What is this Bryn Terfel collection, exactly, that contains "Simple Gifts," the beginning of Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater," "Send in the Clowns," and even "The Rose" (not the one e'er blooming, but the Bette Midler or Conway Twitty vehicle)? It is, per the back cover text, Bryn's "personal collection of sacred, spiritual, and meditative songs." The ...
Since Carmina Burana is such a mainstay of the repertoire, it is difficult to think of any ensemble that has not performed it or of any major label that does not have multiple recordings to offer. Direct and sturdy, this popular cantata is almost indestructible and hard to misinterpret, though to make it sound fresh and distinctive is a challenge. ...
La bohème has always batted cleanup in the repertory, and never more so than at the beginning of the twenty-first century: crossover star Andrea Bocelli chose it for his first complete opera recording and director Baz Luhrmann tapped it for a much-hyped run on Broadway. Perhaps in the same can't-miss spirit, Decca released its La bohème: The Dream ...
Baritone Simon Keenlyside is a rarity in an era of focus on specific repertoires: a real operatic generalist whose interests and expertise range from the very earliest -- L'Orfeo -- to the newest -- premieres of Adès' The Tempest and Maazel's 1984. Tales of Opera is limited to just a fraction of that span, from the late eighteenth to the very ...
There are many supremely beautiful volumes in Graham Johnson's Schubert edition -- Fassbaender's, Popp's, Ameling's, Hampson's, Bostridge's -- but this Goethe Schubertiad is as supremely beautiful as the best of them. Of course, Goethe always brought out the best in the passionate young composer and his Goethe songs are among the greatest of ...
Since Carmina Burana is such a mainstay of the repertoire, it is difficult to think of any ensemble that has not performed it or of any major label that does not have multiple recordings to offer. Direct and sturdy, this popular cantata is almost indestructible and hard to misinterpret, though to make it sound fresh and distinctive is a challenge. ...
If, in the 20 years spent recording Mahler's 10 symphonies plus his symphonic song cycle Das Lied von der Erde and symphonic oratorio Das Klagende Lied, Simon Rattle was at first determined to deliver performances contradicting accepted standards and at the end equally determined to deliver performances conforming to accepted standards, he ...
Donizetti considered Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal (1843), his final completed opera written for the Paris Opéra, to be his masterpiece. In spite of its relative obscurity, on the basis of this recording, one is inclined to agree with him. The opera has several attributes that in the past have proved to be obstacles to its popularity. The first ...
No matter how many times you've heard Le nozze di Figaro, you owe it to yourself to hear this Le nozze di Figaro. It is fresh and funny and silly and moving and enchanting and as wise and as knowing as the work itself. The singers are the ideal kind of opera singers who make you forget they're singing because their acting is so good and their ...
Any volume of Graham Johnson's Schubert edition that has one of the numerous settings of Matthisson's Der Geistertanz is a good volume. And that this volume starts with the men of the London Schubert Chorale belting out the slightly inebriated 1816 setting from the D. 494 is a great start to what proves to be a great volume in the series. How ...
There are folks out there who never care to attend another Measure for Measure, who never care to watch another Modern Times, and who never care to hear another Le Nozze di Figaro because to them, comedy is obviously a lesser art form than tragedy. To them one can only say: "too bad!" because as this immensely musical and enormously humorous ...
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