Diana Damrau is a stunning Queen of the Night. I love it when the aria actually sounds angry and threatening instead of just, "Look at me sing Top Fs!" Thrilling performance. Oh, and Beethoven = <3

I'm on a bit of a Hoffmann kick at the moment, mostly because I came across the Met's 2009 production on YouTube and almost drowned in my own drool. It's SO GOOD. I wish I had been able to see it live! It also introduced me to Kate Lindsey -- I found the production via a clip of her singing the aria I mentioned in my last post, and she is stunning. Not only a beautiful singer, but a wonderful actress. I won't bore you by posting the violin aria again (but you should totally do a search and watch it anyway ), but here's one of her mocking Hoffmann for not cottoning on that Olympia, the girl he's in love with, is actually a mechanical doll.



And speaking of Olympia, here's the well-known "Doll Song" from later in the act, as sung by Rachele Gilmore, the understudy. She was called in to go on at very short notice, it was her first appearance at the Met, and she proceeded to bring down the house. The last minute is just the applause (and it cuts out while the clapping is still going strong, so who knows how long it went on for?) Holy ornamentations, Batman! Check out her crazy embellishment on the phrase starting at 3:49 -- and then make sure to watch the chorus members' reactions I showed this clip to one of my singer friends and we figured out that she hits the A above Top C. A6! AAAAH!

That clip is amazing! She was completely deserving of the crazy applause at the end. The whole "star is born" story behind it just makes it even better. Thanks so much for sharing that!

She'll be singing this role at La Scala in January/February (I double-checked the crazy note ... it's actually an Ab6, but that's still absolutely ridiculous! I guess my friend and I were excited and rounded up )

Kate Lindsey (the mezzo in the first clip) was also originally the cover for Nicklausse -- she'd never played the role before, and some opera houses don't like putting first-timers on stage -- but the original cast member (Elina Garanca) was moved to play Carmen in another Met production because the original Carmen couldn't do it for some reason ... I forget. Anyway. Kate got bumped up to actually playing the role (and I'm so glad she did!)

Speaking of Elina Garanca as Carmen, here she is in all her awesomeness.


The Carmen she replaced was Angela Gheorghiu, who cancelled because of her divorce from Roberto Alagna, the production's Don Jose. A wise choice on her part; it would have been very uncomfortable to see a newly divorced couple perform this final scene...

Much love for Garanca's Carmen. She is so brilliant in the role!

***

I just watched this 2006 Covent Garden production of The Marriage of Figaro and fell in love a bit. Here's a scene that literally made me laugh out loud -- mostly from 6:07 to 6:50, but the whole scene is pretty funny, I think, and Philip Langridge is a hoot as Basilio

Quick explanation of what's been going on up to this point: Susanna, a maid, is engaged to Figaro, a valet, but the Count whom Figaro serves is determined to have her for himself. The Count is angry at Cherubino, his teenage page, for getting caught with Susanna's cousin. Cherubino has asked Susanna to ask the Countess to calm the Count down, but when the Count knocks on the door, Cherubino doesn't want to be caught alone with Susanna, so he hides. Oh, and although Cherubino is happy to mess around with any girl, he's really got the hots for the Countess and has written her a song that he has given to Susanna to give to the Countess. And Basilio is a music teacher. I think that's all for now!



Also, although you don't get to see much of her in this clip (for obvious reasons!) I love Rinat Shaham as Cherubino in this production. So cheeky!

I'm not usually too keen on Baroque opera -- mostly because it niggles me when the composers stretch four lines of text into an eight-minute aria by repeating everything over and over and over. But anyhoo, I am more than willing to make an exception for this!

It's Magdalena Kozená singing "Cara speme" from Handel's Giulio Cesare. How exquisite are the runs in this aria? Just stunning. (Some of Kozená's ornaments are a tad indulgent for my taste -- at 3:24 especially! -- but most are beautiful )

Night on Bald Mountain: I remember hearing this peice throughout my childhood and it traumatized me so much. And seeing this piece in Fantasia did not help with the image of Chernobog. In fact I kinda didn't get over it till I was 12 when he was a boss in Kingdom Hearts. So yeah that's my story with this peice.

Ava Maria. I had never truly appreciated this peice untill very recently when I had to sing it for my grandmother's funeral. And I do admit to being an atheist, but I just find it to be only of the most calming peices I have heard in ages. Whenever I listen to it I have this feeling of inner peice. While it doesn't end my depression, it kinda helps me keep going in life.


The reason I had posted the two together was because hearing these two peices together in context its truley masterfully done.

I have WAY too many. Like, I would literally be called a spammer because of how long my post would be.

Erlkoing -- hey Grace & Yakko, I'm writing my music history essay on that ,if either one of you want a look over it if you want to add anything since you love it so much

I am surprised that in this thread designed to appreciate classical music, no one has made mention of the dulcet tones of the Portsmouth Sinfonia! Formed in 1970 at the Portsmouth School of Art, in England, by English composer Gavin Bryars, the Sinfonia had an unusual entrance requirement, in that players had to either be non-musicians, or if a musician, play an instrument that was entirely new to them.

Bryars was interested more in experimenting with the nature of music than forming a traditional orchestra. Instead of picking the most competent musicians he could find, he encouraged anyone to join, regardless of talent, ability and experience. The only rules were that everyone had to come for rehearsals and that people should try their best to get it right and not intentionally try to play badly.

And I'd say they were pretty damn good! Just listen to 'em!

I wouldn't mind taking a look.

How about starting with a top three?



I'd be happy to take a look -- I wrote an essay on it last year, so it'd be cool to see what your take on it is!



Honestly, I'd never heard of this group until now! Interesting concept -- some parts of this recording remind me a bit of sound mass compositions