Teatro La Fenice Opera Collection
This boxed set of six performances from Venice's Teatro La Fenice opera house features several unusual operas that are not otherwise available on DVD. But do the performances live up to expectations...
Operas for children
Operas often have convoluted plots, inaccessible music, and deal with adult emotions, so its perhaps not surprising that they are generally unpopular with children.
However, there are exceptions, and here is our suggested list of operas written especially for children, or with plots and action that will delight younger opera goers.
Albert Herring
The Cunning Little Vixen
The Love for Three Oranges
Die Zauberflöte
Amahl and the Night Visitors
L'enfant et les sortilèges
Paul Bunyan
A superb Tristan and Isolde on DVD
At last an outstanding performance of Wagner's 4-hour music-drama is available on DVD. From the acclaimed 1983 Bayreuth production conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
Tristan und Isolde (c. Barenboim)
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Recommendations for May 2008
La cambiale di matrimonio - Gioachino Rossini
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Filmed at the Rossini opera festival in Pesaro, Italy, in 2006. Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, conducted by Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, 2006. Cast: Paolo Bordogna (Tobia Mill), Désirée Rancatore (Fanny), Saimir Pirgu (Edoardo Milfort), Fabio Maria Capitanucci (Slook). Naxos DVD 2.110228 |
Otello (Othello) - Giuseppe Verdi
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A television production from the Royal Opera House. Royal Opera House Covent Garden Chorus, Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti, 1992. Cast: Plácido Domingo (Otello), Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (Desdemona), Sergei Leiferkus (Iago), Robin Leggate (Cassio). Opus Arte OA R3102 D |
Luisa Miller - Giuseppe Verdi
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Venice Teatro la Fenice Chorus, Venice Teatro la Fenice Orchestra, conducted by Maurizio Benini, 2006. Cast: Darina Takova (Luisa), Giuseppe Sabbatini (Rodolfo), Damiano Salerno (Miller), Alexander Vinogradov (Count Walter). Naxos DVD 2.110225-26 |
Die Soldaten (The soldiers) - Bernd Alois Zimmermann
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A recording of the 1965 Cologne première, it's a great performance with excellent sound, despite being a mono recording Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra, conducted by Michael Gielen, Cast: Edith Gabry (Marie), Liane Synek (The Countess de la Roche), Anton de Ridder (Desportes), Claudio Nicolai (Stolzius), Zoltan Kelemen (Wesener). Wergo WER6698-2 (mono) |
| Buy CD online in the USA: Amazon.com ($55.98) | Buy CD online in the UK/Europe: Amazon.co.uk (£27.99) |
Teatro La Fenice Opera Collection (9 disc box)
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Six interesting operas on DVD from Venice's Teatro La Fenice opera house. Dynamic Teatro La Fenice Opera Collection Includes the following recordings: Pia de'Tolomei (c. Arrivabeni)Maometto secondo (c. Scimone) Les pêcheurs de perles (c. Viotti) Thaïs (c. Viotti) Le Roi de Lahore (c. Viotti) Daphne (c. Reck) |
| Buy boxed set in the USA: Amazon.com ($122.99) | Buy boxed set in the UK/Europe: Amazon.co.uk (£44.99) |
Khovanshchina (The Khovansky Affair) - Modest Mussorgsky
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Recorded live at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in 2007. Chorus of the Gran Theatre del Liceu, Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Theatre del Liceu, conducted by Michael Boder, 2007. Cast: Vladimir Ognovenko (Ivan Khovansky), Vladimir Galouzine (Andrey Khovansky), Robert Brubaker (Golitsin), Nikolai Putilin (Shaklovity). Opus Arte OA 0989 D |
| Buy DVD online in the USA: Amazon.com ($34.49) | Buy DVD online in the UK/Europe: Amazon.co.uk (£29.99) |
King Priam - Michael Tippett
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A superb Kent Opera production, directed by Roger Lough for TV in 1985. Kent Opera Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Roger Norrington, 1985. Cast: Rodney Macann (Priam), Sarah Walker (Andromache), Howard Haskin (Paris), Anne Mason (Helen), Janet Price (Hecuba), Neil Jenkins (Achilles), Omar Ebrahim (Hector). ArtHaus Musik 102 087 |
| Buy DVD online in the USA: Amazon.com ($22.99) | Buy DVD online in the UK/Europe: Amazon.co.uk (£24.99) |
Rusalka - Antonín Dvorák
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A brilliant new live production, superbly recorded at the Sydney Opera House in 2007. Australian Opera Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Richard Hickox, 2007. Cast: Cheryl Barker (Rusalka), Rosario La Spina (Prince), Bruce Martin (Water Goblin), Anne-Marie Owens (Witch), Elizabeth Whitehouse (Foreign Princess). Chandos CHAN 10449 |
| Buy CD online in the USA: Amazon.com ($34.98) | Buy CD online in the UK/Europe: Amazon.co.uk (£25.99) |
Top recording
The most requested recording, as selected by OperaNights users over the past seven days:
Porgy and Bess - George Gershwin
Important CD release of Die Soldaten
The recording of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's opera Die Soldaten, considered to be one of the most important operas of the last 50 years, has been released on CD for the first time.
Two stylish Rossini productions
Recently released on DVD are stylish productions of two of Rossini's lesser-known comic operas, La pietra del paragone and Il viaggio a Reims. The operas are similar in that they both lack a proper plot, but poke fun at the upper classes through a series of delightful satirical scenes.
La pietra del paragone (c. Zedda)
Il viaggio a Reims (c. Gergiev)
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