Prices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  |
This live performance of Verdi’s opera “I Lombardi” took place in Rome in 1969 and is considered by many to be one of the best-ever readings of the opera. Although it has been available before, it is now being reissued for the first time with a complete, newly translated Italian-English libretto and in-depth notes and essays. The cast of soloists features some of the greatest voices of the period including Renata Scotto, Luciano Pavarotti, and Ruggero Raimondi. I Lombardi, an operatic dramma lirico in four acts set to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, which itself is based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi, was Giuseppe Verdi’s fourth opera. The first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 11 February 1843. Verdi dedicated the score to Maria Luigia, the Habsburg Duchess of Parma who died a few weeks after the premiere. The opera however was highly controversial since it contained thinly veiled anti-Austrian sentiment which whipped crowds into a frenzy when it was first performed. Long neglected, it has become popular again in recent years for its high spirits and frequent moments of great musical beauty. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
|
|
| |  |
Recorded live on 25th September 1978 “Call it old-fashioned, but there’s a size and style about this 1978 Met performance of Verdi’s opera that you don’t get today. Otello was one of Vickers’s signature roles, and he is partnered by the hugely watchable Renata Scotto and the big-boned Iago of Cornell MacNeil.” Financial Times, 27th August 2011 *** “Vickers appears as if he's ripping his own heart out. His wounds are so deep that one is tempted to avert one's eyes...Yet 90 per cent of the time he is on top of his vocal game: the sheer heft of his voice...is terrifying...Scotto interprets Desdemona as no other singer...here Desdemona is a woman of strength who can't win...this may be the only Otello video you'll ever need: it's the one that captures the pity and sadness best” International Record Review, January 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Opera for Lovers - Romantic Duets
Donizetti: | Una parola…Chiedi all'aura (from L'elisir d'amore) Ileana Cotrubas (soprano), Placido Domingo (tenor) | Gounod: | Nuit d'hyménée from Roméo et Juliette Ruth Ann Swenson (soprano), Placido Domingo (tenor) | Mozart: | La ci darem la mano (from Don Giovanni) Teresa Berganza (mezzo), Ruggero Raimondi (bass) | Puccini: | Ah, quegli occhi… (from Tosca) Raina Kabaivanska (soprano), Luciano Pavarotti (tenor) Oh, sarò la più bella...Tu, tu, amore? (from Manon Lescaut) Leontyne Price (soprano), Leontyne Price (soprano), O soave fanciulla (from La Bohème) Montserrat Caballe (soprano), Placido Domingo (tenor) Vogliatemi bene, un bene piccolini (from Madama Butterfly) Renata Scotto (soprano), Placido Domingo (tenor) | Rossini: | Dunque io son? (from Il Barbiere di Siviglia) Marilyn Horne (mezzo), Leo Nucci (baritone) | Verdi: | Parigi, o cara (from La Traviata) Tiziana Fabbricini (soprano), Roberto Alagna (tenor) Teco io sto (from Un ballo in maschera) Leontyne Price (soprano), Carlo Bergonzi (tenor) È il sol dell'anima (from Rigoletto) Andrea Rost (soprano),Roberto Alagna (tenor) Un dì felice, eterea (from La traviata) Tiziana Fabbricini (soprano), Roberto Alagna (tenor) |
| | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
|
|
| |  |
This performance was recorded in Milan in 1960 and is sung in Italian. Recorded on 4th October 1960 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Sung in Italian
Renata Scotto (Marguerite), Eugenio Fernandi (Faust), Nicola Rossi-Lemeni (Méphistophélès) & Gian Giacomo Guelfi (Valentin), Clara Betner (Siebel), Anna Maria Anelli (Martha), Vincenzo Preziosa (Wagner) Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della Rai, Armando La Rosa Parodi This performance was recorded in Torino on 6th July, 1959. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Scala studio recording September 1959
| | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  |
Bellini’s opera initially received a rather cool reception but went on to achieve the reputation it has today as one of the most challenging and demanding roles in the repertory, and represents a pinnacle of vocal and dramatic achievement for those divas who take on the role. Release includes a booklet with a three language synopsis [English / French / German], full cast list and detailed track list. “…Scotto's Druid priestess grows in stature to give us an unbearably moving scene in which she contemplates the murder of her children and, best of all, the duets with the rival priestess of Tatiana Troyanos, who offers the most sheerly beautiful legato singing of the set in 'Mira, o Norma'.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2009 **** | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
|
|
| |  |
A period of sixteen years separates Aida and Verdi’s penultimate opera, Otello— Verdi’s second opera based on Shakespeare. Otello was greeted with great enthusiasm when it was first given at La Scala in 1887 and today ranks, along with Wagner’s Tristan, as one of the greatest challenges to any tenor who needs both supreme vocal and acting abilities to do justice to the role. Plácido Domingo is without doubt one of the greatest interpreters of this hugely challenging role. Release includes a booklet with a three language synopsis [English / French / German], full cast list and detailed track list. Recorded in 1978 “The revelation is Scotto as Desdemona: imbuing every phrase with colour and meaning, stunning in the Act III ensemble and shattering in her final cry of farewell to maid Emilia.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2009 **** “The earliest of Placido Domingo's studio recordings of Otello, made in London in 1978 just two years after he sang the role for the first time, is a must-have at this price...full of ardent, intensely lyrical singing” The Guardian, 28th August 2009 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Puccini: Great Opera Arias
| | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Renata Scotto - The 1984 Tokyo RecitalKan i Hoken Hall, Gotanda, Tokyo, September 1984
Renata Scotto, one of the greatest and most famous sopranos of the post-war period, is here recorded in her full artistic maturity and, through this vast and varied programme, demonstrates her solid technique and absolutely extraordinary musicality. The performance of this recital ended an eleven-year absence of Scotto from the Japanese stage – a return she clearly relishes as she dedicates the rare musical gems in her performance to the Tokyo audience. Together with famous arias from renowned operas she performs some rare and neglected works, notably Edgar (Puccini’s first opera) and Sole e Amore (written before the success of La Bohème) as well as Respighi’s songs and five unpublished songs by Verdi. The DVD also features a two-minute forward by Renata Scotto (sub – E/G/F/Sp) and a thirteen-minute video featuring the madness scene, Lucia di Lammermoor, Tokyo, 1967 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |
|
Building a Library