Favourites,
Gifts for... Opera-Lovers
Are you looking for the perfect present for your opera-loving family and friends? We've picked out some of our favourite treats for opera enthusiasts: with highlights from the latest releases, box-sets and recent books about the history of opera, we hope you'll find something to suit every opera fan.
New Complete Recordings
Puccini: Turandot
Sondra Radvanovsky (Turandot), Jonas Kaufmann (Calaf), Ermonela Jaho (Liù), Michele Pertusi (Timur), Michael Spyres (Altoum); Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano
Made in Rome last March, this is the first studio recording of Puccini's unfinished final opera to use Franco Alfano's completion as originally written - Toscanini, who conducted the work's premiere in 1926, insisted that the composer truncate his first draft by around 100 bars, which Pappano restores here in full. Featured as Recording of the Month in Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine and Opera Magazine, it has also been praised in The Times ('the first thing to hit the listener is the recording’s depth and the orchestra’s punch and glow') and Fanfare (who deemed it 'an essential recording' of the opera).
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Spontini: La vestale
Marina Rebeka (Julia), Stanislas de Barbeyrac (Licinius), Tassis Christoyannis (Cinna), Aude Extrémo (La Grande Vestale); Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset
This is the first period-instrument recording of Spontini's 1807 opera about a priestess of Vesta who is sentenced to be buried alive for resuming a previous relationship with a Roman general; Rousset uses the 1994 critical edition of the score by Ricordi. Opera Magazine described the results as 'thrillingly committed and executed...a statement of complete belief in the work', whilst BBC Music Magazine praised 'an interpretation that captures the work’s qualities of mystery and passion'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs + Book, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mercadante: Il Proscritto
Ramón Vargas (Giorgio Argyll), Irene Roberts (Malvina Douglas), Elizabeth DeShong (Odoardo Douglas), Sally Matthews (Anna Ruthven), Iván Ayón-Rivas (Arturo Murray); Britten Sinfonia, Opera Rara Chorus, Carlo Rizzi
Set in Edinburgh during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, Mercadante's Il Proscritto ('The Outlaw') was premiered in Naples in 1842 but thereafter languished unperformed for almost two centuries until this London revival by Opera Rara last year. Highlights include a barnstorming opening chorus of wedding-guests, a bravura extended scene for Odoardo (a mezzo trouser-role, taken superbly by DeShong here), and a thrilling face-off for the tenor rivals Giorgio and Arturo.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Offenbach: La princesse de Trébizonde
Anne-Catherine Gillet (Zanetta), Virginie Verrez (Le Prince Raphael), Antoinette Dennefeld (Régina), Josh Lovell (Le Prince Casimir); London Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera Rara Chorus, Paul Daniel
Premiered in 1869, Offenbach's opéra bouffe centring on a travelling fun-fair features a prince who falls in love with a waxwork (shades of Hoffmann and Olympia here!) only to discover that she's a living, breathing woman. Reviewing Opera Rara's concert-staging at Queen Elizabeth Hall last autumn, The Guardian's Tim Ashley noted that 'the score is delightful, with some brilliant numbers' and praised the 'great brio and panache' of Daniel's conducting; the set was Gramophone's Recording of the Month in November.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Smyth: Der Wald
Natalya Romaniw (Röschen), Claire Barnett-Jones (Iolanthe), Robert Murray (Heinrich), Andrew Shore (A Peddler), Morgan Pearse (Count Rudolf), Matthew Brook (Peter); BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, John Andrews
This is the world premiere recording of Smyth's one-act opera on a libretto by Henry Brewster, set in a medieval forest and described by the composer as 'a short and tragic story of paradox framed in the tranquility and unendingness of nature'; the work was premiered in Berlin in 1902, and was staged at the Metropolitan Opera the following year. The recording received five stars in BBC Music Magazine, with George Hall remarking that 'Smyth’s score shows an impressive range of skills...Andrews rescues another lost English opera from oblivion and leads an excellent performance'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Handel: Serse
Emily D’Angelo (Serse), Lucy Crowe (Romilda), Paula Murrihy (Arsamene), Mary Bevan (Atalanta), Daniela Mack (Amastre), Ariodate (Neal Davies), William Dazeley (Elviro); The English Concert, Harry Bicket
Crowned Recording of the Month in the July issue of Gramophone, this studio recording was made just a few days after a concert-performance at Carnegie Hall which The New York Times described as 'a surfeit of exquisite music-making'. Reviewing the London leg of the tour, The Telegraph's Nicholas Kenyon observed that D'Angelo (who makes her operatic recording-debut here) 'swept all before her in a viscerally commanding, authoritative account' of the title-role, and also praised Bicket's 'customary scrupulous care and attention to detail'.
