PUCCINI ≡ PASSION    MELBA MR301110

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy, in 1858. His father died when he was five years old and Giacomo was sent to study piano with his uncle Fortunato Magi, who considered him to be a poor and undisciplined student and was later educated at the Milan Conservatoire under Ponchielli and Buzzini. Puccini subsequently took the position of church organist and choir master in Lucca, but it was not until he saw a performance of Verdi’s Aida that he became inspired to be an opera composer, starting with Le Villi. His real success began with the production of Manon Lescaut in 1893 and in all Puccini wrote twelve operas, although died before he could complete the last one, Turandot. With this SACD release, Australian soprano Cheryl Barker follows up her eloquent tribute to fellow Australian Joan Hammond (Pure Diva) with remastered recordings of some of Puccini’s most popular and emotional arias from Manon Lescaut, Tosca (Vissi d’arte), La bohème (three arias, including Si, mi chiamano Mimi) and Madama Butterfly - one of Barker’s favourite roles - as well as arias from Le Villi, Edgar, La rondine, Suor Angelica (O mio babbino caro), Gianni Schicci and Turandot. The arias are arranged in chronological order and Cheryl Barker also includes two delightful little known treasures, the folksong-like ‘E l’uccellino’, and ‘Sole e amore’, an 1888 song whose melody Puccini later re-used in La bohème. Barker’s eloquent, vibrant performances of this much-loved music are ably supported by Richard Bonynge and the excellent State Orchestra of Victoria. Also new from Melba Recordings is another beautifully produced and packaged SACD featuring ballet music from neglected operas by Saint-Saëns, ELAN (MELBA MR301130). Young French maestro Guillaume Tourniaire conducts Orchestra Victoria, imbuing this lost music with great energy, love and lifeforce. This is a rare chance to discover many of Saint-Saëns’ exquisitely orchestrated and colourful musical jewels; ballet divertissements – from Henry VIII , Ascanio, Etienne Marcel and Les Barbares – that embody the essence of good taste and refinement beloved of belle époque France. Saint-Saëns’ passion for historic subjects led him to rework archaic music into masterful pastiches imbuing the imagined past of his operas with scenes of dramatic splendour and emotional depth. The resultant pieces are evocative, often exciting, melodic masterpieces in miniature. As Hugh Macdonald notes in the accompanying booklet, ‘To assemble a selection of orchestral music from the unfamiliar operas is to confront a treasure-trove of colorful and expressive music reflecting the tastes and fashions of belle époque France.’

DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NURNBERG    PENTATONE PTC 5186402

German composer Richard Wagner’s only successful comedy was his three-act opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg). Lasting well over four hours, it was first performed in Munich in 1868. The story takes place in Nuremberg during the middle of the 16th century and revolves around the real-life guild of Meistersinger (Master Singers), an association of amateur poets and musicians, mostly from the middle class and often master craftsmen in their main professions. The Mastersingers developed an intricate system of rules for composing and performing songs and the work draws much of its charm from its faithful depiction of the traditions of the guild. One of the main characters, the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs, is based on a real person, Hans Sachs, the most famous of the historical Mastersingers. As part of the Pentatone label’s ambitious plan to release a Complete Edition of new recordings of Wagner’s ten major operas, conductor Marek Janowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin feature here in a live performance captured at the Berlin Philharmonie in June 2011. The surround sound quality on this four disc SACD set is superb and the excellent soloists include baritone Albert Dohmen as Hans Sachs, with Georg Zeppenfeld, Michael Smallwood, Sebastian Noack, Dietrich Henschel, Edith Haller, Robert Dean Smith and Jörg Schörner.

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV - THE SNOW MAIDEN   NAXOS 8.572787

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin, 120 miles east of Saint Petersburg, in 1844, and became a member of the group of composers known as The Five. As well as popular works such as his Capriccio Espagnol and the suite Scheherazade he composed 15 operas. For much of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov combined musical composition and teaching with a career in the Russian military, as an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy and as a civilian Inspector of Naval Bands. His love of the sea influenced him in one of his best-known orchestral works, the musical picture Sadko, which is included in this collection of brilliant and wonderfully melodic suites. Gerard Schwarz also conducts the excellent Seattle Symphony in suites from the composer’s own favourite work, his fairy tale opera The Snow Maiden, as well as his final opera Le Coq d’or (The Golden Cockerel) which premiered in 1909 after the composer’s death, and the thrilling Mlada, a fantastical opera-ballet set a thousand years ago in an imaginary kingdom on the shores of the Baltic. This welcome release showcases the work of one of a master orchestrator and a great teacher whose pupils included Ippolitov Ivanov, Lyadov, Glazunov, Myaskovsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

FRANK MARTIN - DER STURM    HYPERION CDA67821/3

The Swiss composer Frank Martin, born in 1890, played and improvised on the piano even before he went to school. At the age of twelve he heard a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion which made such an impression on him that JS Bach remained a major influence throughout his life. Martin later became interested in the 12-tone technique of Arnold Schönberg and incorporated certain elements into his own idiosyncratic musical language. His brilliantly orchestrated three-act opera Der Sturm, based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, was written towards the end of his life and took almost three years to complete. It’s one the composer’s most subtle, inventive works in which he synthesized all his experience in order to do full justice to the shimmering facets of the original play. This thrilling performance by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, conducted by Thierry Fischer, matches the energy and passion of the performers on stage who make up an impressive cast. Robert Holl is a magisterial Prospero, Simon O’Neill is Ferdinand, Dennis Wilgenhof is Caliban, Christine Buffle sings Miranda and James Gilchrist makes an appearance as Antonio. Der Sturm is a seldom staged twentieth century masterpiece so this three-disc set is a rare opportunity to hear the full opera in its original language.

