Pilar Lorengar: Prima Donna in Vienna

Maybe a looking glass will help you to decipher the reprint in this CDís inside cover of a small article on the soprano by Terry McEwen, who was Manager of the Classical Divison of London Records at the time of recording.

Birgit Nilsson ó “Or sai chi l’onore”

Deutsche Grammophon was one of the many labels for which Nilsson recorded and the company decided to commemorate her passing by offering us most of her not so very large catalogue.

BACH: Mass in B Minor

We are reasonably sensitive, I suspect, to the number of ways in which venue can shape the nature and success of musical performance.

BELLINI: Norma

The best Norma on DVD treats the viewer to a blurry picture of washed-out colors and remote, compressed sound.

VERDI: La Forza del Destino

The better can be the enemy of the good and this recording proves it.

Katarina Jovanovic ó Songs by Brahms, Strauss, Schubert

In her debut recording the young Roumanian soprano Katarina Jovanic demonstrates her talent in performing an intriguing selection of Lieder by Schubert, Brahms, and Strauss.

ROSSINI: MoÔse

Myto does many an opera-lover a service by offering this enjoyable recording of Rossini’s French grand opera, here called Moïse.

HAL…VY: La Juive

For a period of close to half a century, French grand opera, as exemplified by the works of Giacomo Meyerbeer and his school, was the preferred form of music for the theatre (i.e. opera) in most of the civilized world.

MONTEVERDI: Il Sesto Libro de Madrigali

It is somewhat ironic that until recent years Italy has generally been slow to take a leading role in the historical performance movement: ironic in that historically Italy both dominates and defines the early baroque style and ironic in that that style enshrines the primacy of textó the Italian text.

WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde

I should probably preface my reaction to this release by confessing to the heretical belief, at least from a Wagnerian perspective, that Tristan und Isolde is not really a stageworthy opera.