Genis Carreras

The music of Spain has exercised an exotic fascination, but often in forms adapted by foreign composers. Manuel de Falla is representative of a group of Spanish composers who won international recognition. He was born in 1876 in Cádiz, where he first studied, moving later to Madrid and then to Paris, returning to Madrid when war broke out in 1914. Strongly influenced by the traditional Andalusian cante jondo, he settled in Granada, where his friends included the poet Federico García Lorca.

Zeffirelli´s legendary 1981 Met staging with an allstar cast led by Teresa Stratas and José Carreras under the baton of Maestro James Levine
“With her fragile frame, cameo face and exquisitely modulated soprano, Stratas makes an ideal Mimi.” (The New York Times)
“One of the grandest, most richly textured productions of an opera to be seen anywhere”, wrote Christian Science Monitor, while New York Magazine lauded “Theresa Stratas´ potency as a dramatic presence and the sensitively refined artistry of her vocal performance…a true musician as well as an astute operatic actress.”

No-one would hold up Adriana Lecouvreur as an example of great musical theatre, and it has all but disappeared from our modern stage mostly, I suspect, due to its laughable plot which culminates in the heroine dying by poisoned violets! This old-school DVD, however, serves it as well as you could imagine with the singers treating this load of old tosh far more seriously than some would say it deserves…

– Simon Thompson, MusicWeb International

Michel Plasson is one of the most important French conductors from the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. He is well known for his interpretations of French opera, particularly those of Gounod and Massenet. He has also received praise for his work in the choral music of Duruflé and Fauré, and the orchestral works of Magnard, Ravel, and other French composers.

This is DVD of a 1986 Salzburg Easter Festival live performanceand as such it has all the excitement and sense of occasion of a real thatrical experience. Karajan, of course, controls the whole production, being his festival. The Berlin Philharmonic in the orchestra pit is something few recordings of this opera can compete with. Karajan conducts without a score in his usual transcendental manner. The total effect is crisp, powerful, dynamic, precise, tightly controlled and well detailed. His approach works especially well in the powerful climaxes, dramatic exchanges and the great assembly scenes. The finale of Act 2 (the Auto da fe scene) is superb…

By Janos Gardonyi