JUSSI BJÖRLING LIVE: BROADCAST CONCERTS 1937-1960   WHRA-6036(4)

Swedish tenor Johan Jonatan ‘Jussi’ Björling was one of the tentieth Century’s leading operatic singers, appeared regularly at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as well as at major European opera houses. Such was his brilliance of his voice that he was voted greatest singer of the century in Classic CD’s ‘Top Singers of the Century’ Critics’ Poll in 1999. Jussi Björling’s flawless vocal technique, silvery tone and superb interpretive skills made him one of the finest and most loved tenors of his era. Despite his worldwide fame he remained a modest and simple man, deeply devoted to his family, and his tragically early death in 1960 at the age of 49 ended a brilliant career. His enormous popularity in the United States lives on to this day, resulting in the formation of The Jussi Björling Society in 1998, 38 years after his death. A number of Jussi Björling’s radio and television performances have been gathered together for the first time on four remastered CDs in this invaluable box set. The collection fills a gap by gathering into one set much of the tenor’s best American radio work along with some rare Swedish broadcasts, all newly restored. Anyone familiar with Björling’s career will have heard most of this repertoire on his commercial recordings but like every great singer, Björling gave an indefinable but undeniable extra spark to his live performances. The music is divided into Art & popular songs by Schubert, Richard Strauss, Grieg and others; and Arias & duets including Massenet (Manon), Verdi (Il Trovatore and Aïda), Puccini (La Bohème), Leoncavallo (I Pagliacci) and Tchaikovsky (Evgeny Onegin). Guest artists include Licia Albanese, Anna-Lisa Björling, Grace Moore, Bidu Sayão, Eleanor Steber and Renata Tebaldi.

OFFENBACH - LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN    DECCA 4782675

Jacques Offenbach’s opera Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) was first performed in Paris in 1881. The composer did not live to see his opera performed, since he died a few months earlier, but before his death he had completed the piano score and orchestrated the prologue and first act. The libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on the play by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, in turn based on several short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann (Der Sandmann, Rath Krespel, Die Abendteuer der Silvester-Nacht and Das verlorene Spiegelbild). Hoffman, a prolific German writer and composer of the Romantic era, himself appears as a character in the opera just as he often is in his stories. Les Contes d’Hoffmann was the culmination of a lifelong dream by Offenbach to compose a great grand opera, since most of his career was spent writing the comic operettas for which he was so acclaimed. The unfinished masterpiece was completed by Ernest Guiraud for its premiere performance at the Opéra-Comique. There has been much debate ever since about the final form the opera should have taken, and numerous different versions have emerged over the years, some bearing little resemblance to the original. The most famous piece from the opera is the ‘Barcarolle’ in the third act, which has been used in many movies. This 3 CD box set features Jeffrey Tate’s full version of the opera, which aims to get as close as possible to the drama that Offenbach envisaged. The outstanding cast includes Francisco Araiza as Hoffmann, Samuel Ramey, Eva Lind as Olympia, Jessye Norman, Anne Sofie von Otter and Felicity Palmer. This beautifully packaged, budget priced release is one of an outstanding collection just issued by Decca and others include a 4 CD set of WAGNER - DIE WALKURE (4779135), with Gary Lakes, James Morris, Kurt Moll, Hildegard Behrens and Jessye Norman. James Levine conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in this wonderfully dramatic opera. For Mozart’s ‘sublime mixture of wit and melancholy’ LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (4779124), Claudio Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra are joined by Cecilia Bartoli, the enchanting Sylvia McNair and Cheryl Studer giving a ‘totally radiant performance’ - The Penguin Guide.

THE PLACIDO DOMINGO STORY     DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4779333

José Plácido Domingo was born in 1941 in Madrid to parents who were zarzuela performers. He was brought to Mexico at the age of eight and later attended Mexico City’s Conservatory of Music to study piano and conducting. When his vocal talent was discovered he began to take voice lessons and made his first performance as a leading tenor in the city of Monterrey when he was twenty. After having spent three seasons with the Israel National Opera in Tel Aviv, he launched his hugely successful international career in 1965, performing at all of the world’s most prestigious opera houses. Plácido Domingo has now been synonymous with the world of opera for nearly fifty years. In a career that has seen him perform 3,500 times, taking on more than 130 major tenor roles, encompassing music from Handel and Gluck to Menotti, Tan Dun and Daniel Catán, Domingo’s career has been unparalleled. To celebrate his 70th birthday, this three CD set features many of the outstanding recordings he has made for Deutsche Grammophon and Decca over four decades. Two CDs are dedicated to opera and the third to Latin American music, Viennese operetta, zarzuela, pop repertoire and religious music. This limited edition release also has 152-page colour hardcover book, complete with discography and an essay by Harvey Sachs. Previously unreleased and rare tracks include Umberto Giordano’s "Amor ti vieta" from Fedora, Domingo’s first recording in 1968, and an unreleased aria from Don Carlo with Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic. Deutsche Grammophon has also released a new recording of GIORDANO: FEDORA (DECCA 4778367) feauturing Plácido Domingo Angela Gheorghiu, Nino Machaidze, Fabio Maria Capitanucci, Marina Comparato, and the Orchestre symphonique et choers de la Monnaie, conducted by Alberto Veronesi. Fedora is three act opera based on the play of the same name by Victorien Sardou, written in 1889 for Sarah Bernhardt. The opera was first performed in 1898 with Gemma Bellincioni and Enrico Caruso in the lead roles and it has seen a resurgence in recent years. This outstanding cast of performers brings Giordano’s tuneful, enjoyably melodramatic work to life.

