Gifts for... Opera-Lovers

Recorded live over two concert-performances in Oslo last summer, this set captures Davidsen's first (and only) assumption of the role of Senta: the Norwegian soprano will be focusing on Isolde and Brünnhilde in the coming seasons, making her debuts in both roles at the Metropolitan Opera in 2026 and 2027-30 respectively. Reviewing the performance, Wagneropera.net noted that 'it takes an artist of her caliber to make such a clear stamp on how we should understand Senta' and also declared that 'Finley does not merely sing the Dutchman; he is the Dutchman. The recording won the Opera category at this year's Gramophone Awards.

Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

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Eight years on from their outstanding interpretations of Didon and Énée on the late John Nelson's multi-award-winning account of Berlioz's Les Troyens, DiDonato and Spyres are reunited as the star-crossed lovers in Purcell's taut setting from almost two centuries earlier, recorded in Essen last February. Reviewing a performance at the Barbican the following week, The Guardian's Tim Ashley praised the 'immaculately balanced and focused' choral singing and DiDonato's 'magnificent' portrayal of the Queen of Carthage.

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This Tosca was recorded live in Rome last October, in concerts which marked both the centenary of Puccini's death and the beginning of Harding's tenure as Music Director of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; he was appointed as Antonio Pappano's successor in March 2023. It featured as Recording of the Month in the April edition of Gramophone, with Mark Pullinger enthusing that 'this new account boasts the finest Tosca cast of the digital era and is a recording I’ll be returning to often in years to come.'

Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

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This recording presents Verdi's political drama as it was premiered at La Fenice in 1857, rather than the 1881 revised version of the score which was prepared in collaboration with librettist Arrigo Boito (and is most commonly heard today). Reviewing a live performance from these forces last year, The Guardian applauded Alcántara's 'elegant, supple-toned' interpretation of the title-role (which was the young Argentinean's recording debut) and Elder's 'typically sure-footed panache', whilst The Arts Desk deemed the concert 'probably one of the greatest triumphs of Elder’s near quarter-century as musical director of the Hallé'.

Available Formats: 2 CDs, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

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Idomeneo has long occupied a special place in Rattle's affections: preparing to conduct the opera at Glyndebourne back in 2003, he described it to The Guardian as 'the work in which Mozart shows he can do anything he wants...It is a kind of dark night of the soul.' This recording was made from concert-performances in Munich in December 2023, shortly after he took up the position of Chief Conductor.

Available Formats: 3 CDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

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Lucia has become something of a calling-card for Oropesa over the past decade: she made her Covent Garden debut in the role in 2017 (when The Guardian described her as 'sensationally good'), and has since sung it at La Scala, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Salzburg Festival and the Teatro Real de Madrid. This studio recording was made at the Teatro Sangiorgi in Sicily last summer; Oropesa enthuses that the project was 'a full sensory experience that took me away and brought me right to the heart of this magnificent opera'.

Available Formats: 2 SACDs, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

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Commissioned by Prince Albert of Monaco, Saint-Saëns's penultimate opera L'Ancêtre was premiered in Monte-Carlo in 1906 and is set in the mountains of Corsica during the Napoleonic Wars; the drama centres on the vendetta between the Pietra-Nera and Fabiani families, and two young women vying for the affections of a soldier in Napoleon's army. This first commercial recording of the work was an Editor's Choice in the October edition of Gramophone, when Mark Pullinger noted that 'Yamada is attentive to detail and the playing of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo is splendid'.

Available Formats: CD + Book, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

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This is the world premiere recording of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's new opera about two women who spied for the Union during the American Civil War: the privileged Elizabeth Van Lew, and Mary Jane Bowser (who was born into slavery in the Van Lew household and is sent to work as a mole in the Confederate White House by her employer). First performed at Houston Grand Opera in October 2023, Intelligence was described by the Houston Chronicle as 'a gorgeous, nuanced, layered and suspenseful masterpiece that deftly balances drama and wit', whilst the British Theatre Guide predicted that it was 'likely to prove another standard work in the 21st-century operatic repertory'.

