AvaxHome RSS: ArlegZ

Great operas - Great voices (DVD 7 of 10), DVD5

ArlegZ — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 05:49:02 GMT

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Hatte die Sammlung für 4,99 bei Zweitausendeins gesehen und aus Interesse mitgenommen. Nachdem ich schon mal eine tschechische Don Giovanni -Aufführung mit grausamer Bildqualität erworben hatte, war ich auf das Schlimmste vorbereitet. Wurde aber mehr als positiv überrascht, die Bildqualität ist einwandfrei, der Sound ist gut und auch die Qualität der Aufführungen an sich stimmt. Wirklich empfehlenswert! Und was für mich auch wichtig ist, es sind keine modernen Inzenierungen mit weißem Laken oder leerer Bühne mit Drehrad etc., sondern noch Aufführungen in klassischer Umgebung. Insbesondere die TOSCA-Inzenierung mit Francesca Patané ist eigentlich schon mehr wert, als die gnaze Packung kostet.

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Great operas - Great voices (DVD 6 of 10), DVD5

ArlegZ — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 04:41:34 GMT

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Great operas - Great voices (DVD 5 of 10), DVD5

ArlegZ — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:47:07 GMT

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Great operas - Great voices (DVD 4 of 10), DVD5

ArlegZ — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:11:18 GMT

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Great operas - Great voices (DVD 2-3 of 10), 2xDVD5

ArlegZ — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:52:55 GMT

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Great operas - Great voices (DVD 1 of 10), DVD5

ArlegZ — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:12:20 GMT

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Bellini – Il Pirata (N.Rescigno, M.Callas, C.Ego, P.M.Ferraro)

ArlegZ — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:41:57 GMT

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Another opera that Callas should have recorded under studio conditions, "Il Pirata" is a frequently exciting opera with some very good music. This recording comes from a live performance at Carnegie Hall on January 25, 1959, and while the sound is not exactly what one would call "state-of-the-art", it is certainlyis tolerable. In the very dramatic and demanding role of Imogene, Callas is thrilling. She is not in as good voice as she still could have been at this period, with wiry and abrasive top notes effecting some of the climaxes...

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Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor (T.Serafin, M.Callas, P.Cappuccilli)

ArlegZ — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:31:12 GMT

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This EMI recording was done in 1959, a time when Callas' days as Lucia were numbered. In fact, her final performances of this role came only a matter of months after the completion of this recording. She is by no means as in secure voice as she was in her previous EMI "Lucia" recordings. Embellishments and cadenzas in the Mad Scene are kept to a bare minimum, due in great part to the fact that Callas's extreme top notes are precarious and not at all attractive. But this is still a great Lucia, and there are some great moments. The Fountain aria in Act I is still effective in it's brooding and foreboding way, and the Mad Scene (even with abbreviated cadenzas and strident top E flats) is a panorama of vocal colorings and shadings...

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Handel - Atalanta, HWV 35 (Nicholas McGegan)

ArlegZ — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 04:34:30 GMT

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Handel's Atalanta is one of the lesser known operas in the never-ending list of operas, oratorios and other vocal works.
The recording is very well put together and features a good cast of singers, a good Hungarian baroque orchestra on period instruments - Capella Savaria under the direction of the accomplished Nicholas McGegan, music director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. The playing is tight and top notch and well executed much to the normal expectations for any of McGegan's recordings...

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Bononcini Giovanni - Barbara ninfa ingrate (Cantatas for Tenor & Ins)

ArlegZ — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 06:10:49 GMT

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Of the many contemporaries of Scarlatti that applied themselves to the solo cantata, one of the most prolific was the influential globe-trotter Giovanni Bononcini, author of 283 such works. During the first quarter of the 18th century, Bononcini's cantatas represent the dominant trend within the genre. His works display a sure and easy technique, and he was blessed with a genuine gift for melody. Bononcini's genius is considered to lie in the expression of tender and pathetic sentiments. Plaintive melodies, characteristically rich and gentle, are his personal trademark, and the defining feature of his dramatic works. And Charles Burney relates that Bononcini's recitatives were universally perceived as the best examples of their time, perfectly reflecting the spirit of the Italian language.

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Handel - Imeneo (Spering)

ArlegZ — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 05:33:28 GMT

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Every expectation about Handel's Italian operas gets turned on its head in his penultimate effort in the genre, "Imeneo" (first performed in 1740). It isn't long (just over 2 hours of music), the plot isn't complicated (young woman torn between love and duty to her community must choose between 2 men), and its scenic requirements are simple (it can be performed on a single set). One contemporary called it an "operetta," i.e, a "little opera." But if in one sense it's a Handel opera in miniature, the passions run as strong as in any of the bigger pieces. And like the 2 works that flank it, "Serse" and "Deidamia," "Imeneo" has a distinctive tone that combines touches of ironic humor with absolute seriousness. Above all, the score exudes freshness and charm…

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Handel - Almira, Kenigen von Castilien (Andrew Lawrence-King)

ArlegZ — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 05:22:42 GMT

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At the age of 17, the young Georg Friedrich Haendel (or as he spelled his name at the time, "Hendler" or "Hendel") traveled to the Free City-Republic of Hamburg, home to Germany's greatest and most famous opera composer and producer, Reinhard Keiser. Serving as violinist and continuo accompanist in Keiser's orchestra at the Hamburg Gansemarkt, Haendel met and soon became best friends with composer, singer, and theoretician Johann Mattheson...

