CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

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 ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Shirley Verrett in Opera

from: RCA

Release Date September 13, 1994
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 ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Leontyne Price (The Prima Donna Collection)

from: RCA

Release Date August 11, 1992
ABOUT THE ALBUM: LEONTYNE PRICE THE PRIMA DONNA COLLECTION, 4-CD's set, RCA Victor Gold Seal BMG Classics, 4 LPs recorded individually between 1965-1979 by Red Seal/Gold Seal labels, Leontyne Price, soprano, Conductors Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Edward Downes, Nello Santi, Henry Lewis.

Get this album for the incredible renditon of the Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. The pacing is right, the music swells with passion and so does Leontyne Price's voice, soaring and exultant, unlike any soprano has sung it before! It's the best version I've ever heard.

This 4-CD album is a must have for the most serious, hardcore fan of Leontyne Price, the first major black opera singer whose artistry influenced generations of ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Verdi Heroines

from: RCA

Release Date October 25, 1990
The review offerred by Amazon fails to mention the most important fact. The main performer is Leontyne Price. I can't even find the name of the other listed performers on this item. The listed conductors are 2 of 5 conductors that took part!!

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

The Essential Leontyne Price:Great Opera Scenes

from: RCA

Release Date August 11, 1998
leontyne price is to me the greatest diva of all time

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Berlioz: Les troyens (Abridged)

from: Opera D'oro

Release Date May 06, 2003
... and it is abridged, though what's cut appears to be mainly instrumental music. As the album claims, the important passages for voice are here, and the arc of the narrative is maintained.

I have the first Davis recording on lps -- in fine condition and in manual sequence -- and I wanted a different set on CD. After reading a number of reviews, I had reservations about Davis' new recording, as well as the one from Montreal on Decca.

The cast of this Opera d'Oro issue promises much, and the recording delivers. This is easily the best sounding OD set I've yet encountered. I don't know if it is stereo or binaural, but voices come through beautifully, including the choruses, and there is supurb balance between voice and orchestra ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride

from: Bella Voce Records

Release Date January 23, 2001
... and it is abridged, though what's cut appears to be mainly instrumental music. As the album claims, the important passages for voice are here, and the arc of the narrative is maintained.

I have the first Davis recording on lps -- in fine condition and in manual sequence -- and I wanted a different set on CD. After reading a number of reviews, I had reservations about Davis' new recording, as well as the one from Montreal on Decca.

The cast of this Opera d'Oro issue promises much, and the recording delivers. This is easily the best sounding OD set I've yet encountered. I don't know if it is stereo or binaural, but voices come through beautifully, including the choruses, and there is supurb balance between voice and orchestra ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Benvenuto Cellini

by: Berlioz, Bonisolli, Zylis-Gara, Brendel, Ozawa

Release Date February 04, 2003
Although this is a live (concert?) performance in Rome, the audience is very well behaved and the sound very acceptable: bright and clear, only occasionally edgy (the microphones catching Teresa Zylis-Gara's fleet, fluent soprano unkindly in the higher passages); this clear sound is particularly important if you can follow the French, as of course no libretto is provided, only a brief plot summary and relatively few cues. The performance is wonderful; Ozawa is a first-class Berlioz conductor who keeps the whole comic affair zipping along but takes time to caress the beautiful melodies in the love music. Bonisolli is a revelation for those who know him only as a preening "can-belto" specialist; his French is excellent and he often sings most delicately - ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Mendelssohn: Die erste Walpurgisnacht

from: Arts Music

Release Date October 25, 2005
Although this is a live (concert?) performance in Rome, the audience is very well behaved and the sound very acceptable: bright and clear, only occasionally edgy (the microphones catching Teresa Zylis-Gara's fleet, fluent soprano unkindly in the higher passages); this clear sound is particularly important if you can follow the French, as of course no libretto is provided, only a brief plot summary and relatively few cues. The performance is wonderful; Ozawa is a first-class Berlioz conductor who keeps the whole comic affair zipping along but takes time to caress the beautiful melodies in the love music. Bonisolli is a revelation for those who know him only as a preening "can-belto" specialist; his French is excellent and he often sings most delicately - ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci; Puccini: Il Tabarro

from: RCA

Release Date October 04, 1991
This recording of Il Tabarro is headlined by Leontyne Price, and Placido Domingo. It is stunning. I have never heard Giorgetta better sung, the voice is of course beatiful, and the characterization is rapturous. Domingo is the best conterpoint to Leontyne.

The Pagliacci is wonderful as well. Caballe has got to be the best Nedda on record, and again Domingo brings down the house.

You must have this recording!