operas

British Composers

Richard Wagner - Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman) - 1843
The Dutchman	bass-baritone	- Tomasz Konieczny
Senta, Daland's daughter	high dramatic soprano	- Ricarda Merbeth
Daland, a Norwegian sea captain	bass - Günther Groissböck
Erik, a huntsman	tenor -	Michael Weinius
Mary, Senta's nurse   contralto - Agnes Zwierko
Daland's steersman	tenor - Thomas Atkins
Conductor - Hannu Lintu
Orchestre et Choeurs de l'Opéra National de Paris
Live recording - Opéra de la Bastille - Paris - France - October 28 2021
Illustration - Ludolf Backhuisen

Richard Wagner - Der Fliegende Hollander - Paris - 2021

Giuseppe Verdi - Rigoletto - opera in three acts (1851)
Libreto by Francesco Maria Piave
Rigoletto, the Duke's jester	baritone	Ludovic Tézier
Gilda, his daughter	soprano	Nadine Sierra
Duke of Mantua	tenor	Dmitry Korchak
Sparafucile, a murderer for hire	bass	Goderdzi Janelidze
Maddalena, his sister	contralto	Justina Gringytė
Giovanna, Gilda's Nurse	mezzo-soprano	Cassandre Berthon
Count Ceprano	bass	
Countess Ceprano, his wife	mezzo-soprano	Izabella Wnorowska-Pluchart
Matteo Borsa, a courtier	tenor	Angelo Zuliani
Count Monterone	baritone	Bogdan Talos
Marullo	baritone	Jean-Luc Ballestra
A Court Usher	bass	Pierpaolo Palloni
A Page	mezzo-soprano	Lise Nougier
Orchestre et Choeurs de l’Opéra national de Paris
Conductor - Giacomo Sagripanti
Live recording - Opéra de la Bastille - Paris - France - October 29 2021
Illustration - Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen

Giuseppe Verdi - Rigoletto - Paris 2021

Gioachino Rossini - Il signor Bruschino, ossia Il figlio per azzardo (Signor Bruschino, or The Accidental Son) - one act operatic farce (farsa giocosa per musica) - 1813
Libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa
Gaudenzio - Savio Sperandio
Sofia - Lina Mendes
Bruschino padre - Saulo Javan
Bruschino figlio - Eduardo Gutierrez
Florville - Daniel Umbelino
Un delegato di polizia - Fellipe Oliveira
Filiberto - Gustavo Lassen
Marianna - Fernanda Nagashima
Orquestra do Theatro São Pedro
Regente - Claudio Cruz
Live recording - Theatro São Pedro - São Paulo, SP - Brazil - December 11 2021
Illustration - Louis Léopold Boilly

Gioachino Rossini - Il signor Bruschino - São Paulo - 2021

Giacomo Puccini - Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) opera in one act (1918)
Libretto by Giovacchino Forzano.
Conductor - Oksana Lyniv
Suor Angelica - Serena Farnocchia
La zia principessa - Violeta Urmana
Suora zelatrice - Sarah Laulan
La badessa- Julie Bailly
La maestra delle novizie - Aurore Bureau
Suor Genovieffa - Morgane Heyse
Suor MariaUna cercatrice
Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal de Wallonie
Live recording - Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, Liège, Brussels, February 06 2022
Illustration - Carlo Maratta


Giacomo Puccini - Suor Angelica - Liège - 2021

Reynaldo Hahn - Five, from Sept Chansons Grises (1893)
Lyrics by Paul Verlaine
Chanson d'automne,
Tous deux,
L’Allée est sans fin…,
En sourdine,
L’heure exquise
Mark Padmore, tenor
Simon Lepper, Piano
Live recording - Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, February 7, 2022
Illustration - Maurice Denis


Reynaldo Hahn - Five, from Sept Chansons Grises - Brussels - 2025

Benjamin Britten - Peter Grimes  - Opera in three acts - (1945)
Libretto by Montagu Slater
Peter Grimes, a fisherman	tenor	Fernando Portari
Ellen Orford, a widow, Borough schoolmistress	soprano	Daniela Carvalho
Auntie, landlady of The Boar	contralto	Thalita Azevedo
Niece 1	soprano	Maria Sole Gallevi
Niece 2	soprano	Dhijana Nobre
Balstrode, retired merchant skipper	baritone	Homero Velho
Mrs Sedley, a rentier widow	mezzo-soprano	Carla Rizzi
Swallow, a lawyer	bass	Anderson Barbosa
Ned Keene, apothecary and quack	baritone	Vinicius Atique
Bob Boles, fisherman and Methodist	tenor	Daniel Umbelino
The Rev Horace Adams, rector	tenor	Wilken Silveira
Hobson, carrier	bass	Emanuel Conde
Coral do Amazonas
Amazonas Filarmônica
Conductor - Luiz Fernando Malheiro
Live recording - Teatro Amazonas - Manaus - AM - May 20, 2022
Illustration - J. M. W. Turner: Fishermen at Sea

