# Favorite era?



## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

There might all ready be a thread on this subject, but as they say, practice makes perfect!

What era of recordings you listen to the most? I listen recordings all the way from the acoustic recordings to the present day. I know that there are members who prefer the acoustic recording era and so on. Even though I listen pretty much everything I mostly listen to singers from the 50's and 60's like Callas, Di Stefano and so on. Then I mostly prefer to listen to older singers. I like some new singers, but not so many. Perhaps the singer that I listen to most from 70's on wards is Domingo, who I like very much. In my Neapolitan songs thread Woodduck posted Adelina Patti singing Home Sweet Home from 1905, which was wonderful. So mostly I prefer to listen to singers from the start of the century to the end of the 60's, but mostly the early 50's to the late 60's period.

To the end that Patti video, that is just so good. Thank you again Woodduck :tiphat:


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## graziesignore (Mar 13, 2015)

I'm very much into the 70s and 80s. This sort of happened organically, where I would hear one performance and then come to know all the singers in that production, and start encountering them in various combinations in other productions of the era... I guess it's because I'm younger and was actually aware of Placido Domingo and other well known names of the era, even if as a teen I didn't listen to opera. I feel more of a basic personal connection to this era which gave me a base of familiarity to jump off from.

Also, I'm the sort of person who tends to wander off bored during the party, finding cool stuff in the closets, and everyone is already in the 1950s room.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

"recordings all the way from the acoustic recordings to the present day", too.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Diminuendo said:


> There might all ready be a thread on this subject, but as they say, practice makes perfect!
> 
> What era of recordings you listen to the most? I listen recordings all the way from the acoustic recordings to the present day. I know that there are members who prefer the acoustic recording era and so on. Even though I listen pretty much everything I mostly listen to singers from the 50's and 60's like Callas, Di Stefano and so on. Then I mostly prefer to listen to older singers. I like some new singers, but not so many. Perhaps the singer that I listen to most from 70's on wards is Domingo, who I like very much. In my Neapolitan songs thread Woodduck posted Adelina Patti singing Home Sweet Home from 1905, which was wonderful. So mostly I prefer to listen to singers from the start of the century to the end of the 60's, but mostly the early 50's to the late 60's period.
> 
> To the end that Patti video, that is just so good. Thank you again Woodduck :tiphat:


An odd example of a Neapolitan song, but a great recording! 

Most of my favourite operatic records are pre WW1 and most of my very favourite singers were born in the 1850s and 60s or earlier, but of course I listen to later recordings as well, especially when it comes to complete opera recordings, which were very few during the acoustic era.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

'60s and on

I leave the historical recordings to the historians. I like palatable sound quality.


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## Eramirez156 (Mar 25, 2015)

depends what I'm listening to, if it is Wagner then recordings from the 40s and 50s, Verdi then 50s and 60s and if its Meyerbeer,well to paraphrase Stephen Sondheim, does any one still listen to Meyerbeer? I'll take what I can get. in terms of singers I would rather listen to Claudia Muzio, Luisa Tetrazzini, or Maria Callas, with all her faults and there many, than some of the "stepford sopranos" of today. But then we come baroque and bel canto opera, we may be in a golden age, only time will tell. Now that I got off my chest I think Ill put on some Tetrazzini .


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

Figleaf said:


> An odd example of a Neapolitan song, but a great recording!


Well lets just say, that the thread became a bit more diverse than the original title.


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## Bevo (Feb 22, 2015)

I enjoy hearing good performances regardless of when they were recorded or who was performing. However, being someone who studies composition and writes music myself, I personally try to find more clear sounding recordings so that I can distinguish specific aspects, such as orchestration, instrumentation, and the bass lines. But I still make sure they're good interpretations of the piece before I do so.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

For opera, it depends on the combination of music and singers. It does happen that I rarely listen to any singers active beyond the 1970s unless they're singing contemporary music. If I want to hear a specific singer, it's likely to be someone even older than that. For standard repertoire composed after 1800 or so, I have very few recordings made after the 1960s. I'm waiting to hear a good reason to acquire any more, and as the years pass it seems less and less likely that I will.


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## graziesignore (Mar 13, 2015)

> I like palatable sound quality


Me too - except, ironically, in my search for stuff from the closets of the 1970s and 80s, I often find myself listening to recordings that sound like they were made underwater.


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## Cesare Impalatore (Apr 16, 2015)

Eramirez156 said:


> But then we come baroque and bel canto opera, we may be in a golden age, only time will tell.


This thought came to me as well. We now have a lot of superb acts in the field of early music, renaissance and baroque such as Jordi Savall, L'Arpeggiata, Il Giardino Armonico, Philippe Jaroussky e.g. who try to get all the best out of previously underappreciated music from the more remote past.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Eramirez156 said:


> ...and if its Meyerbeer,well to paraphrase Stephen Sondheim, does any one still listen to Meyerbeer?





graziesignore said:


> ... in my search for stuff from the closets of the 1970s and 80s, I often find myself listening to recordings that sound like they were made underwater.


