This excellent production of Monteverdi’s final (premiered in 1643) and most problematic opera features first-rate singing and a very effective (and restrained) staging.
Year: 2009
Semiramide at Caramoor
You need three or, ideally, four top-flight bel canto specialists to do anything like justice to Rossini’s Semiramide, his last and grandest Italian score. Otherwise why go to the expense?
Discovering Masterpieces of Classical Music — BÈla BartÛk: Concerto for Orchestra
In the Euroarts series Discovering Masterpieces of Classical Music: Documentary & Performance, the volume devoted to BÈla BartÛk’s Concerto for Orchestra stands out as a particularly accessible and well-executed release.
Donizetti: L’Elisir d’amore
For adherents of the prima voce school of opera appreciation, this Laurent Pelly production of Donizetti’s comic masterpiece may not hold that much appeal.
On deception at Sferisterio Festival, Macerata, Italy
L’inganno is this year’s theme at the Sferisterio Festival in Macerata, Italy.
SCHUMANN: Scenen aus Goethes Faust
Scenen aus Goethes Faust (op. WoO 3 ) [also known as Szenen aus Goethes ÑFaust“], oratorio in three parts with seven scenes.
Vivaldi: La fida ninfa
Although Antonio Vivaldi’s instrumental compositions were highly popular in his lifetime, and have been held in high regard throughout the centuries, most of his operas have been — until recently — relegated to obscurity.