Alan Opie
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Special offer. Elgar: King Olaf
RecommendedEmily Birsan (soprano), Barry Banks (tenor), Alan Opie (baritone)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Collegium Musicum Choir, Edvard Grieg Kor, Sir Andrew Davis
there's nothing stilted about Elgar's music: it crackles with confident vitality...the Norwegian choruses respond with crisp vigour and superb English diction, only faintly (and appropriately)... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 26th January 2015
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Sunday Times, 2015, Albums of the Year
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2015, Choral & Song Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
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Britten: Death in Venice
Philip Langridge (Aschenbach), Alan Opie (Traveller/Elderly Fop/Old Gondolier/Hotel Manager/Hotel Barber/Leader of the Players/Voice of Dionysus), Michael Chance (Voice of Apollo)
BBC Singers, City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox
The Pears/Bedford version tends to emphasise the opera's elegiac side… The Chandos… is certainly not lacking in depth. But it also has an incisive clarity matching Richard Hickox's generally... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2005, Finalist - Opera
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BBC Music Magazine, May 2005, Opera Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2005, Editor's Choice
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Strauss: Ariadne on Naxos
RecommendedSung in English: translation by Christopher Cowell
Christine Brewer (Ariadne/Prima Donna), Robert Dean Smith (Bacchus/The Tenor), Alice Coote (Composer), Gillian Keith (Zerbinetta), Stephen Fry (Major-Domo), Alan Opie (Music Master), John Graham-Hall (Dancing Master/Scaramuccio), Roderick Williams (Harlequin), Matthew Rose (Truffaldino), Wynne Evans...
Brewer's luscious Ariadne had to be captured on disc...There's another essential performance from Alice Coote...with unflinchingly full top notes that few other genuine mezzos possess...I've... —
Awards:
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Sunday Times, 2010, Albums of the Year
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Gramophone Awards, 2011, Shortlisted - Opera
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BBC Music Magazine, December 2010, Opera Choice
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Building A Library, September 2025, Recommended Recording
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Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
RecommendedJosé van Dam (Hans Sachs), Ben Heppner (Walther von Stolzing), Karita Mattila (Eva), Alan Opie (Beckmesser), Iris Vermillion (Magdalena), Herbert Lippert (David), René Pape (Pogner), Albert Dohmen (Kothner), Kelly Anderson (Nachtwächter)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
[Van Dam] fulfils expectations with a reading that is finely moulded from start to finish...Heppner seems to have benefited from his longer experience of his role...Throughout this is a portrayal... —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 40th Awards (1997), Best Opera Recording
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Walton: Troilus and Cressida
RecommendedClive Bayley (Calkas), James Thornton (Antenor), Arthur Davies (Troilus), Nigel Robson (Pandarus), Judith Howarth (Cressida), Yvonne Howard (Evadne), David Owen-Lewis (Horaste), Alan Opie (Diomede)
Opera North Chorus, English Northern Philharmonia, Richard Hickox
Troilus and Cressida is here powerfully presented as an opera for the central repertory, traditional in its red-blooded treatment of a big classical subject. Few operas since Puccini's have... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1995, Winner - Opera
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Special offer. Delius: Mass of Life & Idyll
RecommendedJanice Watson (soprano), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo-soprano), Andrew Kennedy (tenor), Alan Opie (baritone), Janice Watson (soprano) & Alan Opie (baritone)
Bournemouth Symphony, The Bach Choir, David Hill
David Hill's impressive new recording with his Bach Choir (in the original German) boasts confident, ardent choral singing and orchestral playing, and a string solo team - even if Alan Opie,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 16th July 2012
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2012, Editor's Choice
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Britten: Billy Budd
RecommendedPhilip Langridge (Vere), Simon Keenlyside (Billy), John Tomlinson (Claggart), Alan Opie (Mr Redburn), Matthew Best (Mr Flint), Alan Ewing (Mr Ratcliffe), Francis Egerton (Red Whiskers), Clive Bayley (Dansker); London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Tiffin Boys' Choir, Richard Hickox
Britten's score is so often praised that we tend to neglect the distinction of Forster and Crozier's libretto, sung in this set with unerring conviction by its three principals. Keenlyside and... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 1st December 2008
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Building a Library, January 2013, First Choice
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Special offer. Walton: Troilus and Cressida
Judith Howarth (soprano), Yvonne Howard (mezzo-soprano), Arthur Davies (tenor), Nigel Robson (tenor), Brian Cookson (tenor), Peter Bodenham (tenor), Keith Mills (tenor), Alan Opie (baritone) James Thornton (baritone), Clive Bayley (bass), Bruce Budd (bass), Stephen Dowson (bass) & David Owen-Lewis...
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1995, Winner - Opera
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Britten: Peter Grimes
RecommendedPhilip Langridge (Peter Grimes), Janice Watson (Ellen Orford), Alan Opie (Balstrode), Ameral Gunson (Auntie), John Graham-Hall (Bob Boles), John Connell (Swallow), Anne Collins (Mrs Sedley), Roderick Williams (Ned Keene);
London Symphony Chorus, City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox
Any reading that so potently confirms the genius of this piece must have a distinguished place in the discography. In the first place there's Langridge's tense, sinewy, sensitive Grimes. Predictably... —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 39th Awards (1996), Best Opera Recording
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Building a Library, April 2023, Recommended Recording
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Special offer. Britten: Owen Wingrave
Peter Coleman-Wright (Owen Wingrave), Robin Leggate ( Sir Philip Wingrave/Narrator), Elizabeth Connell (Miss Wingrave), Janice Watson (Mrs. Coyle), Sarah Fox (Mrs. Julien), Alan Opie (Spencer Coyle), Pamela Helen Stephen (Kate) & James Gilchrist (Lechmere)
City of London Sinfonia, Richard...
Hickox's excellent cast boasts some supreme exponents. Hickox draws haunting colours and chordings from his City of London Sinfonia, and the recording is flawlessly presented. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2009, Finalist - Opera
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Gramophone Magazine, September 2008, Editor's Choice
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