CD-Charts Position 1
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Varèse - The Complete Works / Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra · Asko Ensemble · Chailly

by: Edgard Varese, Riccardo Chailly, Mireille Delunsch, Sarah Leonard, Royal Concertgebouw Orhcestra, Asko Ensemble

Release Date September 15, 1998
Varese was always frustrated by interpretations of his works and longed for the day when he could electronically produce his music, directly realizing his compositions exactly as he intended them. Theoretically that leaves us two works--Poeme Electronique and the tape interpolations on Deserts--as reference points. I suppose it would be simple-minded to turn exclusively to these works for guidance in how Varese should be played, but I can't help but refer to them myself because the tape interpolations on Deserts were what got me hooked on Varese in the first place. Unlike many here, I never was much of a Zappa fan and didn't even know he listened to Varese. No, my pop music idol was Hendrix, and it was easy to move from Hendrix's long feedback ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
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Duparc - Complete Songs / Delunsch, Le Texier

by: Henri Duparc, Mireille Delunsch, Vincent Le Texier, Guy Flechter

Release Date July 25, 2000
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M. E. H. Fouques-Duparc was a native Parisian, born in the Year of Revolutions (1848). He lived to be an old man of eighty-five years of age, but during his last fifty years wrote no music. His fame therefore rests on a veritable handful of mélodies written in his youth: generally they are held to be the finest French songs produced before Fauré's artistic maturity (c.1884).
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Duparc had studied piano and composition with Franck. He was an important friend to Chausson, and he travelled to Germany in the company of Saint-Saëns and Chabrier, meeting Liszt and Wagner at Weimar and experiencing the music-dramas at Bayreuth. Duparc's mélodies show the influence of these, with perhaps a salting of Gounod as well.
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Duparc ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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Rameau - Hippolyte et Aricie / Padmore, Panzarella, Hunt, Naouri, E. James, Petibon, Mechaly, Delunsch, Les Arts Florissants, Christie

from: Erato / Warner Music

Release Date March 18, 1997
An interesting way to compare these mythological operas is to notice how personally involved certain gods and goddesses become. First place goes to Cybele of Lully's Atys. She enters a love triangle with mortals and loses out. Second place belongs to Diana of the present opera. The heroine Aricie has taken refuge at Diana's temple and confesses to the goddess that she cannot become a full-fledged priestess because her love for Hippolyte keeps her from taking the necessary vow of chastity. The chief evil party in the plot is Hippolyte's stepmother Phaedra, who falls in "love" with her stepson and offends Diana when she threatens to burn down her temple in order to persecute her rival Aricie. Diana descends like Cybele and becomes both an enemy to Phaedra and ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Lully - Acis & Galatée / Fouchécourt, Gens, Naouri, Crook, Delunsch, Felix, Masset, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski

from: Archiv Produktion

Release Date September 12, 2006
For me Lully had always been the answer to a trivia question - What baroque composer killed himself by smashing his toe with his conducting stick? Listening to this recording opened my eyes to the composer. It is consistently delightful and full of invention, and I would rank it near the top of baroque opera along with Handel's Julius Caesar and Monteverdi's Orfeo. By the way, if you are wondering how he could have died from a blow to the toe, gangrene set in and finished him off.

CD-Charts Position 5
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Gluck - Armide / Delunsch, Workman, Naouri, Podles, Beuron, Polegato, Kozená, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski

by: Christoph Willibald Gluck, Mireille Delunsch, Charles Workman, Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Ewa Podles, Laurent Naouri, Françoise Masset, Nicole Heaston, Yann Beuron, Vincent Le Texier, Brett Polegato, Valérie Gabail, Magdalena Kozená, Thierry Grégoire, Jean-Christophe Hurtaud, Sandrine Rondot, Eric Vignau, Marcos Loureiro de Sa, Myriam Sosson, Claire Delgado-Boge

