What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Wagner
Siegfried, act 1^

Jess Thomas (Siegfried), Gerhard Stolze (Mime), Thomas Stewart (Der Wanderer)
Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

[hopefullytrusting]

Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina



Came across this whilst searching Presto for the performers on a disc I'm going to purchase soon.

I was immediately drawn in, such booming vocals balanced by superb orchestration.

[San Antone]

Mozart : Don Giovanni
Met Opera on Demand (broadcast 5/23/2023)
Conductor: Nathalie Stutzmann
Don Giovanni: Peter Mattei
Leporello: Adam Plachetka
Donna Anna: Frederica Lombardi
Donna Elvira: Ana María Martínez
Zerlina: Ying Fang
Don Ottavio: Ben Bliss



The modern dress and production do not get in the way of what I consider a wonderful account of this great opera.  I am finding the singing very naturalistic, as well as the characterizations.  The singers are uniformly well-cast, and act without pretension or distracting mannerisms.

[Le Buisson Ardent]

Richard Wagner
Siegfried, act 1^

Jess Thomas (Siegfried), Gerhard Stolze (Mime), Thomas Stewart (Der Wanderer)
Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

You remind me Ilaria that I still need to give this set a listen:



One of the most incredible sets in terms of presentation in my entire collection. It comes with three hardback books (not booklets) and this set is the size of an LP box set for example. Now, it's just finding the time to listen to it.

[Lisztianwagner]

You remind me Ilaria that I still need to give this set a listen:



One of the most incredible sets in terms of presentation in my entire collection. It comes with three hardback books (not booklets) and this set is the size of an LP box set for example. Now, it's just finding the time to listen to it.

Agreed, incredible to say the least! And the performances are powerfully beautiful too.

How could resist the temptation to listen to that Ring immediately!?

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Wagner
Siegfried, act 2^

Jess Thomas (Siegfried), Gerhard Stolze (Mime), Thomas Stewart (Der Wanderer), Zoltan Kelemen (Alberich), Karl Ridderbusch (Fafner), Catherine Gayer (Stimme des Waldvogels)
Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

[Le Buisson Ardent]

Agreed, incredible to say the least! And the performances are powerfully beautiful too.

How could resist the temptation to listen to that Ring immediately!?

I know --- it's such a gorgeous and magnificent achievement. I need to get around to it. As you know, I LOVE Karajan's Ring as I spent part of my summer many years ago going the whole cycle and it was absolutely glorious.

[ritter]

Spurred by the positive comments @André made a couple of months ago, I ordered the recording of Henri Tomasi's Don Juan de Mañara. After apparently having been misplaced by the post, it finally arrived a couple of days ago.

[LKB]

Greatest Prelude of all time? 

Hmmm...

Parsifal is deeper, Lohengrin more noble, Tristan und Isolde suffused with yearning, and the beginning of Das Rheingold features the only time Wagner builds purely sonic power on the same scale as a Brucknerian coda.

Yet, the humanity residing in the core of Tannhäuser is unique, and its duality of expression reflects us all.

So in the end, I'm as unresolved as a half-diminished seventh chord. 

[NumberSix]

Hmmm...

Parsifal is deeper, Lohengrin more noble, Tristan und Isolde suffused with yearning, and the beginning of Das Rheingold features the only time Wagner builds purely sonic power on the same scale as a Brucknerian coda.

Yet, the humanity residing in the core of Tannhäuser is unique, and its duality of expression reflects us all.

So in the end, I'm as unresolved as a half-diminished seventh chord. 

I do think you rightly point out that when it comes to opera overtures, Wagner left us with a ridiculously deep list of choices. They're pretty much all "the best".

[pjme]

Spurred by the positive comments @André made a couple of months ago, I ordered the recording of Henri Tomasi's Don Juan de Mañara. After apparently having been misplaced by the post, it finally arrived a couple of days ago.

