Opera 2023

Legendary prima donnas often have an epithet - whether la Divina, la Stupenda or la Superba. The Catalan singer Victoria de los Angeles, who celebrated her 100th birthday on November 1, 2023.

The Bavarian State Orchestra is one of the most traditional orchestras in Germany and one of the best orchestras in the world today.

Maria Callas (born Maria Anna Cecilia Sophie Kalogeropoulou), was an American-born Greek soprano who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini and, further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; and, in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner. Her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina ("the Divine one").

This album presents the songs from The Threepenny Opera in a new French translation by Alexandre Pateau. The recording was made at the 2023 Festival d'Aix-en-Provence during the run of the new production of the legendary work by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in collaboration with Elisabeth Hauptmann, which features the troupe of the Comedie-Francaise and the musicians of Le Balcon, conducted by Maxime Pascal with Thomas Ostermeier as stage director. In this parody of an opera, the songs are the driving force behind the action and the characters ape the bourgeois lifestyle of the audience, the better to denounce the period of moral confusion they are going through. With Maxime Pascal at the helm of a dozen multi-instrumentalists from Le Balcon, we hear a version based on that of the first performance - hard-hitting and as close as possible to the tremendous creative energy deployed by the two creators of the work in the summer of 1928 - acted and sung by the troupe of the Comedie-Francaise, who rise to all its challenges with brio. Other special features of this album are a previously unrecorded song on a text by Yvette Guilbert and the linking texts between the songs read in French by Ostermeier himself. As Diapason wrote of this production, 'Almost a century after its premiere, The Threepenny Opera has lost none of its subversive power.'

Lohengrin, WWV 75, is a Romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and its sequel Lohengrin, itself inspired by the epic of Garin le Loherain. It is part of the Knight of the Swan legend.

The Hamburg State Opera Orchestra is lead by Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg in this wonderful collection of the Peer Gynt Suites 1 and 2! The collection comes courtesy of Countdown Media's restoration of the master tapes from renowned legacy label, Ashire/Somerset.

Haymarket Opera, Chicago’s premier early opera company that presents historically informed performances played on 18th-century classical era instruments, performs on this world-premiere recording of L’Amant Anonyme (The Anonymous Lover) by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–1799).

Internationally-renowned, ARIA-award-winning folk-pop star Vance Joy is back after a four-year absence and bringing new music plus his intimate, anthemic hits back to the Sydney Opera House with friends Budjerah and Mia Wray.

11 Newly Composed Persian Vocal Arts Songs. Based on Poetry of Prominent Eastern Masters.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis will release a new live album, Australian Carnage - Live at the Sydney Opera House, this Friday, August 25. The album collects recordings from their performances at the venue from December 16 to 18 last year during the Australian Carnage Tour. An abridged version will come out on vinyl on December 1. Hear “Balcony Man (Live at the Sydney Opera House)” below.