What opera are you listening to?

[PatrickMurtha]

Apparently it is OK if I create this topic, which seems potentially useful. By “listen”, of course I mean any of these: in person, on Radio 3, on other stations, on YouTube or Spotify, on LP or CD, anywhere at all.

I have noticed on other classical music fora a really sharp division between the Symphony Hounds and everyone else, including operaphiles. Not sure why this is, and don’t know if it is true here. I rather hope not! Some of the Symphony Hounds I’ve encountered are even disdainful of chamber music, for goodness sake. It is very puzzling to me.

Anyway, I love all of it, and put a high priority on listening to operas, unfamiliar ones especially. I am a completist.

What I am NOT is one of these fussy critics of singing. It’s not my area of expertise. Stuff like that can be interesting to read, I appreciate the details, but some of the self-proclaimed experts are so haughty about the flaws that they perceive, they wear out their welcome quickly.

[smittims]

When videos of operas started to appear I imagined I would transfer to them my opera listening, as I do think operas are meant to be seen as well as heard: not as obvious as it may seem; many people of my generation learnt opera from records or radio and rarely had the chance to see one on stage. But I still listen to audio-only opera and rarely watch a performance on TV or video.

I think this is because I dislike so many modern stagings of operas, but also because I probably am one of those fussy critics of singing (regardless of any expertise of lack of it). I do have my favourites, and few if any singers I hear in TV performences (e.g on Sky Arts) rival them. For instance, I was listening to Lisa Della Casa as Elvira in the 1954/55 Don Giovanni (the Decca recording conducted by Josef Krips) . Not even Schwarzkopf, who made this role her own, pleased me so much. And the rest of the cast was on this level, e.g. Anton Dermota's Ottavio.

As to stagings, Oh dear me! Channel-browsing one day with the mute button on, I saw an obese man in a modern hospital bed , bandaged, etc. with his mouth open as if he were moaning in pain. It turned out to be La Clemenza di Tito. Heighho, back to the Harnoncourt CDs... It's a mystery to me that when musicians are striving to get closer and closer to the original, stage producers want to get further away.

I should answer the thread title. The last opera I listened to was Gotterdammerung. I usually hear the Ring each Autumn, perhaps because that's when I used to hear it on Radio 3 from Bayreuth. This year it was the Keilberth performance from 1953, with a dream cast: Hans Hotter, Wolfgang Windgassen, Gustav Neidlinger. Josef Greindl, all in notably fresher voice than in the Solti recording, and Martha Modl my favourite Brunnhilde. . .

[Pulcinella]

Listening to my opera sets (and following the librettos while doing so) was one of my retirement plans, then my Covid lockdown plan, and now occasionally a winter plan.
But all these plans have come pretty much to naught.


Though there's quite often music on during the day while I'm doing something else (usually reading or doing the ironing; anathema to some on here, I know {listening while doing something else; not ironing, though perhaps that too!}), I tend not to listen to choral/vocal/operatic works unless I can concentrate more fully.

The opera I dabbled with most recently was Copland's The Tender Land, after having listened to the suite he made.

[kuligin]

I am listening to Leclair‘s Scylla et Glaucis. I have long possessed the recording by Gardiner, but am now streaming by way of contrast the recording by Sebastian d‘ Herrin. I like them both but oddly find the Herrin more theatrical, as the Gardiner was recorded after live performances in Lyon. It is an excellent work the equal of Rameau in my view. I have never managed to see it on the stage, or indeed seen it appear on Operabase.

As for the last opera I have seen staged, that was Zoraida di Granata at Wexford. An early work of Donizetti, with some first class music in parts but coupled to a very weak libretto even by Bel Canto standards. Still a very enjoyable evening and worth the choppy crossing the next day from Rosslare.

[smittims]

Wexford are stil very enterprising. A few years ago they did a fine 'Koanga' (Delius).

What you do while you're listening is perhaps food for another thread. I knew someone who thought it heresy to do anything while listening to music except sit back with your eyes closed. My opera heresy is to listen only to the music and not care about what is happening on stage.

[vinteuil]

What you do while you're listening is perhaps food for another thread. I knew someone who thought it heresy to do anything while listening to music except sit back with your eyes closed. My opera heresy is to listen only to the music and not care about what is happening on stage.

... I much prefer listening to opera, on CD, no visuals, at home, yes sometimes with a score / libretto.

My mother noticed something odd about me early on - we went to an open-air performance of Twelfth Night at Stourhead when I was about twelve. Half way through she looked over and saw that I was following the Shakespeare text I had brought with me rather than watching the play on the stage...

[Bryn]

[Cockney Sparrow]

I count myself lucky that I can reach Covent Garden in 90 minutes, and can experience opera performance live, which has provided some wonderful experiences.

I’m generally somewhat amazed that, given the frailty of human beings, in something as complex as an opera, they all gather together and give, at the least, a good account of themselves and the work with such a high success rate. And that amongst those performances, I get to experience those nights where it all aligns into an absorbing, thrilling and memorable evening.

In a few hours I will be seeing Rigoletto – its some years since I last saw it. From the Das Rheingold thread - I’m looking forward to hearing Amartuvshin Enkhbat in the title role, my expectations raised by:

…………..I was quite surprised that for the upcoming Rigoletto the prices where I sit have gone up £9 for a cast which is arguably less starry. Think I’ll give it a miss even though it proves my private verdict that Enkhbat should have won Cardiff Singer {….of the World….} by a country mile.
On the other hand for Elektra (shorter opera but stellar cast ) the tickets are slightly ( a fiver ) cheaper . And the rehearsal is a steal at £28 for front row amphi ……………….

