Alban Berg’s Wozzeck takes almost two hours to induce a sense of soul-crushing nausea and despondency. Kiri Sings Karl achieved that for your reviewer in a couple minutes, and then went on with terrifying, torturous efficiency for almost another hour.
Category: Recordings
VERDI: Otello
Director Willy Decker’s outstanding Traviata from Salzburg, with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon, is one of the great contemporary opera DVDs.
STRAUSS: Elektra
Among the available videos of Richard Straussís Elektra, the recently released DVD of the live broadcast from 16 February 1980 stands out for capturing the exciting of an all-star international cast that included the famous Birgit Nilsson in the title role.
DONIZETTI: Anna Bolena
A career-making smash for Donizetti at its 1830 premiere, Anna Bolena eventually faded from the standard repertory.
BRUCKNER: Symphony no. 5
Recorded live at the Stiftsbasilika, St. Florian (Austrian) on 12 and 13 September 2006, this DVD offers a special performance of the famous Cleveland Orchestra outside its home at Severance Hall.
BERG: Wozzeck
Among the available DVDs of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck, the recent release of the production Rolf Liebermann made into a film i the late 1960s stands out for various reasons.
Faustina Bordoni: Faces of a prima donna
Opera singers today have become almost as famous and publicly worshipped as movie-stars; yet this has always been the case in operatic history.
Carlos Cogul: Introduction
Carlos Cogul is a London vocal coach and an appreciated baritone giving many a recital ÖÖin the London Tube while commuters hastily pass by to catch their trains. Judging from the photo on this CD he is not a young man any more.
ROSSINI: Bianca e Falliero
The choice between this recording made at the Pesaro Festival in August 2005 and the Opera Rara recording of 2000 will partly be made for non-musical reasons.
Jan Neckers on Recently Reissued Historicals
Almost thirty years ago a century old tradition ended with the last performance of I Maestri Cantatori.