I was able to buy this historical recording (for a few euros) many years ago when in Antwerp  the "Opus1" shop stopped seling cds. It is a serious effort, inspired by mysticism: WWII had had a very profound impact on his creative life. From1942 till 1949 Tomasi worked on the score, based on a play by Oscar Milosz .
I should (and will)  listen again...
There may be a lot of expertly scored and clever works in his output, but apart from a few chamber works and concertos (sax, trumpet) not many of the larger works (symphonic, choral, ballets, opera) exist in contemporary recordings.
Fragments from historical (radio) recordings can be discovered at this site

https://www.henri-tomasi.fr/?lang=en

One of Tomasi's most performed works, are the 4 Fanfares liturgiques,  3 are excerpted from Don Juan de Manara (Evangile, Apocalypse, Procession) Annonciation was added separately,
The last and longest  one "Procession du Vendredi Saint " exists also in a choral version as "Procession nocturne" for soprano, chorus, brass and percussion , and matches closely a scene from the opera (possibly an orchestral version exists aswell).

Not too bad a performance... some years ago YT had a splendid Finnish version from Helsinkis rock church

The BRSO brass and percussion are excellent! Tomasi starts at ca 37.30

[San Antone]

PUCCINI Tosca
Stereo studio recording, 1957
Total duration: 1hr 53:29

Tosca - Zinka Milanov
Cavaradossi - Jussi Björling
Scarpia - Leonard Warren
Rome Opera House Orchestra and Chorus
conducted by Erich Leinsdorf

[JBS]

[brewski]

Last night I watched The Handmaid's Tale (1998) by Poul Ruders, currently on view at the San Francisco Opera, which did a stellar job with Ruders' grim take on Margaret Atwood's equally grim novel. The company seems to be on a roll lately. Last year they livestreamed El último sueño de Frida y Diego by Gabriela Lena Frank (about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera), and earlier this year, Innocence (2021), the final opera by the late Kaija Saariaho. All three were expertly done, both musically and technically.

I mean, I like Tosca, Falstaff, and Lohengrin as much as the next person, but it's great to see an American opera company taking risks and succeeding, with three strong contemporary works.

-Bruce

[JBS]

From the Warner RVW set
Epithalamion
Riders To The Sea

A somewhat odd coupling, but EMI did it previously as an individual CD

RVW was the second to set Synge's play to music; over the years four others have done it.

Bruce Montgomery (1927–2008) wrote a light opera, Spindrift (1963), that was based on Riders to the Sea.

German composer Eduard Pütz (1911–2000) also set the play as an opera, using the same title (1972).

American composer Marga Richter (1926-2020) also set the play as a one-act opera, using the same title (1996).

French composer Henri Rabaud (1873-1949) L'appel de la mer, a one-act opera, (1924), libretto by Rabaud based on Riders to the Sea, debut in Paris, Salle Favart, April 10, 1924

[From Wikipedia]

Montgomery's Wikipedia bio calls Spindrift an "Irish folk opera". I suppose "light opera" was used here to mean musical numbers surrounded by spoken dialogue.

[Florestan]

Good music and performance.

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Wagner
Der Fliegende Holländer

José Van Dam (Der Holländer), Kurt Moll (Daland), Dunja Vejzović (Senta), Peter Hofmann (Erik), Thomas Moser (Der Steuermann), Kaja Borris (Mary)
Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Staatsopernchor

[Iota]

Contender for most perfect Mozart opera recording? I don't know enough of them to really make a proper judgement, but everything from the brilliance of the conducting and orchestral playing to the stellar singing seems 'so' right on this recording. And set against such sublime music I find it an unforgettably joyful experience.

[brewski]

This weekend, felt lucky to see The Listeners, the latest opera by Missy Mazzoli, at Opera Philadelphia. A story about cult behavior and a mysterious hum that only a few can hear, the libretto is by Royce Vavrek, who has collaborated with Mazzoli before, and definitely has a way with words.

It will show up in Chicago next spring, and for anyone able to get to performances there, it is well worth a look.

-Bruce

[JBS]