Category: Recordings

Entering the Linbury Studio for this production of The Beggar’s Opera, one might have been forgiven for thinking that one had wandered into the main house by mistake.

The emergence of a standardized western liturgy with a uniform chant repertory, while to a significant degree realized, neither completely silenced regional liturgies nor extinguished the additions to liturgical practice that comprise much medieval creativity.

A sticker on the cover of the Decca DVD Jessye Norman a portrait describes the contents as “An intimate new film portrait of the great soprano.”

I am an ardent fan of Stephanie Blythe, and if you revel in sheer sound, she will delight you, too.

The first solo operatic recital from the great German bass RenÈ Pape bears a title that serves as an homage to an esteemed predecessor, George London.

A traditional production of Mozart and Schikaneder’s singspiel Die Zauberflˆte can go for charm, fantasy, and enjoyable camp. It can also turn trite and cloying.

The title of Anna Netrebko’s most recent recital disc apparently springs from the musical selections’ ability to prompt memories in the singer.

On this 1955 recording of Dvo?·k’s folk-tale based comic romp Kate and the Devil, conductor Zden?k Chalaba offers a lighter, faster approach than that heard on the modern studio version Supraphon released in 1981, under conductor Ji?Ì Pinkas.

More than just three letters distinguishes “rarity” from “oddity.” In opera, a rarity would be an admired work seldom performed.