Tim Ashley

Yes, I remember the heat and the absence of air conditioning, from when I went in 2005. I saw a strange Tristan, set on a 1950s channel ferry, with the love potion in a vacuum flask of cocoa. An experience as you say. Make sure you find time for the Liszt Museum, while you're there. Fascinating.

YouTube video by Addiobelpassato Irmgard Seefried "Il Tramonto (Sunset)" Respighi

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on this day in 1792. So here is Irmgard Seefried singing Il Tramonto, Respighi's great 1918 setting of The Sunset, with the Lucerne Festival Strings and Rudolf Baumgartner.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5QZ...

Thank you, Mark. As is yours! And likewise a pleasure to see you, too!!

Looking really good, Dennis. Hope Bayreuth and Parsifal are magical .....

Yes, I love it, too, but hadn't seen it first time around. Musically, it just about held me, but the staging is frankly bizarre.......

Káťa Kabanová review – furtive groping and a wing-bloodied angel stalk flawed staging of Janáček’s opera Robin Ticciati conducts the London Philharmonic in this finely sung but inconsistent revival of Damiano Michieletto’s 2021 production

Wounded Angels: Glyndebourne revives Damiano Michieletto's antiseptic, symbolist staging of Kát'a Kabanová. Frankly, it doesn't do it for me as theatre, but it's wonderfully well sung.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...

It is indeed!!

Oh excellent! Hopefully I shall see you there!!

Suddenly there seems to be a monsoon going on on the South coast ....... 🌧️

Well, I have a content warning with it. Amazing what they will censor. Will Raphael and Michelangelo be considered adult content next?

YouTube video by op106 Louis Kentner in recital plays Liszt's 2nd Années de Pèlerinage, ( Italy ) London 1960's

Franz Liszt died in Bayreuth on this day in 1886. So here's a film of Louis Kentner playing the second (Italian) book of Années de pèlerinage at a recital in London in the 1960s. This is just utterly wonderful.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJuP...

Très beau, Frédéric! 😘

YouTube video by Philharmonia Orchestra - Topic Erbarme dich, mein Gott (Matthäuspassion)

Bach died on this day in 1750. Kirsten Flagstad sings Erbarme dich, mein Gott from the St Matthew Passion with the Philharmonia and Walter Susskind in 1950.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv_s...

YouTube video by Jeffrey Stivers Mentre dormi, Amor fomenti (Vivaldi) Sara Mingardo

Vivaldi died on this day in 1741. Sara Mingardo sings Mentre dormi, Amor fomenti from L'Olimpiade with Concerto Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjjY...

YouTube video by Musical Comedy Tom Lehrer | “Alma” (The Spiciest Obituary)

Really saddened to hear Tom Lehrer has died aged 97. We have lost a genius. RIP great man.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L35I...

It reads beautifully, have no fear. But I can well imagine. And sympathise. It's been sweltering here, too. Hard to string a sentence together in it, I'm afraid.

Wonderful piece, Mark!!

*sing it (i.e. Luisa Miller) at Covent Garden. Elizabeth Connell was Federica d'Ostheim, too. It's Obraztsova on the recording if I remember rightly .......

It was Maazel in the theatre, when the production was new .......

Yes, I know. I heard her sing at Covent Garden with Pavarotti, Carreras, Domingo, and Carlo Bergonzi, who was actually the best of the lot .......

I heard her a lot in the 1980s and 90s at Covent Garden, and occasionally thought she did things that didn't really suit her (Lucia, Aida). But she was a great artist and there were things that were absolutely astonishing (Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Giulietta in Bellini's Capuleti, Luisa Miller).

YouTube video by italiantenor Liszt Tre sonetti del Petrarca III "I' vidi in terra" Katia Ricciarelli Martin Katz

To mark the anniversary today of Petrarch's birth in 1304, here is Katia Ricciarelli singing I'vidi in terra angelici costumi from Liszts's Petrarch Sonnets, at Carnegie Hall in 1983 with Martin Katz at the piano.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHkf...

Oh, I'm glad Rachvelishvili is back. That's a relief. There were issues when she came back too soon after having a baby I gather. She can be incredible. I wasn't overwhelmed by her Carmen, alas (with Alagna in the old Zambello production). But she was one of the greatest Azucenas I've ever heard.

Yes, she was incredible powerful in it, wonderfully noble. It all worked very well. I actually went to two performances in the end.

Yes, I know what you mean. I don't get on with Ricciarelli's Turandot, I'm afraid. She also did Aida at Covent Garden and it was not good. She was there a lot in the 1980s, and I rather took her for granted. My mistake. I'd cross continents now to hear a singer like her at her best.......

I really like that. The Act II duet with Cossotto was mightily impressive, I remember ........

That might have been quite something ...........

YouTube video by Goran VON Karkin 7. Aida, Ljiljana Molnar Talajic, Cecchele, Verona

Here you go. The conductor here should be shot, but you'll get the idea. She also did Ballo at Covent Garden. And that, I think, was it, as far as the UK was concerned....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgE7...

Oh, she was a bull in a china shop on stage in it, as well, over the top and flinging herself onto the prompt box t the end of the judgement scene in an attempt to get a solo call, which she didn't. Zeffirelli thought she behaved so badly during the Paris Normas he refused to work with her again

Oh, she was thrilling in it. And I actually thought in a way she worked better with Molnar-Talajic (sumptuous, big voice, a singer who should have been better known) than she does with Caballé on disc. But that floated high C is breathtaking, I agree. Same as at the end of Act I in the Solti Bohème