Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Joe Green's Egyptian thingy

My wife's mother has kindly given us two tickets to see the Australian Opera perform Aida at the Sydney Opera House.

We owned a CD of highlights, but I've never really engaged with it. It's Claudia Abbado, Placido Domingo and some other geezers, but it doesn't even include the triumphal march. How can you have a highlights CD without the triumphal march?

Today we've been listening to Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Bergonzi and the mob. It is magnificent. Several reviewers say it is still the best ever recording. We haven't heard many others [the odd triumphal march, of course, when people don't leave it out!], but it is everything that has been claimed for it.

And there are so many great moments left off the highlights CD. Verdi good, as Basil would say!

No comments: