After having recorded La Fanciulla del West, conductor Lawrence Foster now expands his Puccini discography on PENTATONE with Madama Butterfly, together with the Coro & Orquestra Gulbenkian, as well as Elisabeth Kulman (Suzuki), Stefano Secco (Pinkerton), Lester Lynch (Sharpless) and Melody Moore (Cio-Cio-San) in the title role. Despite its disastrous premiere, Madama Butterfly has become one of Puccini’s most successful and popular operas. While the Japanese ambience usually captures the attention, the original dramatic conception and exceptional symphonic qualities of the work are often overlooked. Lawrence Foster’s interpretation brings out the symphonic character of the opera, while Melody Moore’s charismatic interpretation of the title role fully realizes the work’s tragic and dramatic potential.
The Pacific Northwest offers up a rich feast of land, sky, and water. It is ripe with influences, abundant with symbols, deep and spirited. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the Grateful Dead played some of their most inspired shows on these fertile grounds. Dip your toe in the transformative waters with PACIFIC NORTHWEST '73-'74: BELIEVE IT IF YOU NEED IT, a compilation that highlights performances from our COMPLETE boxed set.
This recording of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s two sacred masterpieces is one of the only forays Neville Marriner ever made into French baroque. Full of elegance and refinement, this rendition features great vocal soloists such as Ann Murray, Daw Upshaw or John Aler.
The Pacific Northwest offers up a rich feast of land, sky, and water. It is ripe with influences, abundant with symbols, deep and spirited. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the Grateful Dead played some of their most inspired shows on these fertile grounds. It does, however, sometimes take a breath for the elements to re-align years later. It seems for us, they finally have and we are able to present not just a glimpse of the band's extraordinary exploratory tour through the region, but a two-tour bounty as the PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS.
Allegedly planned for an official release back in 1974 or 1975 but scrapped by the creation of A Night at the Opera, Live at the Rainbow '74 fills in part of Queen's history: it is the first official live album to capture the band at their pre-Night at the Opera fury. The brief 1989 release, At the Beeb, touched upon the same territory, capturing their two sessions from 1973, but this is something else, a full concert – and in the case of the double-CD, quadruple vinyl, two full concerts – that showcases the band's rapidly increasing range, not to mention their brute force…