Connoisseurs of pretentious booklet essay verbiage will delight in the prose style of Matthias Kellerin his musings for this EuroArts DVD of Ennio Morricone conducting his film scores with the Munich radio orchestra.
Category: Reviews
Strong Tempest at Santa Fe
The news from Santa Fe Opera last week-end is good, unexpectedly so. The British composer Thomas Ades’ new (2004) opera, a riff on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, has been rumored hard to perform and harder to hear.
BUXTEHUDE: Membra Jesu nostri
Dietrich Buxtehudeís Membra Jesu nostri is a large-scale Passion work dedicated to the Swedish chapelmaster, Gustav D¸bin, in whose notable collection, now at Uppsala, it holds a prominent place.
WAGNER: Das Rheingold
Was it so many years ago that lovers of Wagner’s titanic multi-part opus, Der Ring Des Nibelung, focused their passion principally on audio versions?
WAGNER: Siegfried, The 100th Covent Garden performance
ìThese probably unique documents may well owe their existence to the presence of Joan Sutherland in the cast and represent the earliest recordings of the great diva.
MOZART: Don Giovanni (Highlights)
Naxos reinforces its status as the classical recording world’s bargain leader by releasing a single CD highlights disc from its complete Don Giovanni, recorded in 2000 and originally released in 2001.
PHILLIPS-MATZ: Washington National Opera 1956-2006
This is a highly impressive coffee-table table book, loaded with stunning photographs of productions, singers, composers, and even our nation’s glorious capital.
SHORT ON SALOME
Richard Straussí 1905 neurotic shocker Salome has long been a favorite Santa Fe Opera repertory piece, having enjoyed ten productions over the years.
SHOSTAKOVICH: The Execution of Stepan Razin
This new Naxos recording offers a rare opportunity to hear three little-known works by one of the 20th century’s greatest composers – The Execution of Stepan Razin op. 119, October op. 131, and Five Fragments for orchestra op. 42, by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75).
CHAPI: Margarita la tornera
Is this the application of Peter’s Principle on Ruperto Chapi’s music as Chris Webber, editor of www.zarzuela.net preaches, or is this proof of Chapi being “undoubtedly the most important Spanish
composer of stage music of all time” as the sleeve notes tell us?