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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Live Recording from The Deutsche Oper Berlin, 1962
Renata Tebaldi (Desdemona), Hans Beirer (Otello), William Dooley (Jago), Mario Ferrara (Cassio), Sieglinde Wagner (Emilia), Karl-Ernst Mercker (Rodrigo), Ivan Sardi (Lodovico), Pecca Salomaa (Montano) Deutsche Oper Berlin, Giuseppe Patané (conductor) & Hans-Peter Lehmann (stage director) Set & Costumes by WILHELM REINKING When Renata Tebaldi sang Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello at London’s Covent Garden in 1950, it was her first operatic performance outside Italy. It was also the role in which she made her last appearance on the opera stage, at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 1973. Between these two performances she made close to a hundred stage appearances as Desdemona, not to mention two studio recordings with Alberto Erede and Herbert von Karajan. It was Arturo Toscanini who coined for her the moniker “voce d’angelo” (voice of an angel). She made her highly acclaimed debut as Desdemona at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955 and from that moment on made New York the focus of her life. From there she made regular and extended concert tours all over the world, but opera appearances in Europe – particularly northern Europe – were extremely rare. Tebaldi visited Berlin on just two occasions. She gave a rapturously received concert in the Deutschlandhalle in May 1961. On that occasion she promised her fans she would return, and the Berliner Morgenpost even heard it “rumoured” she would appear in her classic role as Desdemona at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, which was about to reopen. This Otello production was planned as a media event from the outset, with cameras in attendance even at the preliminary rehearsal stage. Whereas the first performance took place before an invited audience on 30 August 1962 and was given over entirely to a TV recording by Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), the second performance was open to the opera-going public and was broadcast by SFB-Hörfunkprogramm. Sound Format: PCM Stereo Picture Format: 4:3 DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC Subtitles: IT (Original Language), DE, GB, FR, ES Running Time: 150 mins FSK: 0 “Dooley is a sinister Iago” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 **** “[Tebaldi's] floated pianissimo singing is especially impressive but in every respect this is world class vocalism.” MusicWeb International, 16th May 2013 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Carlos Cossutta (Otello), Margaret Price (Desdemona), Gabriel Bacquier (Iago), Peter Dvorsky (Cassio), Kurt Equiluz (Rodrigo), Kurt Moll (Lodovico), Stafford Dean (Montano), Jane Berbié (Emilia), Hans Helm (Un Araldo) Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Staatsoper, Sir Georg Solti “It has [Solti's] particular flair for seizing upon the tensions of each scene and emphasizing them...Cossutta is a no-nonsense Otello. He sings the role as well if not better than anyone since del Monaco...[Price] is even more precise and sensitive in her singing...what a joy to hear the music done with such consistently clear, fresh and full tone....[Bacquier's] touch with the text—examples proliferate— constantly has one marvelling again at the wonderful marriage of Boito's words and Verdi's music.” Gramophone Magazine, September 1978 “Under Solti's baton, this Otello is too fast and furious but Price is one of the finest Desdemonas on CD.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 *** | | | (Sorry, download not available in your country) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | DSD recording, live at the Barbican December 2009
‘an electrifying account ... Simon O’Neill made a tremendous debut in the title-role, giving notice that he is the best heroic tenor to emerge over the last decade’ Daily Telegraph Sir Colin Davis’s eagerly anticipated recording of Verdi’s Otello is released on the 10th anniversary of the LSO Live label. Opera has always formed an important part of the label’s output – recording concert performances of opera allows listeners to enjoy the drama of a live performance without the problems associated with recording in a theatre. Among Sir Colin’s greatest triumphs on LSO Live have been his award-winning recordings of Berlioz’operas plus Peter Grimes, Fidelio and Verdi’s final opera, Falstaff. Falstaff was released in 2004 and collected the Grammy Award for Best Opera. Sir Colin is joined, in the title role of Otello, by one of the world’s most exciting young tenors. New Zealander Simon O’Neill stepped in at short notice to these concerts, making his debut in the role (although he had studied it with Domingo), delivering what can only be described as an astonishing performance. The villainous Iago is played by Gerald Finley and Otello’s wife, Desdemona, by Anne Schwanewilms. Verdi had retired from opera following the premiere of Aida in 1871 but was eventually persuaded by his publisher to work with the librettist Arrigo Boito. As with Falstaff, Verdi’s final opera on which they would subsequently collaborate, they turned to Shakespeare for inspiration. Otello, which was premiered in 1887, marked a significant evolutionary development in Italian opera and is widely regarded as one of the great operatic masterpieces. Concert reviews ‘This was an electrifying account of a masterpiece, conducted with an explosive energy that