Category: Recordings

The centrality of dance at the French court helped bring grace, order, and political allegory into the characteristic prominence they enjoyed during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV; theatre presentations of all stripes were infused with choreographic diversions.

In tandem with the recently released set of Sir Simon Rattle’s recordings of Mahler’s symphonies on EMI Classics, the set of the complete symphonies by Jean Sibelius merits attention.

As much as Richard Wagner espoused opera reform in his theoretical writings by bringing to his works for the stage a closer unity between music and text, his actual means of doing so at times involved the use of orchestral forces that sometimes overwhelmed the sung word.

The budget label Gala purveys live performances both historic and relatively recent; of the three discussed here, the La Scala Fedora dates back to 1931, while the Attila comes from a 1987 La Fenice performance.

National styles of music in the seventeenth century were often distinctive, and in the case of French and Italian music, famously so.

With its recent release of Mahlerís symphonies conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, EMI Classics makes available in a single place an outstanding contribution to the composerís discography.

This DVD records and commemorates a 1981 production of Parsifal in its Bayreuth lair, and the singers of 1981 are as fine as recollection might paint them.

Once the custom of the world’s opera houses was to translate great operas into the language of each respective country.

Repackaging older recordings having become the primary focus of a classical recording company’s business, Deutsche Grammophon budgeted some funds for art direction for its budget series called “Opera House” (although that appellation only appears in a link found on the back inside cover of the sets’ booklets).

Of Rosenkavaliers on DVD, the classics tend to be lovingly detailed productions, going back to the film of Herbert von Karajan leading an exemplary cast, with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf’s iconic Marschallin.