Category: Recordings

Although the cutesy title sounds like something conjured up by a community
college marketing intern working for a mid-sized city orchestra’s ticket
office—where every concert featuring Wagner and Brahms gets the sobriquet
“Teutonic Titans”—don’t be put off by the moniker. This film is a brilliant adaptation of Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of Madrigals that is totally faithful to the composer’s music.

Good directors don’t always create good productions.

The two one-act operas – operettes? – on this disc play something like mediocre episodes of The Twilight Zone set to music, though without the quirky memorability of that show’s opening theme.

On a good night an opera performance can come across with visceral excitement without a classy production, top-name singers, or the benefit of being of one of the more familiar titles.

Those opera lovers prone to rage at the perceived dominance of the director in their beloved art form today may collapse in apoplexy at this first release from the company called SignumVision.

The word “living” would be a fitting addition to the subtitle of this collection of “Songs by American Composers.”

“An all-American Norma,” Roger Pines calls this release in his entertaining booklet essay.

This excellent production of Monteverdi’s final (premiered in 1643) and most problematic opera features first-rate singing and a very effective (and restrained) staging.

In the Euroarts series Discovering Masterpieces of Classical Music: Documentary & Performance, the volume devoted to BÈla BartÛk’s Concerto for Orchestra stands out as a particularly accessible and well-executed release.

For adherents of the prima voce school of opera appreciation, this Laurent Pelly production of Donizetti’s comic masterpiece may not hold that much appeal.