“Where are my marrons glacés?”
Take a break from eating sweets, cher public, to participate in this week’s discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
Take a break from eating sweets, cher public, to participate in this week’s discussion of off-topic and general interest subjects.
The Met will commemorate the bicentennials of Verdi and Wagner with two
exclusive box sets of historic Met performances, released by Sony
Classical. Each set will feature legendary performances from the Met’s
archives, most never before officially released and all newly restored and
mastered from the original sources. *Wagner at the Met, *a 25-CD set, will
be released in April 2013 and feature*Götterdämmerung *starring Lauritz
Melchior and Marjorie Lawrence (1936); Melchior and Kirsten Flagstad in*Die
Walküre *(1940), *Siegfried *(1937), and *Tristan und Isolde *(1938);*
Lohengrin *with Melchior and Astrid Varnay (1943); *Der Fliegende
Holländer *with Hans Hotter and Varnay (1950); *Das Rheingold *with Hotter
(1951); *Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg *with Paul Schöffler and Victoria
de los Angeles (1953); and*Tannhäuser *with Ramón Vinay, Margaret Harshaw,
Varnay, George London, and Jerome Hines (1954). Conductors featured in the
set include Artur Bodanzky, Erich Leinsdorf, Fritz Reiner, Fritz Stiedry,
and George Szell. ****
This fall, Sony Classical will release *Verdi at the Met*, a 20-CD set of
10 previously unreleased and newly restored Verdi operas. This set will
include Zinka Milanov and Jussi Björling in *Un Ballo in Maschera*(1940);
Björling, Bidú Sayão, and Leonard Warren in *Rigoletto *(1945); Fritz
Reiner conducting Warren in the title role of *Falstaff *(1949); Warren,
Astrid Varnay, and Richard Tucker in *Simon Boccanegra *(1950); Milanov,
Tucker, and Warren in *La Forza del Destino *(1952); Renata Tebaldi in *La
Traviata *(1957); Mario Del Monaco, Victoria de los Angeles, and Warren in *
Otello *(1958); Erich Leinsdorf conducting Leonie Rysanek and Warren in *
Macbeth *(1959); Rysanek and Cornell MacNeil in *Nabucco *(1960); and
Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry, Carlo Bergonzi, and Robert Merrill in *Aida *
Thanks! I would have preferred the Melchior, Lawrence Lehmann, Schorr Walkure, but that was taped in Boston:
I own the 1937 and 1941 Flagstad/Melchior Met Tristans, and have heard ’38 on the internet -- 37 Bodanzky is my favorite still.
No Schorr Meistersinger? 1939 is in great sound, with the great Charles Kullman as Walther. Schoffler in 1951 sounds a little late to me.
Ja, ich werde meine erste Fiordiligi in Zürich singen, bisher habe ich ja nur die Elettra und die Donna Anna in meinem Repertoire, aber ich werde 2017 die Donna Elvira an der Met machen, und darauf freue ich mich besonders,
so Marina Rebeka in the Merker today….just in case Brad is taking notes.
Finally, all of Edda Moser’s Lied and opera recitals in a handsome 10-CD box. Most of it never issued before on CD:
http://www.amazon.de/Edda-Moser-Lied-Oper-Moser/dp/B00BI3GDHW
Thanks Buster. MUST get that. Alone worth it for the Mozart concert arias.
Just Discovered -
Parsifal, the Prequel: Missing Footage Proves Kundry and Flower-Maidens Wounded Amfortas
This just in feom OONY: Maestro Eve Queler’s husband Stanley has passed away and they are satablishing a fund in his memory for contributions. FYI & FWIW.
Typos:
From
Establishing
Type too fast
A day late, sorry . . .
Born on this day in 1824 composer Bedrich Smetana
Born on this day in 1900 composer Kurt Weill
Born on this day in 1905 composer Mark Blitzstein
Born on this day in 1890 tenor Thomas Burke
Happy 73rd birthday bass Robert Lloyd
Happy 69th birthday conductor and composer Leif Segerstam