CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Andrew Lloyd Webber - The Royal Albert Hall Celebration

starring: Tina Arena, Michael Ball, Antonio Banderas, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating
directed by: David Mallet

Release Date October 30, 2001
Although I usually prefer classical music or pre-1950s popular music, I do enjoy the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. This is a very good sampling from his musicals. My only complaint is that some of the singing is not as good as it should be. Except for the opening number which was poorly sung, it sounded OK until I heard Sarah Brightman and Kiri Te Kanawa towards the end of the concert. Then I realized how much better this concert would have been if it had all been sung by singers of their skills.

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Mozart - Don Giovanni / Maazel, Raimondi, Te Kanawa, Paris Opera

starring: Ruggero Raimondi, John Macurdy, Edda Moser, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kenneth Riegel
directed by: Joseph Losey

Release Date February 26, 2002
Although the colors are a bid faded, this is a beautifully shot movie. The scenery is very pleasing, and the acting is superb. The real downfall of the film is the sound. It's as if they were singing into tin cans to burn the sound onto records. At times, it's almost acceptable, then something happens and it's horrible again. This really is a pity, because with good sound this would truly be an excellent, cinematic opera production.

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro / Te Kanawa, Cotrubas, von Stade, Luxon, Skram, Fryatt; Pritchard, Glyndebourne Opera

starring: Kiri te Kanawa, Ileana Cotrubas, Frederica von Stade, John Pritchard, Benjamin Luxon

Release Date September 21, 2004
As Cherubion, Frederica Von Stade made tingles race up my spine when she sang Voi che sapete che cosa. This to me is what opera is about- timeless beauty, energy, and dramatic human emotion.
This is the first time I have heard Kiri Te Kanawa, she was divine. The energy and connection between The Countess and Susanna was delightful. Ileana Cotrubas as Susanna was fantastic; she brought a sense of playful, mischievous fun to the role. Ileana made her character feel real for me. Her timing was perfect. She portrayed Susanna as a well rounded flesh and blood young woman- humorous, warm, loving, and loyal as well as being jealous, sneaky, and cunning when necessary. From the women you couldn't have hoped for more.
I bought a copy ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Johann Strauss - Die Fledermaus / Domingo, Te Kanawa, Prey, Royal Opera Covent Garden

starring: Kiri Te Kanawa, Hermann Prey, Dennis O'Neill (II), Hildegard Heichele, Paul Crook
directed by: Humphrey Burton

Release Date October 14, 2003
Although the performance dates from the 1980s the DVD is visually and technically quite satisfactory. The DVD I ordered suffered from two or three brief interruptions. It was a gift to a relative and I wasn't able to determine whether the problem was with the disc or the player. The performances were all first-rate. Domingo took the orchestra at a very fast clip in the more "technical" portions of the Overture, but it was musically still quite appropriate. I particularly enjoyed the occasions where the spoken dialog switched over briefly to English. The ad libed "entertainment" at Prince Orlovsky's party was very good, but I've seen better. It was a bit inclined for a British audience.

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

The Making of West Side Story - Leonard Bernstein

starring: Leonard Bernstein, Kiri Te Kanawa, Josep Carreras, Tatiana Troyanos, Kurt Ollmann
directed by: Christopher Swann

Release Date August 09, 2005
Hello, Back in the 80's I saw the original showing on TV of this and tried to buy a video of it without success. This year is tha Anniversary of West Side Story and I just wondered if maybe ther was a DVD of it. Of course, here it is. West Side Story was what gave me my love of musicals and in my opinion it has never been surpassed and Leonard Bernstein is the tru Maestro- so charismatic as are all of the participants. A must see.

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Richard Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier / Te Kanawa, Howells, Haugland, Bonney, Solti, Schlesinger (The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden)

starring: Kiri Te Kanawa, Aage Haugland, Anne Howells, Barbara Bonney, Georg Solti
directed by: Brian Large, John Schlesinger

Release Date January 13, 2004
If you're looking for one video ROSENKAVALIER I bet this is the one. (Unless you're a die-hard Eliz. Schwarzkopf groupie.) It's very unusual to get a cast like this with four born-for-their-parts singing actors and zero weaknesses. ALL the minor actors reward close observation. Valzacchi and Anina are as interesting in their way as the principals. (Valzacchi is played by the British celebrity tenor Robert Tear.) Watch the Italian Singer's pantomime argument with his accompanist and his vocal competition with Ochs. The actual singer (Dennis O'Neal) is not Italian but is a Verdi superstar.

The late Aage Haugland is the best actor I have ever seen as Ochs (including Kurt Moll and Otto Edelmann). He really gets his character's special ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)

starring: Hermann Prey, Mirella Freni, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Kiri Te Kanawa, Maria Ewing
directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Release Date June 14, 2005
A strange mix of beautifully performed music and a director's view trying to create a burlesque atmosphere where it does not belong. Conducted by the great classicist conductor and Mozart specialist Karl Bohm and sung by an excellent cast (with some pluses and minuses, of course), this production is worth collecting if you are willing to ignore some of the director's visualizing solutions.

Leading the cast is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as always bringing a very nuanced and sophisticated interpretation of the Almaviva role, the likes of which you will not find with others. Every word is emphasized differently, he uses various voice colors and effects to accent the intricacies of Mozart's music. One example is how he darkens "felice un servo ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Metropolitan Opera Gala - James Levine's 25th Anniversary

starring: Renee Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Karita Mattila, Roberto Alagna, Thomas Hampson

Release Date November 22, 2005
This is a magnificent presentation, so many artists and such terrific performances from all of them, the pity of it is that there have been so many other fabulous performances that have been left out, I have the original VCR issue and there are far more arias and duets than there are on the two DVD's, the magnificent aria from Jessye Norman is missing and so is Alfredo Kraus's fantastic rendition of Pourquoi me reveiller among others. I would prefer to pay a bit extra for a 3 DVD set to get the missing items. The original concert went for something like 6 hours, why can't we have it all?

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Verdi - Simon Boccanegra / Levine, Te Kanawa, Metropolitan Opera

starring: Kiri Te Kanawa, Plácido Domingo, Vladimir Chernov, Robert Lloyd, Bruno Pola
directed by: Brian Large

Release Date September 24, 2002
...and therefore his greatest opera!

That's not an opinion shared by everyone, I know, but watching and listening to this production by the Metropolitan Opera might concern a few. Verdi himself thought, as he put it, that he'd done something worthwhile with Simon Boccanegra, and he revised it and promoted it assiduously. In no other opera is his music so consistent, both in melodic invention and in sustained development. The aesthetic failings of earlier operas, in my ears, were their episodic unevenness and an ever-present possibility of lapsing into schmaltzy bumptiousness just at the wrong moment. In Simon Boccanegra, Verdi achieves a unity of voices and orchestra, of song and symphony that opera lovers are more likely to expect from Wagner. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Richard Strauss - Arabella / Thielemann, Te Kanawa, Brendel, Metropolitan Opera

starring: Kiri Te Kanawa, Wolfgang Brendel, Marie McLaughlin (II), David Kuebler, Helga Dernesch
directed by: Brian Large

Release Date June 19, 2001
i've never seen so many big names in one opera before ; also, nathalie dessay has a little role in act II, but that's not really highlighted ; it's definitely a must-have for anyone who wants 2 hours of not stop beautiful music