BaL 5.07.14 - Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It is not an opera I want to hear whole I must admit

Orfeo ed Euridice was the first Opera I ever saw - the Bolton Opera Group (snigger not - a mix of professional, semis and amateurs) toured their production around North-East Lancs in 1975. I've been hooked on the work in all its manifestations ever since - the way the Music reveals the knife-edge balance of Orpheus' grief (the way it's only just held in check) makes his loss of self-control so powerfully moving, much more than so many operatic sorrow-wallowers. I was taken utterly by surprise by how deeply Che faro got to me this morning.

but if Ferrier singing Che Puro Ciel and What is life leaves you cold - someone call an ambulance !!!

[Barbirollians]

Orfeo ed Euridice was the first Opera I ever saw - the Bolton Opera Group (snigger not - a mix of professional, semis and amateurs) toured their production around North-East Lancs in 1975. I've been hooked on the work in all its manifestations ever since - the way the Music reveals the knife-edge balance of Orpheus' grief (the way it's only just held in check) makes his loss of self-control so powerfully moving, much more than so many operatic sorrow-wallowers. I was taken utterly by surprise by how deeply Che faro got to me this morning.

Yes - I recall my great uncle telling me that Ferrier's What is life had quite a widespread impact on the post WW2 generation when it was released . As if all those who lost could hear part of what they felt in the music .

I imagine it is difficult now to realise that she was considered a national treasure and a popular singer despite her artistic credentials . Both my late grandmothers , neither of whom were mad classical music collectors , recalled the big shock it was when her death was announced .

[Bryn]

... I also have the Bernius Tafelmusik recording on Sony (with Michael Chance as a coolly ardent Orfeo), which I like a lot, but I think it is (sadly) nla.

amazon.co.uk ASIN: B000026V5R, etc.

[verismissimo]

Although, as regular boarders will know, I'm devoted to early recordings and all they reveal about performing practice, it did seem extraordinarily self-indulgent of Simon Heighes to kick off his BAL with a nasty, wobbly, poor transfer of Marie Delna from a 1910 cylinder. The fact that it's rare, but in his own collection, doesn't make it any more acceptable, and can only have served to put people off.

[Barbirollians]

Although, as regular boarders will know, I'm devoted to early recordings and all they reveal about performing practice, it did seem extraordinarily self-indulgent of Simon Heighes to kick off his BAL with a nasty, wobbly, poor transfer of Marie Delna from a 1910 cylinder. The fact that it's rare, but in his own collection, doesn't make it any more acceptable, and can only have served to put people off.

No doubt unlike all those books he pinched he paid for this !

[doversoul1]

No doubt unlike all those books he pinched he paid for this !

I think this comment is Unnecessary.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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. I despair....

I love this work to bits. I owe my familiarity with it to a group of 3 A-level students back in 1978. I was trying to each them Monteverdi's Orfeo, but they found the style challenging. After a few weeks of teeth-pulling, I adopted a different approach, asking them to listen to an extended section of Orfeo they hadn't heard. I then played them the music that follows the overture in the Gluck opera. Two of the students sat there determined to hate it, but the third, said very quietly: "It's beautiful. ".
And it was. But the dissenters also admitted their aversion to the Monteverdi had become one of principle, and they agreed to give it another chance.

[MLF]

I have only just caught up with this week's BAL. The winner on CD, (Freiburger Barockorchester, Rias Kammerchor, Rene Jacobs), to be released in September, is actually available now as part of the "Music of the Enlightenment" boxed set. See http://www.amazon.co.uk/La-Musique-L...+enlightenment

(Now more than the £16 I paid, but still criminally good value).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The winner on CD, (Freiburger Barockorchester, Rias Kammerchor, Rene Jacobs), to be released in September, is actually available now as part of the "Music of the Enlightenment" boxed set.

Absolutely ...which is why it doesn't say "download only" in #1.

[Barbirollians]

I think this comment is Unnecessary.

Facetious possibly but I was reminded that Heighes pretended the books he stole were from his grandfather's ( or some other relative's collection and it was that word that inspired the joke funny or not

[Don Basilio]

Gluck's Orpheus CD recommendation.

I'm going to see Florez in Orpheus this autumn. I'm not at all sure the role is playing to his strengths, but we'll see.

Now my issue it this. I like to listen to a CD of the music before I see an opera I've not heard before. I really like mezzos and if I got a recording of Orpheus (which I'm spelling in English as I can't do it in both Italian and French) I wouldn't want a tenor in the lead.

Any recommendations of a mezzo recording which is appropriate before seeing the tenor version?

[umslopogaas]

The Rough Guide to Opera strongly recommends Anne Sofie von Otter in the version conducted by Gardiner (EMI CDS5 56885-2). Its sung in French, in Berlioz's edition of the score. I'm going purely on what the guide says, I dont know the recording at all.

[Don Basilio]

I'd want something a bit more HIP.

[vinteuil]

... well - do you want the 1762 Vienna Orfeo ed Euridice - or the 1866 Berlioz version Orphée et Eurydice ?

Of the former, I prefer the Tafelmusik [Nancy Argenta / Michael Chance] to the J-E Gardiner [ Sylvia McNair/Derek Lee Ragin]; for the latter I still enjoy the J-E Gardiner [ Anne Sofie von Otter / Barbara Hendricks]


EDIT - I don't know it, but the René Jacobs - Bernarda Fink / Veronica Cangemi is tempting -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LI2L6JS

... in fact so tempting I've gorn an' got it


PS - tho' I now find I already have it (d'oh emoticon ) - in the harmonia mundi Lumières / Music of the Enlightenment 30 CD box ...







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[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'd want something a bit more HIP.

… preferable without a castrato