Best recording of Marriage of Figaro?
David Vlach
Marriage of Figaro? Please email me and let me know. I'm just
developing my interest in opera and would like to get started on the
right track.
Thanks, Dave V.
-
DAVID VLACH EKM...@prodigy.com
David Pickering
Marriage .. by David Vl...@prodigy.com
> Marriage of Figaro? Please email me and let me know. I'm just
> developing my interest in opera and would like to get started on the
> right track.
My favorite recording right now is the London outing conducted by George
Solti with Sam Ramey as Figaro, the late great Lucia Popp as Susannah,
Frederica von Stade as Cherubino, Thomas Allen as the Count, Kiri te
Kanawa as the Countess, and Kurt Moll as Don Basilio. This recording
features what may be the fastest rendition of the overture ever recorded
but the vocal performances are stellar and the recording quality is
marvelous.
Enjoy.
Dave
dp...@andrew.cmu.edu
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-- Former Vice President Dan Quayle
Bob Morrow
In article <3rci4e$1n...@usenetw1.news.prodigy.com>, EKM...@prodigy.com (David Vlach) writes:
|> Can anyone give me some advice - what's a good quality CD of Mozart's
|> Marriage of Figaro? Please email me and let me know. I'm just
|> developing my interest in opera and would like to get started on the
|> right track.
|>
Three standouts, IMO, are:
Carlo Maria Giulini's Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra with Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf as the Countess, Eberhard Waechter as the Count, Giuseppe
Taddei as Figaro and including Fiorenza Cassotto and Anna Moffo. This
was an EMI offering.
Sir Georg Solti's Decca recording with the Vienna State Opera Chorus
and the Vienna Philharmonic featuring Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Ileana
Cotrubas, Frederica von State (my favourite mezzo ever!) and Tom
Krause.
Karl Boehm Berlin Deutschen Oper recordsing for Deutsche Grammophon
is my favurite with the best voices. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is Figaro
while Hermann Prey is the Count. The others feature Guindula Janowitz,
Edith Mathis and the late (and missed) Tatiana Troyanos.
Each of these conductors is a very fine Mozartean.
BOB
Richard Mix
: Can anyone give me some advice - what's a good quality CD of Mozart's
: developing my interest in opera and would like to get started on the
: right track.
I'll probably be flamed by both purists and audiophiles, but-
If you really want to do it right, trade your CD player for a VCR
and get the Sellars production- Enjoy!
Richard Mix
Rennie Selkirk
> Marriage of Figaro? Please email me and let me know. I'm just
> developing my interest in opera and would like to get started on the
> right track.
>
Besides recordings, I'm a big fan of taping the Met's radio broadcast on
Saturdays. Great way to get started for me, and I have some phenomenal
recordings of Turandot and Figaro taped from this show in the 91-92
season. (I don't know, but this may have been one of Frederica's last
runs as Cherubino.) Anyway, I kind of like the stage sounds you get
from the broadcast but most of all you get that incredible dynamic range
which always seems toned down on record. In particular, the sonic impact
of the Figaro overture (Levine conducting) on my tape is nothing short
of physical! In the same vein the finale of Act I of my Turandot recording
is nothing but awe-inspiring.
Cheers,
Rennie
James Anderson
: Besides recordings, I'm a big fan of taping the Met's radio broadcast
: on Saturdays. Great way to get started for me, and I have some
: phenomenal recordings of Turandot and Figaro taped from this show in
: the 91-92 season.
I also find these radio programs to be invaluable. If your local
classical radio station doesn't broadcast the Met on Saturdays (ours
also does the Chicago Lyric), get them to do it. I have already listened
many times to the Met's broadcast this year of La Boheme, and I prefer
it over any recorded version because of the presence of that essential
element that makes opera-going so rewarding: the audience. I'm
especially taken with how Puccini must have constructed the last part of
Act Two with the audience's participation in mind. After the tremendous
climax of Musetta's Waltz the audience roars with applause, while the
orchestra continues the waltz, but suddenly shifted to piano; you can't
really hear it until the applause lessens. Then at the very instant the
applause ends, the military band begins playing in the distance, and the
transition from waltz to march tempo takes place. This builds up into
one of the most stirring choruses I've ever heard, and as the main
characters march offstage the audience bursts into applause again, the
volume rising as the orchestra finishes the act. It all appears
seamless in the Met production, and the constant emotional high couldn't
possibly be maintained without the audience. Could any studio recording
do justice to this scene?
I think even curtain calls are an important part of the performance.
