On with the motley
La Cieca (right) welcomes the cher public (and you know who you are) to an all-out, no-holds-barred edition of our weekly general interest and off-topic discussion.
La Cieca (right) welcomes the cher public (and you know who you are) to an all-out, no-holds-barred edition of our weekly general interest and off-topic discussion.
Found an old LP of Regine Crespin singing arias from La Juive, Faust, Werther, Sapho, Sigurd, and some other French arias. I’ve never seen this recital before but it’s rather expensive, so I was wondering whether anyone has heard it and would recommend it.
you download it and audition it here:
http://www.todoperaweb.com.ar/musica/opera/-regine-crespin-french-arias-id-5510.html
It isn’t particularly expensive on amazon.co.uk. I think it’ll come down to what year it was recorded, and how the answer sits with you -- looks like mainly falcon-ish repertoire though, so if you like Crespin I’d say you were on safe ground.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chante-Opera-Fran%C3%83%C2%A7ais-Regine-Crespin/dp/B0000A1BGD/ref=sr_1_14?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1342105988&sr=1-14
Yes. I have this recital album of hers which I believe is her very first such an album. Conductor is Jesus Etchevery (sp.?). It is a wonderful album and it is somewhat similar in content to one which Françoise Poulet recorded on Erato about thiery years aftee. Particularly like the Marie-Magdaleine (Massenet) selection, a rarity, and the aria from the great big old MASONIC opera, La Reine de Saba, written for for Gueymard-Lauters, the creatrix of both this role, Princess Eboli, and Gertrude in Hamlet. She was also, interestingly, the first Leonora in Le Trouvère in Paris, something ahich is interesting.
Recording is from either 1959 or 1960 so Régine is still in splendid voice. She writes about the recording in her autobiography in one of the chapters, the one that deals wirh her recordings. I forget what label it is on, a French one? I got it yeara ago at Tower bur never ses it now, so jump on it as it is vintage splendour!!
Happy hunting and best regarda!
Oh I forgor about the Sigurd aria “Salut, splendeur…”. It was her audition aria at the Conservatoire and it is Splendide, indeed!
Oh, pardonnez-moi! Madame PoLLet! So sorry!
This album available on CD:
http://www.amazon.com/LOpera-Francais-European-Regine-Crespin/dp/B0000A1BGD/ref=sr_1_7?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1342193827&sr=1-7&keywords=regine+crespin
I am posting this in hopes the right persons will find one another:
Having trouble viewing this email? http://www.dellarteopera.org
One or two baritones urgently needed for various assignments
in dell’Arte Opera Ensemble’s current productions
of CARMEN and DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES.
No pay, no fee, all coaching free.
Assignments include:
CARMEN: Moralès (2 performances)/ensemble (2 performances)
CARMELITES: Thierry / Geôlier / La Foule (3 performances)
ALSO : cover of 2nd Commissaire / 1st Officier
Assignments can be divided or done by one person who wants
a challenging “Fest” style assignment.
Send inquiries with résumé to email@dellarteopera.org
Both sung in French with English Supertitles
Details below and at www. dellarteopera.org
COMPANY NEWS: dell’Arte named a Finalist for The American Prize
Details coming soon on our Silent Auction at the
final Carmen performance on August 25th!
Visit our website for more details.
We hope to see you at a performance!
email@dellarteopera.org
646 796 3492
Anybody knows who this girl is:
I find her promising, but haven’t heard of her until just now.
HOW TO SING!!!Bergonzi born July 12, 1924…He is 72 here but I saw him at around 77 in recital..A vocal GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In 1981 when Luciano didn’t show up for his first few Nemorinos, Carlo took them over. 57 years old at the time and still sounding as brilliant as youthful as he had in the 1960s. The Belcore was Mario Sereni. That same season Freni and Kraus’ Romeo and Juliette, Yvonne Minton as the Composer and Dalila, Ruth Welting’s Zerbinetta and Jon Vickers as Florestan. Nope, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore at the Lyric or anywhere else.
Yvonne Minton and Ruth Welting are considered irreplacable golden-agers too now? Fine artists both, but surely nobody really thinks they represent a standard nobody today can match?
Cocky, my memories tell me that Yvonne Minton (in her best days) had the creamiest tone of any other mezzos I heard -- not always the most reliable vocal technician or interpreter -- but I will never forget that tone -- particularly as Octavian and Kundry -- unforgettable.
- Ruth Welting, considering the rep she sang, also had quite a rich-toned voice -- but in those days I was even more naive about vocal art & interpretation than I am now, so my memories often do not pass the test of time -- but how often I remember being pleasantly surprised at what what a warm, burnished sound she could come up with for such a soprano léger.
If you are interested in Minton’s Kundry, don’t miss her on the Kubelik Parsifal, Phoenix. She is even better there than for Jordan.
She had an old school sort of presence on stage when I saw her -- a tall, beautiful redhead, in a very simple gray dress, she made you forget Stratas was on stage as well.
Interesting, and happy to be wrong here -- I’d always just assumed Minton was some sort of house mezzo. There is a little shop in London that sells a lot of old programmes from the ROH, and every single one you open from the 1960s onwards seems to involve Yvonne Minton in some capacity or other. I’ve never heard anybody enthuse about her before. I have recordings of her as Sesto, Brangane, and Kundry (for Kubelik), and she sounds good and rich of timbre, but a bit placid, and a little tight (but then again, I have this mental block about a lot of mezzos, so many of them sound tight to me).
I learned about Yvonne Minton through Margaret Price. They are on the Somary Messiah together, and on the Klemperer Cosi. I then got her Rosenkavalier, and she is still my favorite singer in the part. From that moment, I wanted to hear her live, but it turned out she had retired already. She then resurfaced for a few Genevieves, and some other small parts, and I was lucky enough to catch her as Genevieve at the Lyric. Her Wesendonck Lieder are the best for me too. The best Geschwitz. Great Beatrice.
You are not entirely wrong, Cocky -- she was often a bit hesitant on the top, even in her heyday in the 1960′s & early 1970′s -- it was her luscious middle (always my weakness) that I couldn’t get over. I couldn’t believe that beauty of tone when I first saw her sing Octavian -- but by the late 70′s & 80′s that lustre was not as reliable -- it started to diminish -- since you have the documentation, she probably did evolve into a haus sänger.
Minton -- her Oktavian is definitive for me, in a very competitive field. She was coached for the part by Alfrrd Jerger, but she brings her own creamy tone and impulsiveness to the part, making her contribution almost visual. A few years later she had intonation problems -- her Davis Cherubino and esp Sesto. She sounded better in the early 80s as Geshwitz,.Brangaene and Fricka.
Ruth made singing Grossmatiche look and sound as easy as pie . . . she laid on her back and dangled her foot in the air after she finished and the audience went nuts. Today’s “divas” (par example, Ms. Kim) make it look and sound effortful. Got cheated out of hearing Minton as Octavian (with Ludwig’s Marschallin) because she was expecting at the time and cancelled. Her replacement was Charlotte Berthhold? Remember her? Neither do I.
Minton had one of the most beautiful mezzo voices I’ve ever heard. She was in the company at Covent Garden but she grew into so much more than a “house singer” (although there were some pretty good “House singers” around then). But there were some technical insecurities and then what seemed to be big performance anxiety issues… Gradually the career unravelled although she had an attempted comeback about a dozen years ago (I guess)…
Hi everyone,
Any suggestions for where the best seats are ( sonically) for the San Francisco Opera? I’ve not been in the house and am wondering what is best. I like the sound in the Family Circle at the Met and would love something comparable.
Thank you!
Inge, I worked there a long time ago -- it has been updated quite a bit since then -- but from what I remember if you were in the center section within the first 10 rows the sound was excellent -- but right in your face. However, the seats in the remaining sections of the orchestra were quite often acoustically unreliable. Patrons sometimes complained about that. I am probably in the minority, but the most natural sound that I preferred was in the expensive Center Boxes and the Grand Tier, where the distance perspective offered a rounder, more contained, easier to focus audial dimension but never sounded forced or miked up (I never sat in the Side Boxes, so I don’t know from 1st hand experience -- but my roomate in those days always sat in the Side Boxes -- he liked them so much he didn’t want to sit anywhere else -- he was a more avid fan than I was). The other levels going up also have good sound, too, albeit a little brassy and slightly forced -- not as natural and balanced as the Center Boxes and Grand Tier IMO. However, the good thing about going upstairs to the Dress Circle and Balcony levels is that the sound is just good in the back and the sides as it is in the center front section of those levels -- I found there to be a pervasive ‘surround sound’ type effect up there.
Hi Inge,
I personally like Dress Circle (front -- center or sides -- NOT rear anything), Grand Tier, or Balcony Front. If you don’t care so much about seeing the stage, Balcony Front is a decent bargain. (There won’t be obstructions, but the high angle at which you see the stage is weird.)
I’m not a big fan of Orchestra because the acoustics can be hit and miss, as Phoenix notes.
I’ve been in the front Balcony at the War Memorial OPera House in SF for about twenty-five performances I suppose and the acoustics seem fine to me. For certain performances, as indicated on their website, they have:
“OperaVision: High-definition video projection screens will be featured on the balcony level for this performance.”
so you can watch the singers in close up if you like. It’s a really good idea in my opinion, I have enjoyed it a lot.
The best seats sonically at the War Memorial House are without a doubt the last row of the balcony rear (row L). Standing room is right behind it. With many performances having the large video screens, you won’t feel as far away from the stage. I’ve sat in many places in the house and I have never found the acoustics to be as consistent as in row L of the balcony. The other thing to keep in mind is that there is some air conditioning in the standing room are which filters down to the last 2 rows of the balcony. Many parts of the opera house are incredibly stuffy and can be stifling if it gets warm in SF which is most likely to happen in September and October.
I agree that the last row has the best acoustics. At a performance of Lohengrin, when those soft violins began the Prelude, I actually turned around to see if a bunch of violinists were standing behind me! And at a performance of Guillaume Tell, I could have sworn that the solo cello in the Overture was coming from right above me. I looked up…wondering “How did they get the cellist to sit right above my head?”
Unfortunately, if you sit in the front of the balcony the screens are too far overhead to see; the farther back the better for that.
Thanks all for the useful advice. Just what I was looking for!
Not sure if anybody sees this but this from the prestoclassical (UK) site :
News just in that the French-Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has signed a long-term agreement with Deutsche Grammophon: projects will include Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (due out early next year) and the seven major Mozart operas, featuring Rolando Villazón in all the lead tenor roles. (The first instalment, Don Giovanni, will be released in September and stars Joyce DiDonato, Luca Pisaroni, Diana Damrau and Ildebrando d’Arcangelo).
And my question is -- WHY??????