# "Imperfect" Moments in Opera Recordings



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Are there any moments in recordings or DVDs of complete operas that you wish could have been redone? Maybe a certain note from a singer was flat or sharp, or the orchestra was not together, or someone sang the wrong words. Or maybe a singer made an acting choice that was questionable.

One that comes immediately to my mind, because I've been listening to the recording so much lately, is the moment in the James Levine version of EUGENE ONEGIN from 1987, when Thomas Allen as Onegin (otherwise in prime voice) sounds like he has a lot of phlegm in his throat when he makes his vocal entrance in scene 3 of Act I. In the aria that soon follows he sounds fine, but the recitative-like part has a raspy undertone. I wish he could have cleared his throat and/or drank some water and done it again! (In a live opera-house performance it would have been merely incidental, but of course recording preserves a thing for posterity.)

Can you think of any similar moments in other recordings?


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Bellinilover said:


> Are their any moments in recordings or DVDs of complete operas that you wish could have been redone?


ssssssss
Whose?


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2014)

Here's possibly an "imperfect moment" during Mahler VII (Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony). I don't know if this was recorded, so apologies if it deviates from the OP perimeter.
By the way, who's right - TT or the trumpet player?


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Aramis said:


> ssssssss
> Whose?


LOL! I've corrected the mistake.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

In the 1952 Furtwangler studio recording of Tristan und Isolde, someone drops something that clatters on the floor during Flagstad's Liebestod. Some have surmised that it was a fountain pen, but who knows. The point is that someone dropped something during Flagstad's one and only studio recording of Tristan, while she was singing the Liebestod!!!


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## Yashin (Jul 22, 2011)

Mentioned in a different post. The Thielemann Ring Cycle from Vienna on CD. At $100 this live recording is not cheap. Something I have never heard before is a constant chatter in the background. Sounds like the prompter or someone at the side. It goes on for a LONG time!!! Terrible.

For sure,live recordings can often sound like someone is thumping across stage or there is lots of coughing but this one is just horrible.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

I had really looked forward to this but the (studio) recording was so uneven I thought it was faulty and sent it back. Got another one and it's the same.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

sospiro said:


> I had really looked forward to this but the (studio) recording was so uneven I thought it was faulty and sent it back. Got another one and it's the same.


That's interesting. The one I have (with a different cover) sounds okay if somewhat unbalanced between the voices and orchestra. But I've noticed that imbalance is a feature of many RCA recordings of the same period (late 1960's and 1970's); the 1978 Levine OTELLO with Domingo, Scotto, and Milnes is pretty bad in this respect. Come to think of it, I did send my first Levine ANDREA CHENIER back because the sound was rough and got the remastered edition instead, on which the sound is much brighter and smoother.


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## SteveSherman (Jan 9, 2014)

The live Bayreuth Ring, conducted by Karl Böhm, was marred by an all-too-audible prompter.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Prompters drive me bats, but are more common in older recordings. But this DVD from last year has a very loud one:


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Audible prompting could be its own thread-topic.

On Karajan's _Tristan und Isolde_ CD-set, there's what sounds like a watch-alarm. A 5-second smudge-mark on what is otherwise a great recording (imo).

Sometimes a recording can be viewed in light of Ezra Pound's quote concerning "error [being] in the not done." 
On Solti's Chicago _Meistersinger_ recording, you do NOT hear Beckmesser's retentive striking of the chalk on the blackboard during Walther's Trial Song. As with Karajan, this is a slight misstep in what I believe to be an outstanding version.

In fact, I'd argue that their quality makes me _more_ sensitive to these little intrusions.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

I wish we could replace the bleepin' video director on this one:


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

MAuer said:


> I wish we could replace the bleepin' video director on this one:


yesyesyesyesyesyesyes.

And on this one - it's even more nonsensical and intrusive:


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

On Joan Sutherland's second recording of I PURITANI, Piero Cappuccilli as Riccardo flubs a line in the first scene. In the dialogue passage during his "Bel sogno beato" cabaletta, the line he's supposed to be singing is "gloria," but apparently he started to sing something else by accident before switching abruptly to the right word, and the end result sounds something like "sloria." I've always thought it strange that that moment wasn't redone.


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## jdcbr (Jul 21, 2014)

The new remaster of the Mehta "Trovatore" sounds fantastic. I felt the same way about the first CD release. I hope they remaster the Levine "Forza" and Mehta. "Tosca" as well. The Levine "Otello" has been remastered, though I haven't heard it yet. All the 70s RCA recordings had a lot of distortion, which apparently is NOT on the master tapes.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

jdcbr said:


> The new remaster of the Mehta "Trovatore" sounds fantastic. I felt the same way about the first CD release. I hope they remaster the Levine "Forza" and Mehta. "Tosca" as well. The Levine "Otello" has been remastered, though I haven't heard it yet. All the 70s RCA recordings had a lot of distortion, which apparently is NOT on the master tapes.


I own a remastered version of the Levine FORZA. It looks like this:









The sound seems fine -- very smooth and clear. Unfortunately, there's no libretto.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

This isn't a complaint about dodgy recorded sound or fluffed moments but I do take issue with Ivan Rebroff's falsetto in Carlos Kleiber's otherwise lovely recording of of Der Fledermaus (on DG). I don't know whose idea it was to use a male singer for what is usually an 'en travesti' mezzo-soprano role, but unfortunately I find the results both irritating and off-putting (even though I can't blame Rebroff as he was only doing what was presumably asked of him).


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