Author: James Sohre

At one point in her career, Eva Marton appeared poised to be the true inheritor of Birgit Nilsson’s legacy roles: Wagner and Strauss’s most dramatic heroines, as well as key Italian roles (Puccini in particular).

Throughout his relatively long and decidedly successful career, Giacomo Puccini returned to those operas of his that had not, immediately or eventually, secured an important place in the standard repertory.

Michael Hampe seems to have been the director of choice in the 1980s for tastefully traditional Rossini productions.

Are you sitting comfortably?

In the mid-1980s (just before the Riccardo Muti era began), Lorin Maazel often ruled the conductor’s roost at La Scala.

The worlds of lieder and opera seem to share the same galaxy, while being countless light years apart.

The December opening of the La Scala season requires a notable production, and in 2001 a gorgeous new production of Verdi’s Otello fit the bill.

A note on the inside back cover of the booklets for these two releases announces that they are part of a new Supraphon series dedicated to “archive recordings of complete operas not yet available on CD.”

A number of performances from the Sferisterio Opera Festival have been released in recent months.