Opera

Step into a magical forest and the transcendent realm of Tippett’s Midsummer Marriage [PH]

Pristine’s remastering into Ambient Stereo both enhances the beauty of Callas’ Norma and amplifies that which is less admirable here [RMo]

A classic recording in a splendid remastering [JQ]

A completely convincing account of a rarely performed opera in a new orchestration for chamber orchestra [MP]

A delightful and musically substantial premier recording [MP]

A survey by Ralph Moore

An admirable effort to reconstruct the original version of a once popular work which veers between the highly entertaining and the banal [RMo]

A most worthwhile remastering of this classic Turandot, with sonic improvements throughout [EJW]

L’Orfeo with a difference, especially in instrumental colour and dramatic projection [RWe]

Aleksandra Kurzak is in striking form with an album of arias sung by legendary French soprano Cornélie Falcon [MC]

An operatic discovery which delivers a musical and dramatic feast despite some deeply flawed vocal performances [MP]

Put aside preconceptions of “authenticity” and enjoy this for what it is – a celebration of some of Rameau’s most appealing music [RMo]

Rousset and his team earn a gold medal for this premiere recording of a long-unheard opera [MP]

This powerful, moving, beautiful and disturbing new work is a triumph [SB]

All Wagnerians should consider this 1956 live Bayreuth Götterdämmerung [SB]

A qualified recommendation for a new recording of Lehár’s final operetta for Berlin [PT]

A comprehensive recital: a lot of brilliant and heroic singing, and some subtle and lyrical [GF]

Superb, sensuous, subtle singing from a highly gifted British lyric baritone [RMo]

Yet another classic opera recording given new lustre by Pristine’s remastering [RMo]

A pleasure to be reacquainted with Callas’s Norma in this remastering of her second studio recording [PT]

An under-rated, somewhat overlooked recording featuring an array of superb voices, very well conducted [RMo]

Wilson and his colleagues do full justice to this Broadway masterpiece [JQ]

Langgaard’s richly iconoclastic opera undermined and subverted by an over-rich iconoclastic staging [PCG]

Pristine’s splendid enhancement of this recording into Ambient Stereo further minimises the differences between this and Callas’ recording seven years later [RMo]