BERLIOZ - THE TROJANS    SOMM SOMM-BEECHAM 26-8

Written between 1856 to 1858 and revised up to 1863, The Trojans (Les Troyens) was Berlioz’s largest and most ambitious work, and the summation of his entire artistic career. Its origins go back to his childhood and his reading of Virgil’s Aeneid under his father’s instruction. Citations from Virgil frequently occurred in the composer’s writings and the idea of adapting Virgil’s epic matured in his mind for many years before he eventually undertook to write it. The opera represented the convergence of many influences, both literary and musical. Berlioz ascribed a major part to Shakespeare’s influence in addition to that of Virgil, and the music is reminiscent of Gluck and Spontini. This three-CD set in the excellent SOMM Beecham Collection series features a recording of The Trojans conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a French cast that includes Marisa Ferrer, Jean Giraudeau, Charles Gambon and Yvonne Corke. Beecham had planned to present the complete opera as early as 1910 but his first opportunity to do so came in 1947 for a BBC studio performance from Maida Vale. The performance was transmitted in the BBC Third Programme and fortunately this recording, in spite of its technical limitations, has survived to give us a taste of what might have been in the opera house. Many people remarked that Beecham had the characteristics of a latter-day Berlioz, and he was one of the first conductors to understand the irregular lengths of the Berlioz phrasing and meter. This imvaluable interpretation of Berlioz’s heroic masterpiece is accompanied by a booklet with complete track listings and a detailed synopsis.

BIZET - CARMEN       DECCA 4757646

Both of Georges Bizet’s parents were professional musicians - his mother a pianist and his father a composer and singing teacher. The precocious Georges entered the Paris Conservatory of Music aged nine and won several awards there before studying further in Italy. In 1875 he wrote his best-known work, Carmen, based on a story by prosper Merimee, incorporating Spanish rhythms to set the stage. This outstanding release features a spectacular new studio recording of Bizet’s Carmen, with superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli as Don José and acclaimed mezzo soprano Marina Domashenko as a steamy Carmen. The magnificent Bryn Terfel is Escamillo, the toreador who seduces Carmen away from Don José and is a match for any bull. Myung-Whun Chung conducts the Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France with pace, though the music is suitably languorous when required. The singing is of a high quality throughout and Marina Domashenko is particularly effective in the more seductive moments. Bocelli sings with remarkable sweetness of tone and Terfel brings out all the dramatic depth in his character. The cast also includes Eva Mei as Micaela and the excellent Jean-Luc Ballestra as Morales. Losing his sight at the age of twelve hasn’t hindered the success or adventurousness of Andrea Bocelli, who refuses to be defined or limited by his blindness and has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. He earned a place in the Guinness Book Of Records for claiming the first, second and third places in the American classical charts, holding on to them for an amazing three years. Bocelli also stars in another attractively packaged double CD release from Decca, taking the title role in ANDREA CHENIER (DECCA 4782382), Umberto Giordano’s romantic and passionate opera of life and death set during the French Revolution. Andrea Chénier, a historical figure and poet who lost his life to the French Revolution, gave Giordano and his librettist, Luigi Illica, inspiration for this thrilling opera of action, intrigue and betrayal. The score and text beautifully underscore the triumph of love over death when Chénier and his beloved make their final exit to the guillotine, accompanied by some of the most stirring music of the Italian repertoire. This new recording partners Andrea Bocelli with the aristocratic soprano of Violeta Urmana, who has sung the role of Maddalena at many of the world’s leading houses, including The Metropolitan Opera, New York. The Orchestra e Coro Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi is conducted by Marco Armiliato and the cast also includes Lucio Gallo as Carlo Gerard, Cinzia De Mola as Contessa di Coigny and Elena Obraztsova as Madelon.

MOZART – COSI FAN TUTTE       WARNER 2564 68230-6

This splendid 3-CD box set recording of Così fan tutte features three of opera’s finest female singers: Kiri Te Kanawa in her luscious-voiced prime as Fiordiligi, Frederica von Stade as Dorabella and Teresa Stratas as a very funny Despina. The star-studded cast also includes the excellent David Rendall as passionate Ferrando, Philippe Huttenlocher as Guglielmo and Jules Bastin Don Alfonso. Alain Lombard conducts the Choeurs de l’Opéra du Rhin and Orchestra Philharmonique de Strasbourg in a measured way that reveals all the warmth, drama and beauty of Mozart’s masterpiece. This is one of several new opera releases by Warner, including Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (2564 68138-0) with Robert Lloyd, Jerry Hadley, Dawn Upshaw and Grace Bumbry; and Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore (2564 68147-8) with Mariella Devia and Roberto Alagna. see more opera recordings from Warner Classics.

