Opera

2010 five CD set containing 100 of the most popular Operas including compositions from Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, Mozart, Gluck, Gounod, Mascagni and many others. DMG 100.

These two CDs present a veritable galaxy of opera divas sopranos who have won countless hearts and thrilled millions of opera lovers with their glorious voices and their matchless performances. The arias presented here cover every part of the operatic spectrum, beginning with two Baroque gems by Handel and Vivaldi sung in fine style by Arleen Augér and Patrizia Ciofi. These are followed by a group of incomparable Mozart singers including two great stars of an earlier era: Elisabeth Schwarzopf and Joan Sutherland, and one of today s most versatile singers: Natalie Dessay. But how can one single out any of these greatly talented artists? The list of their names is a roll-call of the greatest sopranos of yesterday and today a glance at the tracklisting will confirm that this is true. But two unique divas have to be mentioned and these are perhaps the most important and influential singer of the 20th century: Maria Callas, and the greatest diva of our own time: Angela Gheorghiu. The collection contains many of the most popular and best-loved arias of all time and the singers are legendary!

A daring wife disguises herself in order to be hired as a prison guard and thus rescue her unjustly detained husband: the story of Leonora, taken from the French novel by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, is familiar to us through Beethoven’s only opera.

One of the brightest stars in the 20th-century operatic firmament, the Pennsylvania-born soprano Anna Moffo (1932–2006) enjoyed a meteoric rise in the 1950s and 1960s that saw her conquer all the major opera houses in Europe and America. After making her Metropolitan Opera début in 1959 as Violetta in La traviata, she went on to appear with the company in 200 performances of 21 roles over a total of 18 seasons, before finally singing her last complete performance – once again as Verdi’s Violetta – and retiring from the stage in 1976. Specially released to mark the 10th anniversary of Anna Moffo’s death, Sony Classical releases for the first time, newly mastered from the original analogue tapes using 24bit/96kHz technology.

Even Dame Joan Sutherland has rarely if ever made an opera recording so totally enjoyable and involving as this. With the same cast (including chorus and orchestra) as at Convent Garden, it was recorded in 1967 immediately after a series of live performances in the Royal Opera House, and both the comedy and the pathos come over with an intensity born of communication with live audiences. That impression is now the more vivid on this superb transfer, for with spoken dialogue used in this original French version of the opera the absence of background noise is a special benefit, and the production vividly captures the developments in the story.

This is a great introduction to Opera, as well as a great addition to anyone's collection as it contains 3 discs. One disc is the audiobook giving a rundown of the details of the opera, tips on how to listen and the general synopsis of the story. The other two discs are a great version of Carmen, opéra-comique in 4 acts; Composed by Georges Bizet, Performed by Paris National Opera Theater Orchestra with Viorica Cortez, Grace Bumbry, Michel Trempont, Kostas Paskalis, Albert Voli, Eliane Liblin, Jon Vickers, Claude Meloni, Mirella Freni, Bernanrd Gontcharenko - Conducted by Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos.