Frederica Von Stade

Claude Debussy (born Achille-Claude Debussy) was among the most influential composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His mature compositions, distinctive and appealing, combined modernism and sensuality so successfully that their sheer beauty often obscures their technical innovation. Debussy is considered the founder and leading exponent of musical Impressionism (although he resisted the label), and his adoption of non-traditional scales and tonal structures was paradigmatic for many composers who followed. The son of a shopkeeper and a seamstress, Debussy began piano studies ……..
From Allmusic

Considered the greatest “opera seria,” Idomeneo was composed when Mozart was just twenty-five and a tour de force for all singers. A 1982 production starring superstar Luciano Pavarotti as Idomeneo, the tortured king of Crete, with Ilena Cotrubas and Frederica von Stade along with Hildegard Behrens providing the mad scenes!

Unlike the late arrival of Mozart's Turkish opera, "Figaro" was much more of a constant in Solti's long career. Apart from being his debut opera, and a work he conducted at Covent Garden in a new staging in 1963-64, he also led editions in Chicago (1957), and with the Paris Opera in the highly visible Giorgio Strehler production that opened Intendant Rolf Liebermann's bold-new-start regime in March 1973; it was initially presented at the Palace of Versailles and in 1976 toured to the US. Frederica von Stade, the most admired Cherubino of the day, who had sung the role for Solti at Versailles, also appears on his subsequent recording. Made in 1981 with an exceptional cast, it won a Grammy award, perhaps unsurprisingly given that its other major assets include Kiri Te Kanawa's creamy-voiced Countess, Lucia Popp's sprightly Susanna, Thomas Allen's authoritative Count and Samuel Ramey's weighty Figaro. Smaller roles - Jane Berbié's Marcellina, Robert Tear's Basilio and Philip Langridge's Curzio among them - are also handled with tremendous care.

Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart's timeless opera buffa, is one of the greatest of all operatic masterpieces. It is based on Beaumarchai's comedy Le Marriage de Figaro and tells the tale of the servant Figaro, who is about to marry the maid Susanna. Count Almaviva, keeping an eye on Susanna himself, tries to prevent this marriage with the help of Bortolo, the doctor, but is continually thwarted.

The most comprehensive edition devoted to Gioachino Rossini marking his 150th anniversary. Born in 1792, Rossini was the most popular opera composer of his time. Although he retired from the Opera scene in 1829, he continued to compose in other genres, including sacred music, piano and chamber works. He did gather his late works under the ironic title Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age), which veils a true collection of masterworks.

This is a magnificent compliation even if it's only "snippets" - but what beautiful snippets they are - especially the "Romance in F minor for Violin and Orchestra" with Itzah Perlman, "Silent Woods", "Humoresque in E-flat minor with the marvelous Rudolf Firkusny (recorded not long before he died), but the frosting on the cake is Frederica von Stade's melting aria "O Moon High up in the Deep Sky" from Rusalka. (It reminded me a little of "Ebben? Ne andro lontana" Renee Fleming: By Request that gained so much traction back in the 80s as part of the soundtrack of "Diva" with Wilhelmenia Fernandez). .

Created by soprano Lisa Delan and composer Luna Pearl Woolf, the recording of Angel Heart is a music storybook narrated by Jeremy Irons with an original story by Cornelia Funke and music by Luna Pearl Woolf, and performed by Matt Haimovitz & Uccello with world-class artists Frederica von Stade, Daniel Taylor, Delan and more. Woolf’s original score is interwoven with familiar songs and lullabies by Gordon Getty, Jake Heggie, Engelbert Humperdinck, Irving Berlin, Lennon-McCartney, David Sanford, Lewis Spratlan and Luna Pearl Woolf. The exquisite images that also tell the story are by Mirada, the Los Angeles-based creative studio and “purveyors of handmade storytelling.”