I am in this - he is superb!

Pretty Yende as Gilda, but I don’t recognise the names of any of the other cast members (bar one) – which is often the case these days. These artists, though, deliver the goods usually. Has the Ukraine conflict meant that performers have been forced to choose and have chosen Western Europe. Has Brexit deterred artists based in Germany and the near continent from accepting engagements because they have enough work in the EU with its free movement of workers? I don’t know.

[makropulos]

Apparently it is OK if I create this topic, which seems potentially useful. By “listen”, of course I mean any of these: in person, on Radio 3, on other stations, on YouTube or Spotify, on LP or CD, anywhere at all.

What a nice topic. Over the last few weeks my wife and I have been enjoying some rarer repertoire on DVDs and Blu-rays for a little home-grown opera festival. So far the more unusual things have included Alfano's Risurrezione (Maggio musicale), Szymanowski's King Roger (ROH), Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini (Macerata Festival), Bizet's Djamileh (Compiègne), Humperdinck's Königskinder (a hideous Zurich Opera production of a wonderful score), Verdi's Attila (Verona with Nestorenko), Rimsky's Christmas Eve (Frankfurt) and Strauss's Feuersnot (an infuriating and borderline bonkers production at the Teatro Massimo). Plenty more to come, but in the meantime a bit of live opera coming up next week with the Opera North La rondine – very much looking forward to that – and the WNO Traviata to follow a few days later.

[gradus]

I just had time this evening for my favourite fragment of Manon Lescaut, Ansia eterna crudele, about 5 minutes of Puccini so movingly sung by Carreras, Te Kanawa and Coni.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Just back from the WNO La Traviata. The Violetta - Stacey Alleaume- is going to be a major star. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the role sung better live. (And she can act)

[PatrickMurtha]

I took a day off to clear my head. It is gratifying to return to see that this topic has been well received! I thank everyone for that.

[PatrickMurtha]

What a nice topic. Over the last few weeks my wife and I have been enjoying some rarer repertoire on DVDs and Blu-rays for a little home-grown opera festival. So far the more unusual things have included Alfano's Risurrezione (Maggio musicale), Szymanowski's King Roger (ROH), Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini (Macerata Festival), Bizet's Djamileh (Compiègne), Humperdinck's Königskinder (a hideous Zurich Opera production of a wonderful score), Verdi's Attila (Verona with Nestorenko), Rimsky's Christmas Eve (Frankfurt) and Strauss's Feuersnot (an infuriating and borderline bonkers production at the Teatro Massimo). Plenty more to come, but in the meantime a bit of live opera coming up next week with the Opera North La rondine – very much looking forward to that – and the WNO Traviata to follow a few days later.

Oh, this is a wonderful idea. Of that list, I have yet to hear the Bizet, Alfano, and Strauss, but I know and like all the rest. King Roger is extraordinary. I have heard Attila three times in recent years - great fun. The Sofia Opera’s 2011 outdoor staging was really good.

Königskinder, I heard in the classic 1976 recording with Helen Donath and Hermann Prey. Francesca da Rimini, La Scala 2018 under Fabio Luisi.

Christmas Eve is magical. I highly recommend the archival 1948 performance under Nikolai Golovanov.

[PatrickMurtha]

When videos of operas started to appear I imagined I would transfer to them my opera listening, as I do think operas are meant to be seen as well as heard: not as obvious as it may seem; many people of my generation learnt opera from records or radio and rarely had the chance to see one on stage. But I still listen to audio-only opera and rarely watch a performance on TV or video.

I think this is because I dislike so many modern stagings of operas, but also because I probably am one of those fussy critics of singing (regardless of any expertise of lack of it). I do have my favourites, and few if any singers I hear in TV performences (e.g on Sky Arts) rival them. For instance, I was listening to Lisa Della Casa as Elvira in the 1954/55 Don Giovanni (the Decca recording conducted by Josef Krips) . Not even Schwarzkopf, who made this role her own, pleased me so much. And the rest of the cast was on this level, e.g. Anton Dermota's Ottavio.

As to stagings, Oh dear me! Channel-browsing one day with the mute button on, I saw an obese man in a modern hospital bed , bandaged, etc. with his mouth open as if he were moaning in pain. It turned out to be La Clemenza di Tito. Heighho, back to the Harnoncourt CDs... It's a mystery to me that when musicians are striving to get closer and closer to the original, stage producers want to get further away.

I should answer the thread title. The last opera I listened to was Gotterdammerung. I usually hear the Ring each Autumn, perhaps because that's when I used to hear it on Radio 3 from Bayreuth. This year it was the Keilberth performance from 1953, with a dream cast: Hans Hotter, Wolfgang Windgassen, Gustav Neidlinger. Josef Greindl, all in notably fresher voice than in the Solti recording, and Martha Modl my favourite Brunnhilde. . .

I have big problems with Regietheater too. Many times I skip watching Operavision videos and just listen to the audio, so as not to get annoyed.

[PatrickMurtha]

Wexford are stil very enterprising. A few years ago they did a fine 'Koanga' (Delius).

What you do while you're listening is perhaps food for another thread. I knew someone who thought it heresy to do anything while listening to music except sit back with your eyes closed. My opera heresy is to listen only to the music and not care about what is happening on stage.

Wexford is one of the great annual events. I follow their selections with intense interest. I assume that some of you have been lucky enough to go, and I envy you.