What are you listening two?

[Jose Echenique]

Listening this evening to an opera by the 18th century composer Antonio Mazzoni, Aminta (available on the K617 label).  An unjustly neglected composer, it would be wonderful to see Mazzoni find the same kind of advocacy that composers like Zelenka and Vinci have received in recent years.  Aminta is a wonderful work, very reminiscent of Handelian opera but also recalls Porpora and Hasse.  A dramatically vibrant work of great passion, vividly colured, it also contains some exquisite arias of great tenderness.   Very highly recommended.

It´s very nice. What a pity that Real Compañía Opera de Cámara seems to have been a casualty of the Spanish crisis. They were recording the Domenec Terradellas operas (another amazing neglected composer) but only Sesostri and Artaserse made it to the studio, the Merope was cast and scheduled but as far as I know was never recorded. If you don´t have the Terradellas they are must haves too.

[mcq]

Thanks for that, Pepe.  I hadn't heard of Terradellas and wil certainly try to pick up those operas you mentioned.  Have you heard Enrico Onofri's recent recording of Mazzoni's Antigona which was released on the Dynamic label.  I have to say I'm tempted.

[mcq]

Listening tonight to these two beautiful recordings.

[Jose Echenique]

Thanks for that, Pepe.  I hadn't heard of Terradellas and wil certainly try to pick up those operas you mentioned.  Have you heard Enrico Onofri's recent recording of Mazzoni's Antigona which was released on the Dynamic label.  I have to say I'm tempted.

Absolutely, a delightful opera, and a wonderful recording. Sadly the great Enrico Onofri parted company with Divino Sospiro after this project, but it´s very good, very well sung and magnificently played.

[Jose Echenique]

Listening tonight to these two beautiful recordings.

I absolutely adore the José de Nebra cantatas with María Espada, what a wonderful soprano she is. As you can read in the booklet these cantatas were found in Guatemala of all places, quite strange because most certainly they were composed for a fine castrato in Spain since they are so vocally demanding, but there is no evidence that an important castrato ever sang in the New World, so, go figure, but this is a truly great record.

[Jose Echenique]

Meyerbeer has been out of luck since WWII. In the XIX Century he was one of the most popular of opera composers, rivaling Rossini and Donizetti for the stage of the Paris Opera, and up to the first 4 decades of the 20th Century his operas were still regularly performed around the World, but now they are rarities at best.
His very las opera was Vasco de Gama, better known as L´ Africaine, but Meyerbeer didn´t live to see it performed. It was a huge success in Paris, and the same year it was premiered in London and Bologna.
Many Meyerbeer operas have been recorded, but strangely enough L´ Africaine never was. In the late 80´s Philips had everything arranged to record it with Jessye Norman and Plácido Domingo, but Domingo got stuck in an airport and didn´t make it to Vienna, so the project was cancelled.
And now the ever enterprising CPO label releases Vasco de Gama (we should rather call it Vasco de Gama and not L´ Africaine because the leading lady comes from India, not from Africa). This is a performance from the tiny city of Chemnitz near Leipzig, and is of course a rather provincial affair. But don´t get me wrong, everything is competent, the singing, the playing, the conducting and is well recorded, but Meyerbeer composed for the most prestigious theaters in Europe, and his operas need more than merely good singing to make their mark. The best known aria in the opera, the tenor´s O ciel! has been recorded by dozens of the greatest tenors the World has known from Caruso to Domingo, and though Bernhard Berchtold gives a decent performance, memories of truly great ones keep coming after every phrase.
This is a very long opera, almost 4 hours and a half, and is the kind of project that the major record labels now won´t record even if their lives depended on it, so, in spite of wishing for more vocal glamour we might as well thank that it got recorded at all.

[Diapason]

The only Meyerbeer I know is the Coronation March from Le Prophete, but I think G. B. Shaw might have put a few people off with his description of the opera as "that concentrated bore and outrage". Of course, that only serves to intrigue me...

[Jose Echenique]

The only Meyerbeer I know is the Coronation March from Le Prophete, but I think G. B. Shaw might have put a few people off with his description of the opera as "that concentrated bore and outrage". Of course, that only serves to intrigue me...

If a Meyerbeer performance is mediocre you are very likely to find it a bore. There are operas that can take mediocre or even plain bad performances and still save face like L´ Elisir d´Amore or La Bohéme, but others, notably Carmen, can be ruined with lesser artists. The best Meyerbeer recordings have to have great singers, like the CBS Le Prophete with Renata Scotto and Marilyn Horne or the Marguerite d´Anjou in Opera Rara with Daniela Barcellona and Annick Massis. But if you are not already a fan, I would´t recommend this Vasco de Gama.

[jaybee]

By virtue of Andrew Manzes prescence I gave a new recording of the four seasons a twirl...

To complement the Nigel version and the Accardo version I already have....

a fantastically crisp rendition, at first listen I'm very much enjoying it....!!

[Aleg]

To get awake quickly ;-)