Phil Carmen

Time Life has put together the best-loved romantic, adult contemporary hits of the eighties. From sexy and sensual ballads to soft and sweet love songs and even some of the decade's greatest power ballads, the 'Easy '80s' collection is all about love.

The labels that are now gathered under the Universal Classics umbrella have a pretty impressive scorecard in the area of classical compilations. We've seen The Greatest Opera Show on Earth, The Yellow Guide: Classical Music, Best of the Millennium, and now there's The No. 1 Opera Album. But that's no surprise, since Universal has some of the finest interpreters in its catalogue to draw from. This two-CD set (at the price of one), for example, brings together the likes of Cecilia Bartoli, Renée Fleming, Luciano Pavarotti, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan, and many more. Yet the other key to a successful compilation is canny anthologizing, and here again, you have a nice selection to give you a smattering of opera's heavyweights from the Italian, German, and French repertory (there's even a step outside the standard framework with an aria from Dvorák's lovely Rusalka). Ranging from 1959 to 1997, the choices from back catalogue will doubtless be the entry ticket for many into this grandest of the arts.

From The Studio's earliest days, music has always been an integral part of the Disney creative process. But when 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf' debuted in 1933, it began a musical legacy that remains unmatched to this day. Disney Classics Box Set is a music collection that represents this legacy.

From The Studio's earliest days, music has always been an integral part of the Disney creative process. But when 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf' debuted in 1933, it began a musical legacy that remains unmatched to this day. Disney Classics Box Set is a music collection that represents this legacy.