Opera

Pristine’s stereo remastering reveals its glories yet more vividly – but unfortunately also highlights the constant hacking of the audience and Windgassen’s coordination problems. [RMo]

(Déjà Review) Good sound, excellent playing and glorious singing [GF]

A great Callas recording is tidied up a bit, and her co-singers are brought into better focus [RMo]

A strong musical performance hampered by the directors’ silly concept and by technical issues with the sound [ST]

The only studio recording of Strauss’s biographical opera is a complete winner on all front [MP]

A good cast and excellent sound are featured on Rattle’s challenge to the Mackerras hegemony [MP]

A great performance revitalised in extraordinarily vivid sound – another Pristine remastering triumph [RMo]

I enjoyed some unhackneyed repertoire and the marvellous singing [GF]

This version of Massenet’s opera is somewhat marred by the coarse recording, but there are a few thrills to be encountered nonetheless [MP]

Beautiful sonorities throughout but the conductor’s approach is an emotional letdown and hampers the stellar cast [MP]

An altogether outstanding record of a thrilling event [TH]

Stravinsky’s own recording is a flawed yet pleasurable account of this little opera [MP]

A fine performance of this ambitious but uneven work, but note the skimpy documentation [SB]

A pleasing concert that will almost certainly cheer you up [MMB]

Johann Strauss’ Hungarian operetta truly sparkles in a performance that commands the field in spite of its age [MP]

by Ralph Moore

A superb fusion of singing, music and stagecraft [AOz]

An interesting rarity, well worth investigating. [GF]

The premiere recording of Stanford’s fourth opera in an excellent performance [JQ]

(Déjà Review) Worth the price for Guleghina’s Abigaille [RJF]

An opera overlooked for far too long is presented in the best possible light [MC]

A very fine cast and excellent sound makes this a decent version of Wagner’s difficult first opera [MP]

Rossini’s rarely performed Elizabethan opera is given a lacklustre performance in the latest in Naxos’s Rossini Wildbad series [PT]

Weber’s magical score is lovingly presented on this fine set [MP]