Opera

[Garek]

So I watched Serpico and now I like Opera

Been listening to Tosca a lot recently recently, both in German and Italian.

Any one got any recommendations for others ones I should check out? 99% of the classical I like is in minor key so nothing to bouncy and happy please.

*pre-emptively watches thread sink like lead balloon*

 

[Nanker Phelge]

 

[belboid]

I've got tickets for the Threepenny Opera in a couple of weeks time, that's very good (tho rather different to the likes of Tosca). If you like Tosca, I'd have a listen to Verdi and the big Mozart pieces (Giovanni, Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan Tutti), as well as other Puccini stuff.

 

[Geri]

Tosca is my absolute favourite. As belboid said, you will probably like other Puccini stuff (Madama Butterfly & La Boheme are the only ones I've seen). The only others I've seen are Rigoletto & Cosi fan Tutti (although I was surprised I enjoyed the latter as musically it isn't something I would listen to). I'd like to see Aida, Carmen and The Barber of Seville.

Although it can be expensive going to the opera, they sometimes have cinema showings or big screens live from the Royal Opera House.

If you have Sky Arts they usually have operas or ballets on Monday nights.

 

[Shirl]

I have been listening to Madame Butterfly recently. I'd never bothered with it before but I'm loving it. There are plenty of operas that I like and listen to but so far I'm loving almost all of Madame Buttefly.
I'm no opera buff, I've only been to see three live at the theatre so I maybe have no idea what's great.

Geri I've been listening to La Boheme a bit too but the male chorus's annoy me a bit.

 

[Shirl]

I might listen to Tosca next

 

[Geri]

Geri I've been listening to La Boheme a bit too but the male chorus's annoy me a bit.

I think I may have fallen asleep last time I went to see it

 

[Geri]

I might listen to Tosca next

See if you can get a CD or even better, the DVD of the Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna version, it's fab. What I love about Tosca is that each act has the most amazing aria in it and it just seems so perfectly balanced.

 

[Shirl]

See if you can get a CD or even better, the DVD of the Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna version, it's fab. What I love about Tosca is that each act has the most amazing aria in it and it just seems so perfectly balanced.

Thanks I'll buy that one. I listen on CDs anyway

 

[Shirl]

Thanks I'll buy that one. I listen on CDs anyway

oops, just bought with a click

 

[colacubes]

Best opera ever, and this is also one of my favourite productions:



Simon Keenlyside makes me go a bit

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

[QUOTE="Garek, post: 13057435, member: 43368/]nothing to bouncy and happy please.
[/QUOTE]

Wozzeck

 

[colacubes]

[QUOTE="Garek, post: 13057435, member: 43368/]nothing to bouncy and happy please.

Wozzeck[/QUOTE]

That is neither happy or bouncy tbf

 

[colacubes]

I love Akhnaten by Phillip Glass but it's not for everyone:

 

[Left]

WAGNER - anything post-Rienzi but especially TRISTAN - musical edging

A lot of the best operas are 20th century ones - Wozzeck, Lulu, Moses und Aron, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Peter Grimes, Dialogues of the Carmelites - they go to places 19th century opera wouldn't dare

 

[ibilly99]

The last scene of Mozart's Don Giovanni when he is cast down to hell for his libertine ways has been bizarrely mixed up with Jimmy Savile - BOGOF !

 

[ibilly99]

Conceptually brilliant and a wonderful voice - not sure why she is naked though. Mezzo Soprano Abigail Wright.

 

[Garek]

Cheers all very helpful. Going to cross reference with R3's build your library thing to find good version of the aforementioned.

 

[dessiato]

Cosi fan Tutti and Carmen are my favourites.

 

[dessiato]

Conceptually brilliant and a wonderful voice - not sure why she is naked though. Mezzo Soprano Abigail Wright.

It seems to relate to this, although I still don't see why they are naked.

 

[buscador]

WAGNER - anything post-Rienzi but especially TRISTAN - musical edging

A lot of the best operas are 20th century ones - Wozzeck, Lulu, Moses und Aron, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Peter Grimes, Dialogues of the Carmelites - they go to places 19th century opera wouldn't dare

Also, Zimmermann's Die Soldaten. Quite brutal.

 

[ska invita]

Ive always really disliked opera - the tone of the voices just grates me - but then i got to go to the opera in the flesh and its a completely different experience - the theatre soaks up all the harsh tones of the voice and it really is quite an amzing thing

I love Akhnaten by Phillip Glass but it's not for everyone:

though partly why i fell in love with it was because i got to see Phillip Glasses thing on Ghandi - incredible production and spellbinding music. Unforgetable experience.

I imagine any Phillip Glass opera is a must-see.

ive since been to see one i cant even remember the name of, a minor italian one, and even that i got into it a lot. But i still struggle hearing recordings of them, and the voices still make my nervous system rattle. But i wouldnt turn down a ticket to any live show.

 

[ibilly99]

It seems to relate to this, although I still don't see why they are naked.

A bit 'Eyes Wide Shut' and pervy upper classes thinking it is transgressive and cutting edge and the singer wanting to be 'out there'.

Joan Sutherland Casta Diva in Bellini's Norma for the bel canto canary warbling vocal fireworks - a musical orgasm if there ever was one. I saw her very last night in Covent Garden back in the 80s she was in her 60's and could still deliver. Was an opera fanatic for about a decade and then almost overnight turned against it as overblown, elitist , over dramatised and a dinosaurish art form. In my 50s am slowly coming back and seeing it in a more balanced way.

 

[ibilly99]

Verdi choruses and quartets are always thrilling and hair raising -

Macbeth



Rigoletto




You can't go wrong with Verdi !

 

[sunnysidedown]

I can't get enough Robert Ashley



and Bartok is always worth a listen



along with Ligeti

 

[ibilly99]

Oh and Wagner - you have to go there in the end - despite his fascist and misogynistic tendencies it is his overpowering and all encompassing transcendent music which is to my mind long after his death all that matters in the end. The liebestod from Tristan and Isolde - a total musical endless orgasm.

 

[Geri]

Here are two of my favourite singers, Elina Garanca and Anna Netrebko.

 

[Dillinger4]

I love opera. One of my (few) achievements in life is that I have heard all 16 hours of Der Rings des Nibelungen by Wagner. It was on Radio3 last year.

 

[Shirl]

Geri Tosca arrived yesterday. I don't work Mondays so I'll be able to indulge myself tomorrow. I really want to go to see some more live opera now though.

 

[Cloo]

Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov is fantastic. Lots of action, really dramatic, atmospheric music - it's one of my favourites.

I have inherited wagnermania from my parents. I come over a bit funny as soon as I hear the opening bars of Rhinegold. Sadly no one's done a good London production for years so I've never seen it all on stage. My parents were fortunate enough to see some classic ones in the 70s and 80s.