ARNOLD - POLLY      NAXOS 8.660241

John Gay’s hugely successful satiric ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, premiered at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1728 and ran for 62 consecutive performances - the longest run in theatre history up to that time. The work became Gay’s greatest success and has been revived many times since. In 1729, he and Johann Christoph Pepusch wrote a less well known sequel, Polly, set in the West Indies. Macheath, having been sentenced to transportation, has escaped and become a pirate. Meanwhile, Mrs Trapes has set up in white-slaving and shanghai’s Polly to sell her to a wealthy planter, Mr Ducat. Polly escapes dressed as a boy and after many adventures marries the son of a Carib chief, the ‘Indian prince’ Cawwawkee. The political satire was even more pointed in Polly than in The Beggar’s Opera, with the result that Prime Minister Robert Walpole forced the Lord Chamberlain to have the work banned. It was not performed until fifty years later when Samuel Arnold, a prolific composer for the opera, completely renovated the score and established his reputation as London’s pre-eminent theatre composer. This melodramatic tale set in an ‘island paradise’ was then belatedly another big hit and remains enormously entertaining today. Kevin Mallon here directs Canada’s Aradia Ensemble, with an excellent cast that includes sopranos Laura Albino (Polly), Eve Rachel McLeod (Mrs Ducat) and Gillian Grossman (Damaris), mezzo-sopranos Marion Newman (Jenny Diver) and Loralie Kirkpatrick (Trapes), as well as Bud Roach (Cawwawkee), Lawrence J. Wiliford, Andrew Mahon, Matthew Grosfeld and Jason Nedecky.

WAGNER – DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN    OPUS ARTE OA CD9000B D

Richard Wagner’s hugely ambitious opera Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) took more than a quarter of a century to create. Based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and taking as its subject a mythic-symbolic history of the world from creation to its destruction and redemption, this may be the most challenging and monolithic piece of music ever written. The controversial composer was an anti-semitic ego-maniac given to excessive gambling and womanising, but he was also single-mindedly ruthless in creating work that had a revolutionary influence on the course of Western music. Der Ring des Nibelungen is his largest and most famous composition and consists of four operas, three of which last for about four hours, and was originally intended for performance over four successive nights. Loosely based on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied, Wagner’s Ring tells the story of a magic ring made by the dwarf Alberich from gold stolen from the Rhine. The complicated plot also involves the god Wotan, hero Siegfried and a wild horsewoman of the air, Brünnhilde. The music is richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments invented especially for the work. The Bayreuth Festspielhaus was constructed for this work to be performed in, with a specially designed stage that allows singers voices to blend with the huge orchestra without straining - essential for such long performances. This splendid 14-disc CD box set, the first ever Opus Arte CD release, features live recordings from the impressive 2008 Bayreuth Festival production. Christian Thielemann conducts the Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra superbly and the soloists include Michelle Breedt, Albert Dohmen as Wotan, Stephen Gould as Siegried, the excellent Kwangchul Youn, Hans-Peter Konig, Linda Watson as Brünnhilde and Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde. ‘Thielemann creates a musical experience epic in its scale and inexorable in its apocalyptic, shattering power.’ - The Guardian.

HANDEL - TESEO    CARUS 83.437

George Frideric Handel’s third London opera, the extraordinary Teseo, was intended to follow the success of Rinaldo after the unpopular Il pastor fido. The only by Handel opera that is in five acts, it has an Italian libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym based on Philippe Quinault’s Thésée and premiered at the Queen’s Theatre in London in 1713, receiving an additional 12 performances. Between 1713 and 1984 there were only two revivals, the first being in Göttingen in 1947. The story of the opera focuses on Theseus, who has returned in disguise to Athens, ruled by his capricious father Aegeus. Both men are in love - or lust - with the same woman, Agilea. So Aegeus tries to break his earlier promise to marry the enchantress Medea. Teseo is a gripping drama of sorcery and desperate love, with dazzling arias and colourful scoring for strings, oboes, recorders, bassoons and trumpets. The opera was an attempt to merge the French and Italian operatic traditions and contains some fabulous music as well as a superbly wonderfully dramatic role for the sorceress Medea. To succeed, Teseo needs strong singers and this recording on three CDs features a fine cast that includes Franco Fagioli as the Athenian General, Teseo, Jutta Bohnert as his beloved Agilea, Kai Wessel as Agilea’s guardian Egeo, and American mezzo-soprano Helene Schneidermann as the formidable Medea. Teseo is not often performed or recorded but this excellent performance reveals a winning blend of mythical and human characters. Helene Schneidermann is superb and Konrad Junghänel conducts the Stuttgart State Opera Orchestra with all the required drama and intensity. ‘It hardly gets better than this’ - Die Welt.

MOZART - LA CLEMENZA DI TITO       TELDEC 2564 68830-8

This 2-CD set features a terrific 1994 recording of Mozart’s last great opera by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Chorus and Orchstra of the Zurich Opera House, with Philip Langridge as a dramatically noble Tito Vespasiano, Lucia Popp (a charming Vitellia), Ruth Ziesak (Servilia), Ann Murray (Sesto), Delores Ziegler (Annio) and László Polgár (Publio). This is one of a series of excellent new opera releases by Teldec that also includes 3-CD Mozart box sets featuring Harnoncourt: Le Nozze di Figaro (with Thomas Hampson, Carlotte Margiono, Barbara Bonney and Anton Scharinger) and Cosi Fan tutte (again with Hampson and Margiono). Carlo Rizzi conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and Ambrosian Singers in Verdi’s La Traviata, with the wonderful Slovakian soprano Edita Gruberova as Violetta. Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel features Donald Runnicles and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, with Jennifer Larmore and Ruth Ziesak as the poor woodcutter’s children.

STRAUSS - DIE FLEDERMAUS     TELDEC 2564 69125-6

Johann Strauss’s frothy masterpiece Die Fledermaus (The Bat) is one of the world’s best-loved operettas, second only to Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow. The original sources for Die Fledermaus were a farce by German playwright Julius Roderich Benedix, Das Gefängnis (The Prison) and a French vaudeville play, Le réveillon, by Offenbach’s official poets, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Max Steiner, who was director of the Theater an der Wien, one of the leading theatres in Vienna, sensed that he could make money by producing stage works from the pen of the city’s most popular composer but Strauss early operettas were mostly unsuccessful. It was when Steiner offered Strauss a text that had been discarded by Offenbach that he found the inspiration to begin Die Fledermaus. An experienced man of the theatre, Richard Genée, was brought in to make the story more Viennese and Strauss is said to have completed the work in just 43 days. The operetta premièred on in 1874 at the Theater an der Wien and has been part of the regular operetta repertoire ever since. In this recording, the excellent Nikolaus Harnoncourt puts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra through its paces, with the Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera and a sterling cast that includes the stylish German tenor Werner Hollweg, Solvakian coloratura soprano Edita Gruberova, Christian Boesch, Marjana Lipovšek, Josef Protschka and Anton Scharinger. This double CD is one of a great value series from Warner Classics featuring Harnoncourt’s memorable recordings on the Teldec label. They include another Johann Strauss work, Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), as well as Beethoven’s Fidelio and operas by Weber (Der Freischutz) and Mozart (Die Zauberflote, Lucia Silla and Idomeneo).

PUCCINI - LA RONDINE    NAXOS 8.660253-54

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini’s three-act opera La Rondine (The Swallow) was first performed at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo (or the Théâtre du Casino) in Monte Carlo in 1917. Although Puccini himself rated this work highly it has been produced and recorded far less frequently than some of his more famous compositions, perhaps because it is sometimes considered more of an operetta. La Rondine has an appealing score and similarities in plot and characters to La Bohème (the story is set twenty years later than Bohème, in the reign of Louis Napoleon III). Puccini wrote three versions of La Rondine and this double CD features an innovative production at the 2007 Torre del Lago Puccini Festival that is in effect a fourth version, combining the first two acts of the first version with Lorenzo Ferrero’s 1994 orchestration of parts of the Finale of Act 3 of the incomplete third version (1921), together with Ruggero’s Act 1 Romanza from the second version (1920). The Festival’s Orchestra and Chorus are conducted by Alberto Veronesi and the soloists in this vibrant recording of one of Puccini’s most appealing and accessible works include Svetla Vassileva, Maya Dashuk, Fabio Sartori and Emanuele Giannino.

VERDI – IL TROVATORE         OPERA FANATIC OF5

Giuseppe Verdi’s four-act opera Il Trovatore (The Troubadour), with an Italian libretto by Salvatore Cammarano based on a play by Antonio García Gutiérrez, received its first performance at the Teatro Apollo in Rome in 1853. In 1857, Verdi revised the opera for Paris as Le Trouvère and added a ballet. Despite its complicated and sometimes incomprehensible plot, Il Trovatore has since become one of the most popular works in the standard operatic repertoire. Set in the mountains of Medieval Northern Spain, Il Trovatore is a warrior named Manrico. His enemy is led by the Count di Luna, who loves Leonora, one of the queen’s ladies in waiting. According to Ferrando, the captain of the guard, an old woman had been accused twenty years earlier of casting an evil eye over the Count’s brother. She was burnt at the stake and the subsequent disappearance of the boy, followed by the discovery of a child’s skeleton in the ashes, led to the conclusion that the woman’s daughter had thrown him into the flames to avenge her mother. Meanwhile, back in the present, Leonora does not love the Count, but the troubador Manrico, raised by the gypsy Azucena. Manrico is not only the Count’s rival, but as a follower of the rebellious Count d’Urgell, he is also the Count’s sworn enemy. In the Second Act, Azucena tells Manrico her version of the terrible event twenty years ago and the plot becomes even more complicated. The opera’s libretto may call for a considerable suspension of disbelief but its gloriously melodic score features such riches as the ‘Anvil’ Chorus, the ‘Miserere’ scene, two great tenor arias and a beautiful baritone aria. This splendid double CD features a recording made in Berlin in 1961 by the Chorus and Orchestra of Rome Opera, conducted by Oliviero de Fabritiis. Soloists include the great Franco Corelli as Manrico, Italian soprano Mirella Parutto, mezzo-soprano Fedora Barbieri as the formidable Azucena, Agostino Ferrin as Fernando, and baritone Ettore Bastianini as Count di Luna. The characters burn with the passions of love, hatred, sexual desire and revenge that eventually destroy them.

EDWARD RUSHTON - THE SHOPS     NMC D146

The young British composer Edward Rushton studied at Chetham’s School of Music, King’s College, Cambridge, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Zurich Conservatoire. His composition teachers have included Robin Holloway and James MacMillan. Currently based in Zurich, he works as a freelance composer and pianist. Concert works have been commissioned for and played by such groups as the Endymion Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Schubert Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the London Symphony Orchestra. His refreshing and very funny new opera, The Shops, is described as ‘part satire on rampant consumerism, part psychological thriller’. Its central character, Christoph Schmalhans, is an obsessive stamp collector. He manages to steal prize examples from museums with the aid of his girlfriend Francesca, who distracts attention by causing scenes. His activities eventually attract the interest of the police and psychologists. In between, there is a running commentary on the phenomenon of shopaholics, along with a song-and-dance number from members of a mutual support group. Adventurously scored for five clarinets, violin, two cellos, double bass and percussion, The Shops has a sharply lyrical libretto by Rushton’s wife, Dagny Gioulami. In this recording, made with funding from the Peter Moores Foundation, the dynamic Opera Group is conducted by Patrick Bailey and the outstanding cast includes Darren Abrahams (tenor) as Christoph, Anna Dennis (soprano) as Francesca, Phyllis Cannan (contralto), Richard Burkhard (baritone), Louise Mott (mezzo-soprano) and Paul Reeves (bass). ‘A lemon sorbet of an opera’ - The Times.

PORGY & BESS - GERSHWIN      AUDITE 23405

George Gershwin's ‘American folk opera’ Porgy and Bess was first performed in New York in 1935 with a cast of classically trained African-American singers. With a libretto by DuBose Heyward (based on his novel Porgy) and lyrics by Ira Gershwin, it’s set in fictitious Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s and tells the story of Porgy, a crippled black man, and his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her pimp, and Sportin’ Life, the drug dealer. The groundbreaking music incorporates blues and jazz elements into the classical art form of opera, though the work was not generally accepted as a legitimate opera until 1976, when the Houston Grand Opera staged a triumphant production of Gershwin’s complete score. A 1952 revival by Blevins Davis and Robert Breen had previously restored much of the music cut from the original Broadway production, including many recitatives, and divided the opera into two acts, making a more operatic form. This double CD captures that legendary 1952 production and is the only official release remastered from the original master tapes in the DLR archives. The conductor is Alexander Smallens, who also conducted the original New York premiere, and the superb cast is headed by the young Leontyne Price as Bess and William Warfield as Porgy, with Cab Calloway (Sportin’ Life), John McCurry (Crown) and Helen Colbert (Clara). This a sensational rediscovery of a recording that reveals the musical and dramatic intensity of a work that Gershwin considered his finest composition. ‘There is singing, shouting, crying, arguing, fighting, intermittent praying, dancing, howling, stamping. Nobody seems to be acting but simply offering their unique temperament, vitality and sheer existence.’ - Berliner Kurier, 1952. This atmospheric release is an indispensable addition to the discography of a thrilling masterpiece.

BIZET – CARMEN    AUDITE 95.497

Ferenc Fricsay was born in Budapest in 1914 and studied music under Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály and Ernst von Dohnányi. He had a meteoric rise to fame, making his first appearance as a conductor at age 15, and became music director of the newly formed RIAS Symphony Orchestra in Germany in 1949. He specialised in the music of Mozart and Beethoven and conducted Carmen relatively seldom in the opera house, though more frequently in the recording studio. This CD from audite features the first production that he recorded for the RIAS Berlin in 1951, containing a compilation of key scenes from Bizet’s ever-popular opera Carmen. The orchestra sound is slender and transparent and he picks fresh but not exaggerated tempi. His choice of soloists – including mezzo-soprano Margarete Klose (Carmen), tenor Rudolf Schock (Don José) and soprano Elfriede Trötschel (Micaëla) - reveals marked contrasts in character. Fricsay considered recordings to be a synthesis of the arts in which audio engineering played a major role, and this recording demonstrates the extent of evocative effect that could be achieved by monaural means. Fricsay’s interpretation possesses a surprising modernity and this is a fascinating historic recording one of the world’s most popular operas.

GOUNOD - FAUST     DIVINE ART DDH27810

Charles Gounod’s five act opera Faust was written to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Carré’s play Faust et Marguerite which itself was loosely based on the first part of Goethe's Faust. The opera debuted at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris in 1859 but was not well-received. Recitatives were added to replace the original spoken dialogue before the opera was successfully revived in Paris in 1862, after which it became the most frequently performed opera at the Théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra. It also went on to become a staple of the international repertory, despite a full production requiring a large chorus and elaborate sets. Faust was first performed in Italy at La Scala, Milan, in 1862, with an Italian libretto by Achille De Lauzières. The recorded version here follows this edition closely, omitting the ballet scene and with minor cuts in the Waltz, Love Duet and Soldiers’ Chorus as well as in the final scene. The recording was made by the Gramophone Company’s Milan office over a two-week period in June, 1920, and was originally issued on twenty 12” discs. Though recorded acoustically, these discs were in mint condition and careful restoration has been carried out to avoid digital distortion, providing remarkably good overall sound quality that allows the excellent performances to shine through. The booklet with this double CD contains the Italian libretto as well as a synopsis of each act and biographical details of the main performers, who include Giuliano Romagnoli (Faust), Gemma Bosini (Margherita), Fernando Autori (Mefistofele), Gilda Timitz (Siebel), Napoleone Limonta (Wagner), Adolfo Pacini (Valentino) and Nelda Garrone (Marta). The Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala is conducted by Carlo Sabajno. This is the first time that this important historical recording has appeared on CD and it’s a memorable version of one of the most popular, tuneful and sophisticated operas ever composed.

