Mounting Verdi’s French grand operas in their original language is no longer as unusual as it once was.
Saturday evening conductor Will Crutchfield revived Donizetti’s La Favorite—unheard in New York for fifteen years.
Imagine two tenors releasing French opera aria collections at the same time without duplicating a single track!
Whenever opera-lovers are canvassed about what neglected operas they hunger to see revived, the resulting lists inevitably feature a goodly number of grand operas, those once wildly popular monstrosities–particularly by Meyerbeer–written primarily for Paris in the mid-19th century.
Vanity project or not, these albums present a sensitive and talented artist showing off two little-seen sides of himself.
Anna Netrebko‘ s new CD of Verdi arias seems to be a bold, defiant, “in your face” statement about the direction she is taking with her career.
Giuseppe and I have always had a complicated relationship.
The big news from Bel Canto at Caramoor’s presentation of Les Vêpres Siciliennes last Saturday is far from unexpected.
An old clip, from 2005 in fact, but oddly prescient, perhaps. Who knew that Les vêpres siciliennes could sound so much like Verismo? Not the Greatest of E’s (Don’t thank La Cieca; this stunner was sent in by Our Own Kernita Makilla.)
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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