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Antheil
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« on: 00:31:11, 25-10-2008 » |
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Have we had a thread about this?
I am loving La Calisto, I think the only other baroque I have is Purcell, Indian Queen
Looking for more recommendation of Baroque
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« Last Edit: 00:37:13, 25-10-2008 by Antheil »
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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JeanHartrick
Posts: 41
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« Reply #1 on: 00:37:58, 25-10-2008 » |
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Have we had a thread about this? I don't know but it's been a rich week on R3, what with the Pergolesi the other day & La Calisto tomorrow! |
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Antheil
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« Reply #2 on: 00:45:48, 25-10-2008 » |
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Have we had a thread about this? I don't know but it's been a rich week on R3, what with the Pergolesi the other day & La Calisto tomorrow! What a quick reply Jean, La Calisto tomorrow, I did not know! Opera on 3 I guess, I am so into it at the mo. It is the Glyndbourne version I have on I imagine this will get buried |
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« Last Edit: 01:00:00, 25-10-2008 by Antheil »
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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richard barrett
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« Reply #3 on: 00:58:16, 25-10-2008 » |
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Have we had a thread about this?
I am loving La Calisto, I think the only other baroque I have is Purcell, Indian Queen
Looking for more recommendation of Baroque
Don't get me started. Lots of Cavalli is worth hearing, and Monteverdi of course if you haven't come across his operas before, and the rest of Purcell's theatre pieces, and John Blow's Venus and Adonis, and Lully ( Alceste is my favourite), and Rameau (all of it but especially Castor et Pollux, Les indes galantes, Zoroastre, Les Boréades), and Handel now and again though it isn't really my thing, and Marais' Alcyone and Reinhard Keiser and well there's no end to it. |
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Antheil
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« Reply #4 on: 01:15:49, 25-10-2008 » |
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Blimey richard, it was Leppard and lavabread all in one night!! How very Welsh  I will be serious tomorrow because I want to hear more |
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #5 on: 07:13:53, 25-10-2008 » |
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Handel is very much my thing and there's plenty of it - works I'd recommend for starters would be Giulio Cesare, Alcina (though it hasn't been particularly successfully recorded IMO) and Ariodante. Serse (or Xerxes) is a comic opera and therefore atypical, but can be huge fun.
In some ways the best way to get into Handel is through DVDs, especially in performances in which imaginative producers transcend the limitations of the Handel opera format - which is largely about recitatives which drive the action and da capo "exit arias" in which characters reflect on the situation before leaving the stage. There's an excellent Glyndebourne performance of Giulio Cesare (sadly the classic ENO performance with Janet Baker - which was for many people including me their introduction to Handel in the theatre - appears n no longer to be available on DVD) and, from the ENO, of Ariodante and Xerxes in a very witty and knowing production mounted for the 300th anniversary of Handel's birth.
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #6 on: 07:31:14, 25-10-2008 » |
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Looking for more recommendation of Baroque
I've started to listen to baroque opera a bit over the past few years, initially through collecting releases in Naive's Vivaldi Edition, my favourite so far being Orlando furioso. It took me a while to accept the style of recit, aria, recit, aria with hardly any ensemble singing, but Vivaldi wrote well for his singers. I'd suggest his operas are more neglected than they should be. I've also bought quite a bit of Handel, encouraged by comments by members here. I'd agree that Giulio Cesare is a good place to start, especially the Glyndebourne DVD. There are some good DVDs of Rameau operas, conducted by William Christie, such as this one. Is anyone else here going to see excerpts from Les indes galantes at the Barbican on 4th November? |
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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martle
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« Reply #7 on: 09:18:25, 25-10-2008 » |
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Rameau (all of it but especially Castor et Pollux, Les indes galantes, Zoroastre, Les Boréades[/i Yes, yes and yes x 100. I'm no Baroque opera expert (or fan, really), but JPR's stuff makes my hair stand on end almost invariably. |
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Green. Always green.
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Antheil
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« Reply #8 on: 11:42:32, 25-10-2008 » |
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As it's cold and rainy here and I have had an unexpected windfall I may wander onto Amazon this weekend and have a little browse so any other recommendations (for recordings rather than dvds) would of course be welcome.
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #9 on: 12:35:48, 25-10-2008 » |
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The term baroque opera covers Monteverdi, which has lots of declamation, but few set pieces, and Handel which is the opposite all flashy show piece solos, with the (intricate and not often very convincing) plot in the most musically dreary plinky plonk secco recitiative imaginable.
Funnily enough, I find Handel's operas a bit boring - they are one show stopper after another. Monteverdi and Cavalli require following the text, but they seem to have more interest in them.
Purcell's Indian Queen was called a semi-opera, ie extensive incidental music. The longer semi-opera he wrote was The Fairy Queen well worth while (If love's a sweet passion is one of the most lovely songs I know and Let not a moon born elf deceive ye one of the most characterful.)
But anty, you must get on to Purcell's Dido and Aeneas quick. Less than an hour long, a text of risible doggerel, written for a girl's school, but encompassing passion, comedy, tenderness and bitterness on an epic scale. Haste haste to town is the funniest operatic pieces about the English weather prior to The Pirates of Penzance.
(Anty - you shouldn't have told Richard you liked the Leppard Calisto. He thinks it might as well have been arranged by Mantovani. I have Rene Jacobs doing Cavalli's Giasone, with a more HIP ensemble, but it still has that wonderful sensuousness that I feel Cavalli did better than Monteverdi.)
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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SH
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« Reply #10 on: 12:47:44, 25-10-2008 » |
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It’s just me (am I the only one?) I’m sure, but I found the DVD of Rameau’s Les Boréades irritating. Or rather the production. I wish people would do these things as fantastic, exorbitant, & magical, but not reach for a kind of pre-coded chic. Handel is very different, but the modern productions I’ve seen on DVD (or at ENO years ago) seemed set out to be knowing wink-wink. Or now everyone wears orange boiler suites as if that isn’t a form of rendition. Let’s not deal with the enormity direct or in any dangerous way, let’s just tack it on to a cultural event and feel good about ourselves. Ahem. Sorry. I found this engrossing http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//MDG60914572.htm(again, the obvious non-parallels would suggest opportunistic staging) once it had got going: which, from my limited knowledge seems to be a problem with Handel operas. And I was very taken with Alessandro Scarlatti’s Griselda, which is (unusually?) sombre, & lovely and is now, of course, out of print. The Vivaldi operas I’ve heard have been terrific entertainment (his Griselda isn’t sombre, more & here comes the pathos & her come the fireworks). It’s got some terrific arias in it . I think Vivaldi could be brilliant on stage with a bit of historically informed imagination and a resistance of (post) modern clichés (they have enough of their own. But clichés that work in context, excitingly). How much of an opera it is I don’t know, but this http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/pages/search/searchresults.aspis by a long way the most successful performance of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen I’ve heard, very imaginatively conducted & played. This looks tempting http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//GCD921615.htmHas anyone heard it? |
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Antheil
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« Reply #11 on: 15:50:17, 25-10-2008 » |
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I have on at the mo Indian Queen, I just love the snakes. I have had a moment of madness on Amazon and ordered Dido and Aeneas and, seeing as I have never (knowingly) heard any Rameau, Les Indes Galantes.
Note to Don Basilio. La Calisto is to be broadcast tonight, I will record it and see if the Leppard sounds like Mantovani. I doubt it will. I have Rene Jacobs Monteverdi Duo Spirituel
I have not really been into baroque before but find it rather, if I may say this, rather camp and very entertaining and I find I like the rather clinical and clean structure rather than the overblown choruses encountered in operas. But I do not know know a lot about opera so probably the foregoing is nonsense.
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« Last Edit: 15:58:33, 25-10-2008 by Antheil »
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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martle
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« Reply #12 on: 16:07:17, 25-10-2008 » |
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Anty x 234 Asda takeaways, Here's a little foretaste of Indes Galantes. It's got camp, of course. And drama, and colour and... exploding volcanos... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEXXDdojcdM |
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Green. Always green.
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Antheil
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« Reply #13 on: 16:20:17, 25-10-2008 » |
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Marty, Marty, Marty, never in my life have I eaten an Asda Pizza. What sort of a girl do you take me for?
I enjoyed that clip, look forward to the cd arriving next week.
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #14 on: 16:54:30, 25-10-2008 » |
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It looks as if I'm going to be on my own in beating the drum for Handel  Anyway, here are some clips - from the classic ENO Giulio Cesare I mentioned earlier, which was my first introduction to Handel opera in the theatre: The Parnassus scene, in which Cleopatra, in disguise, seeks to seduce Julius Caesar: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vqxx2H9wD4Y&feature=relatedCleopatra rejoicing at Caesar's rescue from shipwreck (a radiant vocal performance by the wonderful Valerie Masterson): http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mb6odL5fhU&feature=relatedSadly there appears to be nothing of Janet Baker's Caesar on Youtube |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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