What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[JBS]

Today's listening: an opera I've never heard before

[atardecer]

Monteverdi - L'Orfeo
Savall

[brewski]

This afternoon, the final performance of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, at Opera Philadelphia:

https://www.operaphila.org/whats-on/in-theaters-2023-2024/simon-boccanegra/

-Bruce

[Wendell_E]

Wow! A friend alerted me to this production of Wozzeck, and it's amazing! As much as I love Berg's other opera, Lulu, I've always had more of a respectful admiration for Wozzeck, but I found this production heartbreaking, Subtitles in French only, but I don't really need them for this opera. There are things that may disturb purists, principally the presence of Wozzeck and Marie's son throughout the opera, re-living the tragedy of his youth. He's played by actor Dimitri Doré, 24 years old at the time, but he could pass for a teenager. I don't know how long it'll be up, but I'll definitely try to watch it again soon. If it comes out on disc, I'll definitely get it.

It's a 2021 production from Toulouse with Stéphane Degout and Sophie Koch as the leads. Conducted by Leo Hussain, and directed by Michel Fau. The end credits mention that it's Erwin Stein's reduced orchestration, but I never would have guessed.

[Scion7]

Today's listening: an opera I've never heard before

Haven't heard this, but I am very fond of the suite from the opera, Summer Night.

[ritter]

Cross-posted from the WAYL2N thread:

I felt the urge to listen to Act III of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

This time around I went for the Keilberth recording (made live in Munich on November 23rd, 1963 — the performance marked the reopening of the rebuilt National Theatre).



There are sets out there with superior and more homogenous casts, but there is a sense of occasion here which is noticeable, and Keilberth was very strong in this repertoire.

Really excited that we'll be getting Die Meistersinger in a new production later this season at the Teatro Real here in Madrid. Pablo Heras-Casado will conduct (his Parsifal last summer in Bayreuth was widely acclaimed), Laurent Pelly directs, and Gerald Finley will be Hans Sachs. 

[Tsaraslondon]

The Forza Leonora was actually Callas's first ever Verdi stage role. She sang it in Trieste in 1948, then in Ravenna in 1954 shortly before making this recording and then never again, which is a terrible shame, because she is a superb Leonora. Whenever she is before the microphone, we are aware of the greatness of Verdi's writing as music drama. Others may have sung a purer, firmer line in la vergine degli angeli or floated a purer top Bb in Pace, pace but none probe so deeply into the character.

The rest of the cast isn't quite on her level, but Rossi-Lemeni, despite his woolly tone, is an authoratative and sympathetic Padre Guardiano. Tucker is in splendid voice, but is inclined to aspirate and sob in what he presumably thinks is the Italian manner. Tagliabue sounds a bit over-the-hill, but Capecchi is excellent as Melitone as is Clabassi as Calatrava. Nicolai does what she can with the rather thankless role of Preziosilla. Serafin, so often underrated, is fantastic. He never draws attention to himself but everything just sounds so right.

My first Forza and still my favourite.

Callas in La Forza del Destino

[Tsaraslondon]

This recording starts with Del Monaco belting out Celeste Aida without a hint of poetry or romance, but the Mexican audience go wild and it's clear that subtlety is not what this performances is going to be about. It is undeniably thrilling and of course it's famous for the stupendous high Eb Callas sings in the Act II finale. However this is not just the Callas show. There are some magnificent voices on display here, the likes of which you would never hear today, including the clarion voiced Del Monaco, the powerhouse of the local girl, Oralia Dominguez and the exciting, if slightly gruff-voiced Giuseppe Taddei. Oliviero De Fabritiis's conducting is alive and exciting, if not exactly revelatory. The best that can be said of the sound is that you get used to it with a little perserverence.

Callas in Aida – Mexico City 1951

[Tsaraslondon]

This was the first complete opera set I ever owned, a Christmas present from my brother. I think I'd have been 18 or 19. My love affair with Callas had started a few months earlier and it has continued unabated now for over fifty years. It's actually the longest relationship of my life and I have remained true to her ever since.

Though I have now heard, and own, many more recordings of the opera with Callas, I still have a great deal of affection for this one. I hear the vocal failings of her late career voice now more than I did, but there are still parts which I think are more movingly voiced here than in any of her other recordings. Of course it also benefits from the best sound of all her Normas and an excellent supporting cast, with Ludwig a suprisingly successful Adalgisa, who sounds, as she should, like the younger woman.

Callas's 1960 Studio Norma

[Wendell_E]

I bought this a year or two (or more) ago, and finally got around to watching it today.

N.P. Wilkinson, who used to post here, saw it in the theatre and wrote about it on his blog. He didn't care for it. I liked it a little better, but not much.

[Tsaraslondon]

Not my favourite Bellini. There's some glorious music, but the plot doesn't hang together well and the end is unconvincing and perfucntory. Callas is amazing, though. I don't think I can ever hear the Mad Scene without having her unique inflections in my mind's ear.