And all the laughter in yesterday's broadcast of Chicago's Barber of
Seville seems indispensable.
Can anyone recommend good recordings (CDs) of live opera performances
where the audience plays an essential role?
Jim Anderson Department of Philosophy
jand...@pwa.acusd.edu University of San Diego
--
Jim Anderson Department of Philosophy
Jay Azneer
and double yuck--whatever did we do before him and the Alden
bothers--oh yes, we were expected to be educated about European
history and culture, something Sellars seems to have missed in
his search for iconoclastic tripe! Still I suppose he is more
to be pitied than hated!
Jay
em...@netcom.com (Richard Mix) wrote:
>
>David Vlach (EKM...@prodigy.com) wrote: : Can anyone
>give me some advice - what's a good quality CD of
>Mozart's
>: Marriage of Figaro? Please email me and let me know.
> I'm just
>: developing my interest in opera and would like to get
>started on the
>: right track.
>
Wilson E. Allen
>From: Gene Ward Smith <gsm...@newton.utoledo.edu>
>Subject: Re: Recordings of live performances
>Date: Wed, 21 Jun 1995 15:18:26 GMT
snip - snip - snippetty - snip
>About the only thing I know of where the audience plays any role beyond
>acting like boobs and boors and generally wrecking things is "Let's Make
>an Opera."
>--
> Gene Ward Smith/Brahms Gang/University of Toledo
> gsm...@newton.utoledo.edu
There's another Britten 'opera' that's a real favorite of mine "Noye's Fludde"
in which the audience in the church sings three hymns as part of the
performance. The singing of the Royal Navy Hymn during the flood is quite
emotionally afffecting for me - and I'm not British, Christian or maritime!
Gene Ward Smith
> I also find these radio programs to be invaluable. If your local
> classical radio station doesn't broadcast the Met on Saturdays (ours
> also does the Chicago Lyric), get them to do it. I have already listened
> many times to the Met's broadcast this year of La Boheme, and I prefer
> it over any recorded version because of the presence of that essential
> element that makes opera-going so rewarding: the audience.
Good lord. What about the audience do you like? The coughing? The
talking? The program-ratting? The clapping in the middle of the music?
The people who come in late? The child in the seat behind you chewing gum
and kicking your seat in bored distraction?
I never see an opera without experiencing a strong urge to murder the
audience. The audience is loathsome. And opera audiences are the
worst--far more rude and stupid than you will find for a string quartet.
> Could any studio recording do justice to this scene?
This is precisely the kind of scene that *only a studio can do justice to.
The only alternative would be to have armed guards prepared to shoot the
next imbicile who makes an unscripted sound.
> I think even curtain calls are an important part of the performance.
Oh, please. People just clap according to how well they liked the
character or how famous the singer is.
> Can anyone recommend good recordings (CDs) of live opera performances
> where the audience plays an essential role?
About the only thing I know of where the audience plays any role beyond
Gene Ward Smith
> The solution, of course, is to perform the operas in their original
> language. Sleeping audiences tend to be a bit quieter.
True enough, and I've seen *that* too.
> Bill (who couldn't help laughing while reading your most recent posting
> to that amateur chorister about singing in English).
Andy Rooney does OK as a professional curmudgeon, so why can't I? [cue
Andy Rooney voice]
Craig Werner
>After the tremendous
>climax of Musetta's Waltz the audience roars with applause, while the
>orchestra continues the waltz, but suddenly shifted to piano; you can't
>really hear it until the applause lessens. Then at the very instant the
>applause ends, the military band begins playing in the distance, and the
>transition from waltz to march tempo takes place. This builds up into
>one of the most stirring choruses I've ever heard, and as the main
>characters march offstage the audience bursts into applause again, the
>volume rising as the orchestra finishes the act. It all appears
>seamless in the Met production, and the constant emotional high couldn't
>possibly be maintained without the audience. Could any studio recording
>do justice to this scene?
Jim, you have a good point when you talk about the audience's ability
to enhance a performance. However, if I read you correctly, you also
seem to be suggesting that audience participation is a central
ingredient to the success of a recording. In my view, the music
speaks for itself. We don't need an audience confirming the beauty of
tone and the artistry of expression in a Bjoerling or a De Los Angeles
performance of _Boheme_, for instance. After all, composers don't
write applause into their scores. :-)
Craig Werner <wer...@world.std.com>
g.f.
Craig Werner <wer...@world.std.com> wrote:
>performance of _Boheme_, for instance. After all, composers don't
>write applause into their scores. :-)
Hmmm would it be overstating to case to say that composers of bel canto
did everything but?