Natalie Dessay's first album of French arias was notable for its out-of-the-way modern selections, like excerpts from Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias, Ravel's L'enfent et les sortileges, and Milhaud's Medée. Her follow-up effort, Airs d'opéras français (the same title as the first album, but in French this time), changes directions by moving ...
This recording of La Sonnambula is attractive (and significant) for a number of reasons. It's the first to use the critical edition of the score by Alessandro Roccatagliati and Luca Zoppelli, to which some music has been restored and which has corrected the orchestration and restored the original keys of various numbers for which transposition has ...
Two decades ago Handel's early Italian-language cantatas were little known, but sopranos have discovered that they provide a top-level vocal workout while offering more than a hint of the mature Handel's genius. This disc by French singer Natalie Dessay, one of the hottest sopranos on the scene, is going to be hard to beat. Dessay shares the ...
This two-disc set is a sampler of operatic singers from the corporately related Virgin Classics and EMI labels, and like most such samplers it delivers a good deal less than it promises. The marketing is scattershot, for one thing: the two-disc set purports to offer both the "new generation" of singers and "greatest arias" -- whether of these ...
This recording presents a welcome opportunity to hear Donizetti's dramatic masterpiece in its French incarnation of 1839, which, although popular for many years (and the version first heard in America in 1841), has largely fallen out of the repertory. It also allows its two stars, Natalie Dessay and Roberto Alagna, to weigh in on a standard work ...
The "flavor of the month" tenor phenomenon is an aspect of the classical music industry that may have its detractors, but let's face it -- it's been around since Enrico Caruso finally agreed to have his voice recorded by Fred Gaisberg at the Grand Hotel in Milan on April 11, 1902. There is simply so much money to be made and, conversely, so many ...
Handel wrote the secular oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (The triumph of Time and of Enlightenment) to the text of one of his patrons, Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, in Rome in 1707. The libretto, which doesn't stand up to close logical scrutiny, centers on Beauty, who must choose between self-indulgent Pleasure and the austerity of ...
Natalie Dessay's Amor, a collection of operatic scenes and lieder of Richard Strauss, is anchored by her all-star turn in the role of Zerbinetta. It is one of her calling cards, and for good reason: her blend of attitude, sparkle, and vocal agility are perfectly matched to the part. Every phrase she utters effuses the manipulative charm at the ...
First things first: if you're seeing a picture of this disc on the site of an online retailer, be aware that it contains the Mass in C minor, K. 427, not the "Mass in C," promised by the cover, which would more likely be the "Coronation" Mass in C major, K. 337. It is always a shame when designers are given power of diktat over content editors. ...
Classical Legends is an EMI two-disc set that provides a way for non-expert listeners to get a grip on classical music and opera from the artist's, rather than a composer or genre-driven perspective. Its one-track-per-artist program is weighted more to the classical end of the scale as opposed to vocal music, and also included are some performers ...
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