Callas in I Puritani

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Not my favourite Bellini. There's some glorious music, but the plot doesn't hang together well and the end is unconvincing and perfucntory. Callas is amazing, though. I don't think I can ever hear the Mad Scene without having her unique inflections in my mind's ear.

Callas in I Puritani

I enjoy I Puritani.  I don't have a complete one with *Callas.  The two that I have is 1) The well-known one with Sutherland and also a live one with her.

*I suspect that I have various arias, etc. from it on some collections that I own of hers though.

Hope that you are enjoying your journey through the operas and her recordings overall?

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

I enjoy I Puritani.  I don't have a complete one with *Callas.  The two that I have is 1) The well-known one with Sutherland and also a live one with her.

*I suspect that I have various arias, etc. from it on some collections that I own of hers though.

Hope that you are enjoying your journey through the operas and her recordings overall?

PD

I only have this one recording of I Puritani. I have a bit of a problem with Sutherland so the only alternative I've considered is the Muti, which, like the second Sutherland recording, gives us the score complete.

From Bellini, I moved on to Wagner and Parsifal, Kundry being Callas's next new role, which she first sang in 1949. This recording is of a concert performance from November 1950, which also signalled her farewell to Wagner. Taking on the role of Elvira at the beginning of the previous year changed the direction her career would take.



http://tsaraslondon.com/2017/10/09/parsifal-rome-1950/

[Tsaraslondon]

If you can get past the dreadful sound, this is a really exicting performance of Verdi's first great success. Callas added the role of Abigaille to her repertoire in December 1949, but never sang the role after these three performances, later calling the role a voice wrecker. Nevertheless she is fantastic in the role, in fearless voice and I doubt anyone in its history has given such a complete performance. the coloratura delivered with phenomemal accuracy as well as thrilling power. This is also the earliest record we have of Callas in a complete role. She would have been 27.

Callas in Nabucco – Naples 1949

[ritter]

I attended a performance of Cherubini's Medée a couple of weeks ago, and thought I'd revisit another opera on the same subject matter, Giovani Simone (or Johann Simon) Mayr's Medea in Corinto.



I hadn't listened to this in decades, and had almost no recollection of it. Enjoying it so far (particularly Mayr's attentive and elegant orchestration) ... 

[Florestan]

I attended a performance of Cherubini's Medée a couple of weeks ago, and thought I'd revisit another opera on the same subject matter, Giovani Simone (or Johann Simon) Mayr's Medea in Corinto.



I hadn't listened to this in decades, and had almost no recollection of it. Enjoying it so far (particularly Mayr's attentive and elegant orchestration) ... 

Mayr's music is indeed superb, not only his operas but also his church music, melodious and joyful in an almost Vivaldian way. He was also the best music teacher in Italy at the time, his most famous pupil and protégé being Donizetti.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

If you can get past the dreadful sound, this is a really exicting performance of Verdi's first great success. Callas added the role of Abigaille to her repertoire in December 1949, but never sang the role after these three performances, later calling the role a voice wrecker. Nevertheless she is fantastic in the role, in fearless voice and I doubt anyone in its history has given such a complete performance. the coloratura delivered with phenomemal accuracy as well as thrilling power. This is also the earliest record we have of Callas in a complete role. She would have been 27.

Callas in Nabucco – Naples 1949

I haven't heard that recording, but the opera is sensational.  I can totally get why she called it a voice wrecker.

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

I'm listening to this classic set via FLAC file of an LP rip from an Italian issue, sent to me by a kind TC member. It's actually making me wonder if any of the digital transfers I've heard have been an improvement on the original. The sound in general is much warmer and the voices sound much richer in consequence. Callas's top notes sound absoluitely fine here.

Callas first sang Leonora in Mexico in 1950 and it became one of her most successful roles, but this 1956 recording signified her farewell to the role, though she revisited her Act IV arias a few times in concert.

The Callas Karajan Il Trovatore

[Wendell_E]

It's been a while since I've done a complete Ring cycle, and I bought the Blu-ray of the Barenboim/Kupfer production from the '91 & '92 Bayreuth Festivals some time ago, but got interrupted less than halfway through and never got back to it. Rheingold today, then probably Walküre and Siegfried an act per night (forgive me, Richard) Monday through Saturday, and spend next Sunday with Götterdämmerung.


John Tomlinson: Wotan
Bodo Brinkmann: Donner
Kurt Schreibmayer: Froh
Graham Clark: Loge
Linda Finnie: Fricka
Eva Johansson: Freia
Birgitta Svendén: Erda
Günter von Kannen: Alberich
Helmut Pampuch: Mime
Matthias Hölle: Fasolt
Philip Kang: Fafner
Hilde Leidland: Woglinde
Annette Küttenbaum: Wellgunde
Jane Turner: Flosshilde

[DavidW]

Was that the laser light show Ring?  I watched it if so.