Favourites, Gifts for... Opera-Lovers

The British-Italian tenor (who made history last Christmas as the youngest-ever singer to tackle the role of Cavaradossi at Covent Garden) is on barnstorming form in a programme of scenes and arias from Tosca, Turandot, Madama Butterfly and Carmen, with equally impressive guest appearances from Lise Davidsen, Natalya Romaniw and Aigul Akhmetshina. BBC Music Magazine singled out Cavaradossi's 'E lucevan le stelle' as a highlight, noting that the aria 'it allows you to hear this young tenor for what he is – a thoroughbred'.

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Following her terrific first album of Mozart concert arias and a breathtaking Traviata (see below) on Pentatone, the American soprano turns to French Donizetti and Rossini, with a programme including 'L'heure fatale approche...Juste ciel' from Le Siège de Corinthe, 'Sombre fôret' from Guillaume Tell, 'En proie à la tristesse' from Le Comte d'Ory, and 'Ô ma mère' from Les Martyrs.

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Hailed as 'a total star' by The New York Times, the Chilean-American tenor's debut solo recording features excerpts from Madama Butterfly, Werther, Il trovatore, Adriana Lecouvreur, Andrea Chénier, La forza del destino, La Gioconda, and Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini (which Tetelman sang to great acclaim in Berlin last year). The album was Gramophone's October Recording of the Month, with Mark Pullinger describing Tetelman as 'the most exciting tenor discovery to come my way since the appearance of Jonas Kaufmann on the big international operatic stages'.

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Having appeared opposite one another on Pappano's multi-award-winning Aida, Kaufmann and Tézier team up again for duets from operas including La forza del Destino (which they sang together to great acclaim both at Covent Garden and the Bayerische Staatsoper), Otello, Don Carlos, Les vêpres siciliennes, La Gioconda and La bohème.

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Named for the Parisian street which houses both the Opéra-Comique and Opéra Garnier, Bernheim's second solo album on Deutsche Grammophon documents a century of Italian operatic history in France: his programme includes arias from Spontini’s La Vestale, Mascagni’s Amica, Donizetti's Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal, La Fille du régiment and La Favorite, Verdi's Don Carlos and Jérusalem, and Cherubini's Ali Baba, plus French-language versions of Puccini's 'Recondita armonia' and 'Addio, fiorito asil'.

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The American soprano's second solo album for Deutsche Grammophon focuses on three tragic heroines which have become central to her repertoire in recent seasons: Donizetti's Lucia (which she sang at the Metropolitan Opera this spring), Gounod's Juliette, and Verdi's Violetta. Sierra's debut recording, There's a Place for Us, won the Newcomer Prize at the Opus Klassik Awards in 2019, and prompted Opera News to declare that 'there’s no question as to her technical and interpretive skills or her commitment to text and drama'.

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Described by the French soprano as 'a portrait of powerful, often wounded women...queens, sorceresses, and sirens', Enchantresses features arias from Alcina, Amadigi di Gaulo, Giulio Cesare, Rinaldo, Lotario and the solo cantata La Lucrezia, interspersed with individual movements from concerti grossi. Piau's previous album of Handelian heroines (released on Naive in 2004) prompted The Gramophone Classical Music Guide to declare that 'this is may be the finest recital of Handel arias ever recorded'.

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The Samoan tenor's debut album of French and Italian arias on Warner Classics was Opera Magazine's Disc of the Month in May, and also scooped Young Artist of the Year at the Opus Klassik Awards. The programme includes excerpts from Gounod's Polyeucte and Roméo et Juliette, Rossini's Guillaume Tell and Moïse et Pharaon, Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and L'Étoile du Nord, Massenet's Manon, Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, and Godard's Jocelyne.

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Over the past few years, Oropesa has sung Violetta at several major houses, and this studio recording was made shortly before her Covent Garden triumph in the role, which prompted The Guardian to observe that ‘Oropesa welds sound with sense to create a characterisation of great depth and subtlety’ and BachTrack to declare her ‘one of the greats’. The recording received five stars in BBC Music Magazine, with reviewer Alexandra Wilson urging opera-lovers to 'witness the blossoming of a soprano who is possibly the Violetta of our day'.

Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC

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In his first full-length recording as Opera Rara’s Artistic Director, Rizzi ensures that every spark really ignites in this account of Leoncavallo's neglected one-act opera from 1912. Composed two decades after the composer’s best-known work Pagliacci and inspired by one of Pushkin's short stories, Zingari centres on the love-triangle involving a beguiling Roma woman, her childhood friend, and a volatile outsider who turns his back on convention in order to share her itinerant life - only to erupt in homicidal rage when her affections are transferred...

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A finalist at this year's Gramophone Awards, Roth's period-instrument account of Debussy's masterwork was also Disc of the Month in Opera Magazine back in April, when critic Max Loppert declared that 'even the most recording-savvy Pelléas-lover will surely want to get hold of this latest addition to the work’s discography'; The Guardian's Andrew Clements was similarly impressed, noting that 'Roth makes Debussy’s handling of orchestral colour seem more magical than ever'.

Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

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Enormously popular in the decades following its 1831 premiere, Meyerbeer's supernatural grand opera became a relative rarity in the twentieth century, with Minkowski's Berlin performances in 2000 doing much to revive interest in the work. This set was Recording of the Month in the latest issue of Gramophone, with Tim Ashley praising Osborn's 'effortless high notes and expressive dynamic range' and Morley's 'staggering coloratura', and describing the whole as a 'formidable re-evaluation' of the score.

