What is the worst opera with the best music?
Author: James Sohre
Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Charms La Scala
Robert Carsen’s production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is not new, as the La Scala playbill suggests.
Claudio Abbado Introduces the Complete Pergolesi
Very little is known about Giovanni Battista Draghi (or Drago, according to certain sources), known as Pergolesi.
Mozart: Idomeneo
“Mozart’s first mature masterpiece,” Sophie Becker calls Idomeneo in the booklet essay of this DVD set of a June 2008 Bayerische Staatsoper staging.
La Scala at the Movies: Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
From the La Scala series of filmed productions come two excellent DVDs, one an incisive and contemporary staging by Patrice Chereau of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and the other a rip-roaring, old-fashioned (in the best sense) performance of Donizetti’s flawed but entertaining Maria Stuarda.
Otto Nicolai: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor
Otto Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor belongs to that somewhat purgatorial group of operas best remembered only for their overtures.
Weber’s Der Freisch¸tz at Zurich Opera House
On any list of great but seldom-performed operas, Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freisch¸tz must rank high.
Jan·?ek: Jen?fa and K·tya Kabanov·
Recorded four years apart, these two classic recordings of Leos Jan·?ek’s dramatic masterpieces now reappear in Decca’s The Originals series, thankfully still with full librettos and excellent booklet essays.
Franz Leh·r: Das Land des L‰chelns
Doris Sennefelder’s booklet essay for this CPO recording of Lehar’s Das Land des L‰chelns details how close the composer was to Puccini.
Walter Braunfels’s Die Vˆgel at Los Angeles Opera
The Recovered Voices series at Los Angeles Opera, in its second season, springs from James Conlon’s fascination and love for the operas of composers whose lives and/or careers came to an end under the Nazi regime.