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Nights at the Opera

Whaleblue, my suggestion for the next would be La Boheme, my favourite Puccini opera. Or possibly Peter Grimes for something in English. You’d probably get 100 different suggestions from 100 different people.

Opera is such a silly art form, and yet yet it’s wonderful.
 
I’ve just listened to my only recording of Cosi. Specifically Soave sia il vento, which I find absolutely beautiful, as I’m sure you all do. My recording is Böhm/Schwarzkopf et al. I’m somewhat pleased to say that it’s a major disappointment.

Last night’s performance was in a different league. I suspect, as I heard a lady behind us suggest, due to the rather more appropriate age of the performers. Well that, and consummate skill on their behalf. A few minutes that will stay with me for some time - despite the clatter of a dropped programme half way through. It was, after all, a programme droppingly superb rendition.
 
Lucy Worsley is I'm afraid a victim of the Beeb's habit of over-using a presenter, frequently outside the area of their expertise/knowledge (in Worsley's case, royal residences and posh fwocks). Plus I don't like opera anyway, so I'll be giving this one a miss.

Quite so.

Worsley is good at historical things (although the seriousness of the subjects sometimes suffers from her seeming to project herself as "crumpet"). I like opera very much indeed which is why I don't care for the Worsley approach to the subject, or at least, the approach taken by her BBC producer.

But I agree with Joe - this appears yet another example of The Beeb cashing in on a transient popularity thinking that the vehicle which established that popularity in the first place can be replicated in any number of other formats. We have Fiona Bruce and Joanna Lumley guiding us through exotic places, Gordon Ramsay is about to transport us to the horrors of cocaine supply and I see that a Bake-Off girl is going to be our expert guide to some other exotic destination. There are too many of these things. In every case what could have been an interesting and possibly absorbing programme has been "dumbed-down" to the level of the viewer which Aunty supposedly associates with that particular presenter.

Sad, innit?
 
Lucy Worsley is an historian, with a particular interest in British royalty. Whilst I have little interest in the modern, largely irrelevant, crop, it’s clear that in past centuries they played a somewhat central role in developments, so worthy of some study I’m sure.

Anyway, I certainly learnt a few things from the programme, so, as one of the dumb, benefitted from her perspective on Opera.
 
I’ve just listened to my only recording of Cosi. Specifically Soave sia il vento, which I find absolutely beautiful, as I’m sure you all do. My recording is Böhm/Schwarzkopf et al. I’m somewhat pleased to say that it’s a major disappointment.
Well you'll just have to buy a load more recordings. Or just try them out on spotify. Maybe Jacobs?

https://open.spotify.com/album/4CjHjVeWEaZtoCgUiCORQS
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Thanks. Jacobs a little bit too slow for my taste.

I’ve liked everything I’ve heard Solti do, so plumped for this, which I understand uses a youngish cast.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00000426I/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
Well there are so many to choose from. I've never heard anyone call Jacobs slow before- although maybe too fast in some places and too slow in others-
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/mozart-così-fan-tutte-10

Anyway the great thing about spotify or tidal or whatever is that you can try lots of different version without having to completely fill your house. And operas are easy to search for.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Watched it very late last night- excellent. Quite why they played a Tchaikovsky Symphony over the section on Wagner and Bayreuth was a mystery.
 
btw if anyone can beg borrow or steal tickets for the current ROH lucia di lammermoor, then do go.
Production has at least some real points to make and Lisette Oropesa is the real deal. Quite possibly one of those star-is-born moments.

https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout...-touch-of-madness-works-wonders-a3673236.html

annoyingly I can't see it on any of the cinema listings. That may be because it was screened when the production opened last year. But this is IMHO (and failing memory) better than last year.
 
2019 is opera year for me.

Visiting my son in New York in March where I have booked a box at the Met.

Then in August me and Mrs Bob are going to do 5 days at the Puccini festival in Lucca and take in La Boheme and Madame Butterfly.

I shall also continue going to my local Cineworld for every broadcast of the Met and ROH they put on.
 
2019 is opera year for me.

Visiting my son in New York in March where I have booked a box at the Met.

Then in August me and Mrs Bob are going to do 5 days at the Puccini festival in Lucca and take in La Boheme and Madame Butterfly.

I shall also continue going to my local Cineworld for every broadcast of the Met and ROH they put on.
Sounds wonderful
Enjoy.:)
 
2019 is opera year for me.

Visiting my son in New York in March where I have booked a box at the Met.

Then in August me and Mrs Bob are going to do 5 days at the Puccini festival in Lucca and take in La Boheme and Madame Butterfly.

I shall also continue going to my local Cineworld for every broadcast of the Met and ROH they put on.

Lucky you. The only Met opera I’ve heard are the matinee performances relayed on Radio 3, and I’ve never warmed to the announcers. What are you seeing?
 
Every season a selection of Met Opera Saturday matinees are broadcast live to cinemas world wide. In the UK they begin around 17.00.
The Cineworld chain always show them as do many others.
They are however not easy to find. With Cineworld for instance you have to put opera in the search box to get a list of forthcoming broadcasts. They are not widely publicised on the rest of the website.
In 2018 I saw Tosca, L’Elisir d’amore, Semiramide, Cosi Fan Tutti, Samson and Delilah, La Fanciulla Del West, La Traviata and this coming Saturday it is Adriana Lecouvreur. February 2nd it’s Carmen, March 2nd there is La Fille du Regiment, March 30th Die Walkure and the season ends with Dialogue des Carmelites on May 11th.
As a Times subscriber I get two free tickets to these if I am quick off the block when they are released.

There are, of course, also ROH and Glyndebourne broadcasts in cinemas as well.
 


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