Bizet: Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante (from Carmen) (Micaëla's aria)

Mirella Freni was one of Herbert von Karajan’s favourite singers; indeed, he is known to have commented that if he could have any voice in the world, it would be hers. Combining a stunning voice with heartfelt acting, Freni is equally at home in the lighter roles, such as Mozart’s Susanna and Zerlina, as in the weightier roles of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Tosca. This collection brings together arias from throughout Freni’s illustrious career.

In her debut for Haenssler, the talented young soprano Juliane Banse is joined by Christoph Poppen. She has selected a highly intelligent recital including arias by Weber, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Mozart and Puccini. She has distinguished herself not only for the beauty of her singing, but for the depth of her characterisations and deep empathy with the emotional world of the women she is portraying.

Barbara Hendricks' voice — particularly suited to Mozart, Debussy, Fauré, and the lighter roles of Puccini and Richard Strauss — has a warm, crystalline quality that has kept her in demand on stage and in recording studios. Her performances have embraced everything from contemporary music to popular standards, including songs of Duke Ellington and several world premieres. She has been careful with her choices of repertoire, avoiding roles that would overextend her essentially lyric instrument. Aside from music, she is deeply committed to humanitarian work, with a particular concern for refugees and those in war or poverty zones. She sang a concert in Sarajevo in 1993 while the city was being shelled, in which she had to wear a bulletproof vest and helmet.

Hendricks has appeared on nearly 80 recordings spread over a variety of major labels. Her first of many recordings for EMI was in the small part of the Celestial Voice in Don Carlo in 1978. For nearly twenty years her solo recordings have been made exclusively for EMI Classics

The first of these solo recitals (1959) is with the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera, conducted by Savini.The second with the Vienna’ s Volksoper orchestra,devoted to Puccini, is taken from a very rare LP and is released on CD for the first time in its entirety.

Celine Byrne may have been a late-comer to the world of opera: she was eighteen years old and working as an au-pair in Italy when she first heard opera sung live, which persuaded her to take singing lessons. Scroll forward to today and among Celine's achievements are her Carnegie Hall debut, a broadcast to over 200 million people in China, and winning the Maria Callas Grand Prix in 2007. Truly, her star is in the ascendant.

Now, Celine Byrne releases her debut CD For Eternity on the RTÉ lyric fm label. While she has a refreshing affinity with the opera classics like Ebben n'andrò lontana from La Wally, and Puccini's Vissi d'arte and Sì, mi chiamano Mimì, she also displays her remarkable voice on several songs from the Spanish zarzuela tradition to which she was introduced by José Carreras.

Accompanied by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Studio Choir conducted by Marco Zambelli, CELINE BYRNE: FOR ETERNITY heralds a remarkable new voice to all lovers of great singing. Even the critics love her!

With her Mimì, she conquered the world. Mirella Freni’s extraordinary career lasted for over 30 years, and she never lost the enchanting youthfulness of her voice. She said farewell to the operatic stage in 2005 as a celebrated soprano in full possession of her vocal skills. Recordings from three Sunday concerts by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester document Mme. Freni in arias that reveal the many different facets of her artistry. The program ranges from her key role, Mimì, all the way to Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Evgeny Onegin.

Previously unreleased recordings by Mirella Freni.

Documents from the popular Sunday concerts by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester from the 1970s and 80s.

Recorded in Munich in 1971

Hot on the heels of her recent Shostakovich release, Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta exploits her incredibly warn, rich tone in this programme of attractive arrangements of popular classical works.

Audiences and critics hail the Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski as one of the finest singers in the world. Her more recent orchestral albums on Ondine have been praised as top-choice recordings and earned the highest distinctions such as the BBC Music Magazine Disc of the Year 2007 Award, a 2007 MIDEM Classical Award and a 2002 Gramophone Award.

This disc features popular scenes and arias from the late-19th century Italian, French and Russian opera marking Soile Isokoski's greatest successes on stage. Included are the famous aria "Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì" from La Bohème, with which Soile Isokoski gave her opera début in 1989, as well as the famous ‘Letter Scene’ from Eugene Onegin, which she sang at the Finnish National Opera, in 2006, to international acclaim. Besides her role debuts as Tatyana, Ellen Orford in Dresden, Christine in Intermezzo at the Theater an der Wien (2008) and Charpentier's Louise at the Bastille Opera in Paris, Ms. Isokoski's engagements until 2009 include Cosí fan tutte in Bilbao and Vienna, Lohengrin in Geneva, La Juive, Intermezzo, Rosenkavalier and Faust in Vienna and Don Giovanni at the MET.