Opera
Reviews of full operas as well as collections and recitals of arias
Cimarosa: L’Olimpiade (Château de Versailles)
Rousset and his team earn a gold medal for this premiere recording of a long-unheard opera [MP]
Benjamin: Picture a day like this (Nimbus Records)
This powerful, moving, beautiful and disturbing new work is a triumph [SB]
Wagner: Götterdämmerung (Pristine Audio)
All Wagnerians should consider this 1956 live Bayreuth Götterdämmerung [SB]
Lehár: Schön ist die Welt (cpo)
A qualified recommendation for a new recording of Lehár’s final operetta for Berlin [PT]
Saimir Pirgu (tenor) Saimir (Opus Arte)
A comprehensive recital: a lot of brilliant and heroic singing, and some subtle and lyrical [GF]
Huw Montague Rendall (baritone): Contemplation (Erato)
Superb, sensuous, subtle singing from a highly gifted British lyric baritone [RMo]
Puccini: Turandot (Pristine Audio)
Yet another classic opera recording given new lustre by Pristine’s remastering [RMo]
Bellini: Norma (Pristine Audio)
A pleasure to be reacquainted with Callas’s Norma in this remastering of her second studio recording [PT]
Verdi: Rigoletto (Warner Classics)
An under-rated, somewhat overlooked recording featuring an array of superb voices, very well conducted [RMo]
Rodgers: Carousel (Chandos)
Wilson and his colleagues do full justice to this Broadway masterpiece [JQ]
Langgaard: Antikrist (Naxos)
Langgaard’s richly iconoclastic opera undermined and subverted by an over-rich iconoclastic staging [PCG]
Ponchielli: La Gioconda (Pristine Audio)
Pristine’s splendid enhancement of this recording into Ambient Stereo further minimises the differences between this and Callas’ recording seven years later [RMo]
Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Pristine Audio)
De los Ángeles is a winning Butterfly in this classic set, now reissued by Pristine [PT]
Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffmann (Erato)
Alagna and van Dam are very fine, but the Bonynge recording retains its place in the affections of collectors [RMo]
Penderecki: Paradise Lost (Dux)
A valuable Penderecki rediscovery undermined by problems of preparation and presentation [PCG]
Handel: Arias (Linn)
(Déjà Review) I will treasure this disc as a record of a fine singer at a wonderful peak in her career [RH]
Wagner: Das Rheingold (Deutsche Grammophon)
A stunning new high resolution transfer of this classic recording [MP]
Dvořák: Rusalka (Supraphon)
(Déjà Review) This is a recording which instilled in me a love of the opera which has so far not died; it will surely do the same for many new listeners [CH]
Bizet: Carmen (Pristine Audio)
A marvellous restoration of an old and half-forgotten recording [GF]
George Benjamin: Picture a day like this (Nimbus)
A beautiful, subtle, yet fully effective portrait of grief [MBu]
Ombre di luce – recital (Pentatone)
An attractive programme, very well sung, with several rarities [GF]
Michael Spyres (tenor): In The Shadows (Erato)
An interesting and enterprising recital but a question mark over the suitability of the voice for some of the material [PT]
Wagner: Parsifal (Deutsche Grammophon)
The best new Parsifal recording since Kubelik [SSc]
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