Is anyone listening to Dido and Aeneas on Radio 3 at the moment?

[IorekByrnison]

?

I heard she is performing in Hansel and Gretel in Covent Garden later this year

I had that Arie Antiche CD marina but lent it to a pupil and it never came back. I think she is lovely on that, especially in Sposa son Disprezzata.

Ooh, I couldn't compare dawn Upshaw to Kirkby. Upshaw is far far superior to her!

I heard von Otter recently at Wigmore Hall and she was utterly delightful. She sang some Brahms lieder which makes me cry spontaneously when I listen to the cd, so you can imagine what I was like watching her perform them! I saw Kirchschlager in Pelleas e Melisande too and she was mesmeric. It's nice to hear high mezzos take centre stage a bit more.

Cecilia's coloratura is something else isn't it! this is just plain scary. My boyfriend (singer too) saw her in a masterclass and said her voice was unbelievable and not as small as some people say. She sang Donna Elvira a few years ago and it is like listening to a different voice, but I think she was trying to be too heavy tbh.

At least she does not sing like this

My arie antiche cd of hers has been played to death! I recently sang 'Il mio ben quando verra' which is on that cd and I had it on a loop for several weeks!

Oh, thanks for that Marina, just saw your good luck! It's hard to do it with kids though and will probably only really able to take it so far because of that.

I am Mn-ing with a coloratura-hater actually in the room so I'll save tonight's Youtube offerings for tomorrow
Let's just say I have CB's Vivaldi arias CD too and listening to it all in one go is like consuming a very large bar of chocolate. Delicious but hard on your liver...Would love to see her live and remember the criticism she drew for Donna Elvira all too well . I think there are worse crimes than not having a HUGE voice.
We've seen Dawn in recital a couple of times now and she is utter bliss. If I could sing Glitter and be Gay like she can I'd combust with happiness.

Haha! Well, do click on that last link if you want to laugh at a drunken Carmen! Have you tried listening to all the different versions of Glitter and be Gay on Youtube? It's so funny.

I saw Magdalena Kozena do La Cenerentola recently and I swear to god she was imitating Cecilia's head movements in the col sections. I had to really hold back the laughter!

late entry to the nice classical music thread here
I do love Cecilia Bartoli most of the time, sometimes it's too much, but she's a fabulous artist. DH and I looked after her once way back when she did a PA at HMV, she was absolutely lovely. We then all got free tickets to her Wigmore recital, it was the Vivaldi album stuff - very special to hear it in such an intimate venue. she is amazing live.

am afraid to say I have deserted teh altos in my choir now and have hacked my way onto the sops, in fact the highest solo parts now. to be fair, they needed the numbers more, but our altos needed me more TBH (tiny, unaccompanied early music choir, the alto parts are pretty interesting )
sometime I sing tenor as well though, they really need help

oooooh good
it was fun then? (need I ask)

lovely cali
Do tenors in choirs not always need help though, ladies?

blimey, yes ime.
where are the tenors?

Cowering in the choirstalls at our weekly practice, bless them
They are much better than they think they are, all two of them

have you ever seen those Welsh choir competitions they show on Welsh Ch4? I love them and I always marvel at the ranks of lovely young men with wonerful voices.
I am going to steal a few next time I go to WAles. honestly, they can spare them, easily.

Bag us a couple will you? The basses are fine

Saw this this morning, before going off to a tech briefing sort of thing - obviously missed listening to the broadcast, but had When I am Laid playing away mentally as counterpoint to the briefing ...

And it struck me - it's a bit ironic, isn't it? as all anyone ever remembers about Dido is her "fate" - ie that Aeneas chucked her.

I heard it first played at the memorial for a dear & lovely friend of mine who died of AIDS - and it was so precisely appropriate for him - because of course his fate was a wretched one, towards the end; and what I do re him is remember him, and utterly not his fate.

Bink, I know - bloody Virgil.

Dido was apparently a very capable woman (husband murdered by her brother and she escaped to avoid being murdered too, pitched up in Carthage as a refugee, tricked the king into letting her have as much land as she could fit inside the skin of an ox which she cut up very small and made into a nice big kingdom, refused to marry said king) and then because Virgil needed to draw a compairson between Aeneas who left the fascinating eastern princess and Mark Antony who didn't she had to die.

Great opera though, shame I missed it!

We did a rather fine version of it at university. Had a different name for it then of couse..

the 25th is my birthday
so think of me when you sing that lot

(I will be sleazing it up in Chicago - the show, not the city)