opera

right so

anyone

Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle! Scary and moody and overwhelming

Beethoven's Fidelio! Beautiful and touching and it makes you cry. And it's wonderfully corny.

Don't know how you feel about baroque opera, it can take a while to get into, but almost any opera by Handel is worth taking time to enjoy.
I love Ariodante, Guilio Cesare, Rinaldo, Orlando, Acis and Galatea and Partenope.

Continuing with baroque: Rameau's Les Boreades and Les Indes Galantes have great earthy music.
Purcells' Dido and Aeneas is refreshing and punchy.

Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea is to my mind ont of the top 10 operas, it's incredibly dark, and sexy and mischeivous, and all at a time when the villains were not supposed to get away with it.

You cannot pass by Boris Godunov by mussorgsy, this is the great Russian opera. The music is absolutely fabulous.

The only Verdi I've seen are Aida, Falstaff and Macbeth, and they were all wonderful (Macbeth could stand to be longer).

Real operaheads will tell you that Richard Strauss's Elektra, Salome and Der Rosenkavalier are fatastic, and I've only heard snipppets of each, but I'm sure that's right. There's a lot more Strauss to explore if you like them.

I enjoy listening to King Roger by Szymanowski, Berg's Lulu, Dvorak's Rusalka, and Jenufa by Janacek.

Any Rossini is fun. I just saw Die Meistersinger by Wagner, and it was good but, um , could have done with less philosophising imo.

thanks so much

Suggestions I will second because I've seen them:

Fidelio
Dido and Aeneas
Orlando
Falstaff <----- A++++++ suggestion

I also recommend Carmen and Die Zauberfloete (The Magic Flute).

If you want to dip your toes into more modern stuff, Porgy and Bess, Nixon in China and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny cover a lot of musical territory and are all excellent.

i'm pretty obsessed with the magic flute these days... just watched the ingmar bergman version which is great. even used some music from it for this lil vid http://vimeo.com/13425089

last amazing opera i saw = salome

overwhelming

i liked dr. atomic a lot?
and the nose was interesting but I had a headcold and i thought i was gonna die.

I'm going to the opera twice over the next few days (Magic Flute and Madame Butterfly). Never been before, I have no idea what to expect besides rich men in tuxedos and hecklers. And non-stop disco dancing.

Will report back.

dunno where you're located but hipsters opera too these days

Both of those are awesome! The Magic Flute, depending on the production, can be really funny, and the music is just WOW.

The music in Madama Butterfly is just as WOW but... not funny. Not even a little bit.

Will keep an eye out for hipsters - it's in Vienna btw

All you need:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QnhlVqjEL._SS500_.jpg

really want to get into opera...the time is right i know it...

Are you interested in classics, new works, or rarely performed pieces?

i think classics, in my mind i'm imagining sort of dark intense italian stuff, tho this is based on childhood memories of it being on tv.

So like Puccini, Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti?

FYI Verdi operas tend to be like DAMN

There are some great modern stagings of The Magic Flute on DVD. Apart from the music being fantastic the opera lends itself to wacky expressionist stage sets and costumes.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Zauberflote-Magic-Flute-Royal/dp/B0000BV1JB/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1300973831&sr=1-2

That's my fave.

If you've got Sky Arts or access to it they broadcast modern performances of classics weekly. I know Mozart isn't the dark intense Italian stuff but I feel like Magic Flute or Don Giovanni are better intros to opera in many ways because they are so playful but still intense. If you wanna go straight to the 19th Century masters then my personal fave is Rigoletto which fulfils the dark intensity stuff v. well.

Mozart operas are fantastic, yes.

Actually "The Magic Flute" is a good starter; it's not wall-to-wall singing but when the songs start, every other one is like OMG WAU.

i do have sky arts actually...must sky plus some of these.

Yeah, they show very good productions, spoiled me a bit for when I first went to see one live.

DVDs were made for opera
I like the BBC National Orchestra of Wales' version of "Turn Of The Screw"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t20fvLO_RXo

any recs for opera on dvd? i feel an obsession coming on

Bergman's version of the Magic Flute is the best opera movie I have seen. It's done in that style like The Boyfriend or Olivier's Henry V where it is set in a theatre with an audience etc and the action apparently takes place onstage. Lots of cool and traditional theatrical effects are employed and some of the songs are performed as close-ups on the singers faces which works really well. The Magic Flute is one of the most enjoyable operas and this is a stylish and fun movie.

I don't know if it's going to be released on DVD but PBS recently broadcast the Met production of "Nixon In China" from this past February and it is fucking great.

I need to go back and see which Mahagonny DVD is the one I picked up; I know it's a German production and in the whore scene they wheel out a table with naked women on it.

Another one that I like, though it is stictly speaking an operetta, is a version of Ruddigore from the 80s with Vincent Price as Sir Despard. This is not a stylish movie and the whole thing is laughably cheap. Kinda feels like one of those productions that was made just so there is a filmed version of the opera to put in libraries around the world. However the performances are wicked, especially the woman playing Mad Margaret who is a riot. This whole thing is on youtube.

does the met typically release all of its productions on dvd or just some of them? i missed the new production of 'rheingold'

Ruddigore appeared in crossword the other day, did not know of its existence until them. Don't know Nixon In China but did enjoy Dr. Atomic so would check it out.

I have a strong bias towards NiC because it was my first professional opera chorus gig but it really is a great, great piece of work, plus the dude who was the original Nixon was in it.

wow, you'd think after 15+ years the corpse would be a little smelly

(sorry)

You got to sing with Rich Little? That's your most impressive collabo yet!

(sorry)

haha

there is one stretch where dude (James Maddalena, btw) SERIOUSLY falls out of voice, which is understandable considering it happened after his 10-minute aria but aside from that it was great; I have the biggest artistic crush on the concept/performance of Mao's secretaries

also the writing for Madame Mao is vituperative coleratura soprano with something like 12 high Cs in the aria, it's fucking nuts

click here to hear Kathleen Kim tear this song UP in the Met production; didn't direct link in case anyone wanted to be all "NO SPOILERS" about it

Will click on that later, thanks. Saw Kathleen Kim play the doll in the Tales of Hoffmann and that was pretty great.

Search: Les Arts Florissants for baroque opera, partic. Rameau's Les Indes Galantes

omg, okay, i'm like ready to DIVE IN. i've been listening to Cosi fan tutte and Die Zauberflotte and a few other things, i know some Verdi and i'm pretty well-versed in most contemporary stuff. all i want to do is listen to opera and metalcore right now, it's really weird.

I've got Das Rheingold queued up for this weekend.

and seriously listen to Berg's Wozzeck. It plays out a lot like an Expressionist film from the 20s or 30s set in music.

oooh ok on the list. merci beaucoup, mon ami

Just listened to Das Rheingold (Levine, Met Opera) all the way through, reading along in the libretto — found it a lot easier going than I thought and not at all tedious. The instrumental segues give it a feeling of seamlessness and the story is fun — I imagined a sort of JRPG setting, probably influenced by playing the Golden Sun games over the past few weeks. Moar Wagner!

the met's 11-12 season is coming up! i'll be going to some (probably not all) of the live in HD perfs out here - really looking forward to the wagners, the verdis, gounod's faust, and the baroque fantasia:

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/LiveinHD.aspx

^^hah, how ambitious of me - i only went to one of those screenings :(

gonna make a more concerted effort this year tho - v excited for donizetti's 'l'elisir d'amore' because NETREBKO - but waking up early on saturdays for the opera is tough esp. if i have no one to go with

man I would wake up very, very early to go see netrebko do l'elisir d'amore

had to pass up free tix to Les Troyens at the Met last week because mother-in-law was about to arrive >:[

~farben~

i assume this is a schoenberg ref, if so <3

Random thing that pops in my head is something from Eugene Onegin. Maybe this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6jhnNk3U9U
perhaps starting from the 2:40 mark? Maybe not banging enough for you.

Borodin - Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
The banger starts at about 3:50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqKclPhsK0o

Wagner - Sailors' Chorus from Der Fliegende Hollander
Chorus enters at about the minute mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Ae1aUXANY

Verdi - Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore
Literal banging at 1:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZN01_pAxro

Ha! This last was the most obvious choice

can somebody help me with a curious opera-related discrepancy? lately i've been listening to this rossini recording:

https://www.discogs.com/release/2836006-Rossini-Erich-LeinsdorfMetropolitan-Opera-And-Chorus-The-Barber-Of-Seville

and i was hoping to read the (italian) libretto along with what i was hearing. unfortunately i've misplaced the libretto that originally came with this box set. so i turned to the internet. the specific portion i wanted to track down is the last side of the last disc in the box: it's labeled "Act III (concl.)" so that's what i look for. well, it turns out that everywhere else on the internet specifies that "the barber of seville" is an opera in TWO acts!

does anybody know what's going on here?

There's another opera with the same title by Giovanni Paisiello, apparently?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barber_of_Seville_(Paisiello)

In popular culture
The Count's serenade "Saper bramate" is used in Stanley Kubrick's period film Barry Lyndon.[citation needed]

Just got out of much ballyhooed production of AKHNATEN at The Met. Philip Glass came out and took a bow.

Not a repetitive series of bows lasting 58 minutes?

Ha, no. Just one or two.

https://playbill.com/article/countertenor-anthony-roth-costanzo-on-the-transformative-nature-of-philip-glass-akhnaten

Interview with Nerfertiti, Rihab Chaieb:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsFc4PTLY7s

Dima highlight reel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgetLghpOCc

A Renée/Dmitri duet just showed up in my Friday algorithm. Still missing that guy.

Thinking baout wanting to see this new production of I Puritani at The Met.

i accidentally found out where Renee Fleming lives

I’m a big fan of Lisette Oropesa and am also pretty tempted to see I Puritani at the Met in Jan. She’s going to be in Richard Jones’ staging in London in the summer, though, so might not bother with both.

i’m going to the Met April 30 to see “Innocence”

I’m a big fan of Lisette Oropesa and am also pretty tempted to see I Puritani at the Met in Jan. She’s going to be in Richard Jones’ staging in London in the summer, though, so might not bother with both.

Keep seeing clips from the other night's Carnegie Hall gala featuring two of my other favorite divas, Sondra and Nadine.

Doing the Lakmé flower duet! It's all over Instagram, no sign of it anywhere else right now.

Can't even find anymore. Maybe it was in some stories that disappeared. Did find one of Lisette where a Chinese audience member started singing a tenor part along with her out of the blue.

Ngl, I was shocked when I finally heard the real thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skKV379pAR0