Glyndebourne, von Karajan, and Joyce DiDonato from France Musique

Because my French comprehension is less than optimal, I listen to France Musique less frequently than British and Austrian online radio. But France Musique offers many musical gems.

Lirico Spinto is the French equivalent of the Austrian Stimmen Hören. The episodes are available for much longer after their original broadcasts than their Austrian counterparts, and they are available as podcasts from iTunes, which you can subscribe to for auto-downloading—much handier than trying to record them with Audacity!) The most recent two programs are wonderful compilations:

In English with English Subtitles

It keeps cropping up, then disappearing again. There seem to be three different posts this week. This one has subtitles. Watch (and especially listen) while you can. 

Featuring R. Croft, D. Daniels, L. Hunt, D. Upshaw, and F. Olsen

There's an App for That – Audacity Audio Editor/Recorder

Sometimes I just don't have time sit and listen to a radio broadcast when it's broadcast, or even when it's held in archive for a week. So, if I come across a can’t-miss performance, I cue it up and record it with audacity. Yes, it's audacious to record online music broadcasts, but what I am talking about here is the software app called Audacity. 

The advantages of this app are it's free and fairly easy to use, as long as you're not trying to do anything too complex. The downside is that (at least with my limited knowledge of the software) it records absolutely every sound your computer makes. So if you get an email, connect/disconnect your smartphone, e-reader, or music player, or try to close a Word document without saving it first, it records all those little chimes, chirps, and beeps. (This can be slightly disconcerting during replay—especially in the car—when I check to see what email (hasn’t) come in! But hey, the software—and broadcast—is free!) I try to shut everything down and record stuff only when I plan to be away from my computer for an hour or so.

Monteverdi Monday – Nerone in Love (Another Clip for the Otterphile)

Anne Sofie von Otter in pants again; this time as Nerone. She/he is so seduced...and we can see why. Mirelle Delunsch is a pretty irresistible Poppea! This performance was recorded in 2000. I haven't found a  recording of the whole performance yet, but there are more excerpts on the Toob. Look for them!!

200th Anniversary of the Premier of the Final Version of Fidelio

Knowing how persnickety Beethoven was, and how many permutations his poor opera went through, it’s surprising that anyone was able to determine an actual date of an actual premier of an actual final version. 

Be that as it may, Chris Tina Tengel figured it out, and presented an edition of Stimmen Hören on Fidelio and a few other Beethoven works. The 90-minute program features a multitude of singers, including Theo Adam, Sena Jurianc, Rose Pauly (the most celebrated Elektra of the 1930s), James King, Wolfgang Windgassen, Jessye Norman, and Helge Rosvaenge, to name a few.

The program was broadcast yesterday, so we have about six more days to listen. O namenlose freude!