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Verdi - La Traviata / Cotrubas · Domingo · Milnes · Bayerisches Staatsorchester · Carlos Kleiber

by: Giuseppe Verdi, Carlos Kleiber, Ileana Cotrubas, Placido Domingo, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sherrill Milnes, Bruno Grella, Walter Gullino, Giovanni Foiani, Alfredo Giacomotti

Release Date October 25, 1990
La Traviata is among my favorites, but initially I thought I'd made a mistake getting this one. The 2nd act reassured me. Cotrubas and Milnes are outstanding together! Their interaction is touching and poignant. She really has a rich, silky voice that was at its best in that act. I like Domingo here -- he's a fine tenor. While I agree that his voice is a little heavy (or mature) for this role, he still conveys that callow youth.

CD-Charts Position 2
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Verdi: Macbeth

from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date January 28, 1997
Macbeth is my favorite opera. I have been listening to various performances of Verdi's Macbeth, both live and recorded, for over thirty years, and this recording is the best. Other recordings (I have 7 Macbeths) may have an equally strong Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, Macduff, or conductor, and I will listen to them from time to time to single out a Callas, Scotto or Milnes. When I just want to hear the opera, this is the recording I come back to. Only this recording has no weak links!

CD-Charts Position 3
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Verdi - Il Trovatore / Domingo · Plowright · Fassbaender · Zancanaro · Nesterenko · Santa Cecilia · Giulini

by: Giuseppe Verdi, Carlo Maria Giulini, Pácido Domingo, Rosalinde Plowright, Brigitte Fassbaender, Evgeni Nesterenko Giorgio Zancanaro

Release Date November 21, 1989
This was my first ever opera purchase as a gangly 17 year old twenty years ago and now, as a sophisticated silver fox, I still find it magical.
Some critics found the tempi quirky (Di quella Pira is an interesting example) but I think they are part of the reason that the recording is so intense. It is a dark opera and this recording accentuates this. Moody and depressed...in a good way. It is recorded in a rather reverberant acoustic which somehow suits the mood of the opera, and is especially suited to Plowright's voice. Now with a bit of vocal knowledge I can hear the strain in the voice and there is a feeling of something not quite right in he top notes, but what beauty and musicianship- she is virtually incandescent at times. Even the discovery ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Spontini: Olympia

from: Opera D'oro

Release Date October 07, 2003
I became intruiged by this opera when I heard 30 rare minutes with the young Renata Tebaldi in the title role. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this complete opera d'oro recording. Mix the sound of the Mozart, Cherubini and early Verdi and you get Spontini but with his own individual sound. In fact, I prefer his operas to Rossini's who can be fun but can bore me with their endless ensembles. The plots are also more interesting and Olympia's with a good cast can make for a fascinating and involved evening at the opera.

Maestro Gavazzeni was specialising in revivals at the time and the cast he choose was very good. Pilar Lorengar was in her prime and the voice is captured beautifully. Studio conditions were sometimes harsh on her vibrato but live, the voice ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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Cherubini: Medea

from: Opera D'oro

Release Date June 20, 2000
I have all the recorded performances of Maria Callas as Medea: Florence 1953, La Scala 1953, the 1957 EMI recording, Dallas 1958, Covent Garden 1959, and this final 1961 version.
I must admit this 1961 Scala live recording is the worst by far. Her voice still possesses some volume but the vibrato is monumental, the high notes flap out of control and sometimes the tonality is completely lost (what the French call "la voix bouge"). She frequently resorts to exaggerated chest notes. The breath control is short. Of course her phrasing and dramatic inflection are always impeccable but the vocal deficiencies make for uneasy listening. Vickers is very good as Jason, Thomas Schippers' conducting and choice of score cuts is erratic. The evening's vocal honours go to Giulietta ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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Meyerbeer - Le Prophète / Horne, Gedda, M. Rinaldi

by: Giacomo Meyerbeer, Henry Lewis, Marilyn Horne, Nicolai Gedda, Alfredo Giacomotti, Robert Amis el Hage, Boris Carmeli, Margherita Rinaldi

Release Date May 23, 2000
I came to this recording long after buying the studio recording, which Horne, MacCracken, Scotto, and Jerome Hines, released by Columbia. I thought it would be wonderful to experience this vast opera in live performance. I am sure it would be. This recording is not complete, and it doesn't give a very good representation of the work. The sound quality is simply horrible, I mean horrible. Meyerbeer may not have been Wagner in his orchestrations, but he was very meticulous about what he wanted (often writing the changes in various colors of ink to test them out in performance), and we as listeners are simply robbed of that experience. I much prefer Gedda in the Role of Jean to MacCracken (who is not a favorite singer of mine to begin with), even though he is past his prime. My reasoning ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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Puccini - Turandot / Dimitrova · Martinucci · Gasdia · Scandiuzzi · Opera di Genova · D. Oren

by: Giacomo Puccini, Daniel Oren, Ghena Dimitrova, Nicola Martinucci, Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale dell'Opera di Genova, Cecilia Gasdia, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Giancarlo Ceccarini, Tullio Pane, Piero De Palma, Angelo Casertano, Alfredo Giacomotti, Ivan Del Manto

Release Date November 18, 1997
Unsubtle performance with to much irritating background noises from the live performance. And its not remarked on the cover that its here a live recording.
There are some nice vocal performances, but also one of the protagonists is the choir. And this choir is unacceptable in this recording. I know that also a provincial theatre can bring splendid performances. But if they want to release them on a CD, they have to take there come to make a good recording with a good balance. This CD is good for some fans from the singers but not for everybody. In that way is the 1959 recording of RCA with Nilsson an outstanding example.

CD-Charts Position 8
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Verdi: La Traviata [Hybrid SACD]

from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date November 09, 2004
Clearly SACD is at top of everything we were used to hear. Of course, many collectionists will complain because of how much did they spent on thousands of records. I use to get bored by hearing allways the same tunes, and this super audio cd's (and sony's dsd remastered columbia records as well) bring new air to well known performances.

CD-Charts Position 9
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Franco Alfano: Cyrano de Bergerac

from: Opera D'oro

Release Date June 08, 2004
This opera deserves to be heard, and I rejoice that this performance has been made available on CD, especially as a comparison with the more recent production in Kiel, Germany.

The sound in this production is alas thin and dated, which is a pity, as the performances generally deserve better, and the true beauty of this opera lies in the total ensemble of orchestral and vocal color. I suspect the recording is only a pale reflection of the actual performance. William Johns here has a true heldentenor voice, a voice with weight and yet a ringing upper register, and as such, is an excellent choice for the role of Cyrano. In contrast to the more recent German production, he gives a more powerfully "verismo" interpretation, especially in the balcony scene and at the very end, as Cyrano ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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Verdi: Ernani

from: Emi Classics

Release Date June 19, 2007
This production of Verdi's best early opera, Ernani, opened the La Scala season in 1982, and much of it is thrilling. Muti drives too hard at times, but rubato had entered his vocabulary by then, and the absence of subtlety isn't such a great loss in a score that's so visceral and propulsive. Ernani could be a singing contest, so evenly divided are the arias and ensembles. In a live recording such as this, one can't expect perfection -- or anything close -- but the four principals, all international stars, throw themselves into their roles with abandon. No wonder critics at the time called this the best Verdi singing in twenty years.

All of that is to the good, as is the recorded sound (stage and audience noises are minimal); orchetral discipline, while not on the level of the Met orchestra, ... Read More: