Saturday, November 5, 2011
Schwanda the Bagpiper
I frankly love this little concert opener. Mitropoulos does circles around Reiner's famous recording. Only Mackerras comes close to this. Reiner is extremely regimented (as always), Mackerras is perhaps the best of all - as dramatic as any, but more fun. Mitropoulos is more dramatic. Both quite valid. ....has anyone ever heard the full opera?
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Yes, though not live. There's a great recording in German from the 70s, with Lucia Popp, Herman Prey, and Siegfried Jerusalem. It is a wonderful opera and high on the list of rarities I'd like to see.
ReplyDeleteIf you travel, Operabase tells me there are performances coming up in Dresden and Goerlitz.
The Mitropoulos performance of the polka is fabulous, if it's the one I'm thinking of.
Oh, wow! Thanks so much for that Lisa. I'm certainly going to track it down now. Did Weinberger ever write anything else that's performed, even rarely?
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