Dear Santa

I figure it's the season for wishes, so I've been thinking about some of mine. Too late for this Christmas, of course; but Santa, if you're reading, keep this in mind for future reference.

From the record companies, I would like...

A solo disc by Patrizia Ciofi. Hasn't it been an awfully long time since the Vivaldi motets and Amor e gelosia? I think not baroque this time, though. I'm in the mood for 19th century French repertoire. Massenet (my guilty pleasure) and Berlioz — I know she's recorded Benvenuto Cellini, I'd love to hear her "Entre l'amour et le devoir" without buying the whole damn opera. Some Offenbach wouldn't go amiss and some Meyerbeer too, perhaps. I'll stretch the French theme to include Donizetti en français, too — Marie, obviously, since I'm still obsessed with her Fille, and Lucie's mad scene, which I did have on another computer once and which was odd and fabulous. 

From Cheryl Barker, maybe something in the vein of Renée's Signatures — big scenes and arias from the music she's her best in. I'd like some bits of the roles I regret missing her in — a healthy (or consumptive, for that matter) chunk of Violetta, Elvira's "Mi tradi", Salome's huge final monologue, Tatyana's Letter Scene, even Hanna Glawari... and then, just to indulge me, some things she's never (to my knowledge) sung — the Marschallin's Act I monologue, Elisabetta's "Tu che le vanita", Marietta's Lied, and - why not? - some Vitellia. It would certainly keep me going for a while. Failing that — Chandos, how about a Cheryl Barker Sings Great Operatic Arias for Opera in English? She seems to be a Chandos in-house diva these days, after all — Cio-Cio San, Katya Kabanova, Jenufa, Emilia Marty, Rusalka and counting...

Finally, a recital disc dream I've cherished for several years. Way back when I was first enchanted by Patricia Wright, I imagined her singing Copland's Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. I don't now them as well now as I used to, but something in the fragments I recall still seems like a beautiful fit. Actually it's more than that — the fragments I recall, I hear in my head in her voice. And when I listen to her sing Vaughan Williams or (sigh) Bax or even (different kind of sigh) Richard Strauss, this idea always re-occurs to me. They don't fill out a whole CD on their own, though, so I'd pair them — just to make for an all-out lyrical feast — with Golijov's Three Songs. Patricia's take on these is exquisite. I have a recording of them; the world at large deserves the same privilege.

Two other wishes I would have made are already to be fulfilled of their own accord. Natalie Dessay's Italian arias comes out next month; later in the year there's an all Handel recital from Glorious Joyce.

From Opera Australia, I'd like...

As always, Poulenc. Les dialogues des Carmélites seems the likeliest, so I'll make that my number one wish. Antoinette Halloran as Blanche de la Force? Elizabeth Whitehouse as Madame Lidoine? But not Hye-Seoung Kwon or Taryn Fiebig as Soeur Constance (it would inevitably be one of them) — just import Sarah Tynan, she's magical on the Chandos recording.

Bizet's Djamileh, as I've probably said before. Beats Carmen and Les pêcheurs de perles hands down, though it's only one act, so it needs a partner. How about Bizet's Le Docteur Miracle about which I know absolutely nothing except that it's also a one act opera. Viardot's Cendrillon has three acts, but only lasts an hour, so it might fit too. Not that I see Opera Australia leaping at an Obscure French Double Feature any time soon.

More Cheryl vehicles. I don't have to wish too hard for these, I suspect; they just happen. My hope at the moment is that the Madama Butterfly and Manon Lescaut currently listed on the calendar at the ICBA website with "Will be announced soon" instead of a company name will prove to be Opera Australia ventures. Especially the Butterfly — I'm besotted enough with her Cio-Cio San on film, but to see her in person, in the same beautiful production would make my little heart flutter even faster.

And for Pinchgut, I'd like...

The funding and resources to allow them to double, triple, quadruple or quintuple their season. Or more than that. I wouldn't dare to wish for specific operas from Pinchgut as they're much better at coming up with fabulous ideas than I ever could be. This year, Vivaldi; next year, CAVALLI. I'm very happy. The thought of future seasons has me salivating but oh, what a joy it would be not to have to wait a year between productions.

Back on earth, some slightly more possible wishes for the near future:

A Mimi so revelatory from Antoinette Halloran that I start to think I like La boheme; a shop which actually has Opera Rara's Entre Nous: Celebrating Offenbach in stock so I can finally buy it; good sound quality (despite this ominous post from Bardassa) at the Met cinema broadcasts; continued speedy access to NatalieTube, lately becoming KathleenTube; and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of music in my stocking next Tuesday.

Comments

[Extatic]

Try http://rapidshare.com/files/42178958/Bizet_Docteur_Miracle.rar for a recording of Bizet's Le Docteur Miracle.

So Djamileh rings more bells to you than Les Pêcheurs de Perles. Try Les Pêcheurs with Patrizia Ciofi, as I did last year, you might change your mind...