Opera Sets
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Strauss, R: Die Frau ohne Schatten
RecommendedHildegard Behrens (Die Färberin), Julia Varady (Die Kaiserin), Plácido Domingo (Der Kaiser), José van Dam (Barak), Reinhild Runkel (Die Amme), Sumi Jo (Stimme des Falken)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Georg Solti
This was the most ambitious project on which Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal collaborated. It's both fairy tale and allegory with a score that's Wagnerian in its scale and breadth.... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1992, Winner - Opera
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Presto Greatest Recordings of the 1980s
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Grammy Awards, 35th Awards (1992), Best Engineered Album, Classical
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Grammy Awards, 35th Awards (1992), Best Opera Recording
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Offenbach: Les Contes d'Hoffmann
RecommendedJoan Sutherland (Antonia/Stella/Giulietta/Olympia), Plácido Domingo (Hoffmann), Gabriel Bacquier (Coppélius/Dapertutto/Lindorf/Miracle), Huguette Tourangeau (Nicklausse), Hugues Cuénod (Franz)
Suisse Romande Choir & Orchestra, Richard Bonynge
This is a wonderfully refreshing set. The story emerges crystal-clear, even the black ending to the Giulietta scene in Venice, which in Bonynge's text restores the original idea of the heroine... —
Awards:
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Presto Favourites, Recommended Recording
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Puccini: La Bohème
RecommendedMirella Freni (Mimi), Luciano Pavarotti (Rodolfo), Nicolai Ghiaurov (Colline), Elizabeth Harwood (Musetta), Rolando Panerai (Marcello), Gianni Maffeo (Schaunard), Michel Sénéchal (Alcindoro/Benoit), Gernot Pietsch (Parpignol)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Pavarotti's Rodolfo is perhaps the best thing he has ever done: not only the finest recorded account of the role since Björling's on the Beecham set, but adding the honeyed Italianate warmth... —
Awards:
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Presto Greatest Recordings of the 1970s
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Handel: Rinaldo
RecommendedCecilia Bartoli (Almirena), David Daniels (Rinaldo), Bernarda Fink (Goffredo), Gerald Finley (Argante), Luba Orgonasova (Armida), Daniel Taylor (Eustazio), Bejun Mehta (A Christian Magician)
Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood
most familiar and unfamiliar opera: familiar because, as his lavish first stage work for London, it has been much written about both by modern historians and by the composer's contemporaries;... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2001, Winner - Editor's Choice
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Dvořák: Rusalka, Op. 114
RecommendedRenée Fleming (Rusalka), Ben Heppner (Prince), Dolora Zajick (Jezibaba), Eva Urbanová (Foreign Princess), Franz Hawalta (Water Goblin)
Kühn Mixed Choir, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Mackerras
Renée Fleming's tender and heartwarming account of Rusalka's Invocation to the Moon reflects the fact that the role of the lovelorn water nymph, taken by her in a highly successful production... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1999, Recording of the Year
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Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
RecommendedJosé van Dam (Hans Sachs), Ben Heppner (Walther von Stolzing), Karita Mattila (Eva), Alan Opie (Beckmesser), Iris Vermillion (Magdalena), Herbert Lippert (David), René Pape (Pogner), Albert Dohmen (Kothner), Kelly Anderson (Nachtwächter)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
[Van Dam] fulfils expectations with a reading that is finely moulded from start to finish...Heppner seems to have benefited from his longer experience of his role...Throughout this is a portrayal... —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 40th Awards (1997), Best Opera Recording
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Janáček: From the House of the Dead
RecommendedJiri Zahradnicek, Ivo Zidek, Dalibor Jedlicka
Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Mackerras
From the House of the Dead (the 1980 Gramophone Record of the Year) was here recorded for the first time in its proper, original version; and this revealed it as even more of a masterpiece... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1980, Record of the Year
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Grammy Awards, 24th Awards (1981), Best Opera Recording
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Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K492
RecommendedLucia Popp (Susanna), Kiri Te Kanawa (Countess), Frederica von Stade (Cherubino), Samuel Ramey (Figaro), Thomas Allen (Count)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Kiri te Kanawa sings the Countess's aria with meltingly beautiful tone...The discreet flirtation with Cherubino...is done with some feeling...Thomas Allen is quite simply superb as the Count. —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 26th Awards (1983), Best Opera Recording
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Wagner: Lohengrin
RecommendedPlácido Domingo (Lohengrin), Jessye Norman (Elsa), Siegmund Nimsgern (Telramund), Eva Randová (Ortrud), Hans Sotin (Landgraf), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Herald)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Sir Georg Solti
Wagner-wise this is new Solti, a more contemplatively mellow interpreter, returning to a score that he hadn't led since earlier days in German repertoire houses...Norman had worked hard, and... —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 31st Awards (1988), Best Opera Recording
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Rossini: La Cenerentola
Cecilia Bartoli (Cenerentola), William Matteuzzi (Ramiro), Enzo Dara (Don Magnifico), Alessandro Corbelli (Dandini), Michele Pertusi (Alidoro)
Chorus & Orchestra of Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Riccardo Chailly
All eyes and ears, inevitably, are on Bartoli, and she doesn't disappoint...The singing itself is ravishing. At the same time, the performance makes dramatic sense...Decca provide a superb Alidoro,... —
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