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Leo Leonardo - Diana Amante (Vito Paternoster)

ArlegZ — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 07:33:01 GMT

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Leo was born in San Vito degli Schiavoni (current San Vito dei Normanni, province of Brindisi), then part of the Kingdom of Naples.
He became a student at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini at Naples in 1703, and was a pupil first of Francesco Provenzale and later of Nicola Fago. It has been supposed that he was a pupil of Pitoni and Alessandro Scarlatti, but he could not possibly have studied with either of these composers, although he was undoubtedly influenced by their compositions. His earliest known work was a sacred drama, L'infedelta abbattuta, performed by his fellow-students in 1712...

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Porpora - Dorindo, dormi ancor (Estevan Velardi)

ArlegZ — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 07:00:03 GMT

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Porpora was born in Naples. He graduated from the music conservatory Poveri di Gesù Cristo of his native city, where the civic opera scene was dominated by Alessandro Scarlatti…

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Caldara - La Clemenza di Tito (Sergio Balestracci)

ArlegZ — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 06:37:24 GMT

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Retrouvailles importantes pour l'histoire de l'opéra que cet enregistrement de la première Clemenzo di Tito, l'un des plus fameux livrets de Pietro Metastasio, immortalisé par Mozart et Gluck. Antonio Caldara, le " Bach italien" installé à Vienne à la cour de Charles VI après une carrière à Barcelone, est un jalon musical essentiel entre Scarlatti, Porpora et les classiques viennois. Il partagera avec Metastasio, poète lauréat, le devant de la scène autrichienne pendant vingt ans. A l'écoute de certains numéros de cette oeuvre donnée le 4novembre 1734 dans des décors de Giuseppe Galli Bibiena, on comprend l'impact de Caldara comme compositeur lyrique...

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Handel - Rinaldo (Hogwood)

ArlegZ — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 06:01:49 GMT

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This is a magnificent recording with an absolute dream cast. Despite its historical context within the late 11th century battles between the Crusades and the Saracens, Handel's "Rinaldo", written in the early 18th century, is actually a fanciful tale of love, devotion and betrayal populated by kings and warriors, fair maidens and sorcerers. It has all the elements of a great period action movie produced by Jerry Bruckheimer…

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Handel - Agrippina (Gardiner)

ArlegZ — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:21:47 GMT

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On 26 December 1709 'Agrippina', Handel's first dramatic masterpiece, was produced in Venice, the homeland of opera. It was a triumph. The theater echoed shouts of 'Viva il caro Sassone' and the opera received no less than twenty-seven performances...

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Handel - Ariodante (Minkowski)

ArlegZ — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:18:22 GMT

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Ariodante is one of Handel's most consistently fine operas. Yes, yes, there are whole strings of da capo arias, but they are so dramatically apt and melodically interesting that things never get tiresome. Harmonia Mundi recently released a fine recording of this opera (conducted by Nicholas McGegan and starring "La Divina" Lorraine Hunt), yet this is even better. Anne Sofie Von Otter has, in recent years, sometimes oversung in Baroque music, but her tone here is ideal--heroic and powerful yet pure... There's not a weak link in the cast, and Mark Minkowski's conducting is consistently exciting. There is no better recording of a Handel opera out there. --Matthew Westphal

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Handel - Serse (William Christie)

ArlegZ — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:36:18 GMT

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Handel's Serse is mostly known today for (what is known as) its famous "Largo," (the aria "Ombra mai fu") which opens the opera and is a love song to a tree sung by our whimsical, bratty king Serse. The opera concerns Serse's falling in love with his brother Arsamene's fiancée Romilda immediately after hearing her sing--as well as the fact that Romilda's sister Atalanta loves Arsamene, and that Princess Amastre, who has been jilted by Serse, wanders through the opera dressed as a man wanting revenge against Serse... --Robert Levine

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Pergolesi - Adriano in Siria (Marcello Panni)

ArlegZ — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:17:16 GMT

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Given that this CD was recorded in the 80s, I guess you can't really fault it for featuring the style of opera singing that was popular then, and it was worth buying anyway since it is the only recording of this beautiful opera available. If you're into obscure baroque operas, this would be a good one to add to your collection. And although the singers cast in the primo roles aren't the ones I would have chosen, Daniela Dessi as Sabina and Lucia Mazzaria as Aquilio perform very well in those roles. Susanna Anselmi is also good as Adriano.

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