GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Rossini: La Scala di Seta [The Silken Ladder] (complete opera) Claudia Urru, Meagan Sill (sopranos) Michele Angelini, Remy Burnens (tenors) Emmanuel Franco (baritone) Eugenio Di Lieto (bass) / Kraków Philharmonic [ Naxos Opera / 2 CD Box Set - released 10/Jun/2022 ] Gioachino Rossini was only 20 when he was commissioned to compose La scala di seta. It is one of four farsa comica operas which fed popular demand for this genre in Venice in the early 19th century and was wildly successful. |
JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn: Opera Overtures Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, Michael Halász [ Naxos / CD - released 29/Jan/2016 ] "The woodwind offer sweet commentaries and the horns…ring out joyfully…there's not a duff note here and, despite the odd string lapse, not a moment that isn't an utterly joyful account of Haydn's wit and wisdom." (Gramophone) |
Czech-Slovak Rso/Dohnanyi
Verdi:opera Choruses [ Naxos / CD ] |
PHILIDOR
Sancho Panca (Sancho Panza) Darren Perry / Elizabeth Calleo / Karim Sulayman / Meghan Mccall / Tony Boutte / Opera Lafayette / Ryan Brown [ Naxos / CD - released 20/Nov/2011 ] Opera Lafayette's production of this comedy revue is a 'sparkle of shining surfaces'. (Washington Post) |
SCALFI MARCELLO
Marcello: Complete Solo Cantatas Darryl Taylor (counter-tenor), Ann Marie Morgan (baroque cello), Deborah Fox (theorbo), Jory Vinikour (harpsichord) [ Naxos Opera Classics / 2 CD - released 1/Mar/2016 ] History tells us that Rosanna Scalfi was a Venetian girl of modest origins when the nobleman Benedetto Marcello heard her singing in the evening on a gondola with other girls. He sought her out, took her on as a student and later married her in... |
JULES MASSENET
Opera Explained: MASSENET - Werther Narrated by David Timson [ Naxos Educational Opera Explained / CD - released 27/Jun/2005 ] Massenet's Werther combines a deeply tender story with music of beauty and eloquence. One act alone contains two of the greatest arias in the repertoire: the mezzo-soprano aria 'Va! Laisse couler mes larmes' and the tenor's 'Pourquoi me rèveiller'.... |
David Timson
Opera Explained [ Naxos / CD - released 6/Jan/2003 ] |
David Timson
Opera Explained [ Naxos Educational / CD - released 6/May/2002 ] |
W. A. MOZART / JOHANNES BRAHMS
Mozart/Brahms: Violin Concertos Gioconda De Vito (violin) / Berlin Deutsche Opera Orchestra; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [ Naxos Historical Great Violinists / CD - released 26/Oct/2009 ] Violinist Gioconda De Vito was a key figure in the renaissance of Italian string playing after 1945. With her broad phrasing, ample tone and generous vibrato, she excelled in performances of Brahms's Violin Concerto using Joachim's cadenza, as in... |
GIACOMO MEYERBEER
Meyerbeer: Semiramide (complete opera) Deborah Riedel / Filippo Adami / Altensteig Rossini Choir / Wurttemberg Philharmonic Orchestra / Richard Bonynge (Conductor) [ Naxos Opera / 2 CD - released 16/Jul/2006 ] "An interesting and very worthwhile release that throws light on a neglected corner of Meyerbeer's career. It is even more welcome as it is well performed and decently recorded" (MusicWeb Nov 2006) |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Ariadne auf Naxos (Complete opera) [Recorded in 2000] Deborah Voigt, Natalie Dessay, Anne Sofie von Otter (sopranos) Ben Heppner (tenor) / Staatskapelle Dresden / Giuseppe Sinopoli [ Brilliant Classics Opera Collection / 2 CD - released 1/Apr/2009 ] 'Any opera house in the world would think themselves fortunate to assemble this cast … A landmark in the history of the gramophone … this really does triumph over them all.' Gramophone |
FRANZ SCHREKER
