Philippe Jaroussky: EML 25 October

[doversoul1]

23.00
Elin Manahan Thomas presents a concert given at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona by the great French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.
He sings virtuoso operatic arias by the eighteenth century Neapolitan composer Nicola Porpora, who also taught the famous singer Farinelli.
Jaroussky is accompanied by the Venice Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Andrea Marcon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06k9f31

What do they mean by Off Air‼??

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/programmes/schedules/this_week

Well, it should be on are but I can’t say I am terribly excited about Porpora’s opera arias, and I find Jaroussky much better in more contemplative works like Vivaldi’s sacred music. It would have been good to hear his Wigmore Hall recital in December although you can hear in on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJeVpctYKTI

[doversoul1]

I quite enjoyed the concert but am quite amazed how such spectacular arias can be so completely unmemorable. Maybe they are not meant to be remembered but just to be heard.

By the way, who writes the script for Elin Manahan Thomas? Farinelli the greatest Baroque countertenor??! Also, listening to last week’s programme, I noticed that EMT announced that ‘next Saturday’s Lunchtime Concert…’

[french frank]

Who's the photograph of ? Porpora?

On air means live. Off air refers to, say, recordings taken from an on-air performance.

[doversoul1]

Who's the photograph of ? Porpora?

On air means live. Off air refers to, say, recordings taken from an on-air performance.

No, definitely not Porpora.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Porpora

Very familiar but I can’t remember who it is. Terribly annoying. Any help? This is not Baroque ‘hairstyle’, is it?

[vinteuil]

No, definitely not Porpora.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Porpora

... it looks quite like one of the pictures of Porpora here :

http://www.hoasm.org/VIIIB/Porpora.html

I've always pronounced it PORP-ora : Skellers seems to think it's Porp-OR-a...




.

[french frank]

No, definitely not Porpora.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Porpora

I think it could be him without his wig on, perhaps. So Caffarelli was the greatest singer in the world, not Farinelli! (I always think it was Rauzzini)

Vinny

It jolly well ought to be Por-POR-a. Not Skellers' fault if it isn't

[doversoul1]

... it looks quite like one of the pictures of Porpora here :

http://www.hoasm.org/VIIIB/Porpora.html

I've always pronounced it PORP-ora : Skellers seems to think it's Porp-OR-a....

Thank you‼ That’s why it looks familiar.

Yes, I always thought (and heard) it was PORP-ora.

[vinteuil]

It jolly well ought to be Por-POR-a. Not Skellers' fault if it isn't

http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/porpora/

[french frank]

http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/porpora/

No dispute about what it IS (though πορϕύρα ???).

Italian accents can sometimes be a bit unpredictable. Had lunch today with fratello mio, just back from Mal-CE-sine which I had mentally been pronouncing Màl-ce-SÍ-ne.

[vinteuil]

Italian accents can sometimes be a bit unpredictable. Had lunch today with fratello mio, just back from Mal-CE-sine which I had mentally been pronouncing Màl-ce-SÍ-ne.

... indeed so : many south Italian towns have accents on the first syllable, which at first I found odd -

Tàranto [ˈtaːranto]; Otranto. [ˈɔːtranto]

I believe it is the Greek influence. I confess I still tend to pronounce Horace Walpole's novel on the penult.

Porpora from its Latin and Greek roots perhaps ought to have been stressed on the penult in Italian - but it ain't.

Nice para on the possible confusions in (mis-) translating English : purple as Italian : porpora (thanks, wiki) -

"Porpora" come traduzione dall'inglese "purple"
In Italiano per color porpora (dal latino "purpura") si intende un rosso cupo e non un viola, come spesso impropriamente tradotto dalla parola inglese "purple".
Sebbene "purple" sia il nome del pigmento estratto dal murice e si riferisse originariamente al color porpora, in inglese contemporaneo ha un significato differente, che corrispondente all'uso comune in italiano di "viola". Il termine inglese "violet", invece, indica il colore spettrale violetto corrispondente a un lunghezza d'onda di circa 380-450 nm.
In particolare gli anglosassoni chiamano in termini tecnici "Royal purple" questo tipo di viola, usato da Re e Principi, che foderavano di velluto di seta viola le loro corone dorate, e anche portato solennemente dai Vescovi anglicani, come pure dall'Arcivescovo Primate di Canterbury, essendo il viola simbolo del potere, temporale o spirituale. Mentre definiscono "Tyrian purple" il vero rosso porpora.
Nonostante il diverso uso dei termini, non è raro trovare traduzioni erronee dell'inglese "purple" come "porpora", specialmente per riferirsi a tonalità specifiche di "purple" che in italiano sarebbero più opportunamente identificate come tonalità di viola.
D'altronde il color porpora viene raramente identificato in inglese con la parola comune "purple". Ad esempio il titolo del film francese di Mathieu Kassovitz "I fiumi di porpora" (titolo originale "Les rivières pourpres") è stato tradotto come "the Crimson Rivers", cioè letteralmente "I fiumi cremisi", colore ben più vicino al rosso porpora di "purple".