GIOACCHINIO ROSSINI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Rossini: L'Italiana in Algeri (Complete opera recorded in 1986). Metropolitan Opera / Marilyn Horne, Paolo Montarsolo, Douglas Ahlstedt / James Levine (cond) [ Deutsche Grammophon DVD / 2 DVD - released 13/Oct/2005 ] Marilyn Horne takes centre stage in this production of Rossini's opera, recorded live at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1986. Other performers include Douglas Ahlstedt, Paolo Montarsolo and Allan Monk. James Levine conducts. |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Puccini: Manon Lescaut (Complete opera recorded in 1990) Metropolitan Opera / Renata Scotto, Placido Domingo, Pablo Elvira, Renata Capecchi / James Levine (cond) [ Deutsche Grammophon DVD / DVD - released 1/Aug/2006 ] "What makes this performance rather special is the acted and sung interplay between Scotto and Domingo. The way she jumps up into his arms and he carries her to the coach is an effective and touching moment." MusicWeb |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Verdi: Otello (complete opera recorded in 2012) Metropolitan Opera / Renee Fleming, Johan Botha, Falk Struckmann / Semyon Bychkov (cond) [ Decca DVD / DVD - released 15/May/2015 ] Renée Fleming's Desdemona enshrines one of her signature roles in a definitive performance: "she knows exactly how to spin the gentle lines of the 'Willow Song' and 'Ave Maria' so that they softly fill the hall" (New York Times). This 2012... |
JULES MASSENET
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Massenet: Thais (complete opera, recorded in 2009) Metropolitan Opera / Renee Fleming, Thomas Hampson, Michael Schade / Jesus Lopez-Cobos (cond) [ Decca Music Group DVD / DVD - released 18/Feb/2010 ] The New York Times lauded Renée Fleming as a "vocally sumptuous and unabashedly show-stealing Thaïs". If this is crime, opera needs more of it! |
RICHARD WAGNER
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Wagner: Tannhauser (Complete Opera recorded in 1983) Metropolitan Opera / Richard Cassilly, Eva Marton, Tatiana Troyanos / James Levine [ Deutsche Grammophon DVD / 2 DVD - released 13/Oct/2002 ] The Metropolitan Opera sings deeply passionate Wagner in this 1991 production on a spare but darkly atmospheric stage. |
PYTOR TCHAIKOVSKY
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin (complete opera recorded in 2007) BLU-RAY Metropolitan Opera / Sergej Aleksashkin, Renee Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Ramon Vargas / Valery Gergiev (cond) [ Decca Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Mar/2009 ] This is a star-led performance of one of the most popular romantic operas with the unrivalled pairing of Fleming and Hvorostovsky as the doomed lovers. |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Verdi: Don Carlo (Complete Opera with libretto recorded in 1993) Michael Sylvester, Aprile Millo, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Vladimir Chernov, Dolora Zajick / Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, James Levine [ Sony Classical / 3 CD Box Set - released 20/Nov/1993 ] "Levine's performance of the five-act Italian Don Carlo supersedes all other versions, because he conducts Verdi's spacious score with such masterly skill and meticulous attention to detail, and has so magnificent an orchestra at his command" BBC |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Tosca (Complete Opera recorded in 1976) Monserrat Caballe, Jose Carreras, Ingvar Wixell, Samuel Ramey / Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Colin Davis [ Philips Duo / 2 CD - released 4/Sep/1993 ] The great Caballé at the height of her career sings with her protégé Carreras, his voice still vibrant with the golden glow of youth. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, is led by Sir Colin Davis. |
IGOR STRAVINSKY
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Stravinsky: Le Rossignol / Oedipus Rex (Complete Operas recorded 1999 & 1993) Natalie Dessay, Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, Marjana Lipovsek / l'Opéra National de Paris, James Conlon / London Philharmonic Orchestra, Franz Welser-Most [ EMI The Opera Series / 2 CD Box Set - released 1/May/2010 ] "A fine recording of Stravinsky's colourful ballet, The Nightingale, with Natalie Dessay perfect in the title-role." (Gramophone) |
MIKHAIL IVANOVICH GLINKA
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Glinka: Ivan Susanin [A Life for the Tsar] (complete opera recorded in 1986) Nicola Ghiuselev, Elena Stoyanova, Hristina Angelakova / Sofia National Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Ivan Marinov [ Brilliant Classics Opera Collection / 3 CD Box Set - released 11/Sep/2011 ] "In the title role we hear one of the foremost basses of the second half of the 20th century, Nicola Ghiuselev. ...he gives a rounded and deeply moving portrait of the folk hero Ivan Susanin." MusicWeb |
W. A. MOZART
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mozart: La Flute enchantee [The Magic Flute] (Complete Opera recorded in 1964) Nicolai Gedda, Gundula Janowitz, Walter Berry, Lucia Popp / Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer [ EMI Classics La voix de son maitre / CD - released 23/Sep/1999 ] "I have never heard The Magic Flute sound so magical and the complete ease and seeming rightness of this performance is a wonder. The cast, chorus and orchestra are inspired under Klemperer, whom I here salute as a real genius" (Gramophone) |
GILBERT & SULLIVAN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gilbert & Sullivan: The Pirates of Penzance (complete operetta recorded in 2006) Opera Australia / Anthony Warlow, David Hobson, John Bolton Wood, Taryn Fiebig, Suzanne Johnston / Andrew Greene (cond) [ ABC DVD / DVD - released 3/May/2007 ] "If G&S is your thing, you'll love every moment of this joyful production" - The Australian |
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty Op 66 (complete ballet) The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Mark Ermler [ Conifer / 3 CD Box Set - released 20/Nov/1990 ] "The orchestra respond idiomatically to Tchaikovsky dance music and with obvious familiarity and love. Ermler has a natural feeling for springing rhythms and moulding rubato persuasively." (Gramophone) |
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Op 71 (complete ballet) [with Arensky: Variations on a theme by Tchaikovsky] The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Mark Ermler [ Conifer / 2 CD Box Set - released 20/Nov/1989 ] "The orchestra respond idiomatically to Tchaikovsky dance music and with obvious familiarity and love. Ermler has a natural feeling for springing rhythms and moulding rubato persuasively." (Gramophone) |
ADOLPHE ADAM
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Adam: Giselle [complete ballet] Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Richard Bonynge [ Decca / 2 CD - released 19/Apr/2012 ] "Richard Bonynge's performance on Decca restores Adam's original and is a bit more strongly characterised, while the Decca sound has a slightly sharper and brighter profile." (Three Stars penguin Guide) |
CARL MARIA von WEBER
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Weber: Der Freischutz (complete opera with libretto) Hermann Prey, Elisabeth Grummer, Lisa Otto, Rudolf Schock / Berlin Philharmonic, Joseph Keilberth [ EMI Studio / 2 CD - released 6/Mar/1989 ] "All soloists in this effort shine like the stars. Particularly the lovely (as always) Elisabeth Grummer...my God this lady was wonderful, and is, I am sure, greatly missed by all the great German opera houses today." (review) |
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Britten: The Turn of the Screw (Complete opera recorded in 1994 with libretto) Philip Langridge, Felicity Lott, Sam Pay, Eileen Hulse, Phyllis Cannan, Nadine Secunde / Aldeburgh Festival Ensemble, Steuart Bedford, conductor [ Collins Classics / 2 CD Box Set - released 25/Aug/1994 ] "The cast could hardly be bettered, with Felicity Lott an involving Governess and Philip Langridge mesmerising as the ghostly Quint. The whole enterprise… is a worthy counterpart to the composer's own" BBC Music |
ANDRE PREVIN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Previn: A Streetcar Named Desire (complete opera) Renee Fleming, Rodney Gulfry, Elizabeth Futral / San Francisco Opera, Andre Previn [ Deutsche Grammophon / 3 CD Box Set - released 21/Mar/1998 ] "The greater part of Previn's success has to do with his respect for, and understanding of, the music of Williams's text. Librettist Philip Littell has done an excellent job of adapting it, condensing it, mindful of how opera, by its very nature,... |
RICHARD WAGNER
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Wagner: Lohengrin (complete opera recorded in 2018) BLU-RAY Bayreuther Festtspiele / Piotr Beczała, Anja Harteros, Waltraud Meier / Christian Thielemann (cond) [ Deutsche Gramophon Blu-ray / Blu-ray - released 4/Jul/2019 ] Featuring an illustrious cast including Piotr Beczala and Anja Harteros in their house debuts, as well as the acclaimed return of Waltraud Meier to the Bayreuth Festival. |
RICHARD WAGNER
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Wagner: The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg (Complete opera in English) Norman Bailey, Derek Hammond-Stroud, Noel Mangin, Sadler's Wells Chorus & Orchestra, Reginald Goodall [ Chandos Opera in English / 4 CD Box Set - released 30/Jun/2008 ] "An ensemble singing an ensemble opera: that is perhaps the performance's greatest strength, but there are many moments when it rises far above that… Whether you were around or not, do listen to this supremely humane account of a supremely humane... |