Forza 3

What does it say that of the six available videos of this opera, the two best were made in 1958 and 1978? Something about the Verdian style and grand Verdi voices, I'm sure, but I'll leave the details to you. The Price/Giacomini performance from the Met is a pretty boring affair, the Urmana/Giordani perfectly acceptable but thrill-free, and the Gorchakova/Gergiev/St. Petersburg original version is both in another class and not particularly idiomatic. Both Hardy DVDs–the '58 from Naples with Tebaldi and Corelli, and this one, from La Scala in 1978, present the opera as the "real thing"..

–Robert Levine

This John Dexter production was premiered in 1975 and filmed in 1984. The incomparable Leontyne Price delivered a series of unforgettable performances as Leonora, imprinting the role with the uniqueness of her voice and her superlative acting. James Levine's conducting was hailed by The New York Times for being "full of drive and fire" with "the grandeur of the magnificent score coming through."

Celebrating the work of Italy's greatest musical dramatist, this set of 12 operas includes definitive performances from some of the finest Verdi singers of our age, in productions which reflect the contemporary richness of our perspective of the composer as both a man of his time, inspired to reflect the familial tensions and revolutionary fervor of his homeland, and also a man of theatrical genius as timeless as his adored Shakespeare, whose anti-heroes Macbeth and Falstaff stand as the poles of tragedy and comedy in this survey of modern stagings.

Tenor Kristian Benedikt began his career as a lyric tenor in his native Lithuania, but has since blossomed into one of the opera world’s finest dramatic tenors in challenging roles like Otello. His immensely powerful and dark-hued voice enables him to shine in several of Wagner’s “Heldentenor” roles as well; yet he remains a highly versatile singer who also continues to excel in lyric and spinto roles.In this, Kristian’s debut recording, he proves his wide-ranging artistry in a highly varied program of mostly well-known arias by composers including Verdi, Puccini, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Tchaikovsky and Wagner (among others). He also treats us to a rarely-heard novelty: an aria from his countryman Vytautas Klova’s Pilėnai—an opera that is practically unknown beyond Lithuania.Kristian is beautifully supported by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and the Lithuanian National Opera Chorus under the deft baton of conductor Modestas Pitrenas.