Sometimes we may forget that Gluck's opera is called Orfeo et Eurydice. In spite of being dead for most of the opera, Orfeo's wife does get some nice stuff to sing, including this scena, which she sings right before she dies–for the second time.
Of course, Fiordiligi isn’t supposed to die in that opera, not even once. And we can’t be entirely sure she is dead, since in a later revival, Alfonso is the one who gets the pellet with the poison.)
But I digress. Here is MH along with Laurence Equilbey and her Insula Orchestra, recorded in Paris in November 2013:
P.S. Dear Blog
Buddies: I'm sorry, but I had to reactivate the word verification feature for
comments. As soon as I lifted it, two posts got slammed with spam (see the
outliers in the "What's Everyone Reading?" column over there on the
right.) I mean, that Schubert post was nice, but can I seriously believe that
it was legitimately viewed 430 times in the past seven days?
I thought that picture looked familiar!
ReplyDeleteThat opera is rather hard on poor Eurydice, isn't it, with the double death - I wonder if anyone's ever retold the story from her perspective?
...complete with the famous aria (with obbligato basset horn):
Delete"O crap, I'm dead again!"
Anais Mitchell's "Hadestown", if not entirely from Eurydice's perspective, at least ups the ante substantially on her side of things.
DeleteI just googled Hadestown - this will definitely require further investigation & possibly outlay of funds.
DeleteAlso, some enterprising basset horn specialist should do a recital album of operatic excerpts with obbligato basset horn. Just for fun.
DeleteStray; very interesting, Earworm: me too, googled
DeleteI think the basset horn album would require a lot of research before anyone thought about actually recording!!
In the interest of full disclosure, before plunking down cash you should be aware that Hadestown lies somewhere on the spectrum between The Transports and Mahagonny. There will be folkies and indie rock people. But there is much on the yootubes, both live and studio.
DeleteThanks, yah. I was surprised by the first clip I heard at YT but then I kept listening. Quite interesting and worth further exploration.
DeleteI'm so glad you captured that webcast. I must learn how to capture stuff and make myself much happier (and other people!). Thank you for posting this bit.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. I use an open-source program called Audacity. It's not high-end, and it records every sound your computer makes. (I think you'll hear an email chime on the recording above. But its handy and you can cut excerpts from the recording (witness above, and the duet posting I made a week or so ago). http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Delete