen's wails of terror are overdone of course, but at least we are not in any doubt about the power of the ring. A classic production, still amazing after 64 years.