Available Formats: 3 CDs + Book, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

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Drawing on silent film as well as Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1963 blockbuster Cleopatra (starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton), Warner's new production of Giulio Cesare was hailed as 'a must for baroque opera fans' by Kronen Zeitung during this run at the Theater an der Wien last December, whilst Der Standard described it as 'a finely balanced mixture of poetry and comedy, of cinematic action and touching contemplation'.

Also available on Blu-ray.

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Filmed at Covent Garden last March shortly before theatres went dark (British tenor David Butt Philip replaced a COVID-stricken Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan for this performance), Kratzer's production was very much a game of two halves, with a broadly traditional first act giving way to something more postmodern in the second. Praise for Davidsen in her stage debut as Leonore was near-unanimous, with The Guardian applauding her 'superbly controlled and beautifully equalised' singing and The Telegraph declaring that her performance alone 'justifie[d] the price of any ticket'.

Also available on Blu-ray.

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Filmed in Berlin last March, this production of Zandonai's 1914 opera was greeted enthusiastically by BachTrack, who noted that 'Loy’s directorial touches amplify rather than distract' and applauded the 'plush sound and ripe colors' which Rizzi draws from the Deutsche Oper orchestra. The DVD was a finalist at this year's Gramophone Awards, thanks to Jakubiak's ' blazing conviction and remarkable tonal lustre' and Tetelman's 'glorious and effortless' upper register.

Also available on Blu-ray.

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Released to mark the 200th anniversary of ETA Hoffmann's death, this production was filmed in Hamburg last autumn, with Olga Peretyatko taking on all four soprano roles and Luca Pisaroni sing the four villains; Bernheim was hailed as 'tenor perfection' by Süddeutsche Zeitung at the premiere, whilst Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung applauded the 'fairytale theatre magic' of Daniele Finzi Pasca's new production.

Also available on Blu-ray.

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Commissioned by the Wiener Staatsoper (where it became first full-length work by a woman to appear on the theatre’s main stage), Neuwirth's Virginia Woolf-inspired opera delights in blurring boundaries of all kinds, with an astonishing central performance from mezzo Kate Lindsey as the Elizabethan nobleman who awakens one day to find himself in a female body and goes on to live a gender-fluid existence across three centuries... Also available on Blu-ray.

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To mark what would have been the Siberian baritone's sixtieth birthday this month, Eloquence reissue the eleven recital albums which he recorded for Philips in the 1990s, including Tchaikovsky & Verdi arias, Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death (both with Valery Gergiev), opera duets with Olga Borodina, Arie Antiche with Sir Neville Marriner, and several discs of Russian romances and folk-songs. The set is supplemented by a personal memoir from Hvorostovsky's Philips producer Anna Barry.

Available Format: 11 CDs

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As well as complete live recordings of Parsifal from 1951 and 1962, the Vienna studio recording of Die Meistersinger from 1950/51 and a 1961 Fidelio, this set includes Wagner recitals with George London and Kirsten Flagstad, excerpts from Tristan und Isolde with Birgit Nilsson and Grace Hoffmann, and Act One of Die Walküre with Flagstad, Set Svanholm and Arnold van Mill.

Available Format: 19 CDs

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There are few compositions with such an engaging and convoluted story as Janáček’s Jenůfa. This book provides a great deal of new information which has come to light as a result of the research for the critical edition of the score, taking the reader back to the origins of the work as well as discussing the most important productions which were given during Janáček’s lifetime. It includes a large number of documents and photographs, many of which are published here for the first time.

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Immerse yourself in more than 400 years of the world's most celebrated operas and discover the fascinating stories behind them. Explore the lives of singers such as Maria Callas, Luciano Pavarotti, and Jonas Kaufmann. Meet composers like Mozart, Wagner, and Britten, and the librettists with whom they collaborated. Filled with photographs of key figures and performances, this book revels in the sets and costumes that make up the grand spectacle of opera. It also explores the great opera houses of the world, such as La Scala, Milan, the Met in New York, and the Sydney Opera House.

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Nellie Melba is remembered as a squarish, late middle-aged woman dressed in furs and large hats, an imperious Dame whose voice ruled the world for three decades and inspired a peach and raspberry dessert. But she had to battle social expectations and misogyny that would have preferred her to stay a housewife in outback Queensland. This biography presents a different portrait of the great diva, celebrating both her musical contributions and her rich and colourful personal life.

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The reign of Queen Anne was pivotal for both politics and opera in Britain. This study brings together a wide range of sources to show how the worlds of politics and opera were entwined. Rather than a foreign invasion, it shows how the introduction of Italian-style opera was a native product that grew out of plans for a new theatre in the Haymarket, and uncovers how the early promotion and sponsorship of opera was, in fact, largely a Whig enterprise and cultural program.

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Mozart's opera Don Giovanni has long inspired myths about Eros and masculinity. Over time, its performance history has revealed an increasing effort on the part of performers and directors to highlight the violence and predatoriness of the libertine central character, alongside the suffering and resilience of his female victims. Richard Will sets out to analyse more than a century's worth of recorded performances of the opera (from wax cylinders and 78s to streaming videos), tracing the ways it has changed from one generation to the next and arguing that recordings and other media shape our experience of opera as much as live performance does.

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