Author: James Sohre

A few years ago EMI released a recording of Wagner duets with Placido Domingo and Deborah Voigt.

While the tributes and retrospectives continue to appear for the late Luciano Pavarotti, his sometime-colleague (if not rival) Pl·cido Domingo maintains a top-rank career, even including a contract with Deutsche Grammophon for new studio work.

Gala may be a budget label, but more opera sets of vintage live performances deserve a booklet essay as concise yet comprehensive, critically honest and yet fair, as Andrew Palmer’s for this set, which preserves a 1980 performance of Richard Strauss and Joseph Grigor’s Die Liebe der Danae.

Last year saw Cecilia Bartoli’s recording dedicated to the memory, and repertoire, of the early 19th century singer Maria Malibran, “Maria.”

There may be no name more famous in the world of film music than that of Bernard Herrmann. William Perry, however, is a name unlikely to set off many bells.

Of these three productions staged for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the beautifully dressed Entf¸hrung and refined Tancredi present the company as a theater for tasteful, stylish productions, just a tad on the dull side.

The 100th anniversary of his birth inevitably produces a flood of releases from the catalog of conductor Herbert von Karajan.

Dynamic now offers most of its product in CD and DVD formats, the latter in High Definition, no less.

With these three CDs of highlights from three Verdi operas – Nabucco, Il Trovatore, and Aida ó Classics for Pleasure gives a snapshot of the arc of his career.