BELLINI – COMPLETE OPERAS     DYNAMIC CDS 552

Born in Catania, Sicily, Italy, Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was a child prodigy from a highly musical family. It was said that he could sing an air of Valentino Fioravanti at eighteen months, began studying music theory at two and the piano at three, and by the age of five could play well. His first composition dates from his sixth year. He was born in 1801 and died, prematurely, in 1835 at the age of only 34. Famous for his range and wonderfully flowing melodic lines, Bellini was the quintessential composer of Bel canto opera. Early works such as Adelson e Salvini and Bianca e Fernando were received with great success and led to a commission by La Scala for the opera Il Pirata. His next six operas of note were all performed in the prestigious La Scala: La Straniera, Zaira, Romeo and Juliet, Ernani, La Sonnambula and Norma. Bellini’s last two operas, Beatrice di Tranda and I Puritani, were also highly successful, but he is mainly known today for the sublime Norma, written at the peak of his career. This magnificent box set of 24 audio CDs and 1 CD-ROM includes all Bellini's operas - the first time that a complete edition has ever been released. The artists include Montserrat Caballé, Maria Callas, Patrizia Ciofi and Dimitra Theodossiou, with conductors Leonard Bernstein, Richard Bonynge and Georges Prêtre. In addition to the complete set of works, the box includes two bonus historical recordings of La Sonnambula featuring Maria Callas and Norma with Montserrat Cabballé in the title role. This is voluptuous, mesmerizing music by one of the world’s greatest opera composers.

JUSTIN DELLO JOIO - BLUE MOUNTAIN    BRIDGE 9273

Justin Dello Joio was born in 1955 in New York City and is the son of the great American composer, Norman Dello Joio. Justin in fact represents the seventh generation of composers in the Dello Joio family. He has received many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Charles Ives Scholarship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ highest honour, the Academy Award in Music. His music has been championed by ensembles ranging from the Primavera String Quartet to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He is currently faculty composer-in-residence in the Department of Music and Performing Arts at New York University’s Steinhardt School, and was named composer of the year 2007 by the Classical Recording Foundation. His one act opera, Blue Mountain, was commissioned by Det Norske Blaseensemble and premiered in October 2007 in Oslo, Norway, as part of the Ultima Contemporary Music Festival. A recording made in performance there is now released on this CD. Written to commemorate the hundredth year of Edvard Grieg’s death, Blue Mountain is based on descriptions of the Norwegian composer’s final days and includes the roles of Grieg, his wife Nina, his physician, and his friend and champion, Percy Grainger. Dello Joio’s exciting and colourful score weaves in references to several Grieg works, including his Violin Sonata in C minor, one of his Lyric Pieces for Piano (Evening in the Mountains), a brief snatch of Peer Gynt, and references to his Piano Concerto. The Norwegian Wind Ensemble is conducted by Kenneth Jeans and the excellent soloists include Nils Harald Sødal, Njål Sparbo, Marianne Andersen and Torben Grue.

SCIARRINO - LOHENGRIN    COL LEGNO WWE 20264

The prolific Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino was born Palermo, Sicily, in 1947 and began experimenting with music at the age of twelve. Essentially a self-taught composer, he moved to Rome and studied electronic music at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia before going to Milan to teach at the conservatory. Since 1982 he has concentrated mostly on his compositional career and currently lives in Città di Castello, Umbria, although he sometimes still teaches in Florence and Bologna. Sciarrino’s work is avant-garde and includes pieces for wind instruments, five piano sonatas and several operas or theatrical works. He incorporates isolated sonorities, extended playing techniques, frequent silences and ironic references to other music (such as American pop music) or stories (such as in Lohengrin). The latter is an operatic monodrama first seen in 1982 in Milan and then revised by Sciarrino in a new version premiered in two years later in Catanzaro. The opera is less than an hour long and is loosely based on the plot of Wagner’s opera of the same name. The story is seen from the point of view of Elsa, a vestal virgin who is accused of fornication. Lohengrin marries Elsa, but on their wedding night, despite Elsa’s attempts to seduce him, he refuses to consummate the marriage. Eventually one of the pillows changes into a swan and Lohengrin returns to the moon on its back. The beguiling opera ends with the revelation that Elsa is actually a patient in a psychiatric ward. This first-ever live recording of Salvatore Sciarrino’s Lohengrin, in the production performed at the Tyrolean Festival Erl, features soprano Marianne Pousseur as Elsa with the excellent Ensemble Risognanze conducted by Tito Ceccherini. Also included are the instrumental piece Vento d’ombra and two fantastic piano pieces, Due notturni crudeli, played by Alfonso Alberti.

ZELLER - THE BIRDSELLER      ALBANY TROY 1012/13

Austrian composer Carl Zeller (1842-1898) was the only child of physician Johann Zeller, who died before his son’s first birthday. Zeller sang in the Vienna Boys’ Choir and studied law and composition before working as a civil servant for most of his life. He composed songs, choral works and several operettas, by far the best-known of which is Der Vogelhändler (The Birdseller). This three act operetta with a libretto by Moritz West and Ludwig Held (based on Varin and Biéville’s Ce que deviennent les roses) was a great success when first performed in 1891 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna with the famous Viennese actor and singer, Alexander Girardi, in the title role. It has a familiar boy-meets-girl plot, set in that never-never land of operetta where mistaken identities are as common as pine trees and nightingales sing on cue. The Birdseller has one of the most captivating scores ever written and its best-known melody, the beautiful ‘Roses in Tyrol’, ends Act I. This excellent Ohio Light Opera revival is conducted by Nathaniel Motta and features Boyd Mackus (King Karl), Jack Beetle (Count Stanislaus), Joshua Kohl (Adam), Julie Wright (Princess Marie), Paul Hindemith (Baron Weps), Robin Famsley (Christel) and Sandra Ross (Countess Adelaide). The Birdseller is an uplifting, nostalgic work that represents the final great flowering of nineteenth century operetta. Recorded live, it is here given a highly enjoyable and lively English language performance at the 2007 Ohio Light Opera Festival.

