What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Vox Maris]

John, did you listen to Die Gezeichneten ? I have it on DVD (with the superb Anne Schwanewilms). A magnificent work in a truly great performance.

I have, indeed. I don't own the DVD, but this is the recording I own:



I'd like to get around to listening to it again at some point. Gorgeous work.

[André]

I have this  Cd as well. But if you can lay your hands on that DVD of the Salzburg Festival production, don't hesitate. It's a wholly different experience, I promise !!

[Vox Maris]

I have this  Cd as well. But if you can lay your hands on that DVD of the Salzburg Festival production, don't hesitate. It's a wholly different experience, I promise !!

Thanks, André. I'll definitely keep it in mind!

[Vox Maris]

Now playing for a first-listen:

Schreker
Flammen
Manuela Uhl (soprano), Robert Chafin (tenor), Katharina Peetz (alto), Heike Wittlieb (soprano), Hans Georg Ahrens (bass), Jörg Sabrowski (baritone)
Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, Kiel Opera Chorus
Ulrich Windfuhr



Absolutely beautiful so far.

[nico1616]

Another great find in the local thrift store today. For 1,50 euros I got this top version of die Zauberflöte. I love Karajan's direction and Dermota's Tamino.

[André]

Despite its title, this opera is a quasi-monologue for Ariane. Barbe-Bleue sings only a few lines in the first act and promptly disappears to the nearest pub. 4 of his 5 last wives have a few bits of dialogue each (the 5th wife is a mimed role). The only other singing character is the Nurse (Nourrice), Ariane's fearful, doubting double.

Ariane et Barbe-Bleue is based on a play by symbolist writer Maurice Maeterlinck (of Pelléas et Mélisande fame). As in Pelléas, the orchestra is a very active participant.

This is the kind of work that falls flat on its face if the main character is even minimally uninteresting or uninterested. Fortunately this 1968 (mono) recording boasts the great Berthe Montmart as the formidable Ariane - a strong-willed, 'liberated' woman. Montmart was Tosca, Santuzza, Butterfly, Louise, Charlotte, Madame Lidoine, etc. She only sang in Belgium (her native country) and France. She was a permanent member of the Paris Opera. She brings a strong, alluring voice and great sensitivity to this demanding role (Ariane sings quasi non-stop).

This set has the not inconsiderable bonus of two substantial works by Chabrier (the 17-minute operatic scene La Sulamite, recorded in 1945) and Ravel (Shéhérazade, recorded in 1948) by Suzanne Danco and Ernest Ansermet. This Shéhérazade is markedly better than the 1955 remake these same artists made for Decca. Danco's voice is freer, purer, more relaxed, with no trace of the tight vibrato that can become a bit tiring for some ears (like mine). The Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire is superbly refined and colourful. A welcome addition to the unusual main work.

 

[Vox Maris]

Last work for the night:

Delius
Koanga
Pamela Smith (soprano), Lesley Reid (contralto), Jean Temperley (contralto), Doreen Walker (contralto), John Alldis (director), Eleanor Capp (soprano), Patricia Hogan (contralto), Elaine Barry (soprano), Simon Estes (bass), Valerie Hill (soprano)
John Alldis Choir, London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Charles Groves

From this set -



I haven't listened to Koanga in ages. This opera comes from Delius early period, which is right before he started to hit his stride and gain popularity with middle period works like Appalachia, Sea Drift, A Village Romeo and Juliet (where the well-known intermezzo The Walk to the Paradise Garden comes from) and A Mass of Life. It's also the first opera to have an African-American cast which predates Gershwin's Porgy and Bess by some 50 years. The instrumentation also contains banjos just like the Gershwin opera. I have no doubt that Gershwin knew of this opera or at least of its existence before or while composing Porgy. Anyway, this is a fantastic work and Charles Groves is certainly up to the task. I believe this is also the only recording of this opera --- thank goodness it's a fine one.

[André]

There's a YT video (with still photographs) of a Koanga performance from the 2015 Wexford Festival. While the stills cannot replace a real filmed production they are still better than a blank screen to get an idea of the action and the context.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Sv1tlS-PY

[Vox Maris]

There's a YT video (with still photographs) of a Koanga performance from the 2015 Wexford Festival. While the stills cannot replace a real filmed production they are still better than a blank screen to get an idea of the action and the context.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Sv1tlS-PY

Thanks, André. I'll check it out. I wish some enterprising label would record Irmelin, The Magic Fountain and Margo la Rouge.