Available Formats: 2 SACDs, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

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Released to coincide with their joint appearance in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Donizetti's La fille du régiment (a scene from which is included here) last month, this programme from two of today's finest bel canto singers includes duets from Rossini's Le comte Ory, Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Bizet's La jolie fille de Perth, and Delibes's Lakmé. Morley sings the 'Bell Song' from the latter opera plus 'Caro nome' from Rigoletto, whilst Brownlee contributes arias from Donizetti's Marino Faliero and Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles.

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Perhaps most celebrated as a great tragedienne, the elegant French soprano lets her hair down with this programme of scenes from Offenbach's comic operas and operettas, including La Périchole, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, La diva, and La boulangère a des écus. Several numbers receive their world premiere recordings here, including songs from Le roman comique and Valéria, and an aria composed for the 1876 revival of La belle Hélène.

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Mozart's Count Almaviva, Guglielmo, Papageno and Don Giovanni are central to Schuen's repertoire, and all four characters feature on this recital recorded in Salzburg last December. The programme also includes 'Abendempfindung an Laura', the late cantata excerpt Die ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls Schöpfer ehrt ('You who honour the Creator of the infinite universe'), the concert aria 'Mentre ti lascio' (written at the same time as Don Giovanni), and 'Komm, liebe Zither, komm' (with Avi Avital). Schuen sang the title-role in Robert Icke's new production of Don Giovanni at this year's Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.

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Swedish mezzo Ann Hallenberg made several distinguished appearances on the late Alan Curtis's series of Gluck recordings, and here she joins forces with Page and his ensemble for a programme which features three scenes from Il trionfo di Clelia, plus arias from Orfeo ed Euridice, La Semiramide riconosciuta, Il Parnaso confuso, and Paride ed Elena; excerpts from Le nozze d’Ercole e d’Ebe and Ipermestra receive their first-ever recordings. The album won the Solo Recording prize at last week's International Opera Awards.

Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3

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Inspired by the Italian repertoire that she so deeply loves, this début from Eleonora Buratto combines scenes and arias from five operas by Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi to paint miniature portraits of five heroines - all facing different trials and tribulations but united by the 'indomitable' spirit that gives the album its name. The bold writing that these evocations of delirium and madness draw from the composers allows her astonishingly agile voice to shine.

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The ebullient Samoan tenor is poised to make his debut in Les contes d'Hoffmann in Berlin, and recently won an Opus Klassik Award for his second album on Warner, Nessun dorma. This sequel is devoted to Neapolitan song, including Tosti's 'Marechiaro', 'A vucchella' and 'Inquietudine', Denza's 'Funiculì-Funiculà', and of course Capua's 'O sole mio'; Pati is joined by eight string-players and percussionists from Il Pomo d'Oro, led by Neapolitan guitarist Antonello Paliotti.

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Due for release next Friday, Damiano Michieletto's staging of Hoffmann was filmed at Covent Garden last winter, when The Guardian described it as 'full of warped wit and devilish touches' and noted allusions to Mary Poppins, Austin Powers and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge. BachTrack, meanwhile, hailed the show as 'a visual feast and a riot of fantastical ideas [which] also achieves coherence around the narrative thread of Hoffmann’s character changes as he ages with each successive love affair' and deemed Jaho 'nothing short of sublime' as Antonia (here depicted as a ballerina rather than a singer).

Available Format: Blu-ray

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Filmed at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2023, Kosky's production was praised as 'brilliantly cast and meticulously directed' by BachTrack, whilst Der Standard declared that 'beauty and pointedness are combined in the noblest way'. The performance was also warmly received on a musical level, with Wiener Zeitung noting that Jordan and the Viennese orchestra 'deliver an ideal mixture of elegant lyricism and concentrated expression'.

