A bel canto feast !

[Rach3]

I defer to the opera experts here, but to my ear this entire concert a must hear. IF you must hear just one , hear “ Mura felici” , but hearing just one would be sinful as there was not a weak moment anywhere that evening. Holy cow.

Ewa Podles and Martile Rowland,March 24,1994,Utrecht,Netherlands Radio Kamerorkest under Kenneth Montgomery.

Vincenzo Bellini :

Norma ; Ouverture

Norma ; Akte I - cavatina, "Casta diva" + cabaletta, "Ah! bello a me ritorna"

Norma ; Akte I - duet, "Vanne, li cela entrambi"

Norma ; Akte II - duet, "Dormono entrambi ... Mira, o Norma"

Gioachino Rossini :

Semiramide ; Ouverture

Semiramide ; Akte I - recit en duettino, "Qual fia!... Serbarmi ognor si fido"

L’Italiana in Algeri ; Ouverture

La donna del lago ; Akte I - recit + cavatina, "Mura felici... Elena, o tu che chiamo"

Tancredi ; Akte II - recit en duet, "Ah! Come mai quell'anima ... Ah! si mora, e cessi omai"

Gioachino Rossini :

Duetto buffo di due gatti (kattenduet)

https://www.nporadio4.nl/concerten/9657 ... ewa-podles

[barney]

Sometimes very lovely, but this repertoire belongs so totally to two mid-20th century divas, Joan Sutherland and Maria Callas, and these forces don't come close. The casta diva is precise but a little pallid while the Mira, o Norma, including a flat high note, doesn't come close to Sutherland and Horne. They are simply perfection.
I know Len will back me up here. Len? Len? Don't say you are fleeing...
As Brian would say, though I can't remember the four-letter acronym, just a matter of taste.

[maestrob]

Sometimes very lovely, but this repertoire belongs so totally to two mid-20th century divas, Joan Sutherland and Maria Callas, and these forces don't come close. The casta diva is precise but a little pallid while the Mira, o Norma, including a flat high note, doesn't come close to Sutherland and Horne. They are simply perfection.
I know Len will back me up here. Len? Len? Don't say you are fleeing...
As Brian would say, though I can't remember the four-letter acronym, just a matter of taste.

Certainly agree with you, Barney, about Horne/Sutherland in Norma. However, I am a definite follower of Ewa Podles, whom I think should have had much more of a career than she actually did. Not only does she have an extraordinary voice, but she was a great comic actress. Unfortunately, Marilyn Horne dominated her repertoire at the MET and, while Podles stunned me with her first (and only) run there in Handel's Rinaldo during the 1980's, she was never invited to return, so I've only seen her live once here in NY. Thus, I will certainly hear this concert soon.

That said, I do very heartily recommend this DVD of Massenet's rarely done Cendrillon with Joyce DiDonato, along with her definitive CD of Chopin's Op. 74 Songs, plus any recordings you may see of recitals from her native Warsaw that pop up occasionally as used CDs:

[Rach3]

More delightful bel canto:

https://www.nporadio4.nl/concerten/9661 ... le-rowland

February 7,1983,Utrecht


Andrea Poddighe (tenor), Groot Omroepkoor, Huub Claessens (bas), Joke de Vin (alt mezzo), Martile Rowland (sopraan), Math Dirks (bariton)

Radio Symfonie Orkest, Dirigent Kees Bakels

Vincenzo Bellini

I Puritani ; Akte II - aria, scène + cabaletta, "Ah! dolor! Ah! terror! ... Qui la voce sua soave... Vien, diletto"

Gaetano Donizetti
Roberto Devereux ; Ouverture

Gaetano Donizetti
Roberto Devereux ; Finale

Vincenzo Bellini
Il pirata ; Sinfonia


Vincenzo Bellini

Il pirata ; Akte II - recit, aria + finale, "Oh, s'io potessi dissipar le nubi... Col sorriso d'innocenza... Oh, Sole! ti vela"

Gaetano Donizetti

Anna Bolena ; Akte II - recit + aria + finale, "Piangete voi... Al dolce guidami.... Qual mesto suon...."

[maestrob]

Delightful! I've never heard of these singers, but the repertoire is very familiar. I'll be glad to check this one out as well.

Thanks, Rach3!

[maestrob]

Sometimes very lovely, but this repertoire belongs so totally to two mid-20th century divas, Joan Sutherland and Maria Callas, and these forces don't come close. The casta diva is precise but a little pallid while the Mira, o Norma, including a flat high note, doesn't come close to Sutherland and Horne. They are simply perfection.
I know Len will back me up here. Len? Len? Don't say you are fleeing...
As Brian would say, though I can't remember the four-letter acronym, just a matter of taste.

YMMV.

Your mileage may vary.

Podles was quite good here, and I agree that the soprano, while very expressive, lacked the color and substance of a great voice. My favorite "Casta diva..." is still, however, Maria Callas from the mid-1950's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNTUq_mAoo

[barney]

Thanks Brian. And can't argue with that. or Callas.

