Opera
Reviews of full operas as well as collections and recitals of arias
Massenet: Werther (Bru Zane)
I will return to this recording with pleasure when I am in baritone mood [GF]
Meyerbeer: L’Africaine (Naxos)
A welcome chance to reassess Meyerbeer’s posthumous opera in a new critical edition [MP]
Tchaikovsky: The Queen of Spades (Delos)
(Déjà Review) A real feeling of spontaneity and excitement [CC]
Cilea: Gloria (Dynamic)
A fine production of a neglected work, not quite Adriana Lecouvreur melodically, but a feast for admirers of Italian opera [EJW]
Bellini: Norma (Pristine Audio)
A classic ensemble recording further enhanced by Pristine’s remastering into gloriously full and detailed, if slightly over-reverberant, sound [RMo]
Zemlinsky: Eine florentinische Tragödie (BR Klassik)
A good version but there are better [SB]
Wagner: The Complete Experience and its Meaning to Us (De la Porte Publishing)
Now a truly complete guide to Wagner’s operas, in a fine new edition [RWe]
Cimarosa: L’Olimpiade (Château de Versailles)
L’Olympiade is a worthy addition to the Cimarosa discography [GF]
Verdi: Il Trovatore (Divina Records)
One of Callas’ most inspired performances now slightly more listenable [MBu]
Cimarosa: Le Astuzie Femminili (cpo)
In its Full, Original Glory: Le astuzie femminili [DF]
Adèle Charvet (mezzo-soprano) Teatro Sant’Angelo (Alpha Classics)
A nice mixture of arias by Vivaldi and his less well-known colleagues [JV]
Rosenberg: The Isle of Bliss (Phono Suecia)
(Déjà Review) Highly approachable music … any lover of late-romantic opera will feel at home [GF]
Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel (Naxos)
(Déjà Review) An unmissable bargain, which I cannot recommend highly enough [JQ]
Strauss: Capriccio (Orfeo)
A good but hardly distinguished production, in terms of both performance and sound [RMo]
Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Pristine Audio)
A deeply touching Butterfly and a thrilling Pinkerton who are all the more striking in Pristine’s vivid remastering [RMo]
Rossini: Le Siège de Corinthe (C Major)
A fine cast of singers are thrown out to sea by a pointless, dismal production [MP]
Mozart: Mozart, You Drive me Crazy! (Alpha Classics)
Attractive in every respect to lovers of Mozart, or of opera in general [GF]
Donizetti: Dalinda (Oehms Classics)
Good, honest, open-throated singing in an intriguing and highly enjoyable reconstruction of a formerly lost work – and a star performance by the lead soprano [RMo]
Offenbach: La Belle Hélène (Regis)
Not for nothing has this Offenbach been counted among the five all-time great recordings of French opera [CH]
Thomas Quasthoff (bass- baritone) Evening Star (Deutsche Grammophon)
A cunningly devised programme ideally showcasing Quasthoff’s vocal versatility and dramatic gifts [RMo]
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Naxos)
Some good performances do little to redeem this drab, even absurd production of Meistersinger [LW]
Janáček: The Makropulos Case (Supraphon)
(Déjà Review) This has an unmistakably authentic feel about it [TH]
Opera Arias in Turin in 18th Century (cpo)
Charming but stylistically uniform arias from Turin in the later 18th century [CRo]
Schmidt: Fredigundis (Orfeo)
The only recording of Schmidt’s second opera does full justice to an unjustly neglected work [EJW]
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