Edita Gruberova 1946-2021
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Kleiberās '79 Boheme from La Scala, with Pav, Cotrubas and big names into the smallest parts. Itās also on video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNiRgNSRUgo)
Cheers
EJ
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I just listened to āO soave fanciullaā. Fantastic. The āPavā and Cotrubas are in fine form. At the end of the singing, but before the orchestra finishes its line, someone starts to clap and you hear the most aggressive shushing I have ever heard. I laughed out loud.
I remember clearly Kleberās āHeldenlebenā being announced for release, but then never appearing. I certainly donāt recall it actually hitting the shelves before being withdrawn, as I would have been at the head of the queue to buy it on the day it was released.
Itās frustrating to think that the master tape probably exists in some record company tape vault slowly degrading away. But who ever said that life is fair!
Graham
So, I watched the video of this Kleiber La Boheme last evening. Beautifully conducted and sung. Effervescent in the group scenes (I am not sure I have heard the opening 20 minutes conducted better), and the Rodolfo/Mimi duets were so effortless and transcendent that they brought tears to my eyes. The Act III quartet just made me smile, it was so . . . I come back to the word effortless. The overall sound quality is abysmal, at least on YouTube, but it was so enjoyable otherwise. Ileana Cotrubas and Lucia Popp are delightful actresses, too, and the Pav wasnāt yet so fat that he couldnāt move around. He even had a little dance step (kind of a jig or something) or two! A great historical document of a conductor and singers at the height of their powers.
I have a DG VHS recording of Kleiber conducting Der Rosenkavalier from the Bavarian State Opera with Gwyneth Jones, Brigitte Fassbaender, Lucia Popp etc, and a DVD of Carmen from the Wiener Staatsoper of a Zefirelli production with Obraztsova, Buchanan, Domingo etc.
A dvd recording from DG of a 1996 Munich concert with Beethoven Coriolan Overture, Mozart Symphony 33, Brahms symphony 4 - sadly he was slightly below his best here. There is also a DVD of Kleiber with the Vienna Phil doing Mozart symphony 36 Linz and Brahms symphony 2.
Mahler Das Lied von der Erde with Christa Ludwig and Waldmar Kmentt and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven symphony 6 with the Bavarian Staatsorchester on Orfeo, and an Orfeo SACD of Der Rosenkavalier with Claire Watson, Karl Ridderbusch, Fassbaender Lucia Popp, etc.
Many riches, but too few!
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Hi all, I saw quite a number of recordings of Wagnerās Ring have been discussed here, but I was wondering what in the opinion of the members here is the preferred dvd or blu ray production. I own the Bayreuth/Barenboim version from the early nineties and whilst I quite like it from a sonic perspective, the video is a bit disappointing as itās a bit hazy and low resolution and it does not do the performance justice. Other suggestions anyone?
Boulez or Haenchen!
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Thank you, @EJS !
The singing is hit-or-miss, but the video quality and staging of the late 80s Metropolitan Opera productions on DG video is excellent. Also the more recent Met Opera videos with Terfel/Voigt are visually cool and in HD. Again, thereās no Nilsson in them, but they look great. You can watch them online at Met Opera On Demand, a la carte or with like a $10 monthly subscription.
I think that the DVD that you have is the infamous Bayreuth centenary staging by the fFenchman Patrice Chereau. Iāve never seen (or heard) it, but I recall that it was universally savaged by music critics at the time.
I have no idea whether, with the benefit of hindsight a quarter of a century later, this savaging was justified.
The other DVD Ring that I know of is the Metropolitan Opera set led by James Levine on DG. (His star has certainly waned following sexual abuse allegations against him some years ago.)
There must be other Ring productions out there on some of the specialist opera DVD sets.
Personally, I prefer to stick to Georg Soltiās famous Decca set on LP and CD, wonderfully and imaginatively produced by John Culshaw, and let the images of whatās happening on stage play in my mind.
Chereauās centenary Ring only took three years to become of the most acclaimed stagings of the Ring ever, by the time it was recorded with Boulez in 1980.
Kupfer directed Barenboimās 1991 Ring at Bayreuth, Schenk directed Levineās cycle from the Met from around the same time. Both are more traditional sets, Schenk at risk of crossing the line into camp.
Cheers
EJ
Yes, but I will take Otto Schenkās campiness compared to some of these minimalist takes any day!
However, my personal opinion is that if one loves the Ring it is probably the case that one has accepted the fantastic silliness inherent in it, and also that most stagings of it should be enjoyed in a spirit of grace, and even amusement.
Case in point: I sat next to an 80-year-old woman during a Lepage Rosenkavalier a few years ago and she spent most of the first intermission railing about how Lepageās Ring was destroying opera! I didnāt love the Lepage Ring, but geez. As I suggested above, it had some cool visual moments. I just wanted some champagne to get me ready for the presentation of the rose!
My DVD is indeed the Kupfer staging, as @EJS correctly points out. I think it could be very interesting in terms of lighting, stageprops etc, but due to the poor resolution of the video it is hard to really appreciate it
Ok. Inspired by the recent thread, I am spending a couple of hours today cleaning all of these and getting ready for some good listening!
I canāt wait.
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Youāre a very lucky person indeed. Those LPs look wonderful and must be forty years old, if not more. They may even date back to a time when Decca UK pressings were all right, and before they had to close down their UK pressing operations and have their LPs pressed in Germany.
Try to listen for the infamous Sofiensaal cat, which can apparently be heard occasionally throughout the set. (Iāve never managed to hear it, on these or any other recordings.)
I looked on and off for 2 years for a good set of the LPs, and came close a time or two, but one set was not clean and another got bought out from under me before I could seal the deal. I bought these from a seller in the UK and had them shipped to the US. I must have asked her for 25 pictures and wore her out with questions, but they are pristine! It was a satisfying quest, indeed. I think these are the second boxed set release from around 1970. The first release had a brownish case, I seem to recall from my earlier research. They do sound great. The bass response is amazing.
The Ring? Perhaps Solti for visceral excitement, Bohm for immaculate all round performance, Karajan for beauty, Goodall for a wonderful experience in English where you learn a lot and possibly Keilberth is the best of the lot. (actually the first stereo recording)
This recording that youāre showing was recorded in Vienna under John Culshaw, who had been in charge of Soltiās famous Vienna āRingā, and who wrote about it so memorably in his book āRing Resoundingā.
I believe that Solti then went on to re-record āTristan Und Isoldeā later in his career, when he was in charge in Chicago. (This was unusual at the time, as recording operas was such an expensive business, but Solti was the most fabled conductor on Deccaās roster at that time and he carried a huge amount of clout.)
Thing is, I canāt find a copy of a Solti re-recording of āTristanā on a quick visit to any of the Amazon sites.
Can anyone do better? Or have I misremembered this whole story?