[Rach3]

And another ! ( I have not heard.)

Vincenzo Bellini , " I Capuleti e i Montecchi " ( complete )

Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Giacomo Aragall (Roméo; tenor), Luciano Pavarotti (Tebaldo; tenor), Margherita Rinaldi (Giulietta; sopraan), Mario Petri (Capellio; bas), Walter Monachesi (Lorenzo; bariton)

Residentie Orkest,Claudio Abbado

Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam

July 1 , 1966

https://tinyurl.com/et5uzh8t

[maestrob]

Wonderful! Abbado was a truly great opera conductor, although he was not as famous as, say, Levine for that part of his skill-set. I have his complete opera recordings, and none of them have disappointed me.

The young Pavarotti had an astonishingly beautiful tone and flexibility. One of my favorite pirate CDs is a recording of his first attempt at Idomeneo wherein, unlike his assumption of the role at the MET telecast in the 1980's, he sounds like a true Mozart tenor, paired with Gundula Janowitz in London.

I sincerely look forward to hearing this, as Abbado never recorded Bellini with this cast commercially, although it has been issued on at least two pirate labels. I've not heard it.

Thanks for sharing!

[barney]

Sometimes very lovely, but this repertoire belongs so totally to two mid-20th century divas, Joan Sutherland and Maria Callas, and these forces don't come close. The casta diva is precise but a little pallid while the Mira, o Norma, including a flat high note, doesn't come close to Sutherland and Horne. They are simply perfection.
I know Len will back me up here. Len? Len? Don't say you are fleeing...
As Brian would say, though I can't remember the four-letter acronym, just a matter of taste.

YMMV.

Your mileage may vary.

Podles was quite good here, and I agree that the soprano, while very expressive, lacked the color and substance of a great voice. My favorite "Casta diva..." is still, however, Maria Callas from the mid-1950's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNTUq_mAoo

Just listened Brian to that link. It brought tears to my eyes. She is so perfect, colour, expression, technique. I love the tenderness in those little downward runs. Such a great area, so perfectly performed.

[maestrob]

And another ! ( I have not heard.)

Vincenzo Bellini , " I Capuleti e i Montecchi " ( complete )

Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Giacomo Aragall (Roméo; tenor), Luciano Pavarotti (Tebaldo; tenor), Margherita Rinaldi (Giulietta; sopraan), Mario Petri (Capellio; bas), Walter Monachesi (Lorenzo; bariton)

Residentie Orkest,Claudio Abbado

Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam

July 1 , 1966

https://tinyurl.com/et5uzh8t

Funny how the mind works.

After I shut down the computer yesterday, just on a hunch I went to my shelves and, after some searching, found I had this on CD (as pictured above), but it was buried in the wrong place, so maybe that's why I haven't touched base with it for more than 20 years! Thanks for the reminder. I will be hearing it soon through my stereo.

[maestrob]

Sometimes very lovely, but this repertoire belongs so totally to two mid-20th century divas, Joan Sutherland and Maria Callas, and these forces don't come close. The casta diva is precise but a little pallid while the Mira, o Norma, including a flat high note, doesn't come close to Sutherland and Horne. They are simply perfection.
I know Len will back me up here. Len? Len? Don't say you are fleeing...
As Brian would say, though I can't remember the four-letter acronym, just a matter of taste.

YMMV.

Your mileage may vary.

Podles was quite good here, and I agree that the soprano, while very expressive, lacked the color and substance of a great voice. My favorite "Casta diva..." is still, however, Maria Callas from the mid-1950's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNTUq_mAoo

Just listened Brian to that link. It brought tears to my eyes. She is so perfect, colour, expression, technique. I love the tenderness in those little downward runs. Such a great area, so perfectly performed.

Yes, Callas has that effect on me too.

I remain extremely grateful that full-range modern sound quality happened starting in 1954, albeit in mono, so we can still glory in the wonder of her brief but spectacular talent while she was at her peak.

I have a pirate CD box of Callas singing Aida in Mexico City in the early 1950's before she took on the many bel canto roles she is now so famous for. She bravely scales the heights to a high Eb in the Triumphal Scene, which is harmonically appropriate, but which is an impossible feat for sopranos who sing Aida these days. (I'm quite sure that Dame Joan would have done so had her career taken a different turn.) I read somewhere that she justified this because of a notation in a score that she found through research that had the high Eb marked next to the initials of a famous soprano who sang the role during Verdi's day and took the high note with Verdi's permission.

Callas was a scholar as well as a great singer.

The Mexico City audience went wild!

Of course, you know that she sang the role of Abigaille from Nabucco in 1949, just a few years after she debuted at La Scala in La Gioconda. By then, she had already sight-read the second act (She knew Act I already.) of the role of Isolde for Tulio Serafin, bluffing her way through an audition for the role!