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Bellini: La Sonnambula

Dame Joan Sutherland

Classical - Released January 1, 1962 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Bellini: La Sonnambula

Dame Joan Sutherland

Classical - Released January 1, 1982 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Bellini: La Sonnambula

Cecilia Bartoli

Classical - Released January 1, 2008 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

This recording of La Sonnambula is notable on a number of fronts. It's the first recording of the opera based on a 2004 critical edition of the score that confirms the leading role was indeed written for a mezzo-soprano, although it has been performed by sopranos for much of its history. (Among the first Aminas were the celebrated mezzos Giuditta Pasta and Maria Malibran.) It's also the first recording using period instruments, in this case Orchestra La Scintilla, based at the Basel Opera and conducted by Alessandro de Marchi in an idiomatic and lively reading. And, as the promotional materials trumpet, it's the first recorded collaboration between superstars Cecilia Bartoli and Juan Diego Flórez. Although less hoopla is made of him, the recording also features a superbly lyrical performance by baritone Ildebrando D'Arcangelo. Flórez has the ideal voice for this repertoire: warmly Latinate, supple, and passionately inflected. It's a revelation to hear a mezzo with Bartoli's range in the role. She handles its upper reaches with solidity, agility, and complete assurance (although several arias in fact transposed down, but with no loss of impact), and the depