Giulio Ricordi La secchia rapita

[Alan Howe]

...could be fun:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ricordi-secchia-rapita-Elchin-Huseynov/dp/B07B6BZFLL/ref=tmm_msc_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Btw: don't be put off by the name 'Jules Burgmein'. It was a nickname used by Ricordi!>>>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Ricordi

[Mark Thomas]

It'll be a definite punt for me.

[Mark Thomas]

More about Ricordi and his opera here (in Italian, but Google Translate does a good job).

[mikehopf]

What a delightful work! Puccini goes zarzuela.

[adriano]

Suppose this is one of them many Dynamic live recordings where you hear more trampling around on stage than undisturbed music...

[Alan Howe]

That is a major problem with their recordings, yes. As is the quality of the singing. Oh, and scrawny-sounding orchestras...

[Mark Thomas]

But if the alternative is not hearing at all an otherwise-unrecorded work? Gift horses, mouths...

[Alan Howe]

As I've said before, when it comes to opera, I part company with those who are content to have a recording - any recording - of a particular work even if it's poorly sung. I just wouldn't listen to it. To me it's not a gift horse - it's more like a hobbled donkey with mange whose mouth I wouldn't go anywhere near. I've lost count of the number of times I've read a positive review of an opera recording only to find that it has a cast of screechers and wobblers...

I know this is an issue for me, but there it is. It also, of course, works the other way round: sometimes I'll come across a recording which some cloth-eared critric has criticised only to find that the singing is excellent. Hey ho.

[Alan Howe]

Just to explain: early on in my opera-listening life I bought John Steane's seminal book 'The Grand Tradition' and was heavily influenced by it. Steane was never afraid to challenge others' opinions of singers whenever he thought that the matter of sound technique had been ignored. Thus, although he could count figures such as, for example, Maria Callas or Hans Hotter as great singers, he was more mindful than most of their (serious) technical failings. On the other hand he lauded under-appreciated singers such as Helga Dernesch (e.g. her superlative Isolde) when other critics seemed not to care about beauty and evenness of tone.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Ah, yes. Helga Dernesch - greatly underestimated. A truly fine singer.

[mikehopf]

Putting the cart before the horse, Alan?  Who cares about the horse providing the cart gets delivered.

[Alan Howe]

Well, if I understand correctly the change of metaphor, the problem for me would be that what is delivered in the cart isn't up to the job. (Actually, I don't really understand relevance of the metaphor. To 'put the cart before the horse' means to do things in the wrong order. If the suggestion is that it's not important to engage good singers for a recording - i.e. that the recording itself is more important than having decent singers - then I completely disagree.)

[Alan Howe]

Anyway, this'll probably descend into a debate about who likes which singers, so let's just get back to Ricordi...

[BerlinExpat]

La secchia rapita is an attractive lightweight opera that at times does sound more like an operetta. It is a live recording, but obviously from two concert performances in the Auditorium of Milan, so there is no offensive stage noise. The performers are from the Claudio Abbado Civic Music School and are no worse than the excellent student productions I've seen in Berlin or Glasgow that generally don't get recorded. It's admirable that they have chosen such a rarity and given us the opportunity of hearing it.

My only moan is that the bonus of the two language libretto is affixed to the digipack cover, thereby making it impractical unless one is sitting at a table. The recent re-release of Ethel Smythe's The Wreckers by Retrospect Opera has a better solution with the libretto sliding into a double sleeve of the digipack packaging.