I thought up some cutesy title last night, but i've forgotten it....

I'm currently recording the last opera album I've got. then it's on to, um, random stuff again. It's gotten slow because my voice teacher loaned me a few things to record and I took the time to clean them up and so it takes the computer forever to save them. finally made it through Otello. then had a couple three-in-one things, Tales of Hoffmann by Offenbach and Puccini's Il Trittico. Hoffmann was "meh". The men, Gedda and London sounded great, but the women sounded anemic. I think it was a recording issue more than anything, sometimes the mics don't pick up what you would hear in a hall. Trittico was good, I'm loving Renata Scotto (she sang Giorgetta and Angelica).

oh, there was also Lucia di Lammermoor with Sutherland and Cioni and Robert Merrill. I liked it okay, Sutherland is kinda hit or miss to me, but in this one she didn't sound like she was trying too hard so it was nice. also, it kinda creeped me out, which I hadn't expected.

what else? um, a Boheme with Anna Moffo and Richard Tucker. It was... different than what I'm used to. and The Saint of Bleecker Street by Menotti, not much to say about it really, it's Menotti. Cavalleria Rusticana, which I just happened to end up recording on Easter. and the extra side was some random arias sung by Zinka Milanov.

and for a change Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in D Major. and for even more change, Stravinsky's The Rakes Progress. (with Stravinsky conducting) Not my favorite thing ever.

which brings us to this afternoon's Marriage of Figaro. I just don't get tired of this opera. although this particular recording, featuring Eberhard Wachter, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Anna Moffo among others, is a bit more staid than the other, more recent recording I've got. not as much laughing and the character singers don't go quite so far afield vocally. could just be an issue of fitting it all on three albums.