[André]

Robert le Diable (1831) was Meyerbeer's first big success in Paris. It was played hundreds of times over the following decades. I'm almost ashamed to say I had never heard a Meyerbeer opera in full before. Plenty of arias, but that's it. For some reason I had imagined they were hopelessly passé, not worth my time and money. How wrong I was ! In the past few years I have taken to the french version of Guillaume Tell (1829), shamelessly appreciating the large scale, the vaulting musical lines, the tuneful purple patches, the rousing choruses, the sheer panache of it all. I knew that Meyerbeer's Robert and Les Huguenots, Halévy's La Juive promptly followed Rossini's masterpiece on the stage of the Paris Opera with the same kind of popular response. I had assumed Meyerbeer was a mediocre talent with great PR skills.

The truth is, there's not a dull moment in this 3 1/2 hour work and the performance here is all (or almost all) one could ask for. Minkowski and the fine Bordeaux orchestra are excellent, and most of the singers truly outstanding. The two female leads in particular have to-die-for voices that soar effortlessly on high (up to a stunning interpolated high E and F). Bass Nicolas Courjal as Bertram (the Devil) has a well focused deep bass. His obvious relish of the text is especially notable.  Excellent contributions from tenors Paco Garcia and Nico Darmanin in secondary roles.

I read 2 Musicweb reviews that gushed over the singing of tenor John Osborn in the title role. I don't know what their idea of a french tenor is, but it's definitely not the same as mine. Robert was created by Adolphe Nourrit, who also created Le Comte Ory, Arnold in Guillaume Tell, Eléazar in La Juive, Raoul in Les Huguenots. Nourrit defined tenordom in Paris in his heyday (the 1830s). He used head voice for the top notes. Osborn uses head voice too, but the sound he produces up there is that of someone who badly stubbed his big toe. Not alluring at all. To hear sweet yet sharply defined head voice one can turn to Alain Vanzo.

Apart from that small caveat, this is an absolutely necessary set of discs. The 168-page book they are housed in is a beauty. Full text and translations.

[Roasted Swan]

Last work for the night:

Delius
Koanga
Pamela Smith (soprano), Lesley Reid (contralto), Jean Temperley (contralto), Doreen Walker (contralto), John Alldis (director), Eleanor Capp (soprano), Patricia Hogan (contralto), Elaine Barry (soprano), Simon Estes (bass), Valerie Hill (soprano)
John Alldis Choir, London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Charles Groves

From this set -



I haven't listened to Koanga in ages. This opera comes from Delius early period, which is right before he started to hit his stride and gain popularity with middle period works like Appalachia, Sea Drift, A Village Romeo and Juliet (where the well-known intermezzo The Walk to the Paradise Garden comes from) and A Mass of Life. It's also the first opera to have an African-American cast which predates Gershwin's Porgy and Bess by some 50 years. The instrumentation also contains banjos just like the Gershwin opera. I have no doubt that Gershwin knew of this opera or at least of its existence before or while composing Porgy. Anyway, this is a fantastic work and Charles Groves is certainly up to the task. I believe this is also the only recording of this opera --- thank goodness it's a fine one.

I agree about Koanga - more compelling theatrically than Delius operas often are.  This is the only studio recording but Groves/LSO did a live performance - with some of the same cast - which can be found on itaglio.  The closing scene was recorded by David Lloyd-Jones and his Opera North forces rather effectively on Naxos (an interesting/rare programme all round) and then of course the "pops" excerpt of La Calinda - usually heard in Fenby's orchestral version - occurs in many collections - rightly so as the melody is one of the all-time great ear-worms I reckon



A big benefit of the EMI/Groves/studio version is the filler on disc 2 is the same conductor with his vintage RLPO in a lovely version of Song of the High Hills - one of Delius' great works......

[Florestan]

I had assumed Meyerbeer was a mediocre talent with great PR skills.

Nothing could be further from the truth than this completely unfair posthumous reputation of Meyerbeer. The man was a compulsive perfectionist who took great care and pain to ensure that everything, music, costumes, stage sets and machinery, was absolutely right for the premiere night, often paying whatever was necessary from his own purse. Also, he was a cultured person with a liberal and cosmopolitan outlook. Not least for me, he was a pall-bearer at Chopin's funeral (together with Delacroix, Franchomme and a dentist whose name I can't remember otoh).

The leading Meyerbeer scholar today is the South African Robert Ignatius Letellier who wrote thoroughly researched and very interesting books on Meyerbeer's life and operas and edited his three-volume-worth diaries.

Robert was created by Adolphe Nourrit, who also created Le Comte Ory, Arnold in Guillaume Tell, Eléazar in La Juive, Raoul in Les Huguenots. Nourrit defined tenordom in Paris in his heyday (the 1830s).

You touched upon one of the main reasons, if not THE reason, why Meyerbeer's operas have not been revived on the same scale as Rossini's, Bellini's or Donizetti's. Robert le Diable was premiered by the very best of the best singers Paris could offer: Adolphe Nourrit, Nicolas Levasseur, Laure Cinti-Damoreau and Julie Dorus-Gras, known as the Robert quartet (the other famous such quartet back then being the Puritani one: Rubini, Grisi, Tamburini and Lablache). Good luck finding today a similar quartet of superstars willing to spend all the time needed to learn, practice and sing Meyerbeer's operas without being guaranteed the corresponding enthusiastic audiences.

Btw, a funny incident took place at the end of the premiere: a stage trap opened accidentally under Nourrit's feet and he fell under stage directly on Levasseur who was already down there following his being dragged down in Hell. Fortunately, none of them was hurt. "What the hell are you doing here?", asked the bemused Levasseur, "have they changed the ending?"

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Strauss
Elektra

Astrid Varnay (Elektra); Hildegard Hillebrecht (Chrysothemis); Martha Mödl (Klytämnestra); James King (Ageisth); Eberhard Wächter (Orest)
Herbert von Karajan & Wiener Philharmoniker

[André]

Varnay and Mödl in the same opera guarantee spontaneous combustion. A few years ago I read Varnay's autobiography and I think this is the production she touted as one for the ages, the one in which she unreservedly admired Karajan's leadership. IIRC she marveled that everybody was 'in a zone' and the results were pure electricity.

Varnay was quite critical of him, as was Nilsson (talking about other performances) Mödl otoh was quite fond of her collaboration with Herbie. She considered him a 'buddy', not an aloof tyrant. There's a fascinating televised interview in which all three Bayreuth queens reminisce about the times (1950s) when they freely exchanged Elsas, Isoldes and Brünnhildes. It's available on YT.



 

[nico1616]

I used to have this recording in execrable sound, I think it was the Opera d'Oro label. The Orfeo engineers have done their best in eliminating audience noise and bringing the voices upfront so this can now compete with studio recordings. One of Verdi's best operas with a dreamcast, including a good Posa which is a rare find.
A good way to start the new year!

[ritter]

Some months ago, I listened to Gianadrea Gavazzeni's 1975 RAI recording of Boito's Nerone. Well, the ever-enterprising Teatro Lírico di Cagliari (in Sardinia) staged the work in February 2024 (from what I've read, the first performances of the work in Italy since Gavazzeni's 1975 concerts), and one performance was filmed and released on DVD and BD.



I can only reiterate my admiration for this score, which—as some critics have pointed out— looks backward to the 19th century Italian operatic tradition and forward to 20th century music. It's good to see it fully staged, as the libretto is not easy to follow. Still, I get the feeling that what prevents this work from gaining wider circulation is that all the characters are bonkers, and they all seem affected by a sort of collective hysteria (next to Nerone, Strauss' Elektra has the quaintness of an Enid Blyton "The Famous Five" novel  ).

The performance is musically solid, with conductor Francesco Cilluffo pacing the music very well and highlighting the sophisticated orchestral backdrop; all singers do an excellent job.

The staging by Fabio Ceresa sees to try to present a timeless Rome. We even get to see the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana —from Rome's 1930's EUR district— in Act IV, and some costumes appear to emulate fascist paraphernalia (sometimes laughably so), but it works OK.

[Cato]

Some months ago, I listened to Gianadrea Gavazzeni's 1975 RAI recording of Boito's Nerone. Well, the ever-enterprising Teatro Lírico di Cagliari (in Sardinia) staged the work in February 2024 (from what I've read, the first performances of the work in Italy since Gavazzeni's 1975 concerts), and one performance was filmed and released on DVD and BD.



I can only reiterate my admiration for this score, which—as some critics have pointed out— looks backward to the 19th century Italian operatic tradition and forward to 29th century music. It's good to see it fully staged, as the libretto is not easy to follow. Still, I get the feeling that what prevents this work from gaining wider circulation is that all the characters are bonkers, and they all seem affected by a sort of collective hysteria (next to Nerone, Strauss' Elektra has the quaintness of an Enid Blyton "The Famous Five" novel  ).

The performance is musically solid, with conductor Francesco Cilluffo pacing the music very well and highlighting the sophisticated orchestral backdrop; all singers do an excellent job.

The staging by Fabio Ceresa sees to try to present a timeless Rome. We even get to see the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana —from Rome's 1930's EUR district— in Act IV, and some costumes appear to emulate fascist paraphernalia (sometimes laughably so), but it works OK.

I am intrigued: thanks for the recommendation!