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Corigliano/Adamo: The Lord of Cries
Anthony Roth Costanza (Dionysus), David Portillo (Jonathan Harker), Jarrett Ott (John Seward), Kathryn Henry (Lucy Harker), Matt Boehler (Van Helsing); Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose
With an appropriately spine-chilling score by John Corigliano and a scenario/libretto by his husband Mark Adamo, Lord of Cries transplants characters from Bram Stoker's Dracula into Euripides's The Bacchae, revealing all manner of parallels between the two texts along the way. Reviewing the premiere for The New Yorker, Alex Ross noted that the opera 'contains some of Corigliano’s grandest, wildest, most exuberantly inventive music...Not, perhaps, since Verdi wrote Falstaff has an operatic composer made so much mischief past the age of seventy-five'.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
New Recital Albums
Released in advance of the centenary of Puccini's death next year, the Chilean-American tenor's second recording on Deutsche Grammophon includes arias from Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Turandot, La fanciulla del West, Le Villi and Il tabarro, plus the trio 'Io so che alle sue pene' from Madama Butterfly; the album was BBC Music Magazine's Opera Choice this month, with Puccini expert Alexandra Wilson remarking that 'he adopts a nuanced approach to characterisation, bringing a vocally distinctive tone to each role'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Dubois unearths some real rarities over the course of this brilliantly-sung recital exploring the evolution of the French ténor de grâce from 1820 to the early twentieth century - his programme includes arias from Charles Silver's Myriane, Halévy's Les mousquetaires de la reine, Charles Luce-Varlet's L'élève de Presbourg, and Louis Clapisson's Gibby la cornemuse & Le code noir. And back on the beaten track, there's a knock-out account of Tonio's top-C-studded 'Ah, mes amis!' from Donizetti's La fille du régiment.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The sequel to Spyres's Gramophone Award-winning Baritenor sees the versatile American singer continuing his exploration of 'the absolute extremes of the human voice' by focusing on the Baroque and early Classical periods, including scenes and arias from Rameau's Naïs, Lully's Persée, Vinci's Catone in Utica, Porpora's Germanico in Germania, Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice and Mozart's Mitridate. Arias by Hasse, Galuppi and Latilla receive their world premiere recordings.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Remembering Tebaldi
Melody Moore (soprano), Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra, Lawrence Foster
Recorded last year to mark the centenary of the great Italian soprano's birth, Moore's tribute to Tebaldi is divided into sections documenting the repertoire which she sang at three distinct stages of her life: her early career (including arias from Boito's Mefistofele and Mascagni's L'amico Fritz), her association with Toscanini and La Scala (Catalani's La Wally, Rossini's Mosè in Egitto and Verdi's Aida), and her time at the Metropolitan Opera (Puccini's Manon Lescaut, Verdi's La forza del destino and La traviata, and Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur).
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
New Releases on DVD and Blu-ray
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (Blu-ray)
Bryn Terfel (Boris), Kostas Smoriginas (Andrey Shchelkalov), John Graham-Hall (Shuisky), Ain Anger (Pimen), David Butt Philip (Gregory), John Tomlinson (Varlaam), Rebecca de Pont Davies (Hostess); Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano, Richard Jones
This Covent Garden production from 2016 used the original 1869 version of Mussorgsky's score, and featured Terfel's debut as the eponymous tsar: Classical Source declared that the Welsh bass-baritone 'devours every scene he is in', whilst The Guardian noted that 'Terfel makes his character unusually sympathetic – and pathetic too'. The Evening Standard, meanwhile, observed that 'Jones’s psychologically probing production, laced with flashes of grim humour, superbly evokes the wild-eyed manic quality of this Boris'.
Available Format: Blu-ray
Delibes: Lakmé (DVD)
Sabine Devieilhe (Lakmé), Frederic Antoun (Gérald), Stephane Degout (Frédéric), Ambroisine Bré (Mallika), Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon, Laurent Pelly
Filmed last October at the Opéra Comique in Paris, this production of Delibes's 1883 opera features French soprano Sabine Devieilhe in her signature-role (and in a rare operatic collaboration with her husband , Raphaël Pichon); it was selected as one of The New York Times's Best Classical Music Performances of 2022, thanks to the 'graceful restraint of Pelly's staging, Devieilhe's 'crystalline' high notes, and Degout's 'richly resonant' baritone.
Available Format: DVD Video
Puccini: Tosca (Blu-ray)
Anna Netrebko (Tosca), Francesco Meli (Cavaradossi), Luca Salsi (Scarpia), Alfonso Antoniozzi (Sagrestano); Teatro Alla Scala, Riccardo Chailly, Davide Livermore
Livermore's new production of Tosca opened the 2019 season at La Scala, with Chailly using the original 1900 version of the score (most modern productions incorporate the numerous minor cuts which Puccini made after the premiere). Reviewing the performance, BR Klassik described Meli as 'probably unsurpassable in this role at the moment', whilst the Financial Times noted that 'by favouring spacious tempi, transparent textures and razor-sharp detail, the conductor shines a torch through the score'.
Available Format: Blu-ray
Janáček: Káťa Kabanová (Blu-ray)
Corinne Winters (Kát’a), Evelyn Herlitzius (Kabanicha), David Butt Philip (Boris), Jaroslav Březina (Tichon), Jarmila Balážová (Varvara), Benjamin Hulett (Váňa), Jens Larsen (Dikój); Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Staatsopernchor, Jakub Hrůša, Barrie Kosky
Kosky's minimalist production of Janáček's 1921 opera took place at the Felsenreitschule during last year's Salzburg Festival, and met with glowing reviews; The New York Times noted that 'Winters has a child’s volatile presence, and her live-wire voice conveys Kat’a’s wonder and vulnerability', whilst The Opera Critic declared that Hrůša 'testified to his affinity with his compatriot's oeuvre, in a poetic yet vital reading commensurate with the stellar showing on stage'. This release was Gramophone's DVD/Blu-ray of the Month in October.
Available Format: Blu-ray
Handel: Theodora (Blu-ray)
Julia Bullock (Theodora), Joyce DiDonato (Irene), Jakub Józef Orliński (Didymus), Ed Lyon (Septimius), Gyula Orendt (Valens); Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Katie Mitchell, Harry Bicket
Set in a contemporary dystopia, Mitchell's staging of Handel's oratorio depicts Theodora, Irene and their fellow Christians as members of an underground resistance movement, operating out of the kitchens of the corrupt 'Roman' embassy; The Arts Desk described it as 'one of her most vivid and focused reimaginings', whilst Opera Today deemed it 'a compelling drama, which draws us into the characters' psychologies and decisions'. (Contains depictions of sexual violence, trafficking and terrorism).
Available Format: Blu-ray
Collections and Box Sets
Released to mark the centenary of the Spanish lyric soprano's birth, this collection brings together all of the recordings which she made for EMI between 1948 and 1977; stand-outs include complete recordings of Puccini's La bohème (with Sir Thomas Beecham), Gounod's Faust (with André Cluytens) and Massenet's Manon (with Pierre Monteux), several recitals of Spanish art-songs, and the first CD release of a concert which de los Ángeles gave with Gerald Moore at the Royal Festival Hall in 1964.
Available Format: 59 CDs
Released to mark Callas's hundredth birthday, this collection comprises her complete studio recordings (remastered in 2014), a generous selection of her finest live recordings, videos of concerts from Hamburg, Paris and London, previously unreleased alternate studio takes and working sessions, and three discs of the masterclasses which she gave at Juilliard in 1971. The limited-edition set includes a 148-page book containing archive photographs and an extensive essay on Callas's life and work by Michel Roubinet.
Available Format: 131 CD's + 3 Blu-ray Videos + 1 DVD Video
Released to celebrate the American soprano's 75th birthday, this collection brings together her complete recital recordings for Deutsche Grammophon plus several albums which she made for Angel (the US branch of EMI). Highlights include her celebrated album of spirituals with Jessye Norman, a 1988 Tokyo concert with Plácido Domingo, French opera arias with Myung-Whun Chung, and Honey & Rue with André Previn.
Available Format: 15 CDs
Recent Books about Opera
This book charts the cultural and musical evolution of the soprano from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first. Through extensive cross-cultural research and detailed musical analysis, it traces the profound effects of social change, religion, philosophy, psychology, socio-economics, fashion, sexuality, race and technology on the soprano as a musical and cultural phenomenon. Referencing hundreds of works of music, literature, theatre, painting, and cinema, it includes multi-disciplinary discussions of everything from the effect of the corset to the politics of body-imagery.
Available Format: Book
At thirteen years old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy who had captured the hearts of northern Europe, but his father Leopold was determined to conquer Italy also. Together, they made three visits there, travelling from the theatres and salons of Milan to the church-filled streets of Rome, to Naples, poorer than the prosperous north, and to Venice, the birthplace of public opera. All the while Mozart was absorbing Italian culture, language, style and art, and honing his craft.
Available Format: Book
Exploring the many dimensions of Giacomo Puccini's historical legacy and significance, this book provides new perspectives on the life and work of a much-loved opera composer and demonstrates how political concerns shape the way we approach and perform his works in the present day. Accessibly written chapters by a range of international experts explore Puccini's interests, attitudes, and relationships, and examine how his works reflected the cultural, political, and social zeitgeist of their time.
Available Format: Book
As a singing therapist, teacher, and performer, Julia Hollander is in an unique position to consider singing's importance to our well-being, charting its extraordinary influence on all aspects of our spiritual, emotional and physical lives. In so many walks of life, people of all ages and backgrounds are waking up to the joys of singing and its power to give hope and connection in a fragmented world. This book offers explanations for why this should be, and inspiration to anyone who loves to sing.
Available Format: Book
The song form has captivated audiences and performers for centuries, from the music of the troubadours and the Christian liturgy, classical composers such as Bach and Schumann, up to Britten, Berio, and the rise of popular music. Choosing twelve key works, this book offers a personal tour through this vital tradition, from John Dowland’s Flow My Tears to George Gershwin’s Summertime, detailing who wrote and sang these joyful masterpieces, and what they mean to singers and audiences today.
Available Format: Book
New Scores and Sheet-Music Editions
This limited edition of the full score is one of only one hundred and fifty, presented in a cloth-bound hard cover. It is signed by George Benjamin and Martin Crimp and includes facsimile reproductions of pages from the manuscript and Benjamin’s sketches, and a photograph of Benjamin, Crimp and directors Daniel Jeanneteau and Marie-Christine Soma in rehearsal at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Standard vocal score also available.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The Purcell Society’s major new redaction of Dido and Aeneas was issued in 2021, and the vocal score reflects the latest thinking in terms of source studies and historical musicology, of which a full account is given in the parent volume. It is hoped that singers, players, producers and students will be inspired to an ever-deeper appreciation of Purcell’s masterpiece by placing in their hands this latest edition of the opera, in the form that is both of impeccable scholarly provenance, and of wide practical application for performers.
Available Format: Sheet Music
New edition of Stravinsky’s largest work, his only full-length work for the theatre, and his first major work in English. The Rake’s Progress can be appreciated on many levels, which might explain why it is still one of only a handful of 20th-century operas never to have been out of the repertoire.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Based on first editions and the autographs, Jean-François Monnard presents in L’Heure espagnole a meticulous Urtext that corrects in detail all previous shortcomings, and, especially in the vocal parts, resolves the discrepancies between the piano vocal score published in 1908 and the full score published three years later. The appendix to the full score and piano vocal score includes a new German/English prose translation of the libretto.
Available Format: Sheet Music
In this ballet opera, Rameau consistently gives priority to the female roles. The prologue glorifies Hébé, the goddess of youth, and her alliance with love, while La Poésie praises the poetress Sappho, who sings almost throughout, and La Musique concentrates on the omnipresent princess Iphise; finally, La Danse has as its main character the shepherdess Églé, who excels in dance and song.
Available Format: Sheet Music
