Recordings That You Are Considering

[Florestan]

Whaaaat? 

[Jo498]

One of Stockhausen's later muses played flute (Kathinka Pasveer), his son Markus trumpet (he is a rather famous player regardless of his father).

[Mandryka]

It's on Spotify. Turns out Kathinka Passveer doesn't use any overblowing so that's a great disappointment.

[Jo498]

I don't think I have heard the disc but it's somehow familiar; I might have handled it in a store or seen at friend's long ago (or maybe I just saw it online). I also thought Stockhausen had written a cadenza either for the flute or the trumpet concerto.

[Mookalafalas]

   I've been trying to enjoy opera for 10 years, and mostly failing. Might this be the best path to changing my mind?

[Mandryka]

   I've been trying to enjoy opera for 10 years, and mostly failing. Might this be the best path to changing my mind?

It's certainly possible to get into opera because you respond well to a particular voice. Whether you feel so strongly about Nilsson's art for that to happen is entirely a personal thing, you have to suck it and see.

[Mookalafalas]

It's certainly possible to get into opera because you respond well to a particular voice. Whether you feel so strongly about Nilsson's art for that to happen is entirely a personal thing, you have to suck it and see.

 
  quite a way to put it.
    I DO like her voice. The only female opera singer I really loved was Moffo, but her output was relatively small and limited.

[steve ridgway]

  I've been trying to enjoy opera for 10 years, and mostly failing. Might this be the best path to changing my mind?

Yes, everyone ought to be prodded into an opera house by a big strong woman with a spear at least once in their life .

[Spotted Horses]

   I've been trying to enjoy opera for 10 years, and mostly failing. Might this be the best path to changing my mind?

What helped me (to some extent, I still rarely listen to opera) was videos of stage productions, especially Blu-ray. It is necessary to understand the dramatic context, and trying to read along with the tiny booklets you get with Opera audio recordings is frustrating. It is especially with vocalists who can act, and don't just stand on the stage bellowing.

[Spotted Horses]

What do people think of the Gieseking, Complete Warner?



You read weird claims that the 78 remasters have a digital artifact. That seems implausible.

I guess the answer to the question is that people don't think about the Gieseking, Complete Warner.

[prémont]

I guess the answer to the question is that people don't think about the Gieseking, Complete Warner.

This is certainly true in my case.

[ritter]

I guess the answer to the question is that people don't think about the Gieseking, Complete Warner.

Or perhaps De Mortuis nihil nisi bonum. 

[JBS]

I think the only person on GMG who has it is @Todd.

(Or at least the only person who admits to having it.)

[Mookalafalas]

What helped me (to some extent, I still rarely listen to opera) was videos of stage productions, especially Blu-ray. It is necessary to understand the dramatic context, and trying to read along with the tiny booklets you get with Opera audio recordings is frustrating. It is especially with vocalists who can act, and don't just stand on the stage bellowing.

 I bought the Verdi Blu-Ray set, and Strauss on DVD. Unfortunately, the ones I watched were disappointing...I need to try again.
I also have 3 sets of the ring. The Boulez is really well staged and acted--but the video quality is relatively low-res. The Barenboim sounds terrific, but the costume/set design was (to me) offputting. I should really go back to those--I'd forgotten about them.

[JBS]

I bought the Verdi Blu-Ray set, and Strauss on DVD. Unfortunately, the ones I watched were disappointing...I need to try again.
I also have 3 sets of the ring. The Boulez is really well staged and acted--but the video quality is relatively low-res. The Barenboim sounds terrific, but the costume/set design was (to me) offputting. I should really go back to those--I'd forgotten about them.

What Strauss DVD set is that? (Or did you just mean individual opera DVDs?)

[Mookalafalas]

What Strauss DVD set is that? (Or did you just mean individual opera DVDs?)

No, it was a box set off all of his operas. It is called "The Richard Strauss Collection" on Arthaus Musik.  It's in an odd LP sized box, with a really large, nice book.

[Spotted Horses]

I bought the Verdi Blu-Ray set, and Strauss on DVD. Unfortunately, the ones I watched were disappointing...I need to try again.
I also have 3 sets of the ring. The Boulez is really well staged and acted--but the video quality is relatively low-res. The Barenboim sounds terrific, but the costume/set design was (to me) offputting. I should really go back to those--I'd forgotten about them.

I liked the "Copenhagen" Ring in which the scenario is reimagined, to some extend, but well done musically and as a stage production, I thought. I also liked the blu-ray production featuring Zubin Mehta. I liked the Tannhauser with Gwyneth Jones and Colin Davis. I liked the Strauss Daphne with June Anderson. I liked the Rigoletto with Damrau and Luisi. The Mozart Zauberflote with Damrau and the Mozart Don Giovanni with Bartoli and Harnoncourt.

[Madiel]

I don't know that I've entirely got into opera, but I've certainly learned that "opera" from different periods is VERY different. Not just the musical language but the theatrical conventions.

For example I don't personally get a lot of satisfaction from the Baroque-Classical ternary aria where the action, such as it is, stops dead so that a character can stand and sing and say the same thing numerous times. I do like the music sometimes, but as a piece of theatre I'm not sure I'll ever respond much. Whereas I find myself far more in tune with some works from the early 20th century, often only a single act, where arias might be almost entirely absent and certainly aren't ternary.

So when it comes to getting into opera, I do think it's important to consider what sort of opera you're trying to get into.

[Mandryka]

I bought the Verdi Blu-Ray set, and Strauss on DVD. Unfortunately, the ones I watched were disappointing...I need to try again.
I also have 3 sets of the ring. The Boulez is really well staged and acted--but the video quality is relatively low-res. The Barenboim sounds terrific, but the costume/set design was (to me) offputting. I should really go back to those--I'd forgotten about them.

Here's a completely off the wall suggestion. Try the Harnonourt/Ponnelle Mozart operas -- Figaro and Cosi. The video is poor but the production is so 60s it's irresistible to me -- FiDi wonderful in the Figaro. Bad video image on this youtube -- I don't remember it as being so bad when I used to have a DVD of it.

For Don Giovanni I quite enjoyed the Calixto Bieito production, and Peter Brook's, but they're not on youtube. Some of Peter Sellars's is -- it's special because it's set in New York  and has brothers playing DG and Leporello. Memorably threatening in the scene where  the Don and  Leporello,  invite themselves to Masetto and Zerlina's wedding. 

[JBS]

Here's a completely off the wall suggestion. Try the Harnonourt/Ponelle Mozart operas -- Figaro and Cosi. The video is poor but the production is so 60s it's irresistible to me -- FiDi wonderful in the Figaro. Bad video image on this youtube -- I don't remember it as being so bad when I used to have a DVD of it.

For Don Giovanni I quite enjoyed the Calixto Bieito production, and Peter Brook's, but they're not on youtube. Some of Peter Sellars's is -- it's special because it's set in New York  and has brothers playing DG and Leporello. Memorably threatening in the scene where  the Don and  Leporello,  invite themselves to Masetto and Zerlina's wedding. 

I never saw Sellar's other Mozart productions, but I did see his Nozze di Figaro via a TV broadcast and thought it was extremely well done.
There some to be at least one or two clips on Youtube.