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Two goodies from Le festival Radio France Montpellier-Languedoc

The festival is usually broadcast by France musique

19th July 2013

Madame Sans-Gêne Umberto Giordano

opéra-comique en trois actes - version concert
Stefano Ranzani direction
Orchestre national Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon
Chœur de la Radio Lettone
Chœur de l'Opéra national Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon

24th July 2013

La Vivandière Benjamin Godard

opéra-comique en  trois actes - version concert
Patrick Davin direction
Orchestre national Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon
Chœur de Radio France

Further festival details at: http://www.festivalradiofrancemontpellier.com/index.php/2013-01-16-15-54-37

Draeseke's Christus is on offer at 2001 (a German book and media company which also does mail order. They often have excellent bargains and this one is worth investigating if you are still looking for it at a reasonable price.

The five CDs are reduced from €89.99 to €29.99. Postage to UK is €9.50.

The 2002 link is: http://www.zweitausendeins.de/catalogsearch/result/?q=Felix+Draeseke&cat=&t=1

We're nearly a quarter of the way through Wagner year and I can't really say there have been any interesting good quality releases of less known Wagner. Even EMI's The Other Wagner isn't complete and consists of many re-releases. This caused me to rake through my cassettes where I found a few items not included: the overtures König Enzio, Rule Britannia and Polonia. I then checked my Wagner catalogue list and discovered there are two extant Concert Overtures, in D minor (WWV20) and in C major (WWV27); both published by Schirmer (at least). The C major overture is available on CD but I can't find any trace of the D minor being recorded. Does anyone know if it has?

CPO are currently reducing 110 CDs from Toccata Classics from €15.99 to €8.99. See No. 4 of banner at http://www.jpc.de/jpc/classic/home

I don't know if that's tempting for UK residents, but certainly for euro users on the continent!

Bernd Helmich's reign at the Chemnitz Opera House has seen a wonderful sequence of unsung operas, all of which have been broadcast and recorded for CD release by CPO (who else?). They include Nicolai's Il templario and Die Heimkehr des Verbannten, Pfitzner's Die Rose vom Liebesgarten, Schreker's Der Schmied von Gent and Reznicek's Benzin. Helmich's probable last unsung offering before he transfers to Bonn is Meyerbeer's Vasco de Gama.

Rehearsals are already in progress for this production of the opera's critical edition by Jürgen Schläder. It is based on the last published and unpublished material left by Meyerbeer on his death.
According to the information presented on the Chemnitz Opera homepage Meyerbeer himself altered the location of two acts to India during the thirty years he spent on writing the score. These changes were not taken into account by the Belgian musicologist François-Joseph Fétis when he produced the shortened version known as L'Africaine that was premièred in Paris in 1865.

The premiere of Vasco da Gama is on Saturday 2nd February 2013 and a transmission by Deutschlandradio Kultur is planned.
I have it on good authority that the performance could last four and a half hours including two intervals. A CD production by CPO is planned. (Like some of the others, eventually, I guess!)

This evening and on Friday evening the first performances of Massenet's 1891 Poème symphonique Visions in the final version conceived with Electrophone will take place in St Etienne as part of this year's Massenet Festival.

Unfortunately, I can't ascertain if this will be broadcast or recorded.

For Lachner fans who might wish to hear a rare performance of one of his operas. It will be interesting to compare with Donizetti's work. It would be equally interesting to compare his Benvenuto Cellini with Berlioz's though I suspect the latter would win the day.

Bavarian Radio Klassik on 14.10.2012 at 19:00

From the Prinzregententheater, Munich

Franz Lachner (1803 - 1890)
Catharina Cornaro
Opera in four acts

Catharina Cornaro   Michaela Kaune
Andrea Cornaro   Simon Pauly
Marco Venero   Daniel Kirch
Jacob von Lusignan    Mauro Peter
Onofrio   Christian Tschelebiew
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Conducted by Ulf Schirmer

Has anyone tried opening *zip files from Todopera?
I've downloaded the first act of Tchaikovsky's Joan of Arc and none of the unzipping programms I've tried function. 
Is there anything special about these file I' missing?