CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Verdi - Aida

starring: Violeta Urmana, Roberto Alagna, Ildiko Komlosi, Giorgio Giuseppini, Chailly

Release Date February 19, 2008
This La Scala production was promoted as the "new" version of the great 1989 Emmy-winning "Aida" from The Met. The La Scala production has much to recommend it: fine singing from Violeta Urmana as Aida and Ildiko Komlosi as Amneris; beautiful performances by the two featured dancers in the ballet (Verdi wrote great ballet music here); lively and nuanced conducting by Ricardo Chailly; and the full-bodied, spirited sound of the La Scala chorus. These are the five-star features of the production.

But I've just spent (too much) time watching the Beijing Olympics and so, with gymnastics and diving judges as my new role models, it's time to start taking deductions. Roberto Alagna never looks comfortable as Radames. At first, I thought ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Igor Stravinsky - Le Rossignol (The Nightingale)/ Dessay, McLaughlin, Urmana, Grivnov, Schagidullin, Naouri, Mikhailov, Conlon

starring: Natalie Dessay, Hugo Simcic, Marie McLaughlin, Violeta Urmana, Vsevolod Grivnov
directed by: Christian Chaudet

Release Date November 08, 2005
Get this DVD and also the Julie Taymore "Oedipus Rex" and you have two opposite poles of the mind and music of Stravinsky as well as the power of filmed stage opera and opera just for film. The brutal, gritty live production on stage of "Oedipus" is how that should be done. The dreamy, FX, studio production of "Le Rossignol" is just how that should be done. The music in both cases is perfection. They are perfect foils.

Stravinsky - Oedipus Rex

The music of "Le Rossignol" is excruciatingly beautiful. The stylistic clash resulting from Stravinsky having put the opera down to go through the epiphany of "Firebird" to "Petruchka" and finally opening...no, blowing the door off and ushering in 20th century music with "Le Sacre du ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Leoncavallo - Pagliacci / Mascagni - Cavalleria Rusticana

starring: Violeta Urmana, Vincenzo La Scola, Vladimir Galouzine, Maria Bayo, Carlo Guelfi
directed by: Giancarlo del Monaco

Release Date November 20, 2007
GianCarlo del Monaco staged this opera as a Greek tragedy. The entire performance takes place on a stage full of marble stones. He comes dangerously close to turning the performance into a concert version in costume. Movement of the character is slow and minimal and del Monaco doesn't offer any new insights to the story. You wouldn't even know it takes place on Easter. There is a person who drags a cross across the stage followed by a couple of hooded actors who are flogging themselves. This is as close to religion as the opera gets. Violeta Urmana sings the rocks off her part as Santuzza. Vincenzo la Scola is okay as Turiddu. The Lola and Mamma Lucia should cancel any dreams they have about singing at the Met. At the end, the fight takes place on ... Read More: