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.
Topic: Favourite arias!