Tír Na HiFi

fergus wrote:

bombasticDarren wrote:

I would be interested in your comments on that CD if you have finished listening to it Darren.

Me too, I'm not buying mind.

Seán wrote:

fergus wrote:

bombasticDarren wrote:

I would be interested in your comments on that CD if you have finished listening to it Darren.

Me too, I'm not buying mind.

Guido Cantelli was an immensely talented conductor who died much too soon in a 1956 plane crash when he was only 36. He was also Toscanini´s favourite disciple. The old maestro died 2 months after the crash, but he was never told that his dear Guido had died.
Cantelli didn´t leave many recordings, but those that he made for EMI became instant classics after his dead.
Particularly noteworthy are a noble Beethoven 7th and an eloquent Brahms 3rd with the Philharmonia Orchestra that he recorded in early stereo just before the accident.

Deutsche Grammophon has made recordings of Don Giovanni with some very illustrious conductors: Ferenc Fricsay, Karl Böhm (twice, Prague in 1966 and 1977 during the Salzburg Festival), Herbert von Karajan in the mid 80´s and Claudio Abbado in the 1990´s.
Unfortunately none of them have become classics like the 1959 EMI Giulini, though I´m very fond of the Fricsay, still one of the most personal and interesting readings of the greatest of all operas.
Now DG tries again with the young and exciting Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and a star studded cast. This recording was made last year in the ever more fashionable Baden-Baden Festival. It was recorded in concert form, not in a staged production, so the voices are evenly balanced with the orchestra.
Nézet-Séguin conducts a taught, minute-responsive Don Giovanni, not unlike Giulini`s, but with evident acknowledgment of period performance practice (little vibrato). His orchestra, Abbado´s really, is an excellent band, who has played the score before under Abbado and Daniel Harding, so they are more than competent.
Ildebrando D´Arcangelo, a sweet basso cantante with the good looks of a film star, is now World famous in the title role. His Don Giovanni brings memories of Cesare Siepi and Ezio Pinza, and his singing can´t be faulted, though I personally prefer a high baritone rather than a bass because you have to have contrast with the Leporello and the Commendatore. The Leporello, Luca Pisaroni has a similar voice, though D´ Arcangelo´s is better.
Rolando Villazón as Don Ottavio seems to have found shelter in Mozart after his vocal crisis, what a pity that he didn´t do it the other way around, first sing Mozart and afterwards Verdi and Puccini.
Diana Damrau, a lyric coloratura, sings a Donna Anna in the tradition of Sutherland and Gruberová. Personally, I prefer a heavier voice, like Anna Tomowa-Sintow or Margaret Price, but Damrau´s singing is more than competent and brings some personality to the role.
Perhaps the most admirable singing of all comes from the Donna Elvira. DG was lucky that Virgin let Joyce DiDonato participate in this recording, since she is one of the most interesting and magnificent singers before the public today. Her fiery, impassioned Donna Elvira raises the overall temperature a degree or two.
Much less interesting is the Zerlina, Mojca Erdmann. I just saw her singing this role at the MET last november and was not impressed (Pisaroni was also the Leporello). She is a very pretty young girl with a little and unexceptional voice. Zerlina needs more sexual allure and far more personality. There have been some great Zerlinas on record like Lucia Popp, Irmgard Seefried, Mirella Freni and Graziella Sciutti. Erdmann is nowhere in their class.
All in all this is a good Don Giovanni with some fine singing. It´s better conducted than the Karajan and better sung than the Abbado, but let´s not forget the glorious Gardiner recording. Even though it´s not in DG, it´s in Archiv, the sister company. This year it´s going to be 21 years old (it was recorded in 1991 during the Mozart year), and it still sounds as fresh and exciting as when first released. I rate it as the finest since the Giulini, no mean achievement for Sir John.

Thank you once again for the educational insights into the world of Opera Pepe. I know that you rate Giulini very highly and not just in opera. I do not have a lot by this conductor and I must collect some more of his work. I do however have the Gardiner version of Don Giovanni but I have not listened to it in a while so perhaps I will dust that one off soon.

fergus wrote:Thank you once again for the educational insights into the world of Opera Pepe. I know that you rate Giulini very highly and not just in opera. I do not have a lot by this conductor and I must collect some more of his work. I do however have the Gardiner version of Don Giovanni but I have not listened to it in a while so perhaps I will dust that one off soon.

