CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Glinka - Ruslan and Lyudmila

starring: Vladimir Ognovenko, Anna Netrebko, Larissa Diadkova, Gennady Bezzubenkov, Galina Gorchakova
directed by: Valery Gergiev, Lotfi Mansouri

Release Date July 01, 2003
I found out about this DVD, from an extra on the DVD, "Anna Netrebko, the Woman, the Voice." Netrebko was just 23 when she starred in this production, and she could not have been more beautiful. Her voice matched her beauty in every way, as did her piquant acting - just the way real life should be.
Like most people, the only thing I knew about the opera was the overture, one of the all time great pot-boilers. I never tire of hearing it. The opera itself is very interesting with uniquely Russian (I can say that because apparently Glinka started it all,) combinations of voices, three basses singing with one soprano, a weirdly pitched dramatic tenor as the Bard, and a very strange trouser role of the Persian prince.
The opera's ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Borodin - Prince Igor

starring: Nikolai Putilin, Galina Gorchakova, Olga Borodina
directed by: Valery Gergiev, Yevgeny Sokovnin, Irkin Sabitov

Release Date September 09, 2003
I prefer the Provatorov version on VHS. This Igor is not convincing. Energy is missing. Gergev is just good...not terrific.

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Opera Highlights, Vol. 1 - Norma, La Gioconda, Il Trovatore, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Forza del Destino, La Cenerentola, L'Elisir d'Amore, Orlando Furioso

starring: Marilyn Horne, Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu, Joan Sutherland, Galina Gorchakova

Release Date May 29, 2007
Perfect combination of styles and voices within a high quality level ,taken from live performances of Operas in key theatres all over the world

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Opera Highlights Vol. II - Ariodante, Billy Budd, The Fiery Angel, Xerxes, Peter Grimes, Cunning Little Vixen, Giulio Cesare, Eugene Onegin, Ruslan and Lyudmlla

starring: Anna Netrebko, Galina Gorchakova, Philip Langridge, Thomas Allen, Ann Murray

Release Date June 26, 2007
Unfortunately Amazon.com has not listed as of this date the contents of this DVD, so I shall do so here:

All of the arias are staged, taken from full-length DVDs of the operas involved.

Purcell: Fairy Queen - 'O let me weep' - Yvonne Kenny
Handel: Giulio Cesare - 'Piangerò la sorte mis' - Yvonne Kenny
Handel: Ariodante - 'Take your pleasure'- Ann Murray
Handel: Xerxes - 'If you worship the man who has spurned you' - Ann Murray
Glinka: excerpts from 'Ruslan and Lyudmila', Act II - Larissa Diadkova, Vladimir Ognovenko, Konstantin Pluzhnikov
Glinka: 'Ruslan and Lyudmila' - Lyudmila's Act IV aria - Anna Netrebko
Tchaikovsky: 'Yevgeny Onegin' - 'No, there could never be another' (Letter Scene) - Orla Boylan ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Verdi - La Forza del Destino / Gergiev, Gorchakova, Putilin, Marinsky Theatre St. Petersburg (Original 1862 Version)

starring: Valery Gergiev, Galina Gorchakova, Nikolai Putilin

Release Date November 20, 2001
The original Marinsky Forza is presented in a new DVD under the brilliant baton of Valery Gergiev. This offering contains every jot of music that Verdi wrote for this unusual opera. It also contains many of the dramatic scenes cut from all productions of FORZA in recent times. Some of these scenes are a bit egrigious. Most shocking of these additions is the suicide by drowning of Don Alvaro. The three principals are splended in their energy and naturalistic perforemance. The tenor is a slavic version of a young Pavarotti. I would highly recommend this DVD!

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Gold and Silver Gala with Placido Domingo [Region 2]

starring: Plácido Domingo, Roberto Alagna, Dwayne Croft, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan Graham
directed by: John Widdicombe

Release Date
The original Marinsky Forza is presented in a new DVD under the brilliant baton of Valery Gergiev. This offering contains every jot of music that Verdi wrote for this unusual opera. It also contains many of the dramatic scenes cut from all productions of FORZA in recent times. Some of these scenes are a bit egrigious. Most shocking of these additions is the suicide by drowning of Don Alvaro. The three principals are splended in their energy and naturalistic perforemance. The tenor is a slavic version of a young Pavarotti. I would highly recommend this DVD!