Piccolo Coro Mariele Ventre Dell'antoniano Che Paura!

In the six years that had passed since 1953, and her first recording of Lucia di Lammermoor, Callas’s voice had maybe become less robust,but her singing had become still more perceptive. As Gramophone said: ‘Mme Callas has refined her interpretation of the role, and made it more exquisite, more fascinating,musically and dramatically more subtle – in a word, more beautiful.’

It is probably now or never. With classic older sets vying with a clutch of more recent recordings, there is currently as complete and interesting an array of recordings of Rossini's La Cenerentola as we are likely to get at any one time. Among recent versions, Chailly's new Decca set is self-evidently a powerful contender. Cecilia Bartoli is arguably the most personable and musically accomplished Cenerentola since Teresa Berganza recorded the role with Abbado in 1971; and there is a strong cast of supporting principals, among them Alessandro Corbelli who offers the best characterized Dandini since Bruscantini. (With the added advantage of being far more technically expert in fioriture passages than was his distinguished predecessor.)

Composed for Venice in 1837, just a year-and-a-half after the fantastic success of Lucia di Lammermoor, Pia de' Tolomei "pleased altogether", in the composer's words. He revised it a couple of times thereafter and it was shown at various theaters as distant as Malta until 1855, after which it disappeared. It takes place in 13th-century Siena: Pia is married to Nello; his cousin Ghino loves her but she refuses his advances. Ghino angrily accuses Pia of adultery with an unknown man, who turns out to be Pia's brother, Rodrigo, and Nello imprisons her. Ghino eventually feels remorse and confesses his deception, but not soon enough to save Pia from being poisoned by Nello.

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.

Handel's 1738 opera Serse (Xerxes) baffled audiences at first hearing with its mixture of tragedy and comedy, but that same mixture has resulted in the opera's steadily rising status in performance today. If you're maxed out on athletic opera seria performances, check it out: it has elements of a put-on of that genre. The plot is kicked off by Serse, the king of ancient Persia, praising a shade tree in the famous aria "Ombra mai fu," whose tune is also known as Handel. The role of Serse is written for a male countertenor (originally the castrato Caffarelli), who has to keep a level of seriousness as his character becomes involved in increasingly improbably romantic triangles.

Deutsche Grammophon has delved into its vaults to reissue the very first "complete" studio recording of Handel's Serse. (Absent are one recitative and the B section of Serse's aria "Più che penso," crossed out in Handel's autograph score.) Recorded in 1965 and originally issued on the Westminster label, this fine performance has never been available on CD, nor has it previously been issued complete on LP outside of the United States.

This is, quite simply, one of the most splendid Handel opera recordings ever made. We owe a debt of gratitude to DG/Universal for reissuing this much-admired Westminster recording from 1965. The opera itself is one of Handel's finest; a late work magically integrating farce and pathos, and filled with an abundance of brilliant invention remarkable even for Handel. Priestman does full justice to the kaleidoscopic shifts of mood, affect, idiom and orchestration that makes this work a viable musical entertainment today no less than in 1738. Though Priestman's Viennese forces play modern instruments, the conductor obviously has a solid understanding of Baroque performance practice (according to the musicological priorities of his day)…

Some of the most brilliant writing of the 19th century is found in the nine operas Rossini wrote for the Teatro san Carlo in Naples. Ricciardo e Zoraide is the fifth of these, written in 1818. In the opera, Ricciardo, Zoraide’s persistent and ingenious suitor, comes to the rescue and saves her by devious means. Bruce Ford and William Matteuzzi recreate their spectacular tenor partnership of the 1990 Rossini Opera Festival revival. Nelly Miricioiu, Della Jones and Alastair Miles complete a starry cast.

In Greek mythology Phaedra, sister of Ariadne, is married to Theseus, but falls in love with Hippolytus, Theseus’s son by another woman. Hippolytus turns her down and Phaedra, in revenge, tells Theseus that Hippolytus has raped her. Theseus believes her. What happens then is an open question, since there are several versions of the story. In one of them Theseus turns to Poseidon, who frightens Hippolytus’s horses and Hippolytus dies. In another version Theseus kills his son and Phaedra commits suicide. In a third version Phaedra doesn’t kill herself but Dionysus sends a bull which frightens Hippolytus’s horses.

In the bicentenary of Paisiello’s death, Catania’s Bellini Theatre staged Fedra, a world premiere performance in modern times of this opera by the composer from Taranto. It was a musical and cultural operation of great interest, which saw the revival – based on the original manuscript and on various transcriptions – of a rich, complex score, and attracted the attention of the Italian and international critics. The French conductor Jérôme Correas, an authority in this repertoire, was on the podium. Fedra had only been performed once in the 20th century for a radio recording and had never been staged in our century before. That single radio recording, however valuable, is however incomplete and, unlike this edition, unfaithful, in many ways, to the original score.