CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Richard Strauss - Salome / Dohnanyi, Malfitano, Terfel, Royal Opera House Covent Garden

starring: Catherine Malfitano, Bryn Terfel, Kenneth Riegel, Anja Silja, Robert Gambill
directed by: Hans Hulscher

Release Date May 13, 2003
A very remarkable performance........I have just finished enjoying it for the third time in just two weeks......will treasure it.

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Janacek - The Makropulos Case / Davis, Silja, Begley, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

starring: Anja Silja, Kim Begley

Release Date October 14, 2003
I'm a major Janacek fan. I'd love to give this performance a five-star rave, as others have, but I find myself agreeing with the three-star reviews. Anja Silja (the Alma Mahler of our times) is a powerful femme; it's almost believable that even in her obvious 60s she could attract those men and boys fatally. It's her singing that has aged beyond attraction. She's far from perfect in tuning and she doesn't command the orchestra with her voice as the character needs to do. Her DVD performance as the mother in Jenufa, by comparison, is plenipotent. That DVD would be a far better intro to Janacek than this one, even though the sound recording is mediocre. The best performances of Janacek on DVD are the two available of The Cunning Little Vixen. The worst by ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Poulenc - Dialogues des Carmelites

starring: Dagmar Schellenberger, Laura Aiken, Anja Silja, Barbara Dever, Riccardo Muti
directed by: Robert Carsen

Release Date August 28, 2007
After the last guillotine comes down, there is silence... What else can be said, sung or shown? The last scene is a work of art by itself.
The music and the human emotions go hand in hand in this opera. Poulenc did an incredible job of portraying real human emotions and devotion into words and music. A 20th century opera that doesn't sound or look like one.
The music flows easy, the words fit the music (a la Debussy) and the emotions and psychology of the characters are there for everyone to see and hear.
I strongly recommended it in particular to those who are looking to add somehting different to the repertoire of traditional operas.

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Janacek - Jenufa / Davis, Alexander, Silja, Glyndebourne Opera

starring: Roberta Alexander, Anja Silja, Menai Davies, Philip Langridge, Mark Baker (II)
directed by: Derek Bailey

Release Date June 11, 2002
There are two DVDs available of Jenufa, and this is slightly the better choice for musical reason. Neither production satisfies my conception of this great and moving opera. Both are somewhat dramatically turgid. The flaws of this production are chiefly visual and acoustical, as pointed out by other reviewers. It really is a problem, on a DVD movie scale, that Roberta Alexander simply doesn't "look the part" though she acts with conviction; in an opera house, the same production would be sublime.
Janacek is a composer who integrates the voices and the orchestra with great success; that ensemble effect is not captured well on either DVD production (and I confess that it's often not achieved in live performances either). The sound on this DVD is distant ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Beethoven - Fidelio

starring: Anja Silja, Richard Cassilly, Lucia Popp, Theo Adam, Hans Sotin
directed by: Rolf Liebermann

Release Date April 24, 2007
Rolf Liebermann's Fidelio is a nearly perfect example of a filmed opera. Superior acting, singing, staging and photography come together in this unforgettable production from the Hamburg State Opera. I cannot stop watching this sensationally sung film of Beethoven's masterpiece.

Anja Silja is an ideal Fidelio - a tough and striking androgynous woman with phenomenal acting skills. We can see why Wieland Wagner left his wife and children for this impressive artist. Silja's charismatic performance is riveting. She suffers extensively from the unwanted attentions of Lucia Popp's young, innocent and nubile Marzelline, avoiding looking at her and never encouraging her, unlike Karita Mattila's Fidelio at the Met, who plays up her role as a flirtatious guy in order ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

The Makropulos Case [Region 2]

starring: Anja Silja, Kim Begley, Victor Braun, Andrew Shore, Anthony Roden
directed by: Brian Large

Release Date
The Makropoulos (sp) Affair is probably Janacek's best known opera and it certainly has the most interesting plot line since it was written by the well known writer Karel Capek (think science fiction). The plot alone is interesting enough to keep one's attention. The music is quite interesting, yet it seems perfectly in keeping with the story and provides interest to it as a good opera should. The sound and particularly the video are also well done. Most of the singing and acting is first rate though the vibrato and accuracy of a lead tenor and the lead soprano kcause some problems in listening to the opera. I won't try to give a synopsis of the story, but simply recommend this video as an excellent example of what 20th century opera coould do.