Rossini
Julia Lezhneva, Sinfonia Varsovia, Marc Minkowski
Naive
2011
Gioachino Rossini pre-empted Giacomo Puccini in composing for the glory of the "Bel Canto" female soprano voice. Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva's is downright buttery rich, perfectly suited for Rossini arias. A stable coloratura with strong lyric tendencies, Lezhneva tears up "Tanti affetti" from La donna del lago and "della fortuna istabile" from La Cenerentola. Conductor Marc Minkowski directs a taut and searing "Sinfonia" from La Cenerentola, revealing all of the joy and exuberance of what is best in Rossini. Rossini's is music that smiles a big smile aurally.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Haydn Arias - Jane Archibald, Orchestre Symphonique Bienne, Thomas Rosner (ATMA Classicque, 2011)
Jane Archibald, L'Orchestre Symphonique Bienne, Thomas Rosner
Haydn Arias
ATMA ClassicqueSearch Amazon.com for Haydn Arias
2011
A creamy rich soprano with a dash of Tabasco lubricates the hinge between Baroque Opera and Mozart on the wheels of Papa Haydn. Canadian Jane Archibald bridges Vivaldi to to the Classical with selections from five Haydn operas on the wings of the modern instrument ensemble L'Orchestre Symphonique Bienne under the direction of Thomas Rosner. With powerful coloratura pipes, Archibald melts the reactor core this scenes from L'anima del filosofo, ossia Orfeo ded Euridice (1791) and Orlando Paladino (1782). Tired of one more Le Nozze de Figaro? Here you go.
Haydn Arias
ATMA ClassicqueSearch Amazon.com for Haydn Arias
2011
A creamy rich soprano with a dash of Tabasco lubricates the hinge between Baroque Opera and Mozart on the wheels of Papa Haydn. Canadian Jane Archibald bridges Vivaldi to to the Classical with selections from five Haydn operas on the wings of the modern instrument ensemble L'Orchestre Symphonique Bienne under the direction of Thomas Rosner. With powerful coloratura pipes, Archibald melts the reactor core this scenes from L'anima del filosofo, ossia Orfeo ded Euridice (1791) and Orlando Paladino (1782). Tired of one more Le Nozze de Figaro? Here you go.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Van Morrison: For Rainbow (Rainbow Theater, London, July 24, 1973)
For Rainbow (Rainbow Theater, London, July 24, 1973)
QualityBootz
1974/2011
My bootleg recording source, QualityBootz, has been posting some very fine mid-'70s Van Morrison. One such post was Morrison's July 24, 1973 appearance at London's Rainbow Theater. Portions of this concert were used in Morrison's 1974 live digest, It's Too Late to Stop Now (Warner Brothers). If there were a time to hear Morrison live it was in the mid'70s. Morrison shows in "Moonshine Whiskey" that he can do more with two chords than anyone. "Caravan," Cyprus Avenue" and "Wild Night" are a completing trifecta of blue-eyed soul perfection.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Black Swan (2010)
Black Swan
Directed By Darren Aronofsky
Fox Searchlight Pictures
2010
Take Scott Hick's Shine (Fine Line Features, 1996), replace Goeffrey Rush with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, replace the piano with a ballet, add a huge, heaping pile of repressed pan-eroticism that spontaneously combusts allowing Sigmund Freud to light his cigar on the flame while Carl Jung cries for his mother and you have Black Swan. Stylish and predictable in an unpredictable way, Portman and Kunis portray the Id and the Ego locked in a mortal battle for perfection that is achieved in a modern liebestod.
Directed By Darren Aronofsky
Fox Searchlight Pictures
2010
Take Scott Hick's Shine (Fine Line Features, 1996), replace Goeffrey Rush with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, replace the piano with a ballet, add a huge, heaping pile of repressed pan-eroticism that spontaneously combusts allowing Sigmund Freud to light his cigar on the flame while Carl Jung cries for his mother and you have Black Swan. Stylish and predictable in an unpredictable way, Portman and Kunis portray the Id and the Ego locked in a mortal battle for perfection that is achieved in a modern liebestod.
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