A week in music: week 5

• Monday Juan Diego Florez's Arias for Rubini Roberto Abbado cond. the orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Decca, 2007
• Tuesday Verdi's I due Foscari Live broadcast from Il Teatro degli Arcimboldi di Milano, May 13 2003, Leo Nucci, Dimitra Theodossiu, Aquilès Machado, Riccardo Muti cond. orch. & coro del Teatro alla Scala
  Natalie Dessay recital Live broadcast from Deutsche Oper Berlin, Feb.11, 2008, Pinchas Steinberg cond. die Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin
• Wednesday & Tuesday Bellini's Norma With Franco Corelli, Maria Callas, Tullio Serafin cond. EMI, 1961
• Friday Jacques Offenbach's La Belle Hélène Felicity Lott, Yann Beuron, Laurent Naouri, Marc Minkowski cond. Virgin Classics, 2001

A week in music: week 4

• Monday Nino Rota's Il Capello di Paglia di Firenze Live from La Scala January 1998, with Juan Diego Flórez, Giovanni Furlanetto, Bruno Campanella cond.
• Tuesday Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment Covent Garden broadcast Jan.23 2007, with JDF, Natalie Dessay, Bruno Campanella cond.
• Wednesday Donizetti's Maria Stuarda Live from La Scala Jan.15 2008 with Anna Caterina Antonacci, Mariella Devia, Francesco Meli, Antonino Fogliani cond.
  Note I finally listened carefully to this broadcast and Antonino Fogliani's conducting is pretty dreadful, as is once great orchestra del Teatro alla Scala. Mariella Devia not at her best, Meli average, thank God Antonacci was there to save the evening.
• Friday Richard Strauss' Salomé MET broadcast April 10 2004, with Karita Mattila, Bryn Terfel, Matthew Polenzani, Siegfried Jerusalem, Scott Bergeson cond.
  Note You should never say you don't like an opera until you've actually listened to it. So, I definitelly don't like this one.

A week in music: week 3

• Sunday
  Bellini's Bianca e Fernando, Hayashi, Savostano, Gabriele Ferro cond., Teatro Reggio Torino May 29, 1976


• Monday
  Verdi's Rigoletto








• Tuesday
  Méhul's Horatius Coclès (1794), Massard, Orliac, orchestre de l'ORTF, cond. Yves Prin, mid-1960s


• Wednesday
  Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, MET broadcast Nov.10 2006 with Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau, Peter Mattei & Samuel Ramey, Maurizio Benini conducting


• Thursday
  Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Scala July 13 1999, JDF, Jennifer Larmore, Roberto Frontali, Giorgio Surian, Riccardo Chailly conducting


• Friday
  Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Macerata - Arena Sferisterio Agosto 1980, Ernesto Palacio, Leo Nucci, Marylin Horne, Cesare Siepi, Nicola Rescigno conducting

NB. Even if you are not a belcanto addict, you must admit "Largo al factotum" from Il Barbiere is one of the most difficult aria there is. Of the three versions above, Leo Nucci's interpretation is the only good one (also see this one).

A week in music: week 2

Week 2: Monday Jan.28 -> Saturday Feb.2, 2008

• Tuesday
  Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore








• Wednesday
  Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, MET broadcast Feb.28 2004 with JD Flórez & Olga Borodina, James Levine conducting


• Thursday
  Puccini's La Rondine, live broadcast from Il Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, May 28, 1989; Mietta Sighele, Veriano Luchetti, Daniel Nazareth conducting


• Friday
  Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, MET broadcast Nov.10 2006 with JDF, Diana Damrau, Peter Mattei & Samuel Ramey, Maurizio Benini conducting

A week in music: week 1

I wanted to do this for a long time, so here I start it, finally.
A day-by-day music journal, so that I can keep track of the CDs I listen to most.


Week 1: Monday 21 -> Friday 25, January 2008

• Monday
  
  Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment, MET live performance, 1972; Richard Bonynge conducting, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti (available in CD with the same previous three, but recorded with the Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra, Covent Garden).
  


• Tuesday
  Beniamino Gigli's New York recordings (1927-1928), volume 5


• Wednesday
  Verdi's La Forza del Destino, CD1 (Act 1 & beginning of act 2)


• Thursday
  Verdi's Don Carlos, CD3 (Act 4 & 5)


• Friday
  Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (Pietro Mascagni conducting in this 1938 recording)