CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Essential Mozart: 32 Of His Greatest Masterpieces

from: Decca

Release Date March 13, 2001
You get Mozart's best works in 2 CD. The sound is flawless to the common ear. Get it! if you love Mozart

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

The #1 Opera Album

by: Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Léo Delibes, Georges Bizet, Umberto Giordano, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, Gioachino Rossini, Alfredo Catalani, Jacques Offenbach, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Charles Gounod, Gaetano Donizetti, Pietro Mascagni, Antonin Dvorak, Richard Bonynge, Herbert von Karajan, Alberto Erede, Lamberto Gardelli, Giuseppe Patane, John Mauceri, Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, Gyorgy Fischer, Riccardo Chailly, Istvan Kertesz, Leone Magiera, Evelino Pido, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Luciano Pavarotti, Jussi Bjorling, Renata Tebaldi

Release Date February 27, 2001
I heard this CD on a PBS pledge drive (it was a premium) and found myself loving every cut on it! I was in my car and just wanted to keep on driving and listening. This is by far my most-played CD - I've had to make it a weekend only listen to prevent getting burned out on it. HIGHLY recommend it. Even if you are unfamiliar with some of the pieces, you will quickly learn to love them. . . . I must end this review - I'm off to listen to the "flower duet" for the 100th time. . .

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

The Best Opera Album in the World...Ever!

from: Angel Records

Release Date July 27, 1999
I'm not opera literate, so I was looking for some kind of introduction that had some familiar arias and that would connect me to others that I had not heard. I liked that the notes with the cd indicated where a new listener may have heard some of the music (in a commercial, during an important scene in a movie, etc). This was the source of a lot of 'Ah ha!' moments. It even inspired me to rent a dvd of a live version of Turandot and to put others on my Netflix queue. I owe my newly aroused curiosity about opera, believe it or not, to Il Divo. I had to know what these guys sing when they're not reinterpreting pop songs. I'm glad I started this journey and this cd was a good start.

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Rapture: Opera's Most Heavenly Moments

from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date October 08, 2002
I have more experience with other genres of music, but am interested in basically all kinds. I have been collecting CDs for nearly 2 decades but had no Opera in my collection. I did a little research and arrived at a conclusion. If I wanted the most and best Opera music for my money, I had to get this title, which is a double album, and "The Most Famous Opera Duets". Well, the latter was a steal with a list price under four dollars, and the former was a truly good compilation of many uplifting, diverse, impactful, and pleasant pieces. I am satisfied with my purchases and have filled the gap in my music collection. I can't see Opera getting better than this and the other title I mentioned. Enjoy!

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Verdi - Rigoletto / Sutherland, Pavarotti, Milnes, LSO, Bonynge

by: Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Bonynge, Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, London Symphony Orchestra, Sherrill Milnes, Joseph Clement, John Gibbs, Clifford Grant, Kiri Te Kanawa, Gillian Knight, Ricardo Cassinelli, Ambrosian Opera Chorus

Release Date October 25, 1990
Cabe mencionar que hace poco mas de 11 años que tengo este disco que tuvo a bien regalarme un amigo muy querido; de nuevo la fórmula muy efectiva en los años 70's; Pavarotti se muestra como "el mejor duque de la historia" (según críticos conocedores) y que vocalmente está en su punto, basta escuchar el aria "possente amor mi chiama" coronado con un trino para tenor que calidad insuperable; como dijera el propio Verdi "Rigoletto esta concebido como una interminable ristra de dúos", todos ellos memorables; Joanine se luce con la interpretación de una adolescente, imprimiendo una sutil Gilda, conmovedora hasta los huesos (vg en los hermosísimos dúos con Rigoletto) y con un dramatismo excepcional como en el terzetone del tercer acto previo ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

The Ultimate Puccini Collection

by: Giacomo Puccini, Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Chailly, Stephen Barlow, Tullio Serafin, Lorin Maazel, Sir Edward Downes, Giuseppe Patane, Zubin Mehta, Alberto Erede, John Mauceri, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa, John Alldis Choir, Luciano Pavarotti, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bologna Community Theater Orchestra, Ettore Bastianini, Carlo Bergonzi, Renato Cesari, Fernando Corena, Cesare Siepi, Renata Tebaldi, Gianna D'Angelo, Saint Cecilia Academy Orchestra, Franco Corelli, Alfredo Mariotti, Regine Crespin, Royal Opera House Orchestra Covent Garden, London Symphony Orchestra, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, Rome Opera House Orchestra, Pilar Lorengar, Berlin Philharmonic Brass Ensemble, Mirella Freni, Rolando Panerai, Jussi Bjorling, Leontyne Price, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Release Date June 09, 1998
"Quando m'en vo" is not omitted from this CD; it is just called "Musetta's waltz song." It is the same aria.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

A Room with a View

from: Emd Int'l

Release Date July 15, 2008
"Quando m'en vo" is not omitted from this CD; it is just called "Musetta's waltz song." It is the same aria.

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Essential Verdi

from: Decca

Release Date February 13, 2001
I don't know opera.

Last summer we had an incredible 20th anniversary trip to Italy. As a side trip from Venice, we planned a night in Verona. Neither my wife or I had been to an opera.

Is this how its supposed to be...

...an incredible star filled night with a three quarter moon, the largest stage and outdoor theatrical production on the planet, all taking place in a roman colleseum (arena) built in 180 a.d., an incredible colorful set and production with a full symphony orchestra and voices that don't come easy. Aida.

Now I know what all the hpye is as you opera fans sure are lucky to have such a beautiful setting for all your productions.

Okay, we got spoiled. But I also found myself ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Carmen / Troyanos, Domingo, van Dam, Te Kanawa; Sir Georg Solti

by: Georges Bizet, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tatiana Troyanos, Plácido Domingo, Sir Georg Solti, José van Dam, Kiri Te Kanawa, Norma Burrowes, Jane Berbié, John Alldis Choir

Release Date October 25, 1990
First of all, History:

Carmen is not a grand opera. The belief in the opposite is one of the most artistically catastrophic malapropisms in the history of Western music. Georges Bizet, the greatest French composer of his day (in the world of Charles Gounod and Jacques Offenbach), is remembered today as a tiger of a conductor, an unbending an inflexible stalwart of musical realism, anti-establishment, and verismo (that red-blooded dramatic art perfected in part by Puccini and Mascagni). He composed Carmen in the tradition of the opéra-comique, an operatic sphere dating back to Mozartian comedy a la Le Nozze di Figaro, with musical sections accompanied by spoken recitatives or dialogues.

The Homeric tale of opera's creation, premiere, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Amore II ~ Great Italian Love Arias

from: Sony

Release Date February 01, 2000
i'm a tellin you..... if you dont a like a this music....well you musta been born with the stone for a heart...heh