RICHARD STRAUSS
Strauss: Capriccio (complete opera recorded in 1993) San Francisco Opera / Kiri Te Kanawa, Hakan Hagegard, Tatiana Troyanos, Victor Braun, David Kuebler, Simon Keenlyside / Donald Runnicles (cond) [ Arthaus DVD / DVD - released 24/Oct/2003 ] "A witty, intellectually satisfying production with winsome performances especially Braun's La Roche. Kiri enchants but a little more expressive singing would not have gone amiss." (MusicWeb Nov 2003) |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: La Traviata (complete opera recorded in 1988) Glyndebourne Festival Opera / Marie McLaughlin, Walter MacNeil, Brent Ellis / Bernard Haitink (cond) [ Arthaus Musik DVD / DVD - released 4/Apr/2003 ] "The DVD clarifies the orchestral sound and the voices, to the benefit of Bernard Haitink"s poetic, plangent reading...visual clarity reveals a newly immediate richness and authenticity of setting and costume" -Gramophone, February 2002 |
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Donizetti: L'Elisir d'Amore (complete opera recorded in 2005) Gran Teatre del Liceu / Rolando Villazon / Maria Bayo / Jean-Luc Chaignaud / Daniele Callegari (cond) [ Virgin Classics DVD / DVD - released 1/Jul/2011 ] "Rolando Villazón is here on top form, fleshing out the notes with alternate delicacy and vehemence and personifying the shy, frustrated hero with a Chaplinesque range of gesture and mannerism." (BBC Music) |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: Requiem (Opera Italiana) Kallen Esperian (soprano), Luciano Pavarotti (tenor) [ Kaleidoscope Film & DVD / Shock Entertainment Group / DVD - released 19/Mar/2012 ] Recorded in Naples Ponticelli Sports stadium, Luciano Pavarotti enthralled a live audience with his beautiful performance of Verdi's Requiem. The opera, which is one of Pavarotti's favourites, concludes with "Libera me Domine", a verse originally... |
CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK
Gluck: Orphee et Eurydice (Complete opera recorded in 2000) Theatre Musical de Paris / Magdalena Kozena, Madeline Bender, Patricia Petibon / Monteverdi Choir / English Baroque Soloists / Sir John Eliot Gardiner [ Warner Classics DVD / DVD - released 10/Oct/2009 ] When the historic Theatre du Chatelet in Paris re-opened after a period of extensive refurbishment, the first two productions mounted in the theatre were Gluck's Alceste and Orphée et Eurydice. |
The Phantom of the Opera
[ Universal Pictures / DVD - released 20/Apr/2005 ] Based on the hit musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the tale tells the story of a disfigured musical genius that haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera, waging a reign of terror over its occupants. When he falls fatally in love with the lovely... |
GILBERT and SULLIVAN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard Ambrosian Opera Chorus with Joel Grey, elizabeth Gale, Claire Powell, Alfred Marks, David Hillman & Elizabeth Bainbridge & others [ BBC / Umbrella DVD / DVD - released 10/Aug/2014 ] For more than 100 years the operas of Gilbert & Sullivan have played to packed audiences around the world. These two names have become synonymous with classic light opera - music that is timeless and tuneful lyrics that are witty, scathing and memorable. |
GILBERT and SULLIVAN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gilbert & Sullivan: Ruddigore Ambrosian Opera Chorus with Vincent Price, Keith Michell, John Treleaven, Ann Howard, Sandra Dugdale, Donald Adams & Johanna Peters [ BBC / Umbrella DVD / DVD - released 10/Aug/2014 ] For more than 100 years the operas of Gilbert & Sullivan have played to packed audiences around the world. These two names have become synonymous with classic light opera - music that is timeless and tuneful lyrics that are witty, scathing and memorable. |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Puccini: Tosca (complete opera filmed In The Settings And At The Times Of Tosca) Catherine Malfitano (soprano), Placido Domingo (tenor), Ruggero Raimondi (bass) / Symphony Orchestra & Chorus of Rai, Zubin Mehta [ Warner Classics DVD / DVD - released 3/Jun/2013 ] Contemporary Rome is the setting for this unique and highly innovative version of Puccini's Tosca, performed in the Roman locations - and at the same times of day - as Puccini had written into his score. |
JOHANN STRAUSS II
Strauss, (J.): Die Fledermaus (compete opera recorded in 1984) The Royal Opera at Covent Garden / Dame Kiri Te Kanawa / Hermann Prey / Hildegard Heichele / Benjamin Luxon / Placido Domingo [ Warner Music Vision / NVC Arts DVD / DVD - released 13/Oct/2003 ] "An Austrian composer of Viennese waltzes; Johann Strauss is known as "the Waltz King." His almost 500 dance pieces are his crowning achievement, while his "Die Fledermaus" is the epitome of operetta." -ALLMUSIC |
WAGNER
Sydney Opera House Opening Concert 1973 (including a DVD of highlights from the concert) Birgit Nilsson (soprano) / Sydney Symphony Orchestra / Charles Mackerras [ ABC Classics / 2 CD/DVD - released 1/Jun/2009 ] In September 1973 in front of a packed, emotion charged house Sir Charles Mackerras conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the first concert to be staged in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. The all-Wagner concert featured Wagnerian... |
GILBERT and SULLIVAN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gilbert & Sullivan: Princess Ida Ambrosian Opera Chorus with Frank Gorshin, Nan Christie, Laurence Dale, Anne Collins & others [ BBC / Umbrella DVD / DVD - released 10/Aug/2014 ] Music by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and a host of stars including Frank Gorshin, Bernard Dickerson, Anne Collins and Claire Powell. 114 minutes. For more than 100 years the operas of Gilbert & Sullivan have played to... |
GILBERT and SULLIVAN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial By Jury & Cox and Box Ambrosian Opera Chorus with Kate Flowers, Frankie Howard, Ryland Davies, Russell Smythe, Thomas Lawlor & others [ BBC / Umbrella DVD / DVD - released 10/Aug/2014 ] Music by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and a host of stars including Alexander Oliver, Thomas Hemsley, Anne Collins and Kate Flowers. 112 minutes. |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) (complete opera recorded in 1983) Bayerische State Opera / Kurt Moll, Francisco Araiza, Edita Gruberova, Lucia Popp, Wolfgang Brendel, Gudrun Sieber / Wolfgang Sawallisch (cond) [ Deutsche Grammophon / Unitel DVD / DVD - released 3/Nov/2005 ] G :- "This charming production features Lucia Popp's still glorious Pamina and Moll's resonant Sarastro heading a first-rate cast. Brendel's Papageno lightens the recommendation." (BBC Music) |
JACQUES OFFENBACH
Offenbach: La Vie Parisienne (Complete opera recorded in 2007) Lyon Opera / Jean-Sebastien Bou, Marc Callahan, Marie Devellerea, Laurent Naouri / Sebastien Rouland (cond) [ Vigin Classics DVD / DVD - released 6/Jan/2009 ] "Pelly, one of the most imaginative of a new generation of French stage directors, has dragged La vie parisienne into our own time. In this stylish production from Lyon Opera." (BBC Music Five Stars) |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Puccini: Tosca (complete opera recorded in 2009) Zurich Opera / Jonas Kaufmann, Thomas Hampson, Emily Magee / Paolo Carignani (cond) [ Decca DVD / DVD - released 10/Jun/2011 ] "Jonas Kaufmann is so eloquent that the deficiencies flying around him on stage vanish as soon as he opens his mouth...A modest word of praise, too, for Giuseppe Scorsin as the Sacristan" (Times) |
PUCCINI / BELLINI / VERDI / DONIZETTI
Joan Sutherland & Luciano Pavarotti - Live At Sydney Opera House Dame Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti / The Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra, Richard Bonynge [ ABC Opera Australia DVD / DVD - released 25/Sep/2019 ] "(Pavarotti) proved...that this is truly one of the most phenomenal voices of our era, used with genuine musicality and artistry." - The Australian |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: Otello (Complete opera recorded in 1996) Metropolitan Opera / Placido Domingo / Renee Fleming / James Morris / Richard Croft / Charles Anthony / James Levine (cond) [ Deutsche Grammophon DVD / DVD - released 16/Aug/2004 ] G - Starring Placido Domingo, Renee Fleming, James Morris, Richard Croft, Charles Anthony, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. |
VINCENZO BELLINI
Bellini: La Sonnambula (complete opera recorded in June 2013) Stuttgart Opera / Ana Durlovski, Luciano Botelho, Catriona Smith, Enzo Capuano / Gabriele Ferro (cond) [ EuroArts DVD / DVD - released 28/Feb/2014 ] "The Stuttgart team...bluntly portray Amina's sleepwalking as a mental problem...Musical, we are in the safe but far from unexciting hands of Gabriele Ferro…As well as fielding a Caruso/Bjorling-like ability to crescendo on those high peaks, Durlovsk |
SERGEI PROKOFIEV
Prokofiev: War and Peace (complete opera recorded in 1991) Mariinsky Theatre / Yelena Prochina, Irina Bogachova, Alexander Gergalov / Valery Gergiev (cond) [ Arthaus Legendary Performances DVD / DVD - released 12/Sep/2016 ] Sergei Prokofiev devoted the last twelve years of his life to War and Peace. He completed the orchestration by April 1942 and the entire score was ready in March 1943. Having completed the first version (containing eleven scenes) unusually quickly,... |