C Major
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Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64
Maria Kochetkova & Davit Karapetyan
San Francisco Ballet Orchestra & San Francisco Ballet, Martin West
I warmly welcome this new version of Romeo and Juliet, in a very competitive field it takes one of the very top places. With its charismatic and highly accomplished leading dancers and its unique... —
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Special offer. Strauss, R: Capriccio
Renée Fleming (Countess), Bo Skovhus (Count), Michael Schade (Flamand), Markus Eiche (Olivier), Angelika Kirchschlager (Clairon), Kurt Rydl (La Roche)
Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, Christoph Eschenbach
Kurt Rydl crowns a fine stage career with a gloriously eccentric impersonation of La Roche...The singing honours belong entirely to Angelika Kirchschlager as Clairon. —
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Best of Verdi Arias
Staged by Pier Luigi Pizzi
Nino Machaidze, Leo Nucci, Daniela Dessì, Marcelo Álvarez, Francesco Meli, Dimitra Theodossiou & Giacomo Prestia
Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Parma
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Verdi & Wagner: The Odeonsplatz Concert
Rolando Villazón (tenor), Thomas Hampson (baritone)
Symphonieorchester und Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
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in the glorious surroundings of the Semper Oper and with this staggering orchestra, the brass playing of which has been celebrated by everyone since Wagner, there is both tension and relaxation...The... —
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Special offer. Verdi: La forza del destino
Carlos Álvarez (Don Carlo), Nina Stemme (Leonora), Salvatore Licitra (Don Alvaro), Nadia Krasteva (Preziosilla), Alastair Miles (Padre Guardiano), Wiener Staatsoper, Zubin Mehta, David Pountney
Tenor Salvatore Licitra as Don Alvaro in La forza del destino, caught in Vienna 10 years ago- his singing is admirably clean, his tone noble. Alongside him, Nina Stemme is a gutsy Leonora, assiduously... —
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Special offer. Gluck: Alceste
Dorothea Röschmann (Alceste), Charles Castronovo (Admète), Michael Nagy (High Priest of Apollo), Bayerische Staatsoper, Antonello Manacorda
The chorus and orchestra under Antonello Manacorda are fine, as is Tiziano Mancini’s video direction. —
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Grieg: Peer Gynt
Jakob Feyferlik, Alice Firenze, Wiener Staatsballett, Wiener Staatsoper, Simon Hewett
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Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem
Valentina Farcas (soprano), Matthias Goerne (baritone), State Choir Latvija, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Paavo Järvi
A sense of momentum as well as occasion lends an unusual spirit of celebration, quite alien to both the sombre tread of most symphonic performances and the carefully cultivated archaism of ‘period’... —
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Special offer. Mozart: Don Giovanni, K527
Simone Alberghini, Irina Lungu, Julia Novikova, Dmitry Korchak, Jiří Brückler
National Theatre Orchestra, Plácido Domingo (conductor) & Jiří Nekvasil (director)
Katerina Kněžíková (Donna Elvira) is a Prague favourite and despite some vocal brittleness is animated and communicative, especially in her Act II aria ‘Mi tradi’. Irina Lungu (Donna Anna) is... —