I love Giulini's work, particularly his Mahler recordings.

I am mulling over my getting this set, any thoughts, good, bad or indifferent?:

On the TT this evening

I've listened to Act 1 a few times. I have no idea what they are singing about as I do not have the text, it is very enjoyable; Sylvia McNair & Cecilia Bartoli are particularly fine, I feel.

Seán wrote:

fergus wrote:Thank you once again for the educational insights into the world of Opera Pepe. I know that you rate Giulini very highly and not just in opera. I do not have a lot by this conductor and I must collect some more of his work. I do however have the Gardiner version of Don Giovanni but I have not listened to it in a while so perhaps I will dust that one off soon.

I love Giulini's work, particularly his Mahler recordings.

I am mulling over my getting this set, any thoughts, good, bad or indifferent?:

You should go for it Seán, as for the Idomeneo, Clemenza di Tito, Don Giovanni and Abduction of the Seraglio, they are certainly among the finest recordings available. The Cosi fan Tutte is lovely, with young, fresh singers that make sense in their roles, even if they are not the finest Mozart singers ever. The Magic Flute and Marriage of Figaro have many good things in them but also some catastrophic bad singers that is hard to understand why Gardiner chose them. The Sarastro in the Magic Flute, is a feeble, unimposing bass and the Cherubino in Figaro is almost as bad. Otherwise, those are excellent recordings.
But in the plus side you have Luba Orgonasova. glorious like no one else in Abduction and Don Giovanni, the also magnificent, electrifying soprano Julia Varady in Clemenza di Tito giving a Callas-like performance that is unmatched in any other recording, the lovely Swedish mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter in Idomeneo and Tito (a class act, needless to say), Bryn Terfel as Figaro, and Dorothea Röschmann as an exquisite Pamina. Last but certainly not least maestro Gardiner understands Mozart and communicates his love for these treasures of Western Civilization, and THAT means a lot!

Seán wrote:

I've listened to Act 1 a few times. I have no idea what they are singing about as I do not have the text, it is very enjoyable; Sylvia McNair & Cecilia Bartoli are particularly fine, I feel.

Figaro and Susanna are a young couple who want to get married, they are servants to the Count and Countess Almaviva. Figaro is very happy that they have been offered rooms next to the Count´s, but Susanna, a very wise young girl, is kind of worried. She dreads that the Count may want to claim the "jus primae noctis", a medieval right of aristocrats to spend the "first night" with any girl who wants to get married (and it`s true, the right did exist!). Figaro challenges the Count with the aria "se vuol balare" (if you want to dance, I´ll play the tune), but the Count indeed wants a rendezvous with Susanna who will play every trick in the book to save herself for Figaro.

And THAT is just the first act :-)

Jose Echenique wrote:

Seán wrote:
I am mulling over my getting this set, any thoughts, good, bad or indifferent?:

You should go for it Seán, as for the Idomeneo, Clemenza di Tito, Don Giovanni and Abduction of the Seraglio, they are certainly among the finest recordings available. The Cosi fan Tutte is lovely, with young, fresh singers that make sense in their roles, even if they are not the finest Mozart singers ever. The Magic Flute and Marriage of Figaro have many good things in them but also some catastrophic bad singers that is hard to understand why Gardiner chose them. The Sarastro in the Magic Flute, is a feeble, unimposing bass and the Cherubino in Figaro is almost as bad. Otherwise, those are excellent recordings.
But in the plus side you have Luba Orgonasova. glorious like no one else in Abduction and Don Giovanni, the also magnificent, electrifying soprano Julia Varady in Clemenza di Tito giving a Callas-like performance that is unmatched in any other recording, the lovely Swedish mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter in Idomeneo and Tito (a class act, needless to say), Bryn Terfel as Figaro, and Dorothea Röschmann as an exquisite Pamina. Last but certainly not least maestro Gardiner understands Mozart and communicates his love for these treasures of Western Civilization, and THAT means a lot!

Thanks for that Pepe. When I said text I actually meant the Libretti. I understand that this set does contain the Libretti for all the operas, am I correct?