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Displaying records 1 through 10 of 2579 |
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Price: $24.98
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Sale: $18.48
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Manufacturer: Virgin Classics
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Number of Items: 1
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Description: This DVD version of Donizetti’s comic opera zooms right to the top of any list of essential videos for opera fans. It may not be the composer’s best work, but given a top-notch production with world class singing actors, it brings vocal thrills and an abundance of laughs, a combination that’s hard to beat. The stars are Juan Diego Flórez and Natalie Dessay, both unbeatable in bel canto roles, and both in top form here. Flórez’s mellifluous tenor is flexible enough to make child's play of the terrifying (to other tenors) nine high C’s in Ah! mes amis," and supple enough to make his tender love arias moving. Dessay is equally comfortable in the stratospheric coloratura passages and poignant in such heart-tugging set-pieces as her farewell to her regimental "fathers" and her misery as the victim of the Marquise’s well-meaning attempts to teach her to be an aristocratic lady. She’s also a terrific comic actress. In her first appearance she’s doing the regiment’s laundry, and her antics with the iron and the ironing board while singing elaborately difficult coloratura passages induce belly laughs. But then, so do her comic acting in many other scenes, such as her Act II entry in a silk dress and full petticoat, her walk a wonderful parody of a "lady’s" heel-to-toe gait. That moment alone is worth the price of admission. Lesser roles too, are done to perfection. Felicity Palmer, a long-time Covent Garden favorite, is a delicious Marquise de Berkenfield, and Donald Maxwell, is her apt partner as Hortensius, her servant. Sergeant Sulpice, the heroine’s protector, is well-sung and acted by Alessandro Corbelli, and Dawn French almost steals the show as the overbearing Duchess. Conductor Bruno Campanella leads a spirited performance, enhanced by the fine playing by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House. Laurent Pelly’s stage direction is wonderful for its comic touches and Chantal Thomas’ simple but effective sets add to the delights. The video direction efficiently serves the staging, focusing on the action and the singers without adding extraneous shots that detract from the musical flow. All of which makes this DVD a can't-miss for opera fans. --Dan Davis La Fille du regiment is in 16:9 ratio. Sound options include PCM Stereo, Dolby 5.1 Surround and DTS 5.1 Surround. Subtitles include English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.
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Price: $17.98
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Sale: $10.86
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Manufacturer: Decca
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Description: Here's a feast of great tenor singing. It's also a feast of thrills--one selection after another offers Pavarotti's remarkable, full-throated excitement in the music, whether the infectious spirit of his renditions of Neapolitan songs or the trumpet-like High C's he effortlessly tears off in the extended scene from Donizetti's La fille du regiment. Apparent throughout is Pavarotti's big-hearted emotional generosity that infuses this superb collection with an immediacy and communicative power that's impossible to resist. Of course, "Nessun dorma!" is here to lead off the set with the tenor's biggest hit, but his other Puccini arias are, if anything, even more compelling. Verdi is represented by such well-loved Pavarotti favorites as "La donna è mobile" and "Questa o quella" from Rigoletto. He's as compelling in the "Ingemisco" from Verdi's Requiem, the voice blooming in the "Inter oves" section and then fined down to a gorgeous pianissimo. But there's not a single weak track on these discs, whose attractions are enhanced by full texts and translations. --Dan Davis
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Price: $17.98
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Sale: $9.28
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Manufacturer: Decca
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Description: The labels that are now gathered under the Universal Classics umbrella have a pretty impressive scorecard in the area of classical compilations. We've seen The Greatest Opera Show on Earth, The Yellow Guide: Classical Music, Best of the Millennium, and now there's The No. 1 Opera Album. But that's no surprise, since Universal has some of the finest interpreters in its catalogue to draw from. This two-CD set (at the price of one), for example, brings together the likes of Cecilia Bartoli, Renée Fleming, Luciano Pavarotti, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan, and many more. Yet the other key to a successful compilation is canny anthologizing, and here again, you have a nice selection to give you a smattering of opera's heavyweights from the Italian, German, and French repertory (there's even a step outside the standard framework with an aria from Dvorák's lovely Rusalka). Ranging from 1959 to 1997, the choices from back catalogue will doubtless be the entry ticket for many into this grandest of the arts. --Sarah Chin
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Price: $17.98
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Sale: $9.27
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Manufacturer: Decca
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Description: For millions of people all over the world Luciano Pavarotti literally IS classical music. This outstanding collection of popular oprera arias and duets, sacred songs, and Neapolitan favourites is drawn from the finest recordings Luciano Pavarotti has made during an unparalleled career, and presents the definitive profile of one of the most important voices of all time. From "La Donna e mobile", "O sole mio" and "Torna a Sorriento" to Christmas classics "O Holy Night" and "Panis Angelicus", including, of course, his celebrated "Nessun Dorma". Bonus duets with Andrea Bocelli ("Notte e piscatore"), Cecilia Bartoli ("Cherry Duet") and Frank Sinatra ("My Way") included. Universal. 2007.
