Kathleen 0'neal Gear

If you could only have two Christmas CDs, Kathleen Battle's "A Christmas Celebration" would definitely be one (and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" would be the other.)While Battle has been known to be a temperamental diva (leading to a quasi-banishment from operatic roles), her pretty, soaring soprano is without peer. So good is her voice that I would consider several of the cuts on this disc to be definitive performances, not only of Battle's repertoire, but of all performances ever of that song. Case in point would be her rendition of Gounod's "Ave Maria". Haunting and stunning at the same time, it's as if the angel itself were singing.

It would be hard to imagine a better performance of Donizetti's comic masterpiece. If there was one role that ideally suited Luciano Pavarotti's voice and stage personality, it was Nemorino, the impoverished and not-very-bright peasant who worships the village's prettiest and richest young woman from a distance, is swindled by a traveling vendor of "miracle" medicines, but wins her hand by dumb luck. The story has comedy, pathos, and a put-down of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (or at least the Tristan story) written long before Wagner composed it.

An enthralling production from the Metropolitan Opera under James Levine, with an unbeatable performance from Jessye Norman as Ariadne, and spotless coloratura from Kathleen Battle as Zerbinetta. James King offers sterling support in the taxing role of Bacchus. (James Longstaffe)

The Canadian-born violinist Kathleen Parlow was one of the most exceptional violinists at the beginning of the 20th century. A brilliant child prodigy, who had performed before King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace at the age of 14, Parlow was a student of the legendary Leopold Auer, who was so enamored of her playing that he referred to her as ‘Mischa Elman in a skirt’. While a still a student, Glazunov, the director of the St Petersburg Conservatory, recommended that she give the Belgian premiere of his Violin Concerto.