Heirdrun - I am puzzled, that is not you singing there is it? That is impossible. It says if it Antoinella Stella who was a famous singer in the 60's.
Bist du mit uns spass machen? What is this some kind of joke?
Hi Lakey,
sorry, I wasn't clear in my report. This is a clip from a DVD that I have. The soprano is Josephine Barstow. I used the love duet from the 2nd act to "oil" my opera voice a bit (i.e. I sang with them and got a big kick out of it). The voice is quite rusty after 5 years of no use. Never got to stage BTW, but I did sing in the choir in a public performance of Haydn's "Die Schöpfung", and in a concert with Wagner pieces, both in the "Brucknerhaus" in Linz. Unforgettable memories!
Anyway, I watched the entire performance, just masterfull. I am a bass singer, but not at that level of performance. Google a man named Franz Xavier Gerl, born in Andorf Austria in 1764, died in Mannheim in 1827. There is a Wikepedia article on him. He studied music with Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang's father, as a youth, studied mathematics, physics and philosophy at the University of Salzburg and then joined a group of traveling musicians and was picked up as a troupe member by Emmanuel Shikaneder. Shikaneder was an impressario who traveled through the German speaking world, at first putting on Shakespearian plays and then musical light operas in German, "Singspiels". On a tour through Salzburg around 1778-79 he became friendly with the Mozart family, and in particular with Wolfgang, who attended the plays he put on. In 1787, the Shikaneder troupe arrived in Vienna, with Gerl as bass and Gerl's close friend Shacht as tenor among other cast members. Mozart renewed acquaintances with his old friend Shikaneder and consequently become very friendly with Schacht and Gerl. An opera was produced for the 1790 season by the Shikaneder troupe, called "The Philosophers Stone". This opera was written by 5 composers, Shikaneder, Gerl, Shacht, Henneman, their young conductor, and then Mozart, who they got to write two or three arias including a famous "cat" aria. The opera was a big success so Shikaneder hired Mozart to write a sequel to it with the same cast and a very similar story line. This opera, written in the year of Mozart's death, 1791 became the" Magic Flute", one of the greatest operas of all time. Heidrun, Ich glaube das ich bin Gerl gewesen! When I visited Karlo 97 last June, he drove me all the way out to the village of Andorf, not too far from Linz, to see if it jangled any memories. This was about a 200 mile drive. Karl is quite a host! It was the thrill of a lifetime to go visit Andorf or so I thought. In recent weeks even bigger thrills have been coming almost daily here on ESMB.
Lakey