11 replies to this topic

[Behemoth]

For those who are interested in that sort of thing, this week's New Yorker says Anja Harteros is currently singing the role of Countess in Nozze di Figaro at the Met. I saw her sing the role at the Munich Opera Festival this summer, and was blown away. She's a young German singer but pretty much brought down the house. Catch her while you have the chance!

[omnivorette]

A friend (who might pipe up?) recently saw this production and loved it.

[Liza]

Are you friends with my Dad?
He loved it.

[omnivorette]

I have a funny feeling that just a few other people besides your Dad may have seen it. My father, for example, who did not love it.

[StephanieL]

N and I saw this a few weeks ago. It's her favorite opera and she absolutely loved this production, especially Bryn Terfel. Anja Harteros got the most applause, even more than him.

I realized, however, that I will probably never like opera, even though I enjoy instrumental and choral classical music. I don't know if it's the length (3+ hours), or the artificiality of everything being sung, or something else I can't put my finger on.

[Sneakeater]

The opening run of this production in 1998, with Renee Fleming and Bryn Terfel and Cecelia Bartoli and Dwayne Croft, was one of the best nights in the the theater I ever had. I think I started screaming like a girl at a Beatles concert after "Dove Sono".

[omnivorette]

The opening run of this production in 1998, with Renee Fleming and Bryn Terfel and Cecelia Bartoli and Dwayne Croft, was one of the best nights in the the theater I ever had. I think I started screaming like a girl at a Beatles concert after "Dove Sono".

Me too! I still get a big smile on my fact thinking about that performance. I went with someone who got house seats and we were in the 1st row of the orchestra, just behind James Levine - so close! I thought my heart would burst during "Deh Vieni."

[Ampelman]

Oh, I would've LOVED to have seen that 1998 performance -- alas, was still living abroad then. My heart would've burst for sure.

Does not appear that it was preserved on DVD.

Luckily, Fleming's and Terfel's 2000 Met engagement of Don Giovanni, in a gorgeously plush and wonderfully sung production, was. Though Amazon is showing it as OOP, I recently got a copy from ArkivMusic where it's still available. No need to pile on the superlatives -- see it.

Two vocal rarities on the agenda this weekend, both @ Carnegie: tonight, Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri (Rattle/Phila. Orch), and on Sunday, a concert performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden (Gergiev/Kirov Orch).

[Ampelman]

Two lovely accounts of Deh Vieni: Lucia Popp and Irmgard Seefried.

Renee Fleming's 1998 Met Dove Sono mentioned upthread by Sneak. And to make it an even four, Jessye Norman's 1984 French TV concert performance, in an astonishing Mozart mumu and with an especally lovely "Di cangiar l'ingrato cor!"

[omnivorette]

Lucia Popp

[Sneakeater]

That clip is great. I have to say that the lack of Spanish subtitles seriously detracted from the experience for me at the time.

[foodie52]

We saw Don Giovanni last night at the Arena di Verona.

Cast included: Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, Paata Burchuladze (Il Commendatore),Anna Samuil and Carmen Giannattasio. Sets by
Franco Zeffirelli. The real, live Franco Zeffirelli whom the cast hauled on stage after the performance. He was in a wheelchair, but the men picked him up and propped him up. The audience went wild.

Talk about spectacular. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us and it was wonderful. It began at 9:45 and ended at 1 am. Most everyone stayed til the end. It was a great audience: not a PEEP out of anyone the entire performance. Not even throat clearing. Only in one aria, you could hear the audience faintly singing along. It was very, very cool.

I have pictures on my facebook page.