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Price: $3.98
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Sale: $1.48
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Manufacturer: EMI Classics
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Description: This is a misnomer--not all of these duets are all that famous--but it's a fine compilation nonetheless. You'll hear selections from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers (Nicolai Gedda and Ernest Blanc at their most elegant French), Madama Butterfly (Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto--an impassioned pair), Lucia di Lammermoor (a classy Alfredo Kraus and Edita Gruberova), the lovely Lakme duet, The Presentation of the Silver Rose from Der Rosenkavalier (with the earnest Christa Ludwig and the other-worldly Teresa Stich-Randall), and a fine Trovatore "Miserere" (with Leontyne Price and Franco Bonisolli singing up a storm). There are many others, too--a veritable cornucopia of couplings--and a treat for the opera lover. --Robert Levine
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Price: $18.97
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Sale: $11.97
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Manufacturer: Sony
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Description: Constantly exhorted to "sing," string players naturally try to emulate that most beautiful musical instrument, the human voice; no wonder they literally want to get their fingers on the treasures of the vocal repertoire. Joshua Bell has appropriated some of its best-loved songs and operatic arias, from Mozart through the romantics to Orff. Slow, sustained, lovely and yes, singing, these beguiling melodies and wide emotional range are eminently well suited to the violin. Credit for most of the arrangements is given to J.A.C. Redford, a well-known film and television composer, and indeed the throbbing strings and jarring modulations typical of sound-tracks invade his orchestrations, in startling contrast to the composers' own. In Debussy's "Beau soir," pianist Frederic Chiu partners Bell so beautifully that one wishes he had supplanted the orchestra in all the songs with piano accompaniment. The violin transcriptions of the vocal line closely follow the originals, except for Redford's compulsive habit of adding octaves in the repeats and jumping from the lowest to the highest register. Of course, Bell is very good at all this, and it's the playing that's really the thing. His tone is ravishingly beautiful, warm on the G-string, radiant up high, and always deeply expressive. His love and innate feeling for the music---its inward simplicity, romantic yearning and passionate ardor---speak straight to the heart. In the only authentic violin part, the obbligato of Richard Strauss' "Morgen!" he is joined by the golden-voiced soprano Anna Netrebko; at first overly intense, she relaxes into a blissful, magical ending. --Edith Eisler
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Price: $29.98
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Sale: $16.88
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Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
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Number of Items: 1
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Description: The Festival Theatre at the German spa town of Baden-Baden is a spanking modern concert hall behind the façade of a handsome 19th-century railroad station. In July 2007, it hosted an evening of wonderful singing by a quartet of leading operatic stars in a program that could have been titled "Opera's Greatest Hits." After a brief orchestral piece from Bellini's Norma the fireworks begin with the duet Mira, o Norma featuring soprano Anna Netrebko and mezzo Elina Garanca, their voices blending beautifully. From then on, it's one familiar, well-loved operatic chestnut after another, all done with spirited fervor and admirable vocalism. Tenor Ramón Vargas is a positive presence, giving us the bel canto gem Una furtive lagrima from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore in a flawlessly idiomatic interpretation that includes stunning diminuendos and a melting mezza-voce. Ludovic Tézier's rich baritone scores with a subtle rendition of Riccardo's death scene from Verdi's Don Carlo and, in yet another highlight in an evening full of them, joins Vargas in the great duet Dio, che nell'alma infondere from that opera. Garanca's Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix from Saint-Saën's Samson et Dalila is undersung but her showpiece aria from Rossini's La Cenerentola