Here's some underwater Meyerbeer from 1899:






Who's Stephen Sondheim?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> *Who's Stephen Sondheim?*


A composer of words to be uttered quickly on distinct pitches.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

40's, 50's, 60's and just into the 70's for opera, chamber and orchestral but if it's lieder and art song and individual opera tracks then right back to the start of the 20th century. The Record of Singing Vols. 1 to 5 are constantly on my playlist plus other sets concentrating on various singers such as Bjorling, De Los Angeles, Baker, Schwarzkopf, Hotter, Fischer-Dieskau, Ludwig, Wunderlich and so forth.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

I tend to listen mostly to recordings from the 1960's to the present day, with special focus on the period in which I was a brand-new opera lover: the late 1990's/early 2000's.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

50s and 60s, great voices
great Wagner


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

50's to 70's are when my favorite singers were actively recording, but I've listened to my fair share of 30's recordings as well( Flagstad).


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

The 50s and 60s were a time when it all just seemed to come together. The golden era of sound production met the golden age of opera singers: Callas, Corelli, Nilsson, di Stefano, Gedda, Steber, de los Angeles, just to name a few. Stereo came just in time to capture this era so we can, thankfully, relive it again and again.

As Scott Fitzgerald said at the end of _The Great Gatsby_: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." How true.


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## Loge (Oct 30, 2014)

Generally buy opera on DVD, so the more recent the better. And the later the opera DVD the better the acting. I am also quite lucky being a Wagner fan that I don't like Birgit Nilsson's voice or come to think of it Hans Hotter. So I appreciate productions after the golden age. So the era for my favourite recordings would be the 90s and 00s.


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## HumphreyAppleby (Apr 11, 2013)

The 60s and 70s, and the very beginning of the 80s. The 60s had the prime of Nicolai Gedda and Mirella Freni, who made what I consider to be the best recording of _Boheme_ together in '63, as well as the beginning of Pavarotti's career. This is also when some of the best live recordings were made, although the great _Fanciulla_ with Eleanor Steber and del Monaco was in '57. Tenors that made really good live or studio recordings were Daniele Barioni (who was in one of the great recordings of any opera, the '66 _La Rondine_ with Moffo, and sung a live "Nessun dorma" that year in venice that will knock your socks off). The 60s was also the start of the slew of great opera recordings by Herbert von Karajan, whom I adore. His respect for Italian music is particularly endearing. He helped kick off Pavarotti's career with a stunning Verdi _Requiem_ (which, let's face it, is a church opera), which is on DVD, and he made a killer _Cav/Pag_ starring Bergonzi, which is a things of myth and legend in Italy. In the 70s he made great film recordings of _Otello_ with Freni and Vickers, _Pagliacci_ with Vickers and Kabaivanska, and _Madama Butterfly_ with Freni and Domingo, which is my personal vote for best operatic film. I only wish they'd made his 1974 _Tristan und Isolde_ with Vickers into a film. That would have been sensational. _Butterfly_ was directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, who did an amazing _Barbiere_, in which Teresa Berganza and Hermann Prey are divine.

So overall this era is overflowing with great recordings. I haven't even mentioned all the great Pavarotti/Sutherland collaborations, and the Domingo/Caballe collaborations. The last truly great tenor to my mind was Vasile Maldoveanu, who only made a CD of arias, but who had the greatest combination of radiance, power, and smoothness I've ever heard. Only Pavarotti can match him for warmth of tone, and only occasionally. After him, it seemed like singers' voices became hard-edged and lost their roundness and distinctiveness of timbre. I can't tell any of the Met's tenors apart, except Kaufmann. They all sound like the same person, and he's nothing to write home about.

I do love some of the early singers, like Georges Thill and Ponselle. But I can't abide the sound quality for more than a few arias, let alone a whole opera.


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## graziesignore (Mar 13, 2015)

> The last truly great tenor to my mind was Vasile Maldoveanu, who only made a CD of arias, but who had the greatest combination of radiance, power, and smoothness I've ever heard.


Yes! I just obtained a recording of Attila from 1981 (Zurich) and having never actually heard him before (but having seen his name around), I was really impressed with his Foresto.


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## HumphreyAppleby (Apr 11, 2013)

graziesignore said:


> Yes! I just obtained a recording of Attila from 1981 (Zurich) and having never actually heard him before (but having seen his name around), I was really impressed with his Foresto.


His live, filmed performance as Luigi in _Il Tabarro_ with Scotto is staggaring, particularly the arietta "Folle di gelosia".


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

Most often I listen to Maria Callas recordings, so this places me between 1950-1960...I was not even born...
In DVDs, I try to buy what attracts me at the moment. I had no luck with Anna Netrebko, as I got all her failures on DVDs. I love Angela Gheorghiu, Natalie Desaille, Maria Oleida, Stefania Bonfadelli...and many others.
As for symphonic music I prefer classical and romantic music.


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