Favourite arias!

[pianowelsh]

Realised as i was practising just how much I love the human voice and how much that shapes my phrasing and sound production...Started looking up a few of my favourite arias...Had to stop - too many!  here are some:

https://wwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWqup5t1FHUw.youtube.com/watch?v=lsTO8e-e0rY

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    - one of my fav tenors! more amazing jose Cura!!

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There is so much by Mozart I didnt even start to list it.

[pianowelsh]

oh and i forgot!

Sorry I know its contreversial but Boheme is the most perfect opera!! there is nothing wasted in it ..perfectlywoven together and sublime music!!

- more jose cura! can you tell im a fan?!

&mode=related&search= - A classic! Id love to hear juan diego florez sing this.

Of course living in wales im sure you were all expecting a showing formt he worlds greatest baritone!!

- couldnt resist some mozart!
and a teeny bit more..featuring one of my other favourite Mozart singers!

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Of course we musnt leave the support cast out...one of the greatest choruses ever written:

So which operas do you guys like listening to?? Id love to expand my knowledge of opera alot!! there is nothing more perfect than the human voice for learning to cultivate a beautiful expressive legato and thats one of my principle maxims.

I love barbers knoxville summer 1915 too! if anyone has a good link - Id LOVE to hear it...I heard this live twice and i fell in love both times.

[dnephi]

My favorite 'aria' is the end of Salome where she dances with John's head and kisses it and jihad.

Dan

[burstroman]

There are so many, but "Depuis le jour" from "Louise" by Charpentier is enchanting.

[cmg]

You know, pianowelsh, I've been wanting to start a thread like this.  Without singers -- and the vocal, choral literature -- we are NOTHING.  Every instrumentalist is a singer in search of a great voice.  Singing is everything.  Chopin and Bellini!  What would Chopin be without 19th century opera and "bel canto?"

I just don't have the time to go through all of your links, so I'd love it if you'd also post the arias, etc., being performed here.

What do I love?  It's almost limitless -- Italian, German, French.  Wagner, Strauss, Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Massenet, Berlioz, etc., etc.  I once worked the Wagner festival in Bayreuth and got to know that theater.  What an amazing experience.  Wagner, to me, is transcendental, and a seminal composer ranking up there with Beethoven, Mozart and, yes, even Bach.  I also worked at the Metropolitan Opera -- where my opportunity with Bayreuth arose, thanks to Jimmy Levine -- and the operatic repertoire just amazed me.  Such great, great music.  Pianists aren't real musicians until they are familiar with it.

As to "Knoxville."  Ah, such a wonderful work by Barber.  Eleanor Steber, you probably know, commissioned the piece.  She was a friend of my family's (we are all West Virginians) and as a young music critic I interviewed her (professionally) several times.  Ultimately, she lived across the street from me in NYC.  On West 74th Street!  She lived in the Ansonia.  Her recording, by the way, can still be found.  Check Amazon.  No one sings it better.  No one.  Dawn Upshaw is a close second.  Leontyne Price a close third.  Jill Gomez a distant fourth.  Steber also has performed it in a famous Carnegie Hall recital that is a legend in the world of great singing.  That recording is also still available.

I love opera.  My latest discovery is William Alwyn's "Miss Julie."  Yes, based on the Strindberg play of the same name.  The only recording has just been re-released in the US on the Lyrita label.  It's a grossly neglected score.  

The Met broadcasts, of course, are still with us on Saturdays.  Did you hear that lovely "Faust"?  That's another work that never loses its freshness.  Gounod!  Go figure.

Thanks for your topic.  We need this.  No more religion and sex.  Boring.  Been there, done that.  



  

[infectedmushroom]

This has nothing to do with arias, but I just had to post this video:

Since this topic is about the human voice, I think this guy has an unique voice.

[pianowelsh]

yes I did know it was commissioned by her but had no idea you knew her...wow..theres a claim to fame eh! I'll try and get a hold of that recording. The perfomances Ive heard have been quite enchanting BUT I feel there is more in this music that can be expressed..its so simple but yet at the same time deeply profound.  Im sorry I forgot to put titles on them...doh! BUT the titles will come up as you click on them..I tried it.  I couldnt pick a favourite but Bryn's voice does something i dunno what it has the most wonderful richness..I cant not listen to him! Ive stood for ages in shops just waiting till the end of the muzak...i just cant leave!

[pianowelsh]

i'll check out louise!!

[cmg]

You would be right!  Actually, that's one hell of a neat voice.

edit:  referring to "infected mushroom's" post.

[sharon_f]

I have the Steber recording of "Knoxville" and listen to it constantly. It is one of my desert island picks.  Also, not an aria,  but one of my favorite vocal recordings is Schwarzkopf singing Strauss Four Last Songs.

Arias I love include "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" from La Wally.
"Una furtiva lacrima" from opera Donizetti's "Elisir d'amore."
"Viens, Malika" from Lakme.
"Gente, Gente, all'armi, all'armi" from Mozart's masterpiece the Marriage of Figaro.

[pianowelsh]

Some how I managed to delete this one by mistake...

- saint saens 'Samson et Delilah' mon coeur a ta voix...excuse my spelling in french.  I wasntfamiliar with the Verret version but - there is a sensual quality to this voice that reminds me of a well played violin in places...Placido is one of my top 10 tenors also...there is a tangible sense of openness and humanity about the sound he produces...Vocalists are so lucky...they cant hide their personalities the way its possible to do on the piano.  When we are under pressure its so easy to loose our expressive qualities and reduce to the notes...with a voice YOU are the music.

[pianowelsh]

Anyone here been to Verona festival??? I've been three times now and even have the T-shirt!!  Id love to get to Bayreuth to the Wagner festival..but I believe that is basically by invitation only so it'll probably never happen. Where I live a new opera academy has just opened for advanced level training of singers..im so looking forward to it getting established so we can hear lots more wonderful Singers.

[pianowelsh]

im retiring to lake como by the way... that way La Scala, Verona opera, Bolzano festival and the como piano foundation are all easily commutable and i'll spend my life going from concert to masterclass!

[elspeth]

I was at Covent Garden last year to hear Placido Domingo sing Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac. If I'm honest the opera is forgettable, not offensive but not memorable either on its own merits - but Domingo was stunning. Such a voice, and he's no mean sword-fighter either! And a lovely bloke, I met him after the show.

My favourites are mostly Verdi, Puccini, Rossini and Mozart, but there are so many others as well... And I'd like to put in a vote for comic operas as well - Gilbert and Sullivan and Offenbach for starters. They may be silly but the music is often horrendous to sing well at the right speed.

I count myself permanently lucky to work in an opera house! I'm spoiled...

[pianowelsh]

was this the one you meant??! tis truely very beautiful:

this is pretty magical too...from the Rosencavillier...again one of my favourite singers Barbara Bonney.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wMxn5X2XnA

I could listen to these ALL day!! we can learn so much from listening to singers being coached!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi3L4qIfk1U

[pianowelsh]

Elspeth - im so jealous of you!! working in this environment everyday.  Anyone got any cool links...??maybe to operalia or something?!?!

[elspeth]

It's a hard life... 

In between operas, we're doing Rocky Horror Show this week. Bit of a difference! And more men in stockings and stilettos than you can shake a stick at... hmm, depending which opera, not necessarily so different... then it's back to opera season for a few weeks. Magic Flute, Rigoletto, Katya Kabanova, Dido and Anaeas, and Les Noces. Busy busy!

[pianowelsh]

ooh Katya is a good one ... I saw it once at ROH CG...I think maria Braunson designed the production...powerfull if somewhat depressing plot!

[gymnopedist]

I don't know why, but i never liked classical and italian operas... L'enfant et les sortilèges is good enough for me. "Mariettas lied" from Die Tote Stadt is nice though.

[pianistimo]

you can hear the met live now through the kimmel center, i heard.  some kind of broadcast into a room.  haven't tried it yet.  don't know how much they charge for tickets.  must look into this sometime - as i never have time or inclination to drive all the way to nyc.

did the philly opera already perform 'norma?'  i've never heard bellini's opera norma.  is it pretty good?  i have no idea what it's about.

[burstroman]

Listen to the virtuoso duet (soprano and mezzo) from Norma, sung by Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne! 

[Bob]

Thanks for your topic.  We need this.  No more religion and sex.   

No more petty bickering.  No more arguing and melodrama.

Let's move on to opera instead!        Dodged that bullet... 

[pianistimo]

bob, i knew there was a reason i liked you. 

i suppose the marriage of figaro is a classic example of politics and sex mingling.  da ponte was a genius to make fun of the aristocracy right to their face.  well, so was mozart - but they made it so funny that it was acceptable. 

as i understand it, back then mozart wrote for specific diva's - and one couldn't sing AND act -- so he modified her arias to simplify her part.  then, when another more talented diva sang - he reinserted a more difficult aria for her.  (have to read my papers again).  anyways, thus the complicated operas where you have a choice of several arias and can choose which one you want to sing.

will listen to the aria between sutherland and horne.  bet it's really something.  i don't know the first thing about bellini's opera norma and what it is based upon.  have to go read about it.

[pianowelsh]

I believe Callas does a very deccent Norma?!? perhaps someone can verify that??

[pianowelsh]

Callas in Norma singing casta diva:

and from the finale act 1 :

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an interesting take on Tosca:

[pianowelsh]

Another opera classic..by a wonderful asian soprano the renowned sumi Jo...what a voice - would melt coal!

and algela Gheorghiu's take on the same aria:

and with alagna from the same opera:

[pianowelsh]

Another one of my favourites from Rusalka by one of the world's greatest sopranos:

more from this powerfull opera;

more bryn!

Jerry hadley - one of the greats!!:

more doomed lovers!!

yet another messy relationship!

[pianowelsh]

anyone hear passionate about musical theatre??

[pianowolfi]

One of my alltime favorites is Pamina's aria "Ach ich fühls, es ist verschwunden" from the Magic Flute by Mozart. 

[ahinton]

My favorite 'aria' is the end of Salome where she dances with John's head and kisses it and jihad.

Dan

Then, as this is a piano forum, what better can I do than recommend warmly that you come to St. John's, Smith Square, London on 22 June and hear Jonathan Powell's recital which will end with the world première of Sorabji's 1947 piano transcription of that very closing scene from Salome?...

Best,

Alistair

[pianowolfi]

Then, as this is a piano forum, what better can I do than recommend warmly that you come to St. John's, Smith Square, London on 22 June and hear Jonathan Powell's recital which will end with the world première of Sorabji's 1947 piano transcription of that very closing scene from Salome?...

Best,

Alistair

Cool ad, Alistair!  Very gentleman-like.

[pianowelsh]

how much are tickets???

[ahinton]

how much are tickets???

Not sure. Somewhere between around £8 and £15, I'd imagine.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Best,

Alistair