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:

R. Strauss - Capriccio / Fleming, von Otter, Finley, Trost, Henschel, Hawlata, Dell'Oste, Banks, Tear, Schirmer, Paris Opera

starring: Renee Fleming, Anne Sofie von Otter, Gerald Finley, Dietrich Henschel, Barry Banks

Release Date October 18, 2005
I was lucky enough to see this production in Paris in July 2004. I had already seen Carsen's brilliant 'Hoffmann' at Bastille with Dessay and was not disappointed by his 'Capriccio'. Though some may find his approach 'minimalist' or 'distracting', for me there is a very profound exploration of theater in/as performance but also as metaphor. The usual boundaries between onstage-backstage-house, performer-stagehand-viewer dissolve away, allowing Carsen to capture the theatrical event in all its complexity. 'Capriccio' is the perfect vehicle for this type of exploration, with its tension between words and music AND (what often gets left out of the equation) the theatrical art that allows both to come to life. It is no accident, I think, that one ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Britten - Death in Venice / Jenkins, Tear, Opie, Glyndebourne Opera

starring: Robert Tear, Alan Opie, Michael Chance (II), Gerald Finley, Paul Zeplichal
directed by: Robin Lough

Release Date March 26, 2002
GO FOR THE CD BEFORE THE DVD

'Death in Venice' was Britten's final opera, and it is really not the best way to become acquainted with it, for the filming is 'drab'and lackluster, but I'm wondering if it COULD actually be portrayed any differently. After all, the story centers around one character: Aschenbach (sung very well indeed by Robert Tear).

I found myself following the libretto that came with the Chandos WONDERFUL 2005 recording directed by Richard Hickox with the BBC singers and Philip Langridge as Aschenbach. There are times when it is difficult to understand the words of some of the songs. Of course, if one is familiar with Mann's story, it's not that hard to 'keep up', but I want to know specifically what the singer ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Saariaho - L'Amour de Loin / Dawn Upshaw, Gerald Finley, Monica Groop, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Finnish National Opera, Helsinki

starring: Gerald Finley, Dawn Upshaw, Monica Groop, Peter Sellars

Release Date September 13, 2005
Everyone is at the top of their game - singers, orchestra, conductor and composer, first and foremost. So glad I took a chance on this, having been recently "turned on" to Saariaho's amazing output. I can't stop watching it. If you're not fluent in French, be sure to turn on the subtitles/translations - at least once - to get the full effect. It is quite highly charged!

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Carols for Christmas / Metropolitan Museum of Art

starring: Gerald Finley, Aled Jones, David Willcocks
directed by: Christopher Swann

Release Date September 28, 2004
Everyone is at the top of their game - singers, orchestra, conductor and composer, first and foremost. So glad I took a chance on this, having been recently "turned on" to Saariaho's amazing output. I can't stop watching it. If you're not fluent in French, be sure to turn on the subtitles/translations - at least once - to get the full effect. It is quite highly charged!

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Benjamin Britten - Owen Wingrave / Margaret Williams, Gerald Finley, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin

starring: Gerald Finley, Peter Savidge, Josephine Barstow

Release Date February 22, 2005
Even a lesser work from a late-period Benjamin Britten is worthy of a look and listen, and this 2001 production from Germany directed by Margaret Williams certainly has the quality production values to do justice to the composer's 1971 opera, a work originally developed for television. Based on an 1892 ghost story by Henry James, it's a relatively straightforward anti-war story set in 1958 about a soldier who turns into a conscientious objector and consequently a family outcast. The piece reminds me a lot of Britten's anti-violence masterwork "Billy Budd", as I was struck by the central irony of Owen's predicament - that the traditional source of support, his family, turns into a more virulent war than any combat he would have faced on the battlefield.

The ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Death in Venice

starring: Robert Tear, Alan Opie, Michael Chance (II), Gerald Finley, Paul Zeplichal
directed by: Robin Lough

Release Date
GO FOR THE CD BEFORE THE DVD

'Death in Venice' was Britten's final opera, and it is really not the best way to become acquainted with it, for the filming is 'drab'and lackluster, but I'm wondering if it COULD actually be portrayed any differently. After all, the story centers around one character: Aschenbach (sung very well indeed by Robert Tear).

I found myself following the libretto that came with the Chandos WONDERFUL 2005 recording directed by Richard Hickox with the BBC singers and Philip Langridge as Aschenbach. There are times when it is difficult to understand the words of some of the songs. Of course, if one is familiar with Mann's story, it's not that hard to 'keep up', but I want to know specifically what the singer is singing.
Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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.