CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) / Haitink, Finley, Hagley, Fleming, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

starring: Gerald Finley, Alison Hagley, Renée Fleming, Andreas Schmidt, Mandred Röhrl
directed by: Derek Bailey

Release Date September 16, 2003
Please do not waste your money on this one. The sound is tourchuring. We could not even listen through the first act! It was complete waste of money for us! Poor Mozart, and I always thought that you can't go wrong with Mozart's pieces, what a dissapointment.

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) / Jean-Louis Thamin · John Eliot Gardiner · Bryn Terfel · Rodney Gilfry · Théâtre du Chatelet

starring: Rodney Gilfry, Hillevi Martinpelto, Bryn Terfel, Alison Hagley, Pamela Helen Stephen
directed by: Olivier Mille

Release Date November 20, 2001
This performance sparkles. Musically, it is fabulous--I have the CD version as well and this is what prompted me to get the DVD. None of Mozart's poignancy and empathy is lost, and all of his vivacity is brought out. Others have emphasized the fun as in `funny' or `comedic', and it is certainly there. I add that there is also a great deal of fun as in `pleasurable'. There is a flirtatious zing to the whole performance, perhaps more so than to many other Figaros.

The staging is all fine and good until Act III, when it becomes nothing less than stunning. That Act alone makes the DVD well worth getting! It accentuates the subversive bite of the opera brilliantly. Figaro is a piece of social satire, every bit as relevant today as it ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Debussy - Pelléas et Mélisande

starring: Alison Hagley, Neill Archer, Donald Maxwell, Kenneth Cox, Penelope Walker
directed by: Peter Stein, Pierre Boulez

Release Date October 29, 2002
How mysterious, haunting, and other-worldly was Debussy's beautiful score! And Alison Hagley's portrayal of Melisande perfectly matched these qualities. A rare thing of beauty in a dark place, always searching for light. Neil Archer as Pelleas, seemed to come from the same mysterious place, ending in their inevitable mutual attraction.

But it was Donald Maxwell as the multi-dimensional Golaud who deserves laurels for his passionate performance, so gently loving, so mad with jealousy, so torn by guilt and remorse. He gets more than five stars for this, not to mention his wonderful baritone!

Kenneth Cox as Arkel was also moving as the wise and gentle, aged king. Penelope Walker as Genevieve and Samuel Burkey as Yniold were ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Le Nozze di Figaro [Region 2]

starring: Gerald Finley, Alison Hagley, Renée Fleming, Andreas Schmidt, Mandred Röhrl
directed by: Derek Bailey

Release Date
Please do not waste your money on this one. The sound is tourchuring. We could not even listen through the first act! It was complete waste of money for us! Poor Mozart, and I always thought that you can't go wrong with Mozart's pieces, what a dissapointment.