Benjamin Britten - Peter Grimes - Portari - Carvalho - Manaus - 2022 05 20

Edward Elgar - Cello Concerto in E minor, op. 65 (1919)
Cello - Antonio Menezes
Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
Conductor - Roberto Minczuk
Live recording - Theatro São Pedro - 1998 May 28
Illustration -Sir John Lavery

Edward Elgar - Cello Concerto in E minor - Live - Antonio Meneses - São Paulo - 1998

Michael Head - The Singer (1939)
Lyrics by Bronnie Taylor
Solo - Rebecca Evans (soprano)
Live recording - Walter Reade Theater - Lincoln Center - New York - USA - January 25, 1999
Illustration - Phil Rogers

Michael Head - The Singer - Evans - Live - New York - 1999

Donald Swann - A Word on My Ear
Lyrics by  Michael Flanders
Solo - Rebecca Evans (soprano)
Piano - Craig Rutemberg
Live recording - Walter Reade Theater - Lincoln Center - New York - USA - January 25, 1999
Lyrics:
(Intro)
A prisoner to rapture by arduous duty pressed
A slave to the longing which lingers in my breast
Farewell, my friends, adieu
I cannot stay with you
Farewell, farewell, farewell

(Verse 1)
Before I deliver my seventh encore
There's something I'd like to make clear
They say I've brought pleasure to millions or more
They say that my singing half won the last war
When I sang to the troops in the rear
I'm a dame with a name
At the peak of my fame
I'm known as the Empress of Song
The critics bravo
And the critics should know
But I cannot help feeling they're wrong
I'm lauded, applauded, recorded, but list!
I've a musical flaw that they seem to have missed
That they seem to have missed
That they seem to have missed

(Chorus 1)
I'm tone deaf
Music means nothing to me
It's only the way
My accompanists play
That makes it appear I'm in key
Stone tone deaf
Can't tell a key from a clef
I stand by the pianist watching his face
For he's told me to start when he comes to the place
Where he'll give me a whacking great (*discordant crash in the piano*) in the bass
Because I'm tone deaf

(Chorus 2)
I'm tone deaf
Never could understand pitch
Some people I know
Will sing sol-fa-ti-do
And claim they can tell which is which
Stone tone deaf
Can't tell a B from an F
Colin Davis once said, "Now I don't want to carp
But if that's a B natural played on the harp
Then you're either B-flat, dear, or bloody B-sharp!"
But then I'm tone deaf

(Verse 2)
My technique is perfect (aah!) and likewise my larynx
Paolozzi once sculpted a bust of my pharynx
While lovers of music all praise with conviction
My phrasing, my timbre, my perfection of diction
Made trilling made Klemperer swoon (aah!)
But I just can't remember the tune

(Chorus 3)
I'm tone deaf
But in most modern works for the voice
The note that I hit
Doesn't matter a bit
So it's purely a personal choice
Stone tone deaf
Musically D-E-A-F
Perhaps Covent Garden can do without me
But while I live on an Equity fee
I'll always get work from the dear BBC
Because I'm tone deaf
Yes I'm tone deaf

Flanders And Swann - A Word On My Ear - Live - Evans - New York - 1999

Dilys Elwyn-Edwards - Caneuon Natur (Nature Songs) - (1977)
Y Mynydd (The Mountain)
Deilen (Leaves)
Noson o Haf (Night of Summer)
Solo - Rebecca Evans (soprano)
Piano - Craig Rutemberg
Live recording - Walter Reade Theater - Lincoln Center - New York - USA - January 25, 1999
Illustration - Kyffin Williams

Dilys Elwyn-Edwards - Caneuon Natur (Nature Songs) - Evans - New York - 1999

Henry Purcell -  "Sweater Than Roses" from incidental music to Richard Norton's play Pausanias, the Betrayer of His Country (1695)(Tippett/Bergmann edition)
Solo - Rebecca Evans (soprano)
Piano - Craig Rutemberg
Live recording - Walter Reade Theater - Lincoln Center - New York - USA - January 25, 1999
Illustration - Peter Lely
Lyrics
ACT III.
SCENE I. Pandora in her Apartment.
SONGS. After which Argilius enters.
SWeeter than Roses, or cool Evening's breeze,
On a warm Flowery Shore,
Was the dear Kiss, first trembling made me freeze,
Then shot like Fire all o're;
What Magick has Victorious love!
For all I touch, or see,
Since that dear kiss, I hourly prove,
All, all is Love to me.

Benjamin Britten - Peter Grimes - Portari - Carvalho - Manaus - 2022 05 20

Jorge Coli