Release Date November 16, 1999
It seems to be the general consensus that Armide, while quite good, is not Gluck's strongest work. While that could be true, it certainly is my favorite opera by that composer, and it is extraordinarily performed here. When I bought this, I had was not overly familiar with Gluck's works, having heard 'Paride ed Elena', which is a masterpiece in itself, and is perhaps the most "French" of all of Gluck's Italian operas, as well as the somewhat uninspired recording of 'Iphigénie en Tauride' done by Boston Baroque and Pearlmann. I was also, at that time, unfamiliar with the operas of Lully, Rameau, and even Handel. This, however, inspired me to look into those composers, and now, I would say, after hearing other works by Gluck, that this is the closest work by him to ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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Berlioz - Nuits d'été · Herminie / Balleys · Delunsch · Herreweghe

by: Hector Berlioz, Philippe Herreweghe, Mireille Delunsch, Brigitte Balleys, Orchestre des Champs Élysées

Release Date July 18, 1995
I have listened to this CD almost every day since buying it. Brigitte Balleys' voice is SOOO beautiful! Why hadn't I heard of her before?! This is true musicianship!

I haven't heard the Anne Sofie von Otter recording. I can't imagine it would be anything less than wonderful. I also can't imagine it being any more perfect than this one!

Just buy it and enjoy!!

note: it is also available in Harmonia Mundi's "Selection" series...at a lower price too!!

Again, just buy it!!

CD-Charts Position 7
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An Introduction to Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande

from: Naxos

Release Date April 19, 2005
This is one of the increasingly distinguished series of 'Introduction to ...' CDs that have come out on the Naxos label. And I particularly like it because not only is the narration written by Thomson Smillie smart and clear, it also is much broader than one would expect. This is not just 'the story and the music.' The text also sets the historical and cultural context in which 'Pelléas et Mélisande' came to be written, and he traces the debt he owes to Wagner, a point often glossed over. The voice-over is done by actor David Timson who not only has a sonorous reading voice but also an excellent French accent.

As with all these educational CDs the musical examples - and there are tons of them, and not just from the opera itself - are taken from the extensive Naxos back-catalog. I have ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Gluck - Iphigénie en Tauride / Delunsch · Keenlyside · Beuron · Naouri · Cousin · Les Musiciens du Louvre · Minkowski

from: Archiv Produktion

Release Date May 08, 2001
Cette version est la meilleure des versions officielles, et de très loin. Comme d'habitude Minkowski a le sens du théâtre et son orchestre accompagne parfaitement les sentiment exprimés que ce soit l'angoisse ou la méditation. Les chanteurs et les choeurs sont en symbiose parfaite avec cette vision de l'oeuvre, ce qui leur fait éviter le piège de la théâtralité froide. Mireille Delunsch est parfaite : elle compense ce qu'elle n'a pas en puissance (et que le rôle ne demande d'ailleurs pas) par une émotion et une intelligence du rôle rares. De toutes les chanteuses qui ont chanté Iphigénie elle est la plus émouvante et attachante. La clarté de son timbre et son phrasé participent à cette impression. «Ô malheureuse Iphigénie» en devient superbe de sensibilité et d'intensité. Les ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Rameau - Dardanus / Ainsley, Gens, Naouri, Delunsch, Courtis, Kozena, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski

by: Mireille Delunsch

Release Date May 09, 2000
My first exposure to French Baroque opera was the recording of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Armide, on the Harmonia Mundi label. This exquisite, climatic recording only whetted my appetite for more of the French Baroque style.

The last five to ten years have yielded a wealth of great baroque recordings, and Dardanus is a fine example. Marc Minkowski, a self-taught conductor, delivers a performance full of frisson and passion. It should be noted that this was captured from a live performance, though you'd never know it, so great is the audio quality. The fact that it is from a live source has brought some unwarranted, hyperbolic criticism from stuffy opera critics. They claim that it appears as more of a series of highlights, rather than a cohesive, dramatic whole. I heartily disagree, and am ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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Debussy: Mer No1-3; Nocturnes No1-3

from: Harmonia Mundi Fr.

Release Date August 11, 1998
My first exposure to French Baroque opera was the recording of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Armide, on the Harmonia Mundi label. This exquisite, climatic recording only whetted my appetite for more of the French Baroque style.

The last five to ten years have yielded a wealth of great baroque recordings, and Dardanus is a fine example. Marc Minkowski, a self-taught conductor, delivers a performance full of frisson and passion. It should be noted that this was captured from a live performance, though you'd never know it, so great is the audio quality. The fact that it is from a live source has brought some unwarranted, hyperbolic criticism from stuffy opera critics. They claim that it appears as more of a series of highlights, rather than a cohesive, dramatic whole. I heartily disagree, and am ... Read More: