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. |
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... |
RICHARD WAGNER
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Wagner: Parsifal (Complete Opera recorded in 1973) [4 CDs + Blu-ray audio] Rena Kollo, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Christa Ludwig, Zoltan Kelemen, Gottlob Frick / Wiener Philharmoniker [Vienna Philharmonic], Sir Georg Solti [ Decca Records / 5 CD/Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Apr/2018 ] This recording of Parsifal was the first studio recording of the work. A stellar cast is assembled with René Kollo as Parsifal, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Amfortas and Christa Ludwig as Kundry. |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Puccini: La Boheme (complete opera) Renata Scotto, Alfredo Kraus, Carol Neblett, Sherrill Milnes, Paul Plishka / Ambrosian Opera Chorus / National Philhrmonic / James Levine [ EMI Classics for Pleasure / 2 CD - released 20/Jul/2006 ] "Scotto sings a lovely "Si, mi chiamano Mimi", and her phrasing is always beautiful...no one newly smitten by the opera will find this performance of it disappointing." (Gramophone) |
UMBERTO GIORDANO
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Giordano: Andrea Chenier (Complete opera recorded in 1976 with libretto) Renata Scotto, Placido Domingo, Jean Kraft, Sherrill Milnes / National Philharmonic Orchestra, James Levine [ RCA Opera Series / 2 CD Box Set - released 20/Feb/1977 ] "for Scotto's sake and to a slightly lesser extent for Domingo's, I think I would choose RCA" Gramophone This set is currently unavailable |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Puccini: Tosca (Highlights from the complete opera) Renata Scotto, Placido Domingo, Renato Bruson / Philharmonia Orchestra. James Levine [ EMI Classics / CD - released 1/Oct/1991 ] Original recording made at Kingsway Hall, London, July, august 1980 |