Available Format: 2 DVD Videos

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Staged at Versailles by Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek last October, this sumptuous production of Dido incorporates mime, acrobatics and dance, with MusicWeb International drawing attention to the 'impressive trapeze artistry' on display. Reviewing the set last month, The Times noted that '[Yoncheva] invests the heroine with a gutsy east European swagger that only increases the impact and agony of the abandoned Dido’s final lament' and praised the 'maximum vigour' which Plewniak draws from his instrumental forces.

Available Format: Blu-ray + DVD Video

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After a sparkling account of Gilbert & Sullivan's penultimate collaboration Utopia, Limited in June (featuring many of the same singers), Opus Arte presents Scottish Opera's 2022 production of the duo's previous operetta, centring on a pair of Venetian brothers, their brides, and a Spanish ducal family fallen on hard times. The show was hailed as 'G&S con amore' by The Arts Desk, whilst BachTrack described it as 'truly sumptuous'.

Available Format: Blu-ray

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Filmed at the Bayerische Staatsoper in March 2023, Tcherniakov's new staging of Prokofiev's opera was hailed as 'darkly urgent and sensitively executed' by The New York Times (there had been debate as to whether the planned production should go ahead in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine the previous year). The Financial Times was similarly affected, applauding the director's 'fanatically detailed and ferociously ambitious' vision and describing the whole as 'a monumental achievement' from all concerned.

Available Format: Blu-ray

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This limited-edition set brings together all of the recordings which Kaufmann made for Decca between 2002 and 2012, including three complete operas: Weber's Oberon (with John Eliot Gardiner), Humperdinck's Königskinder (with Armin Jordan), and Beethoven's Fidelio (with Claudio Abbado). Other highlights include a recital of verismo arias with Antonio Pappano, the multi-award-winning Wagner album from 2013, Die schöne Müllerin with Helmut Deutsch, and the Verdi Requiem (with Daniel Barenboim); bonus material includes an aria from Mascagni's Iris, an ensemble from Puccini's La rondine, and an interview in which Kaufmann discusses Wagner (in German and English).

Available Format: 15 CDs

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The earliest recordings on this collection are a Don Giovanni with Carlo Maria Giulini and a live Alcina (with Fritz Wunderlich as Ruggiero), both from 1959; later highlights include Bellini's La sonnambula, Norma, Beatrice di Tenda and I Puritani, Donizetti's La fille du régiment and L'elisir d'amore, Rossini's Semiramide and another Alcina (all conducted by Richard Bonynge), plus excerpts from Bononcini's La Griselda and Graun's Montezuma.

Available Format: 49 CDs

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A century after the birth of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and to commemorate the 70th birthday of Thomas Hampson, this landmark study traces the origins and evolution of the baritone, and the achievements of its greatest exponents, from the 16th century to the 21st. Through extensive cross-cultural research and detailed musical analysis, Matthew Boyden navigates the profound effects of social change, religion, philosophy, psychology, socioeconomics, sexuality, race and technology on the sound, techniques and perception of the voice as a musical and cultural phenomenon.

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Benjamin Britten's 1954 opera The Turn of the Screw, based on Henry James's ghost story, has been described by many as cinematic, and is one of the most frequently televised or filmed of Britten's operas. This book explores the notion of cinematic opera in the context of this opera, questioning what inherent cinematic qualities exist in the work which make it particularly conducive for screen interpretation. Included is a special study of Peter Morley's 1959 ITV version, which had previously been thought lost.

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Donizetti's opera, based on Walter Scott's novel, is a staple of the bel canto operatic repertoire and famed above all for its vocally challenging and frequently reinterpreted 'mad scene' that precedes the lead character's death. This handbook examines the impact Lucia has had on opera and investigates why, of all of Donizetti's seventy operas, this particular work has inspired so much enthusiastic interest among scholars, directors and singers.

Available Format: Book

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