Purcell : Dido And Aeneas Janet Baker

At under an hour this mini-masterpiece should be in every opera-lover's collection. There are scores of versions available but I tend to favour those with a Dido of really starry vocal quality given that her torments lie at the heart of the opera and all other considerations are secondary: Purcell and his librettist Nathum Tate make little of Aeneas's psychology and the other roles are all supplementary, reflecting upon Dido's plight, even to the extent of some suggesting that the Sorceress is her alter ego.

This collection puts some of the best Purcell on display–and it couldn't have a more musical or vocally accomplished advocate than Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin. Her voice is pretty for sure, but it also has richness and substance, not to mention a most endearing vibrato that adds an earnestness and enlivening tension to everything she sings.

This 11-CD set, one might say jokingly, contains all the music ever written for the soprano voice and a bit for mezzo as well. And indeed, it's a staggering collection: In addition to her great Verdi heroines (the two Leonoras, Aida, Amelia, and Elvira in Ernani), Price is heard in her Puccini roles–Manon Lescaut, Butterfly, Tosca–and at least two dozen other roles, most of which she never sang on stage. Here are her heroic, secure Leonore in Fidelio, Strauss's high-flying Egyptian Helen, Purcell's Dido, Barber's Cleopatra, Bellini's Norma, Ariadne, Verdi's Violetta and Desdemona, Bizet's Carmen, Mozart's Countess, and Fiordiligi…