What are you listening to?

[fergus]

I thought that this was a terrific listen. To me the singing was first class and the drama was very well portrayed by the orchestra and their direction. Highly recommended!

[Jose Echenique]

I thought that this was a terrific listen. To me the singing was first class and the drama was very well portrayed by the orchestra and their direction. Highly recommended!

Dear Fergus, to call Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Tito Gobbi "first class" is like to call the Sahara "dry". Leonard Bernstein described Victor de Sabata´s Tosca as the greatest recording ever made, and it most definitely is!

[fergus]

I thought that this was a terrific listen. To me the singing was first class and the drama was very well portrayed by the orchestra and their direction. Highly recommended!

Dear Fergus, to call Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Tito Gobbi "first class" is like to call the Sahara "dry". Leonard Bernstein described Victor de Sabata´s Tosca as the greatest recording ever made, and it most definitely is!

LOL!!!

[Jose Echenique]

Even though this recording has no Maria Callas or Giuseppe di Stefano, it is a truly important recording that enriches our knowledge of the Baroque Era. Leonardo Vinci´s operas have been recorded before thanks to Antonio Florio, his version of Le Zite ´n´Galera in OPUS111 is a gem, and now, finally, we get the Neapolitan opera par excellence: La Partenope, whose libretto Handel also used in one of his finest operas.
Leonardo Vinci was a famous and respected composer. Handel conducted some of his operas in London and even PAYED the Neapolitan for the privilege, something very rare in the XVIII Century.
This live recording is a total delight, even if the sound is only good and the production not as fine as OPUS111 used to give to the Turchinis. It benefits though from 3 exceptional singers: Sonia Prina, Maria Grazia Schiavo and Maria Ercolano, but mostly of all from the wonderful conducting of maestro Florio, who is the Victor de Sabata of Neapolitan Baroque Music.

[Jose Echenique]

The newest recording with Sergio Azzolini. Pity that Ingo Goritzki is nowhere in his class.

[fergus]

The newest recording with Sergio Azzolini. Pity that Ingo Goritzki is nowhere in his class.

That looks most intriguing Pepe. I have heard only a little of Devienne's music (two flute concertos) but what I have heard I have really liked.

[fergus]

[Jose Echenique]

You must remember that I liked a lot the Die Walküre of this Frankfurt Ring cycle, so I ordered the Rheingold and the Siegfried. The Götterdämmerung should be on the market next month.
Das Rheingold is also good, but I didn´t love it quite as much as Die Walküre. The Norwegian Wotan sounds less god-like here than in Walküre, maybe because of where he was standing, but basically he sings well. The all-important baritone Alberich sounds rather lightweight, though I was surprised to see that it was Jochen Schmechenbecher, a young baritone I used to chat with in the Compuserve Classical Music Forum when the Web was in it´s infancy. Most of the character roles are competently sung, but the competition is fierce from the major recordings. The orchestra once more proves a worthy one and the recorded sound is very good.

[Jose Echenique]

And since next year it´s also Giuseppe Verdi´s bicentenary, it´s only fitting to get started with a revisit to his wonderful operas. I Masnadieri used to be a rarity, but thanks to Philip´s and Decca´s recordings one can safely say that most Verdi aficionados are now familiar with it. Both are outstanding recordings, the Philips has the dream cast of Carlo Bergonzi, Montserrat Caballé and Piero Cappuccilli, a class act hard to follow, but Decca did with this equally great recording. The big problem with I Masnadieri, and certainly the main reason why it´s not performed more often, is the exceptional difficulty of the tenor role. It´s a role as demanding as Manrico or Ernani, with a high tessitura and the need of some steel in the voice. In this respect Franco Bonisolli is ideal for the role. I don´t know how many of you are familiar with his singing, he was the typical Italian tenor with an ego as big as his top notes. In a bad day he could be a walking nightmare, but in a good one he could almost be the finest tenor in the World. He didn´t make as many recordings as he should because of his unreliability, he was obsessed with Pavarotti´s fame, and swore that while making this recording, dear Luciano sneaked in the recording studio to mess with the air conditioning to make him sick, but you would never know from his prodigious singing here. There´s no tenor voice like this today, not Kaufmann, Villazón or Marcelo Alvarez. If you want to hear real "squillo" in Verdi you should hear this recording. Sutherland at the end of her prime is also admirable, obviously very different from Caballé, but equally good. It would be impossible to cast I Masnadieri with this quality today.

[fergus]

I have to say that I envy your knowledge of your main subject of interest Pepe. I would like to be able to talk as authoritatively and as knowledgeably as you do. I know that many years of listening, study and reading is behind your knowledge but it really shows and I admire the way that you so readily impart your knowledge for those who want to pick it up. Please keep it coming!