belies Sir Colin’s eighty years and pushed the LSO to the top of its game. Simon O’Neill made a tremendous debut in the title-role, giving notice that he is the best heroic tenor to emerge over the last decade … Gerald Finley was an arrestingly crisp and snakily plausible Iago … Verdi’s great music drama shone in all its power and glory’ Daily Telegraph ‘a performance of Verdi’s opera that had finesse, fervour and glorious lyricism … Such is Davis’s rapport with the LSO and its rampant Chorus that he can unleash greater musical power with an elegant flick of the baton than most conductors muster with flailing arms. Gerald Finley was a superb Iago: insiduously sinister, yet sustaining a wonderfully suave line. And the New Zealand tenor Simon O’Neill gave an immense performance … he will make the Moor his own’ The Times ‘a thrilling performance from beginning to end … an evening to treasure; not just for Davis’s contribution, but for an impressive debut from the young New Zealand tenor Simon O’Neill. O’Neill mastered Otello’s many moods with a striking musicality and an evenness of tone throughout the range. He will go far, and promises to be the outstanding Wagner Heldentenor we have been longing far … the men, led by Gerald Finley’s totally convincing and committed Iago, were splendid’ Mail on Sunday “Age has not dimmed Davis’s musical vitality, any more than it did Verdi’s...Davis inspires the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus to a performance of vigour and refinement, and it’s for their contribution – and Gerald Finley’s suave, stylish Iago – that this recording stands out.” Financial Times, 16th October 2010 *** “ everything contributes to accentuating extremes: Colin Davis gets the LSO, in shattering form, to play chords like cannon shots...The two male leads are superb: Simon O'Neill is the most complete Otello since Domingo...Finley's debut as Iago is also a great reading - the most chilling I have ever heard.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2010 **** “throughout, [O'Neill's] clarion tone is thrilling. But the heroes are Gerald Finley, a supremely malignant Iago, the superb orchestra and chorus, and Colin Davis, who makes the terror and pity of the opera almost unbearably vivid. This is an Otello to rank with Davis’s LSO Live Falstaff” Sunday Times, 31st October 2010 **** “Finley gives a masterly account of [Iago], his voice seemingly transfigured by the Italian music and language...his singing - firm and resonant - is scarcely to be bettered on record...O'Neill is an unusual Otello in that he is so unequivocally a tenor, with no hint of baritone in his timbre...the playing is alert and sensitive to drama and text.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2010 “Davis’s electrifying conducting keeps the temperature high throughout this gripping performance...Simon O’Neill makes a powerful and confident debut in the title role, well matched against Gerald Finley’s subtle and sneaky Iago...with the additional merits of Allan Clayton’s vivid Cassio, the splendid chorus and superb playing from the LSO, this is a front-runner in the field.” The Telegraph, 12th November 2010 **** “This is worth hearing for Finley's superb performance as Iago...listen to his chilling account of 'Cassio's dream', or the way he can inflect a single word like 'capitano'...Schwanewilms is touching as Desdemona, and the smaller roles are well taken.” Classic FM Magazine, December 2010 ** “Finley is suave, his experience in Lieder showing in detailed enunciation and delivery of the text...Clayton is bright-toned and much less wimpy than some Cassios; you could appreciate how Otello promoted him over Iago...In spite of the lack of Italianate voices, O'Neill's heroic singing and Davis's unexpectedly fiery conducting still make this a satisfying account of Verdi's miraculous score.” International Record Review, November 2010 “a spellbinding account, thanks to O’Neill, Anne Schwanewilms’s Desdemona and Gerald Finley’s Jago, but above all to Colin Davis’s warm, urgent but never forced interpretation” The Observer, 14th November 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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The mid-price collection presents some of the most important and admired recordings of the EMI Classics and Virgin Classics catalogue which make EMI 'The Home of Opera'. This performance of Otello was recorded in 1973 at the Philharmonie, Berlin. “a big, bold, brilliant account, for the most part splendidly sung and with all the dramatic contrasts strongly underlined...Freni's Desdemona is delightful, delicate and beautiful, while Vickers and Glossop are both positive and characterful” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Live Recording from The Teatro Alla Scala 20011894 Paris version
Plácido Domingo (Otello), Barbara Frittoli (Desdemona), Leo Nucci (Iago), Cesare Catani (Cassio), Antonello Ceron (Rodrigo), Giovanni Battista Parodi (Lodovico), Cesare Lana (Montano), Rossana Rinaldi (Emilia), Ernesto Panariello (Un Araldo) Coro di voci bianche del Teatro alla Scala e del Conservatorio „Giuseppe Verdi“ di Milano & Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Riccardo Muti (conductor) & Graham Vick (director) Set Design by Ezio Frigerio & Costume Design by Franca Squarciapino. The Milan Otello traditionally opens the Scala season and did so in 2001 on 7 December, but at the same time it was the farewell production before the start of the three-year renovation of the house and not least a brilliant end to the Verdi Year. The audience as well as the press cheered Barbara Frittoli as a youthfully charming Desdemona, Leo Nucci as cleverly self-controlled Iago and Plácido Domingo as a thrilling Otello, both from the dramatic and the singing point of view. Domingo had been the leading Moro di Venezi for a quarter of a century, and in Milan he said farewell to this role – “in triumph”, according to ‘The Herald Tribune’. Graham Vick’s direction, which treats the emotional drama of the protagonists in a sensitive rather than sensationalist way, no doubt contributed in great measure to the success of this production. The cylindrical uniform stage set by Ezio Frigerio emphasised the hopeless consequence of the tragedy, as did the Orchestra della Scala, which, under the baton of Riccardo Muti, never sacrificed the dark, disturbing elements of the score to the rich melodious sound. Moreover, Muti deviated from the traditional performance in that he fell back on Verdi’s dramatically accentuated version of the finale of the 3rd act, which he wrote for Paris in 1894. "Plácido Domingo is the finest Otello of our time, and Riccardo Muti is as good as any Verdi conductor around, so their partnership at La Scala, in a naturalistic production by Graham Vick, was guaranteed to be memorable…" The Guardian “Imaginatively overseen by Graham Vick, who never seems to let his personal conception override Verdi's intentions, and with an imaginative set and traditional costumes, this La Scala Otello is very recommendable, with Domingo and Frittoli always singing and acting movingly” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sung in German. April 1958
First release on any format. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 23rd & 27th October 1992.
PICTURE FORMAT: 4:3
LENGTH: 145 Mins
SOUND: PCM 2.0
SUBTITLES: EN
“Sergei Leiferkus's dark Russian tone… suits Iago down to the ground. Kiri Te Kanawa's limpid tone makes her a near-ideal Desdemona… Plácido Domingo… is noble and heroic.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 ***** “At Covent Garden, Elijah Moshinsky's production insists heavily on its religious agenda: Christ crucified looms at the back, dominant as in the east window of a cathedral. In the film version (because the camera roams) it is more a suggestive presence, less a directional imposition. If the opening storm is prefigurative, the Byzantine Christ may have a valid place among the chaos of images that bewilders the eye in the first few minutes; and though initially it may seem that the film crew are finding it impossible to capture at once the detail and the overall picture of the complex stage action, the confusion makes its own point and of course resolves itself into reassuring single focus with Otello's entry. The boldness of pictorial imagination at work here can be appreciated by comparison with the conventional battery of stage lightning in Graham Vick's production at La Scala (filmed in 2001 and also with Domingo), where the chorus is simply a mass embodiment of terror and awe, unlike Moshinsky's where all are individuals with a task in hand and up against a real emergency.
We then look on, helpless, as order turns to chaos in the unfolding tragedy. Here again film probes the principal characters. Conventional operatic gestures and facial expressions will not do, and it is deeply impressive, and moving, to see how completely Domingo lives his role. Te Kanawa too shows herself alive to every suggestion of her music and words (it is utterly wrong to represent her here as bland or uncomprehending).
Leiferkus is a powerful embodiment of malign will, and, as with the others, his voice, sure in its bony-hard definition, is the perfect instrument of his character. As much again could now be written about Domingo's singing, and Te Kanawa's, and about Solti's conducting, but a video demands attention to the visual. Suffice to say that you can have the highest expectation and not be disappointed.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “The great work and the great performance; and, crucially, both gain from the filming. …is deeply impressive, and moving, to see how completely Domingo lives his role Te Kanawa too shows herself alive to every suggestion of her music and words.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2008 “Moshinsky's traditional Covent Garden production with lavish costumes and sets makes an ideal DVD with an almost unmatchable cast of principals.. Placido Domingo was at his peak as Otello, powerful and heroic, while Dame Kiri te Kanawa as Desdemona sings ravishingly” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition **** “‘Pure gold from the top team… Here was an evening to cherish, one to go straight into the memory in firmest indelible ink… The combination of Domingo and Solti promised gold and delivered every ounce expected.” The Times | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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“del Monaco is hardly a subtle Otello, but his voice is gloriously heroic, and this is one of his finest collaborations with Renata Tebaldi on disc. There is much to enjoy in the conducting of Karajan” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition **/*** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sung in German
Recorded Munich December 1955 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Recorded in Arena di Verona 1982 - sung in Italian
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Gramophone Awards 2011
Gramophone Magazine