C Major
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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. 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... —
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Special offer. Rossini: Mosè in Egitto
Andrew Foster-Williams (Faraone), Mandy Fredrich (Amaltea), Sunnyboy Dladla (Osiride), Clarissa Costanzo (Elcia), Taylan Reinhard (Mambre), Goran Jurić (Mosè), Matteo Macchioni (Aronne), Dara Savinova (Amenofi)
Wiener Symphoniker, Enrique Mazzola, Lotte De Beer
As Osiride, Sunnyboy Dladla is a useful bel canto tenor…and Andrew Foster-Williams is a stern voiced Pharoah. Best of all is the young Italian soprano, Clarissa Costanzo, who rightly stops the... —
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The UNESCO Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Erin Wall (soprano), Annika Schlicht (mezzo-soprano), Attilio Glaser (tenor), René Pape (bass)
Members of the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, World Orchestra for Peace & Würth Philharmoniker, Donald Runnicles
Appeals for peace and unity in Europe may ring hollow soon enough but the performance itself bears repetition, unfailingly lucid and rhythmically sprung in the Toscanini mould…The sound-mixing... —
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Special offer. Rossini: Le Comte Ory
Julie Fuchs (Adèle), Philippe Talbot (Le Comte Ory), Gaëlle Arquez (Isolier), Eve-Maud Hubeaux (Ragonde), Jean-Sébastien Bou (Rambaud)
Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Les éléments, Louis Langrée, Denis Podalydès (director), Christian Lacroix (designer)
In this recent Paris staging, it is the second act which delights rather more than the first… The Opéra Comique’s Francophone cast is led by Julie Fuchs’s sweet-toned Countess… Talbot is excellent,... —
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Rossini: Le Comte Ory
Julie Fuchs (Adèle), Philippe Talbot (Le Comte Ory), Gaëlle Arquez (Isolier), Eve-Maud Hubeaux (Ragonde), Jean-Sébastien Bou (Rambaud)
Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Les éléments, Louis Langrée, Denis Podalydès (director), Christian Lacroix (designer)
In this recent Paris staging, it is the second act which delights rather more than the first… The Opéra Comique’s Francophone cast is led by Julie Fuchs’s sweet-toned Countess… Talbot is excellent,... —
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Special offer. Mozart: Don Giovanni
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Don Giovanni), Andrea Concetti (Leporello), Carmela Remigio (Donna Elvira), Myrto Papatanasiu (Donna Anna), Marlin Miller (Don Ottavio), Manuela Bisceglie (Zerlina), William Corrò (Masetto), Enrico Giuseppe Iori (Il Commendatore)
Teatro La Fenice, Riccardo Frizza (conductor),...
A performance and production which are as near perfection as I can ever hope to experience…[D'Arcangelo] has just the right sleazy glamour for the role, both repellent and irresistible...His... —
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Special offer. Verdi: Attila
Ildebrando D´Arcangelo, Simone Piazzola, Maria José Siri, Fabio Sartori, Gianluca Floris, Antonio di Matteo
Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Michele Mariotti, Daniele Abbado (director)
Mariotti coaxes suitable delicacy and drama from the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in a consistently assured reading of the score. Daniele Abbado’s 2016 production is vaguely Game... —
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A hugely enjoyable performance of what many see as John Cranko’s masterpiece. —
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It is an extraordinary work, weird and lovable…The Dresden Staatskapelle is, as always, a wonder to hear and to behold…though the assembled audience goes wild at the end, [Thielemann] seems... —
