Alan Opie
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Britten: Death in Venice
Philip Langridge (Aschenbach), Alan Opie (Traveller/Elderly Fop/Old Gondolier/Hotel Manager/Hotel Barber/Leader of the Players/Voice of Dionysus), Michael Chance (Voice of Apollo)
BBC Singers, City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox
The Pears/Bedford version tends to emphasise the opera's elegiac side… The Chandos… is certainly not lacking in depth. But it also has an incisive clarity matching Richard Hickox's generally... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2005, Finalist - Opera
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BBC Music Magazine, May 2005, Opera Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2005, Editor's Choice
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Britten: Owen Wingrave
Peter Coleman-Wright (Owen Wingrave), Robin Leggate ( Sir Philip Wingrave/Narrator), Elizabeth Connell (Miss Wingrave), Janice Watson (Mrs. Coyle), Sarah Fox (Mrs. Julien), Alan Opie (Spencer Coyle), Pamela Helen Stephen (Kate) & James Gilchrist (Lechmere)
City of London Sinfonia, Richard...
Hickox's excellent cast boasts some supreme exponents. Hickox draws haunting colours and chordings from his City of London Sinfonia, and the recording is flawlessly presented. — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2009, Finalist - Opera
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Gramophone Magazine, September 2008, Editor's Choice
2 CDs
$32.75Downloads
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The set’s high point is ‘Das war sehr gut, Mandryka’ from Arabella, in which the gradual expansion of her tone quality becomes a visceral dramatisation of how her character fearlessly opens... — More…
2 CDs
$16.75Downloads
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Vaughan Williams: Hugh the Drover
Rebecca Evans, Bonaventura Bottone, Sarah Walker, Richard Van Allan, Alan Opie, Neil Jenkins
Corydon Singers & Orchestra, The New London Children's Choir, Matthew Best
2 CDs
$16.00Downloads
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Walton: Troilus and Cressida
RecommendedClive Bayley (Calkas), James Thornton (Antenor), Arthur Davies (Troilus), Nigel Robson (Pandarus), Judith Howarth (Cressida), Yvonne Howard (Evadne), David Owen-Lewis (Horaste), Alan Opie (Diomede)
Opera North Chorus, English Northern Philharmonia, Richard Hickox
Troilus and Cressida is here powerfully presented as an opera for the central repertory, traditional in its red-blooded treatment of a big classical subject. Few operas since Puccini's have... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1995, Winner - Opera
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Strauss: Ariadne on Naxos
Sung in English: translation by Christopher Cowell
Christine Brewer (Ariadne/Prima Donna), Robert Dean Smith (Bacchus/The Tenor), Alice Coote (Composer), Gillian Keith (Zerbinetta), Stephen Fry (Major-Domo), Alan Opie (Music Master), John Graham-Hall (Dancing Master/Scaramuccio), Roderick Williams (Harlequin), Matthew Rose (Truffaldino), Wynne Evans...
Brewer's luscious Ariadne had to be captured on disc...There's another essential performance from Alice Coote...with unflinchingly full top notes that few other genuine mezzos possess...I've... — More…
Awards:
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Sunday Times, 2010, Albums of the Year
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Gramophone Awards, 2011, Shortlisted - Opera
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BBC Music Magazine, December 2010, Opera Choice
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Britten: Billy Budd
RecommendedPhilip Langridge (Vere), Simon Keenlyside (Billy), John Tomlinson (Claggart), Alan Opie (Mr Redburn), Matthew Best (Mr Flint), Alan Ewing (Mr Ratcliffe), Francis Egerton (Red Whiskers), Clive Bayley (Dansker); London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Tiffin Boys' Choir, Richard Hickox
Britten's score is so often praised that we tend to neglect the distinction of Forster and Crozier's libretto, sung in this set with unerring conviction by its three principals. Keenlyside and... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 1st December 2008
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Building a Library, January 2013, First Choice
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Britten: Peter Grimes
RecommendedPhilip Langridge (Peter Grimes), Janice Watson (Ellen Orford), Alan Opie (Balstrode), Ameral Gunson (Auntie), John Graham-Hall (Bob Boles), John Connell (Swallow), Anne Collins (Mrs Sedley), Roderick Williams (Ned Keene);
London Symphony Chorus, City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox
Any reading that so potently confirms the genius of this piece must have a distinguished place in the discography. In the first place there's Langridge's tense, sinewy, sensitive Grimes. Predictably... — More…
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 39th Awards (1996), Best Opera Recording
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Building a Library, April 2023, Recommended Recording
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Britten: Gloriana
RecommendedJosephine Barstow (Elizabeth), Philip Langridge (Essex), Della Jones (Lady Essex), Jonathan Summers (Charles Blount), Alan Opie (Cecil), Yvonne Kenny (Lady Rich), Bryn Terfel (Henry Cuffe), Richard van Allan (Walter Ralegh)
Welsh National Opera, Sir Charles Mackerras
The Cinderella among Britten's operas finally received its due with this recording. The superb cast and Mackerras's sure touch reveal Gloriana as a touching insight into the travails of leadership. — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1994, Winner - Opera
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Vaughan Williams - Choral Works
Recommendedfrom CDA66420, CDA66655, CDA66511 & CDA66569
Elizabeth Connell (soprano), Amanda Roocroft (soprano), John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Martyn Hill (tenor), Maldwyn Davies (tenor), Anne Dawson (soprano), Linda Kitchen (soprano), Alan Opie (baritone), Gwynne Howell (bass), Thomas Allen (baritone), Nobuko Imai (viola), Judith Howarth (soprano), Matthew...
Best has a fine sense of VW as a dramatic composer, bringing tremendous urgency to Dona Nobis Pacem and real passion to the Five Mystical Songs. Best's Serenade to Music is the original, not... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 14th July 2008
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Building a Library, July 2017, First Choice
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