BEETHOVEN: Fidelio

Los Angeles Opera opened its 2007 season with Fidelio on September 8th, and on the following day held a gala performance of Verdi’s Requiem.

WAGNER: Die Walk¸re

One of the glories of a well-executed performance of Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle is the sonic dimension of the work, with the dramatic contrasts between the larger musical canvasses and the more intimate ensembles that occur between several voices and within the orchestra itself.

Hector Berlioz: Te Deum, op. 22

Often overshadowed by its composer’s Requiem, the Te Deum, Op. 22 (1849) by Hector Berlioz deserves attention for its own merits, and this recent release by H‰nssler in its series of live recordings of the Staatskapelle Dresden is a solid reading of this work.

SCHEIDT: Ludi Musici

The courtly instrumental music of the Halle composer, Samuel Scheidt, is preserved in the printed collection “Ludi musici” (1620), giving congenial suggestion of both the richness of the court practice and the virtuosic abilities of the ensemble players there, including the cornettist, Zacharias H‰rtel.

Le Chant des Templiers

The quarter century of work by the French medieval ensemble, Ensemble Organum, and their director, Marcel PÈrËs has positioned them as leading interpreters of early liturgical repertories; among interpreters, their renditions assert a high degree of distinctiveness and character.

DONIZETTI: La Figlia del Reggimento

La figlia del reggimento [La Fille du rÈgiment (ëThe Daughter of the Regimentí)], OpÈra comique in two acts.

La BohËme x3

On stages all over the world, most any night of the year, poor Parisian Mimi hacks her way into oblivion, while her sometime lover cries out her name in hysterical despair.

A slave tale fails to break free

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/04a37ada-6146-11dc-bf25-0000779fd2ac.html

IphigÈnie en Tauride, Royal Opera House, London

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/849a8af8-6083-11dc-8ec0-0000779fd2ac.html

VIVALDI: Dixit Dominus

In 2005 the Australian musicologist Janice Stockigt made the case that several works attributed to Baldassare Galuppi in the Saxon State and University Library (Dresden) were really the works of Antonio Vivaldi.