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Showing posts from 2015

What’s new? November Releases 2015

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Hey everyone! Here are the hottest November releases!!! Check them out and let me know what you are mostly excited about in the comments below! Enjoy! CD RELEASES November 6 – Natalie Dessay «Baroque» (Erato) Tracklist: CD1 01-04 BACH Cantate n°51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen 05 MONTEVERDI Lamento della ninfa 06 BACH Magnificat "Suscepit Israel" 07-08 HAENDEL Il Delirio Amoroso "Un pensiero voli in ciel" - "Per te lasciai la luce" 09-10 HAENDEL "Ahi, nelle sorte umane" - "Ma le speranze vane" 11 HAENDEL Mi palpita il cor "Ho tanti affanni in petto" 12-13 HAENDEL Dixit Dominus "Tecum principium in die virtutis tuae" - "De torrente in via bibet" 14 RAMEAU Les Indes galantes "Forêts paisibles" CD2 HAENDEL 01-03 Alcina "Tornami a vagheggiar" - "Ama, sospira" - "Credete al mio dolore" * 04-07 Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno "Fido sp

What’s new? October Releases 2015

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Hi! It's already October but I haven't posted anything about its releases yet! So quickly I'll go straight to the point!:) CD RELEASES October 2 – Verdi «Aida» (Warner Classics) Anja Harteros (Aida) Jonas Kaufmann (Radamès) Ekaterina Semenchuk (Amneris) Ludovic Tezier (Amonasro) Erwin Schrott (Ramfis) Marco Spotti (King of Egypt) Paolo Fanale (Messenger) Eleonora Buratto (High Priestess) Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Ciro Visco (Chorus Master) Antonio Pappano (Conductor)

What’s new? September Releases 2015

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Hey! The harvest time is coming! Of course, I'm talking about new releases in the opera world! As always there will be a bunch of great stuff this autumn, so I've divided all releases into three parts (for each month) to make it in a way more accessible for you. Enjoy!

Favorite non-operatic artists #3: The YouTube Stars

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Hey, everyone! Today you’re gonna learn more about my non-operatic interests which I’m listening to on my mp3 player at this moment. What’s surprising about them is that both music bands are from YouTube. I have to admit that earlier in my life I was too sceptical about so-called «YouTube stars». I thought they were mostly untalented. But about 3 years ago I discovered «the other side» of YouTube and it changed my mind completely. Now I’m open to unknown and gifted artists who make music just because they love it. The most successful of them are now releasing their own CDs and even going on tours! And that’s incredible and proves that the real talent will find its audience anyway!!!

What's new? Summer Releases 2015

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Hey! Hey! Hey! Finally, I enjoy having good weather in my city, I hope you do too:). Very, very soon I'll be on my vacation, taking sunbaths, swimming in the sea far from home...So as you can guess, my blog will have a rest as well:). But before leaving you for a while, I'm gonna tell about the hottest summer releases that we as operalovers can't miss! (Some of them have already been come out).  Enjoy this crazy cocktail of music impressions!!!

Cesare through time

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Hi, everyone! Today I am going back to our favorite topic in the world aka opera! As you might have noticed, I haven’t written any kind of review for a long time. And the reason is that there was no production which inspired me for that. But now I have a perfect opera and a brilliant staging that I really, really wanna talk about with you!!!  And it’s Handel’s «Giulio Cesare» from Metropolitan Opera!   Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

What’s new? May 2015

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Hey, opera lovers! As April was a poor month in the opera market, I decided to omit the "What's new?" post last month. May is not enriched with operatic releases either but, nevertheless, it has some exciting discs to offer you:). Enjoy!   CD RELEASES May 5 – Verdi «Simon Boccanegra» (Delos) Dmitri Hvorostovsky  (Simon Boccanegra), Marco Caria (Paolo), Kostas Smoriginas (Pietro), Ildar Abdrazakov  (Fiesco),  Barbara Frittoli  (Maria/Amelia), Stefano Secco (Gabriele Adorno), Eglė Šidlauskaitė (Ancilla), Kęstutis Alčauskis (Capitano) Kaunas State Choir,  Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra ,  Constantine Orbelian

Favorite non-operatic artists #2

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Hello, everyone! After talking about French performers in Part I, let's move on to my favorite English-speaking bands. From today’s rock musicians I can definitely highlight one British band which speaks to my heart with its songs. And this band is called «Keane» . I’ve got to know about «Keane» from my best friend. One day she turned on her mp3 player with two songs: «Everybody's changing» and «Somewhere only we know». I’d heard these tracks before but I’d had no idea about the performers. Afterwards, I listened to all «Keane»’s recordings and really fell in love with their music.

Favorite non-operatic artists #1

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Hello, everybody! This time I’ve decided to leave the operatic path of my blog for a while cause I’d like to speak about the singers of other genres who are currently performing on stage and whom I love and respect a lot. My post is divided into two parts: the first one is about French musicians and in the second part I’m gonna tell you about English-speaking bands.  Garou is a Canadian singer who is mostly famous for the role of Quasimodo in a French musical «Notre Dame de Paris» that I watched for the first time when I was about 9 years old. I was so impressed that I immediately fell in love with it and with all French-related things like language, musicians, history etc. This musical has helped all the performers involved in that project to build a successful career. Garou has a captivating gruffish voice and huge charisma! In «Notre Dame de Paris» he looked very believable as an unlucky hunchbank that in a moment I got hooked:). Since that time I’ve been following his career. 

