Jump to content
IGNORED

Opera


Recommended Posts

19 minutes ago, Teresa said:

I really like the orchestral suite from Carmen. IMHO there is a lot of great music from operas without the singing.

R-385134-1373046101-3301.jpeg.jpg

You might try this. Apparently, there is a lot of great music from The Beatles without the singing.?

Kal Rubinson

Senior Contributing Editor, Stereophile

 

Link to comment
33 minutes ago, Kal Rubinson said:

R-385134-1373046101-3301.jpeg.jpg

You might try this. Apparently, there is a lot of great music from The Beatles without the singing.?

There's also a lot of great music from Ballets without the dancing. :)

 

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

Link to comment
48 minutes ago, wgscott said:

 

+6.02 x 10^23.

 

But you forgot Tom Waits.

 

I like Tom Waits a lot. OTOH, Aretha sang opera (subbing for Pavarotti who was ill), so she probably didn't hate it.  Not surprisingly, great musicians love all kinds of music.  They tend to get less hung up on categories than many fans. 

One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein

Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature.

Link to comment
On 8/26/2018 at 1:55 PM, mansr said:
On 8/26/2018 at 1:16 PM, sphinxsix said:

I can't even think about my possible reaction to a death metal band which would add operatic vocals to their frontman growling

I'll have to suggest that to the local musicians and see what they do.

 

It seems that the idea of mixing of growling and operatic vocals is not so new :

(I actually hate it a little bit less than I thought I would - probably due to the fact that this piece is not as extreme as death metal)

 

 

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
7 hours ago, FIndingit said:

Early 20th century Baltimore surely wasn't the best place for opera. I doubt it's the best place for it today.

 

No worries if you don't mind viewing at a cinema in Baltimore:

 

https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/

 

"The 2018–19 Live in HD season of movie theater transmissions begins on October 6 with Verdi’s Aida, starring Anna Netrebko."

Link to comment

I used to enjoy The Met opera at the local AMC. Where else could you see Shostakovich's The Nose outside of NYC?

 

But now, since we can't be seated one second without food and drink, the smells and disruptions have made the AMC opera experience unbearable.

And while I'm venting, texting, email checking, facebook checking, ... etc., have made the experience impossible.

 

 

"The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought", Sir Thomas Beecham. 

 

 

Link to comment
5 hours ago, rodrigaj said:

I used to enjoy The Met opera at the local AMC. Where else could you see Shostakovich's The Nose outside of NYC?

 

But now, since we can't be seated one second without food and drink, the smells and disruptions have made the AMC opera experience unbearable.

And while I'm venting, texting, email checking, facebook checking, ... etc., have made the experience impossible.

 

That's why we have BlueRay discs.

Kal Rubinson

Senior Contributing Editor, Stereophile

 

Link to comment
24 minutes ago, Kal Rubinson said:

That's why we have BlueRay discs.

 

The MET performance of Shostakovich's The Nose is on BlueRay?

 

The problem with BlueRay is that none of the unusual stuff gets released. Once the performances in movie theatres are done they are gone.

 

"The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought", Sir Thomas Beecham. 

 

 

Link to comment
6 hours ago, rodrigaj said:

I used to enjoy The Met opera at the local AMC. Where else could you see Shostakovich's The Nose outside of NYC?

 

But now, since we can't be seated one second without food and drink, the smells and disruptions have made the AMC opera experience unbearable.

And while I'm venting, texting, email checking, facebook checking, ... etc., have made the experience impossible.

 

 

I guess we're really lucky - the theater we go to (can't wait for Aida this Saturday) is populated primarily by blue hairs and men older than we ;)  So very little texting, email checking, etc. - just a group of 100 or so die-hard opera fans enjoying great music :)

John Walker - IT Executive

Headphone - SonicTransporter i9 running Roon Server > Netgear Orbi > Blue Jeans Cable Ethernet > mRendu Roon endpoint > Topping D90 > Topping A90d > Dan Clark Expanse / HiFiMan H6SE v2 / HiFiman Arya Stealth

Home Theater / Music -SonicTransporter i9 running Roon Server > Netgear Orbi > Blue Jeans Cable HDMI > Denon X3700h > Anthem Amp for front channels > Revel F208-based 5.2.4 Atmos speaker system

Link to comment
18 minutes ago, rodrigaj said:

 

The MET performance of Shostakovich's The Nose is on BlueRay?

 

The problem with BlueRay is that none of the unusual stuff gets released. Once the performances in movie theatres are done they are gone.

Not that I know of but there is a DVD, a YouTube performance and a multichannel SACD.  One hopes there will be a BluRay one day.  At least one can enjoy these without distractions.

Kal Rubinson

Senior Contributing Editor, Stereophile

 

Link to comment
1 hour ago, jhwalker said:

I guess we're really lucky - the theater we go to (can't wait for Aida this Saturday) is populated primarily by blue hairs and men older than we ;)  So very little texting, email checking, etc. - just a group of 100 or so die-hard opera fans enjoying great music :)

 

That can be a mixed blessing.  In our local theater, I complained the volume was so loud the sound system was distorting.  Another patron said they needed the volume loud because all the seniors in the audience were hard of hearing.  Of course, they were unconvinced by my assertion that they'd hear better if the audio were less distorted.

 

(Rant:  When I lived in LA many years ago, there were several theaters with THX sound systems, but in the Bay Area I'm unaware of any theater with high quality sound.)

 

For me, the MET streaming channel is a better audio experience than the local theaters.  However, its audio quality is markedly inferior to redbook.  In fact, I've never heard even a BluRay video whose audio is as good as redbook. Maybe my Oppo 103 is degrading the audio when it converts it to Toslink for connection to my DAC, but all reports of the Oppo are positive.

HQPlayer (on 3.8 GHz 8-core i7 iMac 2020) > NAA (on 2012 Mac Mini i7) > RME ADI-2 v2 > Benchmark AHB-2 > Thiel 3.7

Link to comment
23 minutes ago, Kal Rubinson said:

I am surprised.

 

Do the vast majority of Bluray opera videos have uncompressed audio tracks?

 

Perhaps the Oppo is outputting the compressed stereo track instead of extracting uncompressed stereo from the highest quality multi-channel track, even though I select the latter in the on-screen setup menu for the title.  

 

Sorry, Kal; I can’t scrounge up more than two loudspeakers (:

HQPlayer (on 3.8 GHz 8-core i7 iMac 2020) > NAA (on 2012 Mac Mini i7) > RME ADI-2 v2 > Benchmark AHB-2 > Thiel 3.7

Link to comment
10 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

Do the vast majority of Bluray opera videos have uncompressed audio tracks?

Yes.

10 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

Perhaps the Oppo is outputting the compressed stereo track instead of extracting uncompressed stereo from the highest quality multi-channel track, even though I select the latter in the on-screen setup menu for the title.  

I cannot vouch for whether the mamajority of Bluray opera videos have an uncompressed stereo audio track.

Kal Rubinson

Senior Contributing Editor, Stereophile

 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...