CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Wagner - Tristan und Isolde

starring: Daniel Barenboim, Johanna Meier, Rene Kollo, Matti Salminen, Hanna Schwarz
directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Release Date August 14, 2007
Having heard and read so much praise I expected much more from the Ponnelle/Barenboim "Tristan und Isolde" from the Bayreuth Festival of 1981. For one thing, the DVD's video quality is extremely disappointing. Darkness is extremely grainy. Even bleeding most of the color out the video, the quality is that of early VHS which is not good.

Ponnelle's direction and designs are overly quirky and the sets are extremely ugly looking. The opening scene with Isolde on the floor with a cape spreading out covering most of the stage and wearing a ridiculous looking crown (which she rips up after the Narration and Curse) set the tone for most of the balance of the performance, which is a series of misfires better known as opera singers behaving ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Beethoven - Fidelio

starring: Lucia Popp, Gundula Janowitz, Hans Sotin, Manfred Jungwirth, Rene Kollo
directed by: Leonard Bernstein, Otto Schenk

Release Date January 09, 2007
This is a live performance and is not the same as the studio recording made with almost the same cast and issued on CD. If offered a choice, I would get this video because it's a video, but I have the CD set too and wish to keep both. It is one of Bernstein's best performances and features Gundula Janowitz as Leonore, Lucia Popp as Marzelline, and Rene Kollo as Florestan. Among the videos currently available, this would be my first choice. Bernstein made a slight rearrangement for the Leonore overture No.3 so that it is just a continuation of the vocal duet before it. My only criticism is that the spoken dialogue was shortened too much, and especially I would have liked to hear the brief words of Florestan and Leonore just before the "O namenlose ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Lehar - Das Land des Lachelns / Kollo, Pitsch-Sarata, Koller, Zednik, Liewehr, Ebert, Stuttgart Opera

starring: Rene Kollo, Birgit Pitsch-Sarata, Dagmar Kollet, Heinz Zednik, Wolfgang Ebert

Release Date October 11, 2005
Wonderefull I hope in the Future you hafe more Operettes an the market
Thanks

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Kalman - Die Csardasfurstin

starring: Anna Moffo, Rene Kollo, Dagmar Koller, Iren Psota, Sandor Nemeth

Release Date November 14, 2006
This is a great DVD. Moffo is beautiful with a luscious voice - the two don't often go together - and Kalman's music is infectious. The program is very well produced and all the singers are excellent. I highly recommend it.

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Strauss: Arabella

starring: Gundula Janowitz, Bernd Weikl, René Kollo, Sona Ghazarian, Edita Gruberova
directed by: Otto Schenk

Release Date May 13, 2008
I have rated this DVD four stars because it is a film and not a live performance. Yes, the singers' attention to lipsynching is good (as good as the performance of Ariadne auf Naxos)but the performance still lacks the effectiveness that only a live performance has. It is also on two discs which is unnecessary--afterall DGG (a Universal Company) released their Arabella on one disc.

Initially I was reluctant to consider this performance. Solti's recording was the first complete (true an earlier one from Salzburg was released in the 90's) recording. Starring Della Casa, Gueden and George London it should have perfection. Alas Solti's brutal handling of the music and his rigidity effectively destroyed the beauty of the score. Later a DGG live performance conducted ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

R. Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos

starring: Walter Berry, Axelle Gall, Edita Gruberova, Manfred Jungwirth, René Kollo
directed by: Filippo Sanjust

Release Date January 08, 2008
For a good performance of Ariadne, the most important ingredient is a good Ariadne and Zerbinetta. Gundula Janowitz sings superbly and ably conveys the bearing of the distraught and, at times, aloof princess, Ariadne.

Edita Gruberova turns in the performance of a lifetime, as the epitome of a coquettish Zerbinetta. Her "Grossmachtige Prinzessin" by itself is something you will want to share with friends, to show them the virtuosity of a truly great singer. As a crowning glory to this famous aria, our flirty Zerbinetta effortlessly ascends to the very highest notes--Get this!--as she powders her face. Spectacularly, it displays both Gruberova's incomparable singing abilities, and her perfectly complementary acting abilities.

The "harlequin group" ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Tannhauser

starring: René Kollo, Waltraud Meier, Bernd Weikl, Claes H. Ahnsjö, Nadine Secunde
directed by: Brian Large

Release Date January 16, 1997
In Jean Anouilh's Becket Henry tells a French courtesan with whom he has spent the night to "Put on your clothes and go home!" One wishes someone had said the same to the inexplicably naked people (some of whom are darned cute, by the way) in the opening sequence. The production is further compromised by the sophomoric sets, costumes (most people are clothed), and props. The committee -- it had to be a committee -- who poorly cooked up this visual soup were doubtless attempting to be innovating, daring, different, provocative, original, cutting-edge, and every cliche' in the catalogue. And perhaps they would have been, in 1958 or so. The stage is cluttered with sets busily going up and down, props strewn about (I am sure someone said "It can mean whatever you want it to mean," the ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Wagner - Tannhauser / Mehta, Kollo, National Theatre of Munich

starring: René Kollo, Waltraud Meier, Bernd Weikl, Claes H. Ahnsjö, Nadine Secunde
directed by: Brian Large

Release Date March 06, 2001
In Jean Anouilh's Becket Henry tells a French courtesan with whom he has spent the night to "Put on your clothes and go home!" One wishes someone had said the same to the inexplicably naked people (some of whom are darned cute, by the way) in the opening sequence. The production is further compromised by the sophomoric sets, costumes (most people are clothed), and props. The committee -- it had to be a committee -- who poorly cooked up this visual soup were doubtless attempting to be innovating, daring, different, provocative, original, cutting-edge, and every cliche' in the catalogue. And perhaps they would have been, in 1958 or so. The stage is cluttered with sets busily going up and down, props strewn about (I am sure someone said "It can mean whatever you want it to mean," the ultimate ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Opera Highlights Vol. III - Elektra, Salome, Capriccio, Tannhauser, Cosi fan Tutte, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail

starring: Bryn Terfel, Waltraud Meier, Christine Schafer, Kiri Te Kanawa, Paul Groves
directed by: Luc Bondy

Release Date July 31, 2007
This is the third in the series of 'Opera Highlights' from ArtHaus Musik. This series contains excerpts from full-length opera DVDs all of which are otherwise available. Generally speaking these discs contain arias or scenes that are extractable without too much difficulty. They are not necessarily, though, the best known arias from their respective operas. As Amazon has not listed the precise contents on this DVD I shall do so. (I might point out that the DVD box does not list precise provenance data about these excerpts and I have added some of what I could find out, mostly by carefully studying the end credits on each segment of the DVD itself.) And I will add a few comments here and there. Each aria is preceded by a spoken introduction by the singer involved (except for Schäfer's aria, which is introduced ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Tannhäuser [Region 2]

starring: René Kollo, Waltraud Meier, Bernd Weikl, Claes H. Ahnsjö, Nadine Secunde
directed by: Brian Large

Release Date
In Jean Anouilh's Becket Henry tells a French courtesan with whom he has spent the night to "Put on your clothes and go home!" One wishes someone had said the same to the inexplicably naked people (some of whom are darned cute, by the way) in the opening sequence. The production is further compromised by the sophomoric sets, costumes (most people are clothed), and props. The committee -- it had to be a committee -- who poorly cooked up this visual soup were doubtless attempting to be innovating, daring, different, provocative, original, cutting-edge, and every cliche' in the catalogue. And perhaps they would have been, in 1958 or so. The stage is cluttered with sets busily going up and down, props strewn about (I am sure someone said "It can mean whatever you want it to mean," the ultimate cop-out), debris, ... Read More: