What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[JBS]

[JBS]

The full CD version of La Traviata from which this comes from

The DVD version is on Amazon as part of this package.


I have it as part of this set of Mehta's complete EMI and Teldec recordings.

The set includes that Tosca with Domingo in both CD and DVD form, but this Traviata (which was made in 2000) is included only on CD.

[nico1616]

In my opinion La Cenerentola is Rossini's best opera. Maybe this is because this was the first of his works I saw in theatre. My favorite recording is the Bartoli/Chailly but this one also has its merits.

[Florestan]

In my opinion La Cenerentola is Rossini's best opera. Maybe this is because this was the first of his works I saw in theatre.

Among his best, certainly.

[ritter]

Gluck: Orfeo ed Eurídice (Forrester, Stich-Randall, Steffek, Vienna State Opera, Mackerras).

[nico1616]

I continue to explore Rossini operas. The comic ones always appeal more to me than the serious works.
Semiramide, Tancredi and Tell have their highlights, but are overly long. So I have another try with this Ermione.

[ritter]

I continue to explore Rossini operas. The comic ones always appeal more to me than the serious works.
Semiramide, Tancredi and Tell have their highlights, but are overly long. So I have another try with this Ermione.

I should revisit that one soon, as I recall liking it a lot. And the Armida from that same series is also very good...

[Tsaraslondon]

Quite simply, sublime. I will always maintained that this is the better of Callas's studio recordings of the opera. Not only is the cast vastly superior to the first, but the sound is much improved and, in Andrew Rose's excellent transfer, much warmer than in previous incarnations. I barely noticed any stridency in Callas's top notes at all. Though I continue to prefer the live La Scala 1955 performance overall, sonically it can't begin to compare with this one and Callas is equally moving, and perhaps, in places, even more so here.

[JBS]

Raimondi is the most interesting of the three principals.

[Tsaraslondon]

Pristine's remaster of the Callas Turandot certainly opens up the sound quite a bit.

As a performance, I think it's been undervalued over the years. Though recorded a bit late for comfort, Callas is nonetheless and imposing Turandot with a touch of vulnerability under the ice and Schwarzkopf gives a great performance, all veiled tears and sighs. Fernandi might be termed its weak link, but he isn't at all bad and Zaccaria is a wonderfully sympathetic Timur. Serafin conducts a tautly dramatic version of the score. A shame it wasn't recorded in genuine stereo, but Pristine have somehow made the sound less boxy.

[ritter]

First listen to the original 1862 version of Verdi's La forza del destino, in the BBC - Opera Rara recording, conducted by John Matheson. Acts I & II today.



The only singer in this 1981 concert performance with real star status is the great Verdian soprano Martina Arroyo, who had already recorded the rôle of Leonora in the revised version of the opera under Lamberto Gardelli for EMI 12 years earlier. Of the remainder of the cast, only Peter Glossop as Carlo and Derek Hammond-Stroud as Fra Melitone are well known. Be that as it may, the performance is turning out to be very satisfying (I'm only into Act I so far).

This version did not include the overture, which was added later and has become very famous. But the shorter prelude used here works well as an introduction to the first scene.

From what I've read, the order of other scenes is changed (e.g. in Act III, where it also seems that the lovely ronda "Compagni, sostiamo" does not appear) and the end of the opera is even gruesomer in the original than in the revised version.

[JBS]

Sony's big Mitropolous set includes three opera recording. I'm listening to the first of them, the first commercial recording of Wozzeck, from a 1951 concert presentation at Carnegie Hall.

[NumberSix]

Sony's big Mitropolous set includes three opera recording. I'm listening to the first of them, the first commercial recording of Wozzeck, from a 1951 concert presentation at Carnegie Hall.

Ooh, I'm interested in this. I like "Lulu" quite a bit, but I sadly have never really paid much attention to this piece.

Adding your recording to my Presto streaming library now.

[JBS]

Ooh, I'm interested in this. I like "Lulu" quite a bit, but I sadly have never really paid much attention to this piece.

Adding your recording to my Presto streaming library now.

Be aware this is mono. There are a few studio recordings. I'm not a fan of this opera, or of Berg in general (except for the Violin Concerto), so I'm not going to suggest any of them as better than the others.

[Tsaraslondon]

This isn't how we'do Rameau now, but I like it and Baker gives a searing performance as Phèdre.

[Wendell_E]

A new LSO Live/Palazetto Bru Zane recording of Le Prophète:

[Tsaraslondon]

This was in Muti's come scritto phase, so no interpolated high notes and he performs the score complete. Muti conducts with élan and verve and his soloists are a stylish bunch, particularly Caballé and Kraus. I would never want to be without the Callas recording, but this one gives a truer account of the complete score.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

This was in Muti's come scritto phase, so no interpolated high notes and he performs the score complete. Muti conducts with élan and verve and his soloists are a stylish bunch, particularly Caballé and Kraus. I would never want to be without the Callas recording, but this one gives a truer account of the complete score.

I don't know this recording of I Puritani.  I have a couple of recordings (off the top of my head); the one that I know the best is with Sutherland and Pavarotti.  What do you think of that recording?

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

I don't know this recording of I Puritani.  I have a couple of recordings (off the top of my head); the one that I know the best is with Sutherland and Pavarotti.  What do you think of that recording?

PD

I don't much like Sutherland in anything, so I'm probably not the one to ask.

[JBS]

I ordered some Richard Strauss and Rossini from Presto's opera sale to fill in operas I don't have.

First up is Daphne from WW2 Vienna. Orchestral top notes and bottom notes get scratchy and tinny, but otherwise the sound is rather good.