PUCCINI - MADAMA BUTTERFLY       DYNAMIC CDS 599/1-2

Giacomo Puccini’s poignant opera Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly), with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, was based on a book by John Luther Long and a play by David Belasco. The first version, premiered 1904 at La Scala in Milan, had only two acts and was poorly received. The revised version split the long second act in half and proved more acceptable, although the two-act version is still preferred in Italy. Sometimes criticised for its stereotyping of ‘passive’ Asians or reflecting the supposed anti-American tone of the play on which it is based, Madame Butterfly nevertheless remains one of the most popular works in the operatic repertoire. This double CD captures a magnificent production of Puccini’s timeless Japanese tragedy recorded in 2004, on the 100th anniversary of its premiere, at the prestigious Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, Viareggio, Italy. The Orchestra and Chorus Città Lirica are conducted by the great tenor Placido Domingo and the international cast includes the marvelous Italian diva Daniela Dessí (Cio-Cio-san), Fabio Armiliato (B.F.Pinkerton) and Juan Pons (Sharpless). This release also comes with a catalogue celebrating Dynamic’s admirable thirty years of CD and DVD production, divided into coloured sections for easy reference.

LEHAR - THE LAND OF SMILES    TELARC 80419

The Land of Smiles (Das Land des Lächelns) was one of Franz Lehár’s later works. With a German libretto by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner, this bittersweet ‘romantic’ three-act operetta was originally called Die gelbe Jacke (The Yellow Jacket) and was presented, unsuccessfully, at the Theatre an der Wien in 1923. Lehár later revised the work under its new title and this version was performed in Berlin in 1929. Lavishly staged, the show was built around the performance of the famous Austrian tenor Richard Tauber, a friend of Lehár’s, for whom he customarily wrote a ‘Tauber song’ or ‘Tauberlied’ - a signature tune exploiting the exceptional qualities of his voice - in most of his later operettas. On this occasion it was the famous Dein ist mein ganzes Herz (You are my heart’s delight). The Land of Smiles was also produced in New York, Vienna and London, where Tauber again appeared. The demanding lead role on this recording is sylishly sung by Jerry Hadley. Performed in English by an impressive cast, including Nancy Gustafson and Naomi Itami, under the assured direction of Richard Bonynge, this is a rare chance to discover one of Franz Lehár’s neglected masterpieces.

HANDEL - IL TRIONFO/TESEO/AMADIGI     WARNER 2564-69651-9

George Frideric Handel was perhaps the greatest opera composer of the first half of the 18th century. These works became neglected following Handel’s death but now, more than 250 years later, they are receiving much greater attention, with many stage revivals and studio recordings. This splendid 6-CD box set features Les Musiciens du Louvre and their award winning conductor and founder, Marc Minkowsky. Established in 1982, Minkowski’s orchestra is dedicated to the subtle art that is French Baroque music and has also championed several contemporary French operas. This release includes three of of Handel’s lesser known operas: Il Trionfo, Teseo and Amadigi. Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno was one of Handel’s earliest oratorios, dealing with such matters as beauty, time, pleasure and truth, and revealing the imagination and musical skill of the young composer. Teseo, with its vengeful sorceress, Medea (superbly sung here by Della Jones), is reminiscent of Rinaldo. The ‘magic opera’ Amadigi features another sorceress, Melissa (Eiddwen Harrhy), who attempts to use magic to gain the love of Amadigi (the brilliant French contralto Nathalie Stutzmann). Minkowsi and his excellent ensemble, together with a cast of talented young singers, have created period performances of great inventiveness and verve.

WAGNER – GOTTERDAMMERUNG    MELBA MR 301099-102

Richard Wagner’s vast work, Der Ring des Nibelungen (‘The Ring of the Nibelung’), comprises four full-length operas and is arguably the most extraordinary achievement in the history of opera. Götterdämmerung (‘Twilight of the Gods’) is the last of the four operas received and its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1876 as part of the first complete performance of the Ring. The title is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase Ragnarök, which in Norse mythology refers to a prophesied war of the gods which brings about the end of the world. However, as with the rest of the Ring, Wagner’s account of this apocalypse diverges significantly from his Old Norse sources. This splendid four-SACD release from Melba Recordings makes musical history by completing the first ever Ring Cycle to be recorded in state-of-the-art Super Audio 5.1 surround sound. Recorded live in Adelaide in 2004, Melba’s Ring captures all the excitement and energy of the acclaimed State Opera of South Australia production in studio-perfect sound that has won praise from critics and public alike. The State Opera of South Australia Corus and a trimphant Adelaide Symphony Orchestra are conducted by Asher Fisch, with an outstanding cast that includes the American tenor Timothy Mussard (Siegfried), Lisa Gasteen (thrilling as Brünnhilde), Duccio dal Monte (Hagen), Jonathan Summers (Gunther), Joanna Cole (as Gunther’s siste, Gutrune), John Wegner (Alberich), Elizabeth Campbell (Waltraute), Natalie Jones (Woglinde), Donna-Maree Dunlop (Wellgunde) and Zan McKendree-Wright (Flosshilde). ‘Sensationally recorded…the best-sounding cycle on the market to date, bar none’ - Gramophone Magazine.