Piccolo Coro Mariele Ventre Dell'antoniano Che Paura!

The tradition of presenting operas in the Arena of Verona was inaugurated by Aida when it was performed there in 1913. The wide-open spaces of this opera-the blue skies and fragrant forests of Ethiopia, the starry nights on the Nile-and its picture of Egypt's ancient civilisation found their ideal setting in the grandeur of this centuries-old Roman amphitheatre and in the open air of Verona's summer nights.

The staging is fascinating. Vast panelled video screens provide the scenic backdrops. Videos of nature in all its glory are projected onto these. It makes for breathtaking effect, and the good news is that one does not tire of it.
Muti conducts with real assurance. Pacing the drama magnificently, it is on performances like these that the controversial Maestro has made his well-deserved musical reputation. Tell emerges as a masterpiece from first to last. Rossini's compositional confidence in his craft is never once in doubt, and there is no trace of any longueur anywhere… (Musicweb International)

Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly – the composer’s selfproclaimed favourite work and certainly one of the most beloved operas in the repertoire – is brought to life at the world-famous Arena di Verona. This opulent production, directed by respected film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli, is sung by a cast of excellent singers. Fiorenza Cedolins is a sought after Butterfly singer and her Pinkerton is performed by the renowned tenor Marcello Giordani. The celebrated operatic baritone Juan Pons gives the principled United States consul Sharpless. The performance is lead by long-established Arena di Verona conductor Daniel Oren with all the splendour that a Puccini opera demands. The sum of all this is a gloriously sung musical experience.

In Parma, where audiences are considered the most discerning in all Italy, the benchmark for vocal artists is set traditionally high. Operagoers here are intimately familiar with the works of their favourites, from Rossini to Puccini, and know every tricky corner by heart. God forbid any singer who fails to accomplish the task without due seemliness Unsurprisingly, then, this performance attempts no directorial experiments. The main setting for this realistically inspired production both indoors and out is Rosinas house, which is converted as required into its constituent parts.

This is a film recorded by the Radiotelevisione Italiana in 1956. The first thing that must be remarked is the first-class quality of both the sound and the picture for the standards of the time. Secondly, how young and how good were the singers. Rossana Carteri, who makes Susana , was only 26, while Marcella Pobbe and Luigi Alva, in the roles of the Comtess and Don Basilio, were 29 and Nicola Rossi Lemeni as Figaro 36. Having a Susana and a Comtess who are both both young and gorgeous makes quite credible the final scene in the garden where they exchange roles. Their duetto "Canzonetta Sull' Aria" is particularly enjoyable as well as the Comtess' "Dove Sono I Bei Momento", and Susana's "Deh, Vieni Non Tardar". Nicola Rossi Lemeni was one of the best Italian bassos in those times and he shows his abilities in the role of Figaro. The same can be said about the German basso-baritone Heinz Reifuss who makes a sensual Comte.

A fake death, a perverse woman and a pure woman, a man torn between them, a murder: the story of Edgar, Giacomo Puccini’s second opera, is full of dramatic turns of events. Arthaus Musik presents this powerful and tragic opera now in a version which was count for lost for nearly 120 years. For the first time the original version in four acts of Edgar by Giacomo Puccini was staged at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 2008. Thanks to the rediscovery of the manuscript score, after 119 years since the first and only performance in Milan in 1889 and after numerous versions condensing the opera in three acts, it will be again possible to experience the original opera that Puccini wrote.

It was customary for Rossini to modify his scores and develop second and third versions for theatres that wanted to stage his operas. The Maometto II here recorded corresponds only in part to the original score (Naples, 1820), which is the version generally performed nowadays; it is, instead, the revision made for Venice’s Teatro La Fenice staged on 26th December 1822 as opening title of the 1823 Carnival season, the same season which, on February 3rd, would also see the debut of Semiramide. For Venice Rossini tried to soften the monolithic character of his Neapolitan score, introducing an opening symphony, making changes - some of them quite substantial - to the score and, especially, giving the plot a happy ending. The title role is sung by the young Italian bass Lorenzo Regazzo, internationally renowned; Claudio Scimone, on the podium, is responsible for the revision of the score.

Meyerbeer composed Il Crociato in just over one year, between September 1822 and the following autumn, at the end of the German composer's so-called "Italian period". Although this is an opera of great dramatic and musical complexity its première was highly successful with both audience and critics, one commentator accurately describing it as "a building of highlyapplauded construction". The plot, so rich in events, skilfully weaves historical-religious elements with private happenings and feelings. Against the background of the interreligious conflict between Christians and Muslims, the story of the main characters unfolds in an efficacious alternation of grand choral scenes and solo numbers with arias and cabalettas.

The RAI Pasquale of 1955 is almost as good as the two Verdis [#4 Otello and #551 Traviata], marred only by Italo Tajo's overdone mugging in the title-part. Alda Noni, remembered affectionately by older opera-goers in the same part at London's Cambridge Theatre in the late 1940s, remains a charming, minxish though now more buxom Norina. Sesto Bruscantini is a model of a Malatesta, Cesare Valletti even better as an Ernesto in the class of his teacher, Tito Schipa. Erede's seasoned conducting and a resourceful staging makes this a delightful experience.

TDK presents an impressive staging of one of Rossini’s opera masterpieces. This production, staged by La Scala Milan is conducted by Riccardo Muti. Moïse et Pharaon - Rossini’s re-adaptation of the story of Moses in Egypt - emphasizes the dramatic moments of the biblical account beautifully and also demonstrates the composer‘s mastery of the French tradition: solos and choral work are superb compositions, the duets are expressive and touching. Including an extensive ballet scene at the beginning of Act III and featuring a preeminent international cast of singer-actors – Erwin Schrott, Barbara Frittoli, Sonia Ganassi - this recording brings a Rossini experience of the highest rank onto the screen.