Baroque Arias – Bach and Matthias Goerne (and Barbara Bonney)

I know secular "christmas" is over, but it's still Christmastide in my world. And who has time to look at/listen to Christmas programming before Christmas, anyway? 

This whole program of Baroque (and one Mozart) music (from 1999) is wonderful. Ms. Bonney and Herr Goerne each have a few solo arias and one sweet duet, plus there's some nice orchestral and brass music—none of it blatantly, commercially Christmas-y. Because I love Matthias Goerne singing Bach, I would like to draw your particular attention to Herr Goerne’s rendition of this aria from Bach's Christmas Oratorio:

 

Großer Herr, o starker König,

Liebster Heiland, o wie wenig 

Achtest du der Erden Pracht! 

Der die ganze Welt erhält, 

Ihre Pracht und Zier erschaffen, 

Muss in harten Krippen schlafen.

Great Lord, O mighty king,

dearest saviour, O how little

you regard earthly splendour

He who maintains the whole world 

and created its glory and adornment

must sleep in a hard crib.

Here are some other seasonal posts from the past.

Rinat Shaham in Cendrillion at La Monnaie on The Opera Platform

One of my favorite mezzos, Rinat Shaham, as Massenet's Cendrillion at La Monnaie. This broadcast is available starting today from The Opera Platform (an offshoot of Arte Concert, where you can also see Anna Netrebko and Francesco Meli in Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco) 

Here's an excerpt from Cendrillion with Rinat Shaham and Sophie Marilley:

Note: you may want to track down a libretto (here is one in French only) since the website says: Kindly supported by La Monnaie, THE OPERA PLATFORM presents CENDRILLON free of charge as video on demand. This opera is a full-length performance offered in addition to our regular programme. Therefore subtitles will not be provided.

Joyce at Julliard (again) Re-Joyce!!

If you missed the live stream today of JDD's master classes at Julliard (like I did), take note of these two tweets:

Joyce DiDonato ‏

@JoyceDiDonato  29m

29 minutes ago

Joyce DiDonato Retweeted The Juilliard School

What amazing talent in these 4 singers, today!

The Juilliard School‏@JuilliardSchool 


#ICYMI Today's master class with @JoyceDiDonato will be available to watch on our @YouTube channel at a later date! #JoyceAtJuilliard

More Miah (Interview from 2011) Plus Sarah and John Mark

I was actually doing a search on tenor John Mark Ainsley, which led me to a 2008 interview with mezzo Sarah Connolly, which (obviously?) led me to this Miah Persson interview from 2011. As we know MP became an amazing Donna Elvira and Governess (in Turn of the Screw); and she turned out a rather charming Adina in L'Elisir. So, meanwhile, here she is in (for me) some unexpected repertoire. Can you imagine her Violetta? Sigh!

OK since I mentioned JMA and SC, here are some clips from them, too 

(in more expected repertoire):