Verdi Essential

Decca has pulled together a blockbuster collection of many of opera's greatest hits from the standard repertoire. The selection is heavily weighted to the nineteenth century, and to Italian operas, but it does indeed offer a generous sampling of what the general public understands as the staples of the repertoire. It includes one Baroque aria, from Handel's Rodelinda, and several from the Classical era - two arias from Gluck's Orfeo ed Eurydice, and seven from Mozart's operas - and the rest range from the bel canto of Rossini to the verismo of Cilea and Puccini. The selection is primarily made up of arias, but includes ensembles, choruses, and orchestral excerpts.

The intent of this set is pretty clear from the titles of each of the six discs: Meditations; Orchestral Fireworks; Invitation to the Dance; Nocturne; Pomp & Circumstance; Grand Opera. This is mood or 'theme' music designed to provide either a background or a sequence of 'tasters' initiating the person who comes fresh to classical music with a sampling from the 'great and the good'. True the 'great and the good' are all from the core repertoire; not even a scintilla of Janacek, Nielsen, Adams, Reich which is a shame.

Decca's Ultimate Classics is a five-CD box set that presents the best-known pieces of classical music in a straightforward, no-frills program. Most of the selections are quite famous, taken from larger works by such great masters as Handel, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and many others, so beginners and casual listeners are sure to find many of the most familiar melodies here. The information provided with the set consists only of tracklistings and identification of performers, so there is no material on the background of the music, the composers' lives, or the original albums these recordings appeared on.

This live issue from the 2008 Salzburg Festival centers around Riccardo Muti’s driving, powerful take on Verdi’s score. He gets wonderful, idiomatic playing from the Vienna Philharmonic, and the recorded balance in fact tends to favor the orchestra over the fine, largely fresh-voiced singers. (Muti uses an unusual edition of Act III’s concertato that Verdi wrote for the opera’s Paris premiere, featuring considerable variants in the soprano line and lighter orchestration.)

Verdi's Don Carlo is a problematic piece. Should it be in Italian or French? How much of the original French musical setting should be included? I've known this set for a while and have some reservations about the singing, that of the women in particular, but it's the inclusion of the whole of Verdi's original First Act which makes the set worth acquiring.

One of the finest singers of our time and the world’s leading tenor, Jonas Kaufmann presents his personal tribute to one of opera’s most beloved composers, Giuseppe Verdi.

Fantastic 5CD Decca Box Set, ARTISTS include Dame Joan Sutherland, Leontyne Price, Renata Tebaldi, sopranos, Giulietta Simionato, Rita Gorr, mezzo sopranos, Jose Carreras, Carlo Bergonzi, tenors & Robert Merrill, baritone, Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Sir Colin Davis, Coro del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma & Sir Georg Solti.