CD-Charts Position 1

Gianni Schicci [Blu-ray]

starring: Alessandro Corbelli, Sergei Leiferkus, Marie McLaughlin, Felicity Palmer, Sally Matthews
directed by: Francesca Kemp, Ann Abel Arden

Release Date September 30, 2008

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov

starring: Robert Lloyd, Olga Borodina, Alexei Steblianko, Sergei Leiferkus
directed by: Andrei Tarkovsky, Valery Gergiev

Release Date May 14, 2002
Reviewing my comments and those written by others about this extaordinary opera, I do not think I can better what has been written in THE GRAMOPHONE
magazine, "This is masterly on almost every count, musical and visual, and would now be the outright choice for this work in all media...Front stage, as it were, are some of the best of the current generation of
Russian singers...Gergiev is another of the recording's heros. Seldom, if
ever...has the score sounded so hauntingly beautiful and apt for this huge
panorama of seventeenth-century Russia.. Don't miss this riveting experience."

Pesonally, I experienced the comment by my father, Dr. D W Stomberg, many years ago that a San Francisco staged production was ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Tchaikovsky - Pique Dame / Gergiev, Grigorian, Leiferkus, Kirov Opera

starring: Gegam Grigorian, Sergei Leiferkus, Olga Borodina, Valery Gergiev

Release Date July 16, 2002
Recently I bought some DVDs of Russian operas from Amazon. I have been quite happy with most of them; but there is something wrong with the DVD of Pique Dame. Apparently, act 1, scene 1 is damaged in my copy. Sometimes the music fades away, or there are jumps in the performance. This is not the case with the rest of the DVD, but here there are other technical failures. Sometimes, but not always, the picture and sound are not synchronized which clearly can be seen by the moving of the lips of the singers. Sometimes, but not always, the arias cannot be heard for the orchestra, so one has to make the sound louder just to be blown away when the chorus comes. I had for several reasons been looking forward to this DVD, and it has mostly been a disappointment, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Rachmaninov - The Miserly Knight / Vladimir Jurowski , Sergei Leiferkus, London Philharmonic Orchestra , Opus Arte

starring: Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Leiferkus, Vladimir Jurowski
directed by: Annabel Arden

Release Date July 29, 2008
Recently I bought some DVDs of Russian operas from Amazon. I have been quite happy with most of them; but there is something wrong with the DVD of Pique Dame. Apparently, act 1, scene 1 is damaged in my copy. Sometimes the music fades away, or there are jumps in the performance. This is not the case with the rest of the DVD, but here there are other technical failures. Sometimes, but not always, the picture and sound are not synchronized which clearly can be seen by the moving of the lips of the singers. Sometimes, but not always, the arias cannot be heard for the orchestra, so one has to make the sound louder just to be blown away when the chorus comes. I had for several reasons been looking forward to this DVD, and it has mostly been a disappointment, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Saint-Saens - Samson et Dalila / Domingo, Borodina, Leiferkus, Fink, Levine, Metropolitan Opera

starring: Saint-Saens, Placido Domingo, Olga Borodina, James Levine, Sergei Leiferkus

Release Date September 14, 2004
I wavered between three and four stars for this one. I have a personal love of this production, as it is one of the very first I ever saw at the Met (in the 97-98 season). Dalilah was played in those first productions by Denyce Graves, who is a wonderful opera actress, and very beautiful. Though Borodina's voice easily trumps hers, I found Graves' portrayal to be superior. This production was created for Borodina, who skipped the first year because she was pregnant. The performance on this DVD is the opening night of the 98-99 season.

There are some great moments here--when Dalilah makes her first appearance emerging from the impressionistic fields, dancing in the short but well-choreographed ballet scene--then sings "Printemps qui commence." ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Verdi - Otello / Solti, Domingo, Te Kanawa, Royal Opera Covent Garden

starring: Plácido Domingo, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sergei Leiferkus, Claire Powell, Robin Leggate
directed by: Brian Large

Release Date April 01, 2001
As I accumulate a library of Operatic and Ballet performances I am especially attuned to the technical aspects of the recording, such as audio mix, lighting etc. This performance has a less than perfect audio mix. The orchestra is well represented but the singers sound distant. Microphone placement maybe? It is one of the reasons many live performances that are recorded do not sound as good as the film version. The people who put a film together seem to be very good at getting these things right. I have to agree with the reviewer who praised Kiri and panned Placido. His acting is very good but this opera seemed to test his range. But this too may have been related to the mike placement. The lighting was also minimal in many scenes.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Eugene Onegin

starring: Sergei Leiferkus, Yuri Temirkanov

Release Date May 31, 2005
Consider what this opera means to the Russians...a famous Russian novel set by the most famous and popular Russian composer. The conductor conducts the performance from memory with his eyes closed much of the time as if he were in a trance. The sets are traditional and give an authentic feel for the time and place of the story unlike the almost embarassing minimalism of the new Met production. The singing is uniformly good although no singer seems truly world class save the Onegin himself. What is bothersome about the performance is that, while it is advertised as "live" I suspect that a camera was focused on the whole performance from a distance. Closeup shots were later filmed with the complete soundtrack and the singers lip synching to the original. The problem ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Tchaikovsky - Pique Dame / Davis, Marusin, Gustafson, Palmer, London Philharmonic

starring: Yuri Marusin, Nancy Gustafson, Felicity Palmer, Sergei Leiferkus, Dmitri Kharitonov

Release Date December 14, 1999
I am writing this review to counter the bad ones here. This is a great production, both vocally and theatrically. The director's concept is wonderful and the singers are great. I recommend this DVD over any other one of this opera. What a joy.

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Rachmaninov - The Miserly Knight / Leiferkus, Berkeley-Steele, Schagidullin, Voynarovskiy, Mikhailov, Jurowski, Glyndebourne Opera

starring: Sergei Leiferkus, Richard Berkeley-Steele, Maxim Mikhailov, Vladimir Jurowski, Albert Schagidullin

Release Date July 19, 2005
Not much of a plot, but who cares. The music is great and the signing just beautiful. The long monologue (about 24 minutes) is opera at its best. The soul, and not necessarily the best moral one, put in music.
worth listening many times.

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Verdi Collection (Aida/Otello/Un Ballo In Maschera/La Forza del Destino/Stiffelio/Luisa Miller) - Amazon.com Exclusive

starring: Plácido Domingo, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sergei Leiferkus, Claire Powell, Robin Leggate
directed by: Brian Large, John Vernon, Claus Viller

Release Date November 12, 2002
Not much of a plot, but who cares. The music is great and the signing just beautiful. The long monologue (about 24 minutes) is opera at its best. The soul, and not necessarily the best moral one, put in music.
worth listening many times.