Almaviva

Originally Posted by Almaviva

OK, folks, this is it, again. This is opera.

Some cognoscenti will tell you that La Favorite(a) is Donizetti's best opera. While I don't entirely agree (I'd say Roberto Devereux is more melodious, and L'Elisir d'Amore is more fun), this is one darn good opera.

So here I am today, Friday evening; the wife is asleep, we have watched the delayed tape of the Royal Wedding on TV together, and then she went to bed and left me alone with my second passion - after her; she is

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Originally Posted by Almaviva

Franz Schreker premiered this opera in 1918. The production I'm watching is from the Salzburg Festival in 2005, conducted by Kent Nagano, with the Deutches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The title means 'the stigmatized' or 'the branded ones.'



Impecable technical quality of the DVD with 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, linear PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, and DTS 5.1 (I love it when there is DTS).

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Originally Posted by Almaviva

I'm watching this now, barely got to half of the running time (108 minutes) but I'm sure I have formed my opinion already, which is unlikely to change even though the most famous number from this opera is still to came in the last act (Vainemant, ma bien aimée).



First, technically: mostly, impecable product, with linear PCM stereo track or Dolby Surround and excellent sound engineering and

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Originally Posted by Almaviva

2006(LI) - Christopher Rousset - Les Talens Lyriques + The Drottningholm Theatre Orchestra and Chorus + Jennie Lindstrom and the Drottningholm Theatre Dancers

Zoroastre - Anders J. Dahlin
Abramane - Evgueniy Alexiev
Amélite - Sine Bundgaard
Erinice - Anna Maria Panzarella
Zopire/La Vengeance - Lars Arvidson
Narbanor - Markus Schwartz
Oromasès/Ariman - Gérard

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Originally Posted by Almaviva

399 years of opera… I’ve just watched Itinerário do Sal (Salt Itinerary) by contemporary Portuguese composer Miguel Azguime, pushing my temporal operatic span to almost four centuries, given that the oldest opera that I’ve seen is Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo composed in 1607, and this one is from 2006.


It’s proposed, in terms of classification, as an “electroacoustic and multimedia opera.” It is available on DVD. There are two nice extras – a 35-minute fascinating interview with the

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