Best Opera

Dmitri Tcherniakov’s acclaimed new production of Borodin’s Russian epic—the opera’s first Met staging in nearly a century—stars Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role of the tormented prince who leads his army against the Polovtsians. The stellar all-Russian-language cast also includes Oksana Dyka as his wife, Yaroslavna, Anita Rachvelishvili as Konchakova, Sergey Semishkur as Igor’s son, Vladimir, Mikhail Petrenko as Prince Galitzky, and Štefan Kocán as Khan Konchak. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Met’s vast musical forces in this colorful score, which includes the celebrated Polovtsian Dances.

Dmitri Tcherniakov’s acclaimed new production of Borodin’s Russian epic—the opera’s first Met staging in nearly a century—stars Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role of the tormented prince who leads his army against the Polovtsians. The stellar all-Russian-language cast also includes Oksana Dyka as his wife, Yaroslavna, Anita Rachvelishvili as Konchakova, Sergey Semishkur as Igor’s son, Vladimir, Mikhail Petrenko as Prince Galitzky, and Štefan Kocán as Khan Konchak. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Met’s vast musical forces in this colorful score, which includes the celebrated Polovtsian Dances.

Erin Helyard has been acclaimed as an inspiring conductor, a virtuosic and expressive performer of the harpsichord and fortepiano, and as a lucid scholar who is passionate about promoting discourse between musicology and performance. Erin graduated in harpsichord performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with first-class honours and the University Medal. He completed his Masters in fortepiano performance and a PhD in musicology with Tom Beghin at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal. He was named the Westfield Concert Scholar (Cornell University) on fortepiano for 2009–10 and from 2003 to 2012 was a central member of Montreal’s award-winning Ensemble Caprice.

It would be hard to imagine a better performance of Donizetti's comic masterpiece. If there was one role that ideally suited Luciano Pavarotti's voice and stage personality, it was Nemorino, the impoverished and not-very-bright peasant who worships the village's prettiest and richest young woman from a distance, is swindled by a traveling vendor of "miracle" medicines, but wins her hand by dumb luck. The story has comedy, pathos, and a put-down of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (or at least the Tristan story) written long before Wagner composed it.

RCA Red Seal is a classical music label and is now part of Sony Masterworks.
The Red Seal label was begun in 1902 by the Gramophone Company in the United Kingdom and was quickly adopted by its United States affiliate, the Victor Talking Machine Company, and its president, Eldridge R. Johnson. Distinctive, red paper information labels affixed to the centre of the two affiliated companies' black shellac discs inspired the name.