BaL 23.04.16 - Verdi: Falstaff

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What did the reviewer say about the Abbado recording?

IIRC, he liked Terfel's new "take" on Falstaff, but thought Abbado's conducting, whilst fine, was a little restrictive, not allowing the orchestra to let rip (not his words - I'm paraphrasing what I think I remember he said) - lacking the sparkle to be found in his favoured versions.

The discussion is at about the 25minute point in the programme, Bbm - don't take my memory as an accurate summary of what was actually said.

[Flosshilde]

Well if they are having a discussion in Stratford, I suppose it's difficult to be looking at the DVD to discuss it, is this another reason to favour the prerecorded programme?

I would assume that even with a live discussion the recordings would have been listened to before & notes made. The extracts played during the broadcast are surely to illustrate the points made about the recording/performance, rather than the basis for the judgement. So it would have been possible to include discussion of DVDs, which usually happens for opera BaLs (although I think that adds another layer of difficulty in making a recommendation - do you recommend a production even if the performance isn't as good as on another DVD?, or recommend the 'best' performance even if you're not keen on the production? And as we know opinions about productions can be very subjective, even more so than performances)