CD-Charts Position 121
Average Rating:

Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan

CD-Charts > Music > Operettas
from: Avid (City Hall)

Release Date April 20, 2004
Between 1949 and 1951, the D'Oyly Carte Company was very busy recording nine of the Gilbert & Sullivan works onto mono LPs for the Decca label (or the London, as it was known over here), with comic lead Martyn Green in all but "Trial By Jury." After he left the company, Green was supplanted by Peter Pratt, who recorded the comic lead roles in "The Sorcerer" and "Princess Ida." All of these have waited a long time to appear on CDs and several companies have taken advantage of the copyright lapse to issue them at very high prices and at least one at very budget ones.


But now I find that all of the 1949-1951 sets are available on the Avid Entertainment label as a boxed set of 10 discs (AMSC 780-789). To keep things compact, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 122
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Natalie Dessay - The Miracle of the Voice [best of]

CD-Charts > Music > Operettas
from: Virgin Classics

Release Date January 16, 2007
Natalie has the most beautifully clear high soprano voice I have ever heard. The high notes soar effortlessly; she makes it seem so easy. A truly beautiful album, beautiful selections, and a voice that is impossible to find fault with. Even if you're not an opera fan, if you enjoy a lovely soprano voice singing beautiful songs, I believe you will enjoy this album.

CD-Charts Position 123
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Glass: Einstein on the Beach (1993 Recording)

CD-Charts > Music > Operettas
by: Robert Wilson, Michael Riesman

Release Date September 28, 1993
I own this version as well as the original version. I respect both of them. I owned it on vinyl in the seventies and found it to be an exciting discovery. On CD, I bought the Nonesuch version first. It was nice to be reunited with an old friend. A middle aged old friend. The Nonesuch version version has much richer tonality than the original recording. Do I go to Einstein on the Beach for rich tonality? No, I go to it for edgy relentlessness. Although the Nonesuch version is longer, it is much less relentless. It's pacing is more leisurely. It seems to be striving for stateliness, to be seen as a classic, which it now is. I later bought the original recording on CD and was reunited with a friend who hasn't changed, It is still an exciting discovery. I prefer ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 124
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Alban Berg: Wozzeck (Opera in 3 Acts) - Franz Grundheber / Hildegard Behrens / Wiener Philharmoniker / Claudio Abbado

CD-Charts > Music > Operettas
by: Franz Grundheber, Aage Haugland, Peter Jelosits, Werner Kamenik, Wiener Staatsopernchor, Wiener Philharmoniker

Release Date October 25, 1990
Abbado falters when he conducts careful, reticent performances and misses the music's inner passion. This Wozzeck seems like that to me, in spsite of its technical brilliance. The orchestra s recorded far forward with incredible detail, and one couldn't expect any better than from the Vienna Phil.

But the singers, reduced sometimes to a secondary attraction, don't catch fire, particularly the Wozzeck of veteran Grundheber, which is just good, middle-of-the-road work. almost every other major Wozzeck on record--Walter Berry, Fischer-Dieskau, Eberhard Waechter, and the first, Mack Harrell--seems much more inspired and dramatically intense. Behrens is a gripping Marie, and her somewhat threadbare voice by this time sounds just right for this worn-out proletarian ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 125
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Gilbert & Sullivan - The Mikado / WNO · Mackerras

CD-Charts > Music > Operettas
by: Arthur Sullivan, Sir Charles Mackerras, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Marie McLaughlin, Welsh National Opera

Release Date February 11, 1992
I had a high-school teacher who suggested that the reason W.S. Gilbert never received a knighthood (unlike his collaborator) was that the establishment was less than thrilled with his satirical views on British society. Nowhere is this satire more in evidence than in the Mikado, their "comeback" and arguably greatest work. Obviously, even Gilbert, who had satirized the armed services as well as other segments of society, couldn't lampoon the British crown directly, but one assumes that various well-placed worthies at Buckingham Palace understood the principles of transferance which are at work here. A singing Japanes emperor who issues silly decrees banning flirting, coupled with an itinerant minstrel who escapes royal justice through a fluke? Not so far removed, surely, from many ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 126
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Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro

CD-Charts > Music > Operettas
from: Decca

Release Date August 10, 1999
This set is quite phenonmenal: nearly all the protagonists turned up with exceptional vocal performances.
Cesare Siepi is a hearty Figaro. His opening duet with Gueden's Susanna could not be termed otherwise than 'singing like gods'. I don't care if he is a bass or a bass-baritone, or a baritone. Siepi is well-known to have owned such vibrant high notes that put baritones to shame.
His Figaro sounds warm, lusty and spirited. I have yet to find another one to sing a better version of 'Non piu andrai'. Under no circumstances would one mix up his portrayal of Figaro with that of Don Giovanni. Siepi is too-well seasoned an artist to mix up these two roles. They sounded so distinctively different on record that no one would ever think of taking one for the other.
Hilde ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 127
Average Rating:

Vivaldi - Griselda

CD-Charts > Music > Operettas
from: Naïve

Release Date October 31, 2006
Like me the new (5 years) classic music listener, this product shines with its quality.So I am sure that older listeners will understand me and the quality of this product.The very best of Vivaldi.

CD-Charts Position 128
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Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (Highlights)

CD-Charts > Music > Operettas
by: Gundula Janowitz, Barbara Vogel, Klaus Hirte, Patricia Johnson, Martin Vantin, Erwin Wohlfahrt, Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Release Date May 16, 1990
The duettino Sul Aria... on this recording is absolutely the best. I've heard dozens of recordings while trying to find this version. None comes even close to this. Buy it. You won;t regret it!

CD-Charts Position 129
Average Rating:

Gilbert & Sullivan; The Mikado

CD-Charts > Music > Operettas
by: Arthur Sullivan, John Pryce-Jones, D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

Release Date October 19, 1993
I have only recently come to light opera, and cannot therefore speak to the excellence of this performance The Mikado in reference to other recordings and other casts. However, it may be that some who read these reviews are looking for their first recording of the Mikado, and my impressions may have some relevance to such individuals.

There are, in my opinion, two major problems that confront the listener who is unfamiliar with this work: the lack of a libretto and the omission of the dialog. One should know better than to listen to an opera without first having gone through the libretto, mea culpa on that account; but it is in modern English, for crying out loud. I should be able to follow it. Not so, I fear. Omission of the dialog makes it difficult for one who does not know the opera by heart to follow ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 130
Average Rating:

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro / Pace, de Carolis, Frontali, Morandi [Highlights]

CD-Charts > Music > Operettas
by: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Patrizia Pace, Natale de Carolis, Donato di Stefano, Ingrid Kertesi, Roberto Frontali, Denes Gulyas, Tamas Bator, Jozsef Mukk

Release Date March 14, 2000
This recording is better than many of the other Figaro CDs I've bought and for the price it's really a great value.