Berg: Lulu

The long-awaited complete version of Lulu, which received its premiere in 1979 with Friedrich Cerha's finished orchestration of the third act, has fared well on disc. The recording of that first production at the Paris Opéra, with Teresa Stratas and conducted by Pierre Boulez, remains a classic. Other outstanding releases include two versions on Chandos, the first with Constance Hauman and conducted by Ulf Schirmer, and the second a performance in English, with Lisa Saffer and conducted by Paul Daniel. This performance from ... Read More

The long-awaited complete version of Lulu, which received its premiere in 1979 with Friedrich Cerha's finished orchestration of the third act, has fared well on disc. The recording of that first production at the Paris Opéra, with Teresa Stratas and conducted by Pierre Boulez, remains a classic. Other outstanding releases include two versions on Chandos, the first with Constance Hauman and conducted by Ulf Schirmer, and the second a performance in English, with Lisa Saffer and conducted by Paul Daniel. This performance from a 1991 production at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, starring Patricia Wise, deserves a place along with the best of them. It's a recording of live performances and has a compellingly dramatic urgency that's hard to reproduce in the studio. The recording quality is excellent -- details are clear, the sound is full and present, and the incidental stage sounds are minimal and add to the sense of theatrical space without being distracting. Jeffrey Tate's conducting emphasizes the ways the... Read Less