What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[André]

That's a very unfortunate-sounding name in Greek... 🫣

σκατά ... 🤭

[JBS]

The word in English might be scatological...

[JBS]

TD
Bellini 8
The CD version of this (only the DVD is listed on Amazon)


Ms. Theodossiou is in direct competition with three Callases, Sutherland, Sills, and Bartoli.
I was surprised to learn the tenor, Carlo Ventre, is from Uruguay because his Italian sounds like a New Yorker's idea of a Neapolitan street singer.

ETA: Theodossiou is rather good, an epitome if bel canto singing.  Daniella Barcellona as Adalgisa is a good partner for her.  If only the tenor didn't sound like he was ready to launch into Funicula Funiculi at any moment....

[Florestan]

The word in English might be scatological...

Scatologic in Romanian. There's also scatofagie.

[JBS]

Taking a break from Bellini.
Strauss's Daphne with June Anderson at La Fenice in 2005

[JBS]

Bellini 9
Beatrice di Tenda
A studio recording from 1992.

Despite it being Bellini's penultimate opera, between Norma and I Puritani, I've never heard a note of it until now.
The recording has been reissued by Brilliant, but the front cover has some problems, which fortunately were not carried over to the back cover.


I'm listening to it in the form of CDs 17 and 18 of this set.

[Tsaraslondon]

Bellini 9
Beatrice di Tenda
A studio recording from 1992.

Despite it being Bellini's penultimate opera, between Norma and I Puritani, I've never heard a note of it until now.
The recording has been reissued by Brilliant, but the front cover has some problems, which fortunately were not carried over to the back cover.


I'm listening to it in the form of CDs 17 and 18 of this set.

There's also a couple of Sutherland recordings (studio and live). I used to have the studio recording on LP, but honestly can't remember that much about it.

[ritter]

There's also a couple of Sutherland recordings (studio and live). I used to have the studio recording on LP, but honestly can't remember that much about it.

...

I was listening to the studio recording (on CD) a couple of months ago, but honestly can't remember that much about it either... 

[JBS]

There's also a couple of Sutherland recordings (studio and live). I used to have the studio recording on LP, but honestly can't remember that much about it.

So far (about 3/4 of the first act) there's a lot of oompahpah music a la early Verdi, some music that's skillfully written (and at least here, skillfully sung) but nothing has grabbed my attention yet.

The Amazon listings show some live recordings from Opera d'Oro and others, and at least 2 DVDs.

[JBS]

Bellini 9
Beatrice di Tenda
A studio recording from 1992.

Update: the finale is a bravura scene for the heroine that would do nicely on a recital disc.
But most of the music lacks spark, and it's not surprising that this opera does not have the fame of Bellini's other late operas.

[JBS]

Bellini 10


A live performance from Catania September 1989. Feels odd to hear an opera conducted by Bonynge that doesn't involve Mrs. Bonynge.

[Kalevala]

Bellini 10


A live performance from Catania September 1989. Feels odd to hear an opera conducted by Bonynge that doesn't involve Mrs. Bonynge.

Interesting!  I don't recognize any of the cast, but I do enjoy that opera; have a couple of versions of that one--the well-known one with Sutherland and also (off the top of my head) one with Callas.

Note:  William Matteuzzi's name is familiar.  Which role does he sing?

K

[JBS]

Interesting!  I don't recognize any of the cast, but I do enjoy that opera; have a couple of versions of that one--the well-known one with Sutherland and also (off the top of my head) one with Callas.

Note:  William Matteuzzi's name is familiar.  Which role does he sing?

K

He's the tenor (Arturo). He sang with Bartoli on her recordings of Barber of Seville and Cenerentola, so that's probably where you heard him.

Mariella Devia is an interesting singer. This recording is relatively early in her career.
But later on [from her Wikipedia bio]

In 2013, the day after her 65th birthday, she sang for the first time the role of Norma at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna with great success.[8] From then on she included the role of Norma in her usual repertoire along with the "Three Donizetti Queens", Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena and Elisabetta from Roberto Devereux, which she had debuted between 2006 and 2011,[9] and with Lucrezia Borgia, first performed in 2001.[10]

On 5 June 2014, after a 15-year absence from the United States, she returned for a performance of Roberto Devereux at New York's Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York to great audience and critical acclaim.[11]

Devia bid farewell to the opera stage in May 2018 with three performances of Norma at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice,[12]

I have her in a 2016 recording of Roberto Devereux.  She does not sound like a 68 year old there, although she's definitely better in this Puritani.

[JBS]

Bellini 10


A live performance from Catania September 1989. Feels odd to hear an opera conducted by Bonynge that doesn't involve Mrs. Bonynge.

Update
I rather like this performance. I certainly haven't heard anything to complain about, and recommend getting it if you ever come across it. So far* it's the best thing in this Dynamic set.


*still to go: the Callas/Bernstein Sonnambula and Caballe in a radio broadcast of Norma under Pretre.

[Kalevala]

He's the tenor (Arturo). He sang with Bartoli on her recordings of Barber of Seville and Cenerentola, so that's probably where you heard him.

Mariella Devia is an interesting singer. This recording is relatively early in her career.
But later on [from her Wikipedia bio]
I have her in a 2016 recording of Roberto Devereux.  She does not sound like a 68 year old there, although she's definitely better in this Puritani.

Thanks! 

K

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Wagner
Das Rheingold

Hans Hotter (Wotan), Georgine von Milinkovic (Fricka), Rudolf Lustig (Loge), Ludwig Weber (Fasolt), Gustav Neidlinger (Alberich), Paul Kuen (Mime), Toni Blankenheim (Donner), Josef Traxel (Froh), Herta Wilfert (Freia), Maria von Ilosvay (Erda), Josef Greindl (Fafner), Jutta Vulpius (Woglinde), Elisabeth Schärtel (Wellgunde), Maria Graf (Flosshilde)
Joseph Keilberth & Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele

[ritter]

Some obscure Mascagni: the short orchestral piece L'apoteosi dell cicogna (the liner notes are no clear as to whether this was or was notpart of the ballet Fiori del Brabante,  commissioned for the wedding in 1930 of crown Prince Umberto with princess Maria José of Belgium, to which the most prominent Italian composers of the day contributed) and Pinotta (a short operatic "idyll" in two acts from 1932, which is essentially a reworking of the much earlier cantata In Filanda.