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SIR LENNOX BERKELEY
A Dinner Engagement, Op. 45 (An Opera in Two Scenes, Libretto by Paul Dehn) Roderick Williams, Yvonne Kenny, Claire Rutter, Jean Rigby, Anne Collins, Robin Leggate, Blake Fischer / City of London Sinfonia / Richard Hickox [ Chandos Classics / CD - released 6/Jul/2004 ] "A long-neglected British opera at last makes a sparkling début on record" Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine Sept 2004 |
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ANDRE MESSAGER
Messager: Les P'tites Michu (complete operetta) Romain Dayez, Pierre Dumoussaud, Anne-Aurore Cochet, Marie Lenormand / Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Pierre Dumoussaud [ Bru Zane / 2 CD/Book - released 11/Jan/2019 ] "The cast is predominantly youthful, as is the conductor Pierre Dumoussaud. Their account of the work is uniformly spirited, energetic, sympathetique and also full of comic broadness. But there's the rub." Opera |
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GAETANO DONIZETTI
Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia (recorded live Covent Garden in 1980) Royal Opera House / Joan Sutherland, Alfredo Kraus, Anne Howells, Stafford Dean / Richard Bonynge (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 15/Jul/2017 ] "Fleet, if not polished...Sutherland tackles the title role with her usual attributes of a voice of considerable size, extention and pinpoint agility, no acting skills but a grand presence" Opera Now |
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JACQUES OFFENBACH
Offenbach: Orphée aux Enfers [Orpheus in the Underworld] (complete operetta recorded in 2019) Salzburg Festival / Kathryn Lewek, Joel Prieto, Anne Sofie von Otter, Martin Winkler / Enrique Mazzola (cond) [ C Major DVD / DVD - released 17/Jul/2020 ] "A frantic and fabulous show" (New York Times) |
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JACQUES OFFENBACH
Offenbach: Orphée aux Enfers [Orpheus in the Underworld] (complete operetta recorded in 2019) BLU-RAY Salzburg Festival / Kathryn Lewek, Joel Prieto, Anne Sofie von Otter, Martin Winkler / Enrique Mazzola (cond) [ C Major Blu-ray / Blu-ray - released 17/Jul/2020 ] Operetta enthusiast Barrie Kosky has landed a gigantic success with Offenbach's subversive and hilarious reversion of the Orpheus myth at the Salzburg Festival. Kosky created a magically precise and witty staging with numerous extravagant costumes in... |
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W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Così fan tutte, K588 (complete opera recorded in 2013) Salzburg Festival / Malin Hartelius, Luca Pisaroni, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Martin Mitterrutzner, Gerald Finley / Christoph Eschenbach (cond) [ EuroArts DVD / 2 DVD - released 18/Feb/2018 ] "It is all beautifully performed by a convincingly young-looking cast. Malin Hartelius sings a ravishing 'Per pietà'…Martin Mitterrutzner's free, easy tenor is just right for the high-lying part of Ferrando" Gramophone |
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W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Così fan tutte, K588 (Recorded live at Salzburg Festival, August 2013) BLU-RAY Salzburg Festival opera / Malin Hartelius (Fiordiligi), Luca Pisaroni, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Martin Mitterrutzner, Martina Janková / Christoph Eschen [ EuroArts Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Jan/2017 ] "Gerald Finley is a wryly humorous Alfonso. Under Christoph Eschenbach, the Vienna Philharmonic is admirably light on its feet." Gramophone |
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RICHARD STRAUSS
Strauss, (R.): Die Frau ohne Schatten (complete opera recorded in 2011) Salzburg Festival / Stephen Gould, Anne Schwanewilms, Michaela Schuster / Christian Thielemann (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Apr/2012 ] Already brimming with symbols and transformations, the epic fairytale recounted by Strauss and his librettist Hofmannsthal in Die Frau ohne Schatten acquires a further allegorical dimension in Christoph Loy's inventive production for the Salzburg... |
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RICHARD STRAUSS
Die Frau ohne Schatten (complete opera recorded in 2011) Salzburg Festival / Stephen Gould, Anne Schwanewilms, Michaela Schuster / Christian Thielemann (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 20/Apr/2012 ] Already brimming with symbols and transformations, the epic fairytale recounted by Strauss and his librettist Hofmannsthal in Die Frau ohne Schatten acquires a further allegorical dimension in Christoph Loy's inventive production for the Salzburg... |
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PERGOLÉSE / VIVALDI
