CD-Charts Position 141
Average Rating:

Britten - Peter Grimes / Davis, Vickers, Harper, Bailey, Royal Opera Covent Garden

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
starring: Norman Bailey, Heather Harper, Jon Vickers
directed by: Colin Davis

Release Date March 01, 2006
I was incredibly moved by this DVD. Peter Grimes is a masterpiece, one of the all time great operas. Britten's music has the dark orchestration of Verdi, the lushness of Puccini, but he brings it all together into his own unique and thoroughly modern sound. John Vickers is sometimes painful to watch, so deeply does he invoke the tormented soul-searching of the title character. Perhaps no opera since Otello(with the exception perhaps of Strauss' Elektra and Berg's Wozzeck) has captured alienation so well, but Peter Grimes is even more alone than Verdi's title character. Like Otello, as well as Elektra and Wozzeck, Grimes is unsympathetic in a lot of ways, but that's what makes him human, and we feel for him just the same. This production is just ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 142
Average Rating:

Luciano Pavarotti: The Italian Opera Collection

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date March 25, 2008
I was incredibly moved by this DVD. Peter Grimes is a masterpiece, one of the all time great operas. Britten's music has the dark orchestration of Verdi, the lushness of Puccini, but he brings it all together into his own unique and thoroughly modern sound. John Vickers is sometimes painful to watch, so deeply does he invoke the tormented soul-searching of the title character. Perhaps no opera since Otello(with the exception perhaps of Strauss' Elektra and Berg's Wozzeck) has captured alienation so well, but Peter Grimes is even more alone than Verdi's title character. Like Otello, as well as Elektra and Wozzeck, Grimes is unsympathetic in a lot of ways, but that's what makes him human, and we feel for him just the same. This production is just ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 143
Average Rating:

Peter and the Wolf: A Prokofiev Fantasy

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
starring: Roberto Benigni, Sting

Release Date October 09, 2007
I was incredibly moved by this DVD. Peter Grimes is a masterpiece, one of the all time great operas. Britten's music has the dark orchestration of Verdi, the lushness of Puccini, but he brings it all together into his own unique and thoroughly modern sound. John Vickers is sometimes painful to watch, so deeply does he invoke the tormented soul-searching of the title character. Perhaps no opera since Otello(with the exception perhaps of Strauss' Elektra and Berg's Wozzeck) has captured alienation so well, but Peter Grimes is even more alone than Verdi's title character. Like Otello, as well as Elektra and Wozzeck, Grimes is unsympathetic in a lot of ways, but that's what makes him human, and we feel for him just the same. This production is just ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 144
Average Rating:

Verdi: La Traviata [Blu-ray]

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal

Release Date September 30, 2008
I was incredibly moved by this DVD. Peter Grimes is a masterpiece, one of the all time great operas. Britten's music has the dark orchestration of Verdi, the lushness of Puccini, but he brings it all together into his own unique and thoroughly modern sound. John Vickers is sometimes painful to watch, so deeply does he invoke the tormented soul-searching of the title character. Perhaps no opera since Otello(with the exception perhaps of Strauss' Elektra and Berg's Wozzeck) has captured alienation so well, but Peter Grimes is even more alone than Verdi's title character. Like Otello, as well as Elektra and Wozzeck, Grimes is unsympathetic in a lot of ways, but that's what makes him human, and we feel for him just the same. This production is just ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 145
Average Rating:

Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: EMI Classics

Release Date December 02, 2008
I was incredibly moved by this DVD. Peter Grimes is a masterpiece, one of the all time great operas. Britten's music has the dark orchestration of Verdi, the lushness of Puccini, but he brings it all together into his own unique and thoroughly modern sound. John Vickers is sometimes painful to watch, so deeply does he invoke the tormented soul-searching of the title character. Perhaps no opera since Otello(with the exception perhaps of Strauss' Elektra and Berg's Wozzeck) has captured alienation so well, but Peter Grimes is even more alone than Verdi's title character. Like Otello, as well as Elektra and Wozzeck, Grimes is unsympathetic in a lot of ways, but that's what makes him human, and we feel for him just the same. This production is just ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 146
Average Rating:

Luminosa

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
by: Libera

Release Date October 30, 2001
My dearest lord...this album is fabulous. After buying their first album a while back I was extremely pleased to find that they had now done another! And what a wonderful album it is.
My mother still claims the first one is better, but I don't agree. I think they are both amazing.

My absolute favourite song is Luminosa- it's very beautiful, very soothing.

It takes a lot to make me cry, but these boys have weeping in no time! ^^;;

CD-Charts Position 147
Average Rating:

A Mormon Tabernacle Choir Chri

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: Universal Music Group

Release Date August 18, 2008
This is my 5th cd I've bought of this choir and was pleasantly surprised as it's by far the best one yet. I purchased it based on the reviews I read and it's everything I read and more. Lovely, lovely music...

CD-Charts Position 148
Average Rating:

The Mario Lanza Collection (3CD)

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: BMG / Sony Music Canada Inc.

Release Date December 02, 1991
Lanza did have the same voice teacher as Gigli whose name was Enrico Rosatti (sp?.Lanza had a radio show and became very popular and with his big ego,he walked out on his voice teacher who filed a law suite for Breach of Contract.Don't remember how that came out.No doubt that Lanza had a beautiful voice,but he was never an accomplished singer.He had too much of a tendency to force his voice.An example would be his recording of Non Ti Scordar Di Me,which IMO should be sung as a love song alla Gigli and di Stefano and not like a forceful version of Otello.I believe that Lanza was blessed with a beautiful voice but did not take the time to learn how to use it correctly.

Fratello

CD-Charts Position 149
Average Rating:

Mozart For Your Mind Boost Yo

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: Universal Music Group

Release Date February 15, 1995
The two works on this CD that are most known are The Magic Flute Overture, which is filled with brilliance from measure one to the end, and the opening piece to the movie Amadeus, the G Minor Symphony. These two pieces are superb but just because they are more known, doesn't mean they are better than the rest of the works on this CD.
The Sonata in D Major for two pianos is incredibly brilliant. The first piano holds the main melody while the second piano mimicks it, and then a huge crescendo and BOOM! It is all over the place! (My father and I are both Pianists, and we both specialize in Mozart piano concertos and sonatas.) This piece is wonderful to listen to, and I plan to learn it. The three piano concertos are also spectacular and the Jupiter Finale ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 150
Average Rating:

Handel: Messiah (Complete)

CD-Charts > Music > Opera and Vocal
from: Sony Music Canada Inc.

Release Date August 24, 1999
Of my more than 30 Messiahs, this is the one I'd take without hesitation to the proverbial desert island. Westenberg and his forces have clearly studied the best of what went before -- Shaw, Davis, Mackerras -- and built on them. The orchestra, the chorus, Westenberg's conception, and the recorded sound are all as good as it gets, from the very first note of the overture.

Soprano Judith Blegen is unusually powerful and uses larger dynamics than her competitors, and she does it superbly. Her baroque taste is impeccable, as is her technique; hers is a Messiah perspective everyone should hear, particularly those who insist on thin reedy sound as proof of "authenticity". Tenor John Aler is better recorded than on his other effort with Andrew Davis, ... Read More: