opera

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

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

― ~farben~ (Jon Lewis), Friday, 28 December 2012 15:45 (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the dawn of a new genre of super high-brow mother-in law jokes

xpost yes, yes it is

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

i did this and it ruled

since then i've gone to one other screening, mozart's 'la clemenza di tito'. wasn't crazy about the lead tenor but i enjoyed the production otherwise, beautiful set design and loved the villainess

Oh I wanted to see that, compare it to the production I did

some of those arias were doozies!

Yeah they are, that tenor aria in the second act is like woah but I think that Sesto aria is the most ridiculous thing in the whole show

i was listening to this opera trivia thing this morning and there was this quote they had "my dear, i've found that in real life there is little to be excited about, outside of books"

anyone know where this is from? google is being worthless

quote may not be exact but it is close

(it's eugene onegin)

which i believe is kicking off the met's 2013-14 season, and which will have netrebko and mariusz kwiecien in it, and which means i'm just gonna go ahead and die

Just sent in my ticket order

Please take this parody in the loving spirit in which it was presumably intended
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OW7GoIl0T8

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/10/women-gays-and-classical-music.html

Sondra Radvanovsky = Norma

Although I should revisit these other performances: http://operalively.com/forums/showthread.php/33-Norma-Caball%C3%A9-Callas-or-Sutherland

Went to see Tosca on Friday night. I believe people don't like the current production so there were some empty seats but the singing was fine. I saw it with Portuguese soprano Elisabete Matos filling on but Sondra will be singing it again on Monday night which you can listen to here http://www.metoperafamily.org/stream.aspx , and again for the Saturday matinee which will also be broadcast.

You could also have seen her TV last night doing the Kennedy Center Honors.

Best wishes and warm thoughts to Dmitry Hvorostovsky.

Hvorostovsky seems to be doing fine. Well-received concert at Carnegie Hall this week and scheduled for Eugene Onegin at the Met next year.

The 2016/17 Met schedule looks solid:

https://www.metopera.org/Season/2016-17-Season/

Opolais is always a good Rusalka and it would be great to have an opportunity to see the Domingo / Monastyrska Nabucco as an HD Live show if I can't get a ticket for Covent Garden this summer.

Ooh I would see l'amour de loin

I'm already saving the date for the HD Live production of Rusalka, one of the few operas I bought as a teenager. I always forget that these HD Live shows happen, such an easy way to get exposed to more opera.

I saw Handel's Orlando at the Barbican last night and the review is pretty much otm.

http://www.theartsdesk.com/opera/orlando-english-concert-bicket-barbican

It's the first time i've seen Iestyn Davies live and he really is excellent. I'd love to see him in something more conventionally dramatic.

This might be good:

https://www.metopera.org/Season/2015-16-Season/manon-lescaut-puccini-tickets/

Jonathan Kent's ROH staging from 2014 was pretty crass for the most part but Opolais is a wonderful Manon and it would be interesting to see her in a trad version.

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