The OperaFan TAG

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Hey, opera lovers!!! How are you? I feel good cause I was born on this very day!!! You know, for me B-Day, beside celebration, is a moment of pondering about life. The older you get, the more you look back on what you’ve done so far and think about how much you’re satisfied with your life. Now I’m 24 years old (oh gosh! I wrote it out loud!:)) and I can say that I have a lot of goals for the future that I’d love to achieve. Hope they’ll come true:). As for my blog, I like running it a lot and I’m amazed that I’ve managed to «stay afloat» for such a period of time! That was not my first try to blog, so I hardly believed that I would have made it so far. Now I know that if you find your passion, it won’t be a problem for you to write about it on the Inet:). I hope you like reading my posts as much as I like writing them:). So today, I’m gonna do my own original «The OperaFan TAG» !

What's new? March 2015

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Hey! Hey! Hey! New March releases are here! Check it out! CD RELEASES March 2 – Bryan Hymel « Héroïque - French Opera Arias » (Warner Classics) Tracklist: [1] GIOACHINO ROSSINI (1792-1868) - Guillaume Tell Ne m’abandonne point… Asile héréditaire…..Amis, amis secondez ma vengeance [2] HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803-1869) - La Damnation de Faust Nature Immense [3] GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901) - Jérusalem L’Emir auprès de lui m’appelle…. Je veux encore entendre ta Voix [4] GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901) - Les Vêpres siciliennes ‘ ‘C'est Guy de Monfort….’ O jour de peine et de souffrance [5] HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803-1869) - Les Troyens Inutiles regrets [6] CHARLES GOUNOD (1818-1893) - La Reine de Saba Faiblesse de la race humaine….Inspirez-moi, race divine [7] GIACOMO MEYERBEER (1791-1864) - L'Africaine Pays merveilleux…O Paradis …Conduisez-moi vers ce navire [8] JULES MASSENET (1842-1912) - Hérodiade Ne pouvant réprimer les élans de la foi [9] ERNEST

Met Live in HD Season 2015-16

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Hey opera lovers! Today I’m gonna talk with you about one of my favorite topics ever aka new Live in HD season 2015-16 at Metropolitan Opera! The other day Met has officially announced the schedule of the next season including operas which will be broadcasted . That day of the announcement is like Christmas to me! I breathe faster, I can’t talk about anything else, I search the Net for official photos and there are a lot of other symptoms which you can observe in me on that special day:). So now when finally I can think and speak rationally, let’s discuss the glorious season 2015-16 together! We will be presented 10 operas in cinema theatres: six absolutely new productions and four well-known stagings.   The revivals include Verdi’s «Il Trovatore», Wagner’s «Tannhäuser», Puccini’s «Turandot» and «Madama Butterfly». 

New generation is coming!!!

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I’ve heard many opinions but I personally believe in a new generation of opera singers! I don’t agree that we have no voices today or bad voices. Not all people can become great but that doesn’t mean there is nobody! That’s why I try to keep up with new talents in the opera world. I’ve decided to introduce you very talented female opera singers of today who are just reaching their top but who have already had a lot of success on their way. They are three sopranos Nino Machaidze, Marina Rebeka and Julia Lezhneva.

What's new? February 2015

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Hey, opera lovers! Today it's time to speak about upcoming February releases in the world of opera! Yeah!!! CD RELEASES February 2 – Bellini «La Straniera » (Nightingale)  Recorded in November 2012, Baden-Baden, Germany Edita Gruberova , Laura Polverelli , José Bros, Luca Grassi, Kay Stiefermann, Thomas Michael Allen SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg & Orpheus Vokalensemble, Pietro Rizzo

#WagnerWeek

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Hey, opera lovers! How are you getting on after holidays? I’m fine. Since the beginning of January I’ve been spending my time doing what I like that is watching opera:).  As I had a lot of days off I decided to watch something big that I hadn’t had much time for before. And I chose «Der Ring des Nibelungen» or «The Ring of the Nibelung» by Richard Wagner.    Honestly, I was really afraid of «The Ring» cause it’s 16 hours of opera based on the ancient epos! I was not sure if I’d like it or not cause I wasn’t a big expert in Wagner. I’d listened to just one opera of him before - «Lohengrin» (I’d enjoyed it a lot, by the way). But that с ycle is without parallel in the opera world! It’s sort of an operatic «Lord of the rings». You have four operas where the plot develops during each part. And I gave it a shot and watched four operas in five days. And I liked it! I have to say that you need to be mentally ready for it and be open to this fantasy world and then Wagner will do his jo

Prima Elena

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Few days ago the opera world lost one of the brightest mezzos of our time - Elena Obraztsova. I'm just speechless...It all happened so suddenly, I'm still shocked by these news and I can't believe it... Elena Vasilyevna was a great woman of a great talent! She'll always live in our hearts as one of the best (or maybe even the best) Carmens of all time! Not so long ago I watched Zeffirelli's movie "Cavalleria rusticana" with Obraztsova and Domingo. Russian diva was splendid Santuzza! I wanna share with you the extract from this opera that again proves us what an amazing artist she was!   Prima Forever!