Schreker: Der Schatzgräber (complete opera recorded in 2022) BLU-RAY Deutsche Oper Berlin / Elisabet Strid, Daniel Johansson, Michael Laurenz, Thomas Johannes Mayer / Marc Albrecht (cond) [ Naxos Blu-ray / Blu-ray - released 8/Nov/2023 ] Franz Schreker's career was cut short by the events of 1933 in Germany but he achieved real fame with his operas, and the huge success of Der Schatzgräber ('The Treasure Hunter') in the 1920s was the high point of his career. In a complex and... |
FRANZ SCHREKER
Schreker: Der Schatzgräber (complete opera recorded in 2022) Deutsche Oper Berlin / Elisabet Strid, Daniel Johansson, Michael Laurenz, Thomas Johannes Mayer / Marc Albrecht (cond) [ Naxos DVD / DVD - released 8/Nov/2023 ] Franz Schreker's career was cut short by the events of 1933 in Germany but he achieved real fame with his operas, and the huge success of Der Schatzgräber ('The Treasure Hunter') in the 1920s was the high point of his career. |
MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG
Weinberg: Die Passagierin [The Passenger] (complete opera recorded in 2021) Oper Graz / Dshamilja Kaiser, Nadja Stefanoff, Will Hartmann, Markus Butter / Roland Kluttig(cond) [ Naxos DVD / DVD - released 8/Jul/2022 ] Mieczysław Weinberg's powerful Holocaust drama Die Passagierin channels his and his family's ordeals of wartime and Soviet persecution, applying them musically to Zofia Posmysz's autobiographical novel. |
RICCARDO ZANDONAI
Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini (complete opera recorded in 2021) BLU-RAY Deutsche Oper Berlin / Sara Jakubiak, Jonathan Telelman, Ivan Inverardi / Carlo Rizzi (cond) [ Naxos Blu-ray / Blu-ray - released 18/Feb/2022 ] "The whole thing is, I think, a great achievement. Do watch it." Gramophone Editor's Choice May 2022 |
RICCARDO ZANDONAI
Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini (complete opera recorded in 2021) Deutsche Oper Berlin / Sara Jakubiak, Jonathan Telelman, Ivan Inverardi / Carlo Rizzi (cond) [ Naxos DVD / DVD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] "The whole thing is, I think, a great achievement. Do watch it." Gramophone Editor's Choice May 2022 |
RUED LANGGAARD
Langgaard: Antikrist (complete opera recorded in 2023) BLU-RAY Deutsche Oper Berlin / Thomas Lehman, Jonas Grundner-Culemann, Irene Roberts, Valeriia Savinskaia / Stephan Zilias (cond) [ Naxos Blu-ray / Blu-ray - released 26/Jul/2024 ] Rued Langgaard's remarkable opera Antikrist confronts the decline and fall of Western civilisation, critiquing modern lifestyles and ways of thinking, which resonates with our times more than ever before. Never performed in the composer's lifetime,... |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Puccini: Manon Lescaut (complete opera recorded in 1957) Giuseppe Di Stefano, Maria Callas / La Scala Orchestra and Chorus / Serafin [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Feb/2010 ] Transferred by the award-winning Mark Obert-Thorn, this 1957 recording of Manon Lescaut with Callas singing the title rôle and Di Stefano as des Grieux, was one of Callas's last complete recordings at La Scala, Milan. |
VERDI
Verdi: Falstaff (highlights from the opera) Anna Bonitatibus (mezzo-soprano), Maurizio Comencini (tenor) Domenico Trimarchi (Baritone) / Hungarian State Opera Orchestra / Will Humburg (Conductor [ Naxos / CD - released 30/Apr/2006 ] The score of Falstaff was completed in December 1892 and the opera given its first performance at La Scala in Verdi's eightieth year, 1893. |
LAURO ROSSI
Cleopatra (complete opera recorded in 2008) Dimitra Theodossiou / Alessandro Liberatore / Paolo Pecchioli / Sebastian Catana / Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana / David Crescenzi [ Naxos Opera Classics / 2 CD - released 1/Jun/2011 ] "there are some strongly dramatic scenes, such as where Cleopatra improbably turns up in Rome intending to murder Mary Antony's wife: her two-octave drop at 'Si, Cleopatra!' leads to a powerful ensemble of perplexity...There are no outstanding voices... |