As mentioned earlier I recently went to see the Ellen Kent production of La Traviata in Cambridge...

This production was in the traditional setting and was absolutely delightful. The scenery was "picture postcard" and was so well matched to the costumes that from my vantage point the characters sometimes looked as though they had been painted on which added to the charm.

The two most notable performances for me were that of Vladimir Dragos who played Alfredo's farther and Elena Dee, once she warmed up, who played a charming and rather attractive Violetta. These were well supported by the rest of the cast...

All in all a very enjoyable evening.

The following night they were performing Madame Butterfly, presumably with other members of the company taking the lead.

Sounds a lot better than the Glass opera. I recently went to a big opera production based on the holocaust but I much preferred the pub opera production of La Belle Helene i saw earlier in the year. (which was half the price!)

I caught a bit of Andrea Bocelli in Central park during the met interval. The performance I liked best was the pearl fishers duet with him and Bryn Terfel and there's a snippet of it in this rehearsal video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kZqo2IMTJY

As you suggest Cambridge Corn Exchange is certainly cheaper and easier for us to get to than the ROH London which usually means an overnight stay in a hotel too.

I'd definitely recommend people keep and eye out for smaller more local productions... sure they probably aren't as consistent as the larger productions and you don't get the big names but all the same I thoroughly enjoyed Traviata.

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BTW. Some good stuff coming up in the next couple of weeks http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...401440&page=12

A special message from Rolando....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtylo...&feature=g-all

Lots of opera coming up for those with satellite, but something everyone can see here...

Pappano's Essential Tosca Sat. BBCHD 1.35pm

Tosca from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Sat BBCHD 2.35pm

Had an email from ROH - here is the gist.


I can't make it. but this might be of interst ot others on the thread.

Merry Christmas everyone.

January is always the worst time for me too as I do my end of year accounts... actually double as I get to pay lots of tax too!

Merry Christmas though

Happy Christmas, everybody.

I'm looking forward to the Tosca.

Here are two January webcasts, one of Don Carlo with Pape and Kaufmann

http://www.bayerische.staatsoper.de/...es_detail.html

Bryan Terfel was brilliantly evil and his command of Italian (or indeed French) is on par with that of a native speaker. That said, I liked the final act best.

Saw last saturday's production of Handel's Enchanted Island at a cinema in Nuremberg (link) It cost 21,50 Euros which I thought steep just to watch a live feed at a cinema but it's a virtual reality experience and as close as I'll get to the real thing.

The live feeds are the next best thing to being there though, and depending on the audience to do get a bit of the atmosphere...

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Anyway anyone who can get Arte by fair means or foul might be interested in this:

SUNDAY, 19 FEBRUARY

Concert Rolando Villazón presents stars of tomorrow Chen Reiss, Benyamin Nuss, Teresa Carpenter, Maximilian Hornung In the new series "Stars of Tomorrow" presents the Mexican tenor promising newcomers to the classical music scene. In the relaxed atmosphere of the Berlin workshop "Culture Brewery" offer samples of their music. Arte 18:30, 45 min

Anyone watching Maestro at the Opera? The first episode was last Friday but can be viewed on iplayer - episode 2 will be shown on Friday - I think at 9 p.m. BBC2

Only just spotted this so a bit late with the reply, but yes I did watch this...

A thoroughly enjoyable series I thought.

Searching for something on YouTube I came across this recording...

Joan Sutherland - O luce di quest' anima http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hOFlwIdHHc

I've completely forgotten what I was looking for now, but I doubt it will have been better than that!

Rather than start a new one, figured opera thread needs to be kept alive. Hoping other fans here (doubt PTO is NOT coming back anytime soon ).

Everyone seems to love Verdi & Puccini (even me) but if any fans of sturm-und-drang Wagner & Strauss, or minimalist Glass & Adams, do chip in

Who remembers these guys from last year's BGT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsNlcr4frs4

Thought they were brilliant and deserved it all - it's nice to hear them taking on songs which you wouldn't expect from classical artists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHQVKQET0os (would have been nice to hear them sing it in English but it's still brilliant). But Jonathan needs to lose weight for health purposes - he sings great as he does, but I think he may look more comfortable if so. This isn't meant as offensive at all. But many people have commented that Jonathan has an unbelievable voice for his age, and probably for any age as well - if you saw their documentary, I seem to recall Rolando asking him to do a few vocal exercises, and then stopping him saying that there's no more to do.

There were also these two from this year's BGT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35tczLdFKmc

Some people think they remind them of the Righteous Brothers. Their album is released at the end of the month, and I am interested to see what songs they can attempt as I love their harmonies (as with Jonathan & Charlotte).

As for Joe McElderry, well, many people did say on here during his time on PSTOS that he sang like a popstar - well, he only had a few weeks of training, and plus, I don't know if people were expecting him to sing real opera with a deep voice or whatever but him with a higher register, it's not going to work like that. However, it's nice to see that he's continued with it. His high note during his performances of Canto Della Terra is practically insane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORu0nA8PemE

I would still like to hear him sing the songs he sang on that show again, like La Donna e Mobile and Granada. I also liked his performance of an English version of Nessun Dorma (written especially for him):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7BrWWr1Dl4

And of course his performance of the aria in the PSTOS still remains the best he's ever performed it IMO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4CthIzHXpQ

Opera/classical music is my guilty pleasure.

Anyone else here?

That was worth hearing

I like watching Opera Flash Mobs (just search on YouTube)

I think this is the first one I noticed..........

I like Emma who starts at about 2-30.............she's a stunna !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B13k7U-WyK0

I buy my grapes in our local Lidl.Nothing like that ever happens