One takes a look at the sleeve and one realizes the wheel has finally turned a full circle. It started to move with the Decca La Traviata (Gheorgiu as Violetta, conducted by Solti) in 1994. Downloading and pc-copies were still in the future but nevertheless sales of complete opera recordings were spectacularly falling off since the eighties.
Category: Reviews
Berg’s Wozzeck at the Met ó Three Reviews
The Metropolitan Opera presents Wozzeck, Alban Berg’s “operatic version of B¸chnerís play about a soldier who subjects himself to medical experiments to augment his pay.” Here are two reviews.
Mario Del Monaco at the Bolshoi
Myto has the good sense to call a spade a spade. This is an issue exclusively meant for the Del Monaco-crowd and not for people wanting a Carmen or a Pagliacci. The set has one enormous quality: a brilliant natural sound that hides nothing and doesnít change the balance of the voices.
SCHREKER: Christophorus oder ìDie Vision einer Operî
How easy it might be to overlook this lesser-known Schreker opera, composed in 1928 and dedicated to Schrekerís good friend Arnold Schoenberg, here in its recorded debut. It has a quite curious libretto, complex and multilayered, and Schreker moves between what are at times quite disparate styles.
SPITZER & ZASLAW: The Birth of the Orchestra ó History of an Institution, 1650-1815
At a time when the press has made the public aware of the difficult circumstances that exist for the symphony orchestra in the United States, it is refreshing to find a book that demonstrates unequivocally the nature of that institution and, as a consequence, its power in culture.
SCHUBERT: Winterreise
Franz Schubertís song cycle Winterreise has been performed by many fine singers, who keep the work alive in the repertoire and in the imagination of audiences. In recent years the work has been subject to a variety of interpretations, and with this recording, the well-known tenor RenÈ Kollo offers his perspective on the work, accompanied by the young pianist Oliver Pohl.
A Trio of New Year’s Concerts
The first thing I saw when I opened the La Scala DVD was a notice on the back that track 5 plays ìVa! Pensiero da: I vespri siciliani (1855).î One wonders if there is nobody at the La Scala Bookshop who has at least a bit of knowledge of one of the most popular pieces in the operatic repertoire that served Italy for more than hundred years as an unofficial anthem ó the Venice DVD has it right, of course.
LUTOSLAWSKI: Twenty Polish Christmas Carols
Witold Lutos?awski (1913-94) composed vocal works throughout his career, and recording collects several pieces that involve female voices. His set of Twenty Polish Christmas Carols for soprano, womenís choir and orchestra is a late composition compiled between 1985 and 1989 and given its premiere in 1990.
Christmas with RenÈe and Bryn
Though singers have always recorded some of these arias and songs, it was young Leontyne Price who first started a trend by devoting a whole LP to the genre more than 45 years ago.
RACHMANINOV: The Miserly Knight
In its 2004 season Glyndebourne put on a double bill celebrating avarice ó Pucciniís Gianni Schicchi and the much-lesser known The Miserly Knight.