sparkles, with impressive coloratura fireworks. Netrebko is among the most brilliant stars of today's operatic firmament and while overparted in Norma's Casta Diva, she's effective elsewhere. She brings the house down with the first of the concert's many encores, a performance of Lehar's Meine Lippen from the operetta, Giuditta, that includes seductive singing and acting, sexual flirtations, and energetic dancing. Her enthusiasm is infectious, sparking her colleagues as well as the audience. All four singers join in the quartet from Rigoletto that ends the formal portion of the concert, and in the final encore, they trade verses in an arrangement of the Drinking Song from La Traviata. Conductor Marco Armiliato, whose supportive accompaniments help make the concert a rousing success, directs the capable orchestra. So this two-hour singfest provides joys for vocal buffs despite the hectic video direction that keeps the cameras moving endlessly, unnecessarily swooping around the auditorium, zooming from balconies to the stage and back, and otherwise distracting from the main event. --Dan Davis
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Price: $15.99
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Sale: $7.81
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Brand: SOMERSET ENTERTAINMENT
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Manufacturer: Avalon
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Description: Take a romantic journey across the fabled landscape of Tuscany with these beautiful, orchestral recordings of Italian classics. Instrumentation includes an orchestra.
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Price: $16.98
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Sale: $8.85
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Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
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Description: Rolando Villazon and Anna Netrebko, opera's "golden couple" (or is it "dream team?") have just released their first CD of duets. In the duet that closes the first act of Bohème, both singers are in rapturous voice, their phrasing sensitive and sincere. The Lucia-Edgardo duet is passionate and tender by turns, with Villazon particularly good--he takes his solo softly and in a long breath. The Duke and Gilda are roles made for them: She sounds sweet and vulnerable and he sounds like he believes what he's singing at the moment, and their final high D flat together is a dazzler. A hypnotic Roméo et Juliette duet follows, with gentle singing from both, and they make the most of Leila and Nadir's scene from The Pearl Fishers, turning in a languorous, smooth performance. The big duet from the third act of Manon finds Netrebko at her most seductive and a duet from Iolanta, probably the most lyrical tenor-soprano moment in Russian opera, is a nice rarity, with Villazon very at home in the Russian idiom and the pair soaring to great emotional heights. A delicious number from Torroba's Zarzuela Luisa Fernando ends the CD on a soft, tender note. Netrebko's diction remains unfortunate and while singing with a partner whose diction is as clean and clear as Villazon's, it becomes more noticeable. But there's precious little to complain about here--it's a true pleasure to hear singing and communicating of this caliber. --Robert Levine
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Price: $39.98
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Sale: $27.91
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Manufacturer: Decca
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Number of Items: 2
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Description: This specially priced 3-DVD set (three for the price of two) features Luciano Pavarotti at the Met in three of the legendary Italian tenor's greatest roles: * His Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore is "a blend of rustic innocence with a warm, amorous side, and a bit of virtuosic hamminess." (New York Times) * As Rodolfo in La Bohème, "he was in peak form in 1977...funny, warm, touching, believable, and a consummate vocal stylist." (Fanfare) * In Pagliacci, Pavarotti "was singing Canio for the first time on stage, and he does so magnificently, dramatically as well as vocally." (International Record Review) This fabulous collection includes bonus footage featuring interviews with Luciano Pavarotti, James Levine, and Renata Scotto, as well as a picture gallery.
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Displaying records 1 through 10 of 2579
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