Angela Gheorghiu

To commemorate the Verdi year, what could be more obvious than this anthology sung by Angela Gheorghiu who chose to focus her career and repertoire on the operas of this great composer and who made the part of Violetta her very own? Whether in operas (La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Aida or Rigoletto), Sacred Music (the Requiem) or in Verdi’s rare melodies, Angela Gheorghiu’s voice and fiery temperament truly set this memorable album ablaze.

Angela Gheorghiu's highly-acclaimed Verdi Heroines album first appeared in 2000 and is now reinstated to the catalogue for the Verdi year.

Jules Massenet, who died 100 years ago in 1912, was a French composer best known for his operas, and was widely considered in his day to be one of the greatest melodists of his time, alongside Puccini.

The Best of Massenet includes his most popular music, performed by a starry cast of artists, including Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, Jonas Kaufmann, Renée Fleming, Joseph Calleja, Angela Gheorghiu and Marilyn Horne.

Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and today he is best known for the popular violin showpiece Méditation from his opera Thaïs (performed here by Nigel Kennedy), and is unfairly regarded by many as something of a one-hit wonder.

Opera and ballet aficionados have known otherwise for some time and that he is in truth one of classical music’s best-kept secrets. 2012, the centenary year of his death, is the perfect opportunity time to introduce a wider audience to the exquisite charms and beauty of his music.

4-track 45rpm 7" EP (black vinyl)

Packaged using the established mid-50s HMV bag design together with the legendary ‘celebrity red’ classical label, this limited edition Record Store Day UK exclusive is the first commercial Maria Callas 45rpm vinyl EP released by EMI since the mid 1960s, and the very first such release on this format from Angela Gheorghiu, ever.

The great diva of the last century joins the great diva of this century to record Bizet's Habanera in a special duet version. Callas recorded the Habanera twice, in 1961 and 1964. The earlier version was selected because it didn’t involve a choir, making the possibility of isolating the singer’s voice easier. The orchestral accompaniment was painstakingly stripped away using Cedar Retouch Technology – ‘like audio Photoshop’ explains recording engineer Jonathan Allen, who masterminded the project – leaving just Callas’s voice. The players of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (all wearing headphones with a click-track to give the tempo) then recorded a new accompaniment. Remarkably there were no problems of pitch, but there were difficulties with speed: Allen found that Callas’s recording changed tempi between edits, and the modern orchestra had to match it. Gheorghiu then performed to this accompaniment and finally the two singers were spliced in, sometimes in unison and sometimes apart. ‘We needed to create the illusion that Angela and Maria were in the same acoustic space,’ says Allen. ‘If it comes across as over-processed, it won’t work. Angela’s voice is incredibly rich in overtones, probably more so than Callas’s, so we had to reduce some of her sound – without degrading it – to match.’

Starring Angela Gheorghiu as the celebrated French actress Adriana Lecouvreur and Jonas Kaufmann as her lover Maurizio, Count of Saxony, Cilea’s verismo drama explores celebrity, romance, jealousy, and death.

The trio of sublime voices is completed by Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina as Adriana’s jealous rival, the Princess de Bouillon.

David McVicar’s hit production – the first performance of the opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for more than a century – presents the life of the French actress as a blurring of the distinction between fantasy and reality.

The action revolves around a life-size Baroque Theatre, taking us from the bustle and colour of the first act backstage at the playhouse, to the bare final scenes as the drama reaches its fatal climax.

The DVD & Blu-ray contain bonus footage featuring interviews with the principal artists, Director, Set Designer and Conductor.

“Kaufmann and Gheorghiu radiate sexiness" (Financial Times)

“Gheorghiu is a dream" (The Independent)