What opera are you currently listening to / watching? CD/DVD

SixFootScowl said:

I guess I flunk math. Maybe someone else would give it a shot.

Click to expand...

As far as I can see, and these days that’s not far, Goodall’s studio Parsifal timings are
Act 1 - 109”
Act 2 - 83”
Act 3 - 79”
Total - 271” (4’ 31”)
Curiously his Covent Garden 1971 dress rehearsal clocked in with the same overall time but the timings of the individual Acts were
Act 1 - 134”🤔 (14” for the prelude alone!)
Act 2 - 66”
Act 3 - 71”

A night and a half at the opera indeed! Add on two twenty five minute intervals, yikes!!

BTW, I think the previous Barenboim times are good. 😎

Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Reginald Goodall: Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera (1980–1981)
John Mitchinson, Linda Esther Gray, Anne Wilkes, Philip Joll, Gwynne Howell

Decided to stream a recording I hadn't heard before. Looking at the length (a whopping 259 minutes) I confess I was skeptical, and I knew of Goodall's reputation for slow tempi. But I'm fairly convinced, to an extent that surprises me. I won't write about the singers other than to say that Gray's Isolde reminds me of Margaret Price's to some extent (but Mitchinson has a very different voice from Kollo's). But the conducting is what does it for me. The playing is wonderful throughout, in every section, but it's really the conducting itself that drives the magic in this performance. It's slow, sure, but it never feels slow, an attribute that Furtwängler's 1952 recording also shares. After reading the discussion on this thread, I really really want to hear Goodall's Parsifal now, because I find that I'm easily able to slow down with this recording, something that I often find happens to me when I listen to or watch Parsifal; in brief, I think Goodall's style here would be absolutely matched to Parsifal. Unfortunately, I don't own it, and my streaming service doesn't appear to have that Parsifal, so I will have to wait (I might listen to one of the Levine recordings, though, which recently got some love in this thread). There aren't individual moments that really stand out above the rest in this Tristan, but it's truly conceived of in one grand sweep, and as a unified, cohesive whole, this recording was a fantastic experience for me. I was concered that Goodall would try to be a Furtwängler copycat, and while I sense some parallels in their style, I think that is both unfair to Goodall and unsupported by the actual recording. (Despite their similar lengths, I don't think this Tristan shares much in common with Bernstein's recording other than gorgeous orchestral playing; the conducting is very different, from what I recall of Bernstein.) I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this recording. I don't think I'll pick up Goodall's Ring any time soon, because I'm skeptical of Wagner in English and also because I think the Ring requires more dynamism. However, I think there's a good chance I'll be getting another Parsifal in my mailbox soon...

Richard Wagner: Parsifal
James Levine: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (1991–1992)
Plácido Domingo, Jessye Norman, Kurt Moll, James Morris, Ekkehard Wlaschiha, Jan-Hendrik Rootering

It's always crazy to even contemplate listening to two of the longer Wagner operas in a single day, but after thoroughly enjoying Reginald Goodall's Tristan, taking a nice long break, going for a walk, and eating some food, I think I'm ready for this. I'd love to hear Goodall's Parsifal but as I explained above, I neither own it nor can I stream it so I'm out of luck for now. Levine is different than Goodall but they both take slow tempi, a heavily Romantic approach, and I think I'm in the right mindset for this. Act I is 115 minutes; the whole recording is 273 minutes long, truly immense. I've watched the Levine Tristan with Meier and Jerusalem, the same production pictured on this album's cover, and I love the production itself. But I really have to be in the right headspace to relax enough to really enjoy Levine's conducting and slow pace; like I wrote above, I think today is the day. Well, I'm about to start it, so here goes!

Richard Wagner - Das Rheingold
Bayreuth 1952 - Joseph Keilberth

Richard Wagner: Die Walküre
Wilhelm Furtwängler: Wiener Philharmoniker (1954)
Martha Mödl, Ferdinand Frantz, Leonie Rysanek, Ludwig Suthaus, Margarete Klose, Gottlob Frick

A shame Furtwängler never got to record the full Ring in the studio before he died in November 1954, several weeks after this recording was finished. (Unless you count the 1953 Rome Ring, which has several cast members in common with this.)