Pergolèse & Vivaldi: Stabat Mater pour deux castrats Samuel Mariño (countertenor), Filippo Mineccia (countertenor) / Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal; Marie van Rhijn [ Château de Versailles Spectacles / CD - released 12/Mar/2021 ] Two countertenors for Pergolesi's Stabat Mater: this is the resurrection of the first performance in France of this work, introduced by two Italian Castratos from the Royal Chapel of Louis XV, who were enthusiastic propagators of it both at Court... |
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KALEVI AHO
Aho: Solo Samuli Peltonen (cello), Hiyoli Togawa (viola), Piet Van Bockstal (oboe), Simon Reitmaier (clarinet), Bram van Sambeek (bassoon), Marie Luise Neunecke [ BIS SACD / SACD - released 2/Jul/2021 ] Seven instrumental solos by the Finnish symphonist |
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MARGARET BROUWER
Brouwer: Reactions - Rhapsodic Sonata / Declaration / The Lake / I Cry - Summer 2020 Sarah Beaty (mezzo), Brian Skoog (tenor), Shuai Wang (piano), Marie Sato (narrator/violin), Eliesha Nelson (viola) [ Naxos / CD - released 22/Apr/2022 ] Margaret Brouwer's music has for decades been admired for "inhabiting its own peculiarly bewitching harmonic world" (The New York Times). These recently composed pieces reflect her musical representations of particular events: Rhapsodic Sonata charts... |
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MICHEL RICHARD de LALANDE
Symphonies pour les soupers du Roy Sébastien Marq, Marie-Ange Petit, Gilles Rapin, Jérôme Hantaï La Simphonie du Marais, Hugo Reyne [ Harmonia Mundi Heritage / 4 CD - released 20/Aug/2015 ] With this first-ever complete recording of the legendary Symphonies pour les Soupers du Roy in 1990, Hugo Reyne produced a set of discs as varied as it is comprehensive. Twenty-five years later - and 300 years after the death of Louis XIV! - it still... |
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JOHANN SIMON MAYR
Mayr: Alfredo il Grande (complete opera) Marie-Luise fressen (mezzo) Markus Schafer (tenor) / Simon Mayr Chorus, Members of the Bavarian State Opera Chorus, Concerto de Bassus, Franz Hauk [ Naxos / 2 CD - released 18/Feb/2022 ] Medieval England exerted a strong influence on Johann Simon Mayr, especially during his final proto-Romantic period. Alfredo il Grande was to be one of his last operas, with a narrative that takes us to a land under threat of war with the Vikings. |
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GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: Otello (complete opera recorded in 2009) Simon O'Neill, Gerald Finley, Anne Schwanewilms / London Symphony Chorus & London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis [ LSO Live SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 15/Oct/2010 ] "O'Neill is an unusual Otello in that he is so unequivocally a tenor, with no hint of baritone in his timbre...the playing is alert and sensitive to drama and text." Gramophone Award Finalist 2011 - Opera |
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BARTOK / STRAVINSKY / BERNSTEIN / SHOSTAKOVICH / MAHLER / R. STRAUSS / etc
Orchestral Music in the 20th Century Sir Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with Felicity Palmer, Gidon Kremer, Anne Sofie von Otter, Willard White, etc [ Arthaus Musik DVD / 7 DVD Box Set - released 1/Jan/1999 ] "The series was one of the last intelligent contributions to classical music by British television and, even by 1996, one suspects that only a musician of Rattle's stature and determination could have got it made." Gramophone |
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GAETANO DONIZETTI
Donizetti: Messa di Gloria and Credo in D major (with works by Johann Simon Mayr) Siri Karoline Thornhill, Marie-Sophie Pollak, Marie-Sande Papenmeyer, Mark Adler / Bavarian State Opera Chorus & Concerto de Bassus, Franz Hauk [ Naxos / CD - released 2/Dec/2016 ] While the German tradition observes a strict distinction between sacred and secular styles, the 19th-century Italian Mass can feel more akin to attending an operatic performance. Donizetti's church music, consisting of at least a hundred items, has... |
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TRADITIONAL
Cantiques de l'Orient: Hymns from Lebanon Sister Marie Keyrouz / L'Ensemble de la Paix [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 10/Feb/2011 ] Soeur Marie Keyrouz & L' Ensemble de la Paix |
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TRADITIONAL
Cantiques de l’Orient: tradition Melchite Sister Marie Keyrouz / L’Ensemble de la Paix [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 20/Mar/2012 ] |
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TRADITIONAL
Chant Byzantin Sister Marie Keyrouz [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 29/Sep/2008 ] In the Byzantine Rite, the Office of Matins for Holy Saturday is a meditation on the mystery of Christ asleep in the tomb, deeply imbued with faith and hope. As for the chants for Matins of Easter Day, they are the most splendid in the entire... |