What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[(poco) Sforzando]

.

Preferable to a 'tale told by an idiot' ..?

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?

[Ganondorf]

Having just completed the Barenboim Ring, I have tentatively decided....
Siegfried is an idiot.

Obviously this has a serious impact, since the last two "days" of the Ring are all about him, so we end up sitting through 9 1/2 hours of a tale told about an idiot.

I have always felt that Wagner is way more selfaware in Ring cycle than in Tristan and Meistersinger. In Ring cycle one of the last things Brünnhilde says about Siegfried, who indeed is a major asshat:

"alle Eide, alle Verträge,
die treueste Liebe, trog keiner wie Er!"

whereas in Tristan the pair of protagonists are supposedly vindicated by King Marke of high treason while the supposed "bad guy" of the opera is unceremoniously dispatched (never mind the fact that he was doing the right thing by exposing the pair as adulterers, Melot's own personal motives don't matter) and in Meistersinger Beckmesser is treated like dirt by literally everyone for mostly no reason.

[Florestan]

There are more than a few bits of sonic splendor in this opera, but they  don't last long enough.

Great moments but awful quarters of hours? 

[JBS]

I have always felt that Wagner is way more selfaware in Ring cycle than in Tristan and Meistersinger. In Ring cycle one of the last things Brünnhilde says about Siegfried, who indeed is a major asshat:

"alle Eide, alle Verträge,
die treueste Liebe, trog keiner wie Er!"

whereas in Tristan the pair of protagonists are supposedly vindicated by King Marke of high treason while the supposed "bad guy" of the opera is unceremoniously dispatched (never mind the fact that he was doing the right thing by exposing the pair as adulterers, Melot's own personal motives don't matter) and in Meistersinger Beckmesser is treated like dirt by literally everyone for mostly no reason.

Beckmesser is the sort of person who annoys everyone by insisting on sticking to the official rules and procedures no matter how unnecessary or even counterproductive they are and has no sense of humor even when he's not the target of the joke.

I don't remember who wrote it, but I remember an essay on Meistersinger which said that when Beckmesser leaves after his humiliation in Act III, he becomes Klingsor.

[JBS]

Great moments but awful quarters of hours? 

Rather boring half hours, to be precise.

[Iota]

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?

Indeed.

.. if you take the Macbeth speech to which my quote referred  ..

[Lisztianwagner]

Revisiting Furtwängler's 1953 Ring:

Richard Wagner
Das Rheingold

Wilhelm Furtwängler & Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Rai

[Cato]

Beethoven: Fidelio   Otto Klemperer, The Philharmonia Orchestra







Christa Ludwig, Jon Vickers, and Gottlob Frick.

I found it at a "thrift store" for $1.00 - in perfect shape - and decided it was high time to revisit the work!

"Great recordings of the Century" is quite correct!  Highly recommended!

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Wagner
Die Walküre

Wilhelm Furtwängler & Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Rai

[Tsaraslondon]

Continuing with the third instalment of Karajan's Ring with Siegfried, which is my least favourite instalment of the tetralogy. Pace some of the critics, I think this is a great Ring cycle and, pretty well cast for the most part. Catherine Gayer is the weakest member of the cast, and even she isn't that bad. As for Dernesch, I find her in radiant form in the final scene, a warm, feminine Brünnhilde.

[Philo]

Meyerbeer's L'Africana:

[Philo]

Barber's Antony and Cleopatra starring Leontyne Price for the opening of the Met:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN5A3W2edAg

[Mirror Image]

Barber's Antony and Cleopatra starring Leontyne Price for the opening of the Met:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN5A3W2edAg

Whoah...is this also a physical release?

[Philo]

Whoah...is this also a physical release?

I've found no evidence of a physical release, but my search was only cursory - the image is from Apple.

Currently, watching the documentary on the performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwKXJ_8Ajcw

[Mirror Image]

I've found no evidence of a physical release, but my search was only cursory - the image is from Apple.

Currently, watching the documentary on the performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwKXJ_8Ajcw

Thanks. I did a search on Amazon and I did find it was available for a time on CD, but it's long been gone now. There's another recording of this opera on the New World label I believe (?). Unless someone like Gil Rose with his Boston Modern Orchestra Project records it, I doubt we'll ever see another recording of it.

[Philo]

Dvorak's Vanda

[Philo]

Halevy/Bizet's Noe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQngVUrSJtU

[Philo]

Ivan Kusnjer's Czech Opera Rarities:



Discovered looking for Sebor's The Templars of Moravia

[Philo]

Cui's The Prisoner of the Caucasus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=753oTQVnwmQ

https://en.krasopera.ru/play/view/kavkazskij-plennik/

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Wagner
Götterdämmerung

Wilhelm Furtwängler & Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Roma della RAI