Diana Damrau became famous mostly by her portrayal of the Queen of the Night in Mozart´s Die Zauberflöte. Her voice joins the heaviness of a dramatic soprano and the extension/lightness of a soprano leggero. This is highly unusual and very appropriate to the classic repertoire, as Diana Damrau showed in her album Arie di Bravura. [...]
Archive for the ‘music’ Category
Music: Diana Damrau and the new COLORaturaS
Posted in music, tagged classical music, music, opera on February 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Music: Vier Letzte Lieder (4 Last Songs), by Richard Strauss – Naxos recording among the best!
Posted in music, tagged classical music, music, opera on January 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The Four Last Songs, for soprano and orchestra, were the last completed works by R. Strauss. The poem for Im Abendrot (At sunset) was by Joseph von Eichendorff while the poems for Frühling (Spring), September, and Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep) were written by Hermann Hesse, writer of Siddartha and Nobel Prize in Literature in [...]
Music: Alcina, by G. F. Händel (Part 1).
Posted in music, tagged classical music, Fantasy, music, opera on December 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Alcina was the beautiful and glamorous Queen/Enchantress/Zoo-Keeper of a hospitable Island. She welcomed any ships that arrived and usually took the most handsome man for her lover. When Alcina got tired of the lover, she just transformed him into an animal for her Zoo. One day a ship arrived at her Island commanded by two [...]
Music: Alcina, by G. F Händel (Part 2) – Fleming, DiDonato, Augér or Sutherland?
Posted in music, tagged Fleming, Handel, music, opera on December 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Renée Fleming (Alcina), Susan Graham (Ruggiero), Natalie Dessay (Morgana), Kathleen Kuhlmann (Bradamante), Les Arts Florissants, William Christie (live). My personal favorite. Fleming makes a perfect Alcina technically and dramatically, with all the pathos Händel intended to the role. Natalie Dessay is the lightest, funniest and more fairy-like Morgana on record. William Christie was attentive to [...]
Music: Les Troyens, by Berlioz. The Sci-Fi version by La Fura dels Baus.
Posted in music, tagged classical music, music, opera, Science Fiction on November 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Les Troyens, by Hector Berlioz, is the grandest epic French Opera, based on Vergil’s Aeneid. The first part is set in Troy during the siege. It is centered in the character of the princess-prophetess Cassandra, who is suspicious of the big wooden horse the Greeks left near Troy. No one listens to her. The [...]
Music: Der Ring des Nibelungen, Keilberth, Bayreuth 1953 (MY FAVORITE)
Posted in music, tagged Bayreuth, classical music, music, opera, Wagner on October 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
My favorite recording of Der Ring des Nibelungen, by Richard Wagner, is the one conducted by Josef Keilberth in 1953, in the Bayreuth Festival. The main characters were interpreted by Martha Mödl (Brünnhilde), Hans Hotter (Wotan) and Wolfgang Windgassen (Siegfried). The other roles were taken by Regina Resnik (Sieglinde/3rd Norn), Ramon Vinay (Siegmund), Ira Malaniuk [...]
Music: Netrebko & Garanca, Lesbian Chic in Bellini’s Capuleti
Posted in music, tagged Bellini, classical music, Garanca, music, Netrebko, opera on October 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I Capuleti e I Montecchi tells the famous story of Romeo and Juliet as it is known in Verona. It has some minor differences from the Shakespearean version, but the main storyline is the same: boy and girl from rival families fall in love, girl pretends to be dead to escape family, boy believes she [...]
The Greatest Epic Masterwork: Der Ring des Nibelungen, by Richard Wagner
Posted in music, tagged Fantasy, music, opera on October 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Long, long ago, before humankind’s birth, the World was dominated by three races: the Nibelungs, in the Earth’s depths; the Giants, on the Earth’s surface; and the Gods, in the heights. The Nibelungs and the Giants lived happily in their domains, satisfied with what they had. The Gods wanted more… One day, on the depths [...]
Music: SACRIFICIUM Bartoli at high-speed
Posted in music on October 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The recently released Cecilia Bartoli Album, Sacrificium, is dedicated to castrati singers and the arias they inspired. The album was named after the sacrifice thousands of boys went through in the name of music. This is discussible: at the time, when a economically unfavoured boy showed a pleasant voice the family would consider castration for [...]
Music: Ildebrando D’Arcangelo – who is this guy?
Posted in music, tagged classical music, music, opera on October 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »
When I listened to the La Bohéme conducted by Riccardo Chailly (Decca studio recordind), I noticed for the first time the presence of Colline, one of the hero’s buddies. “Who is this guy?” was my first thought. Ildebrando D’Arcangelo took some small roles (I mean, really insignificant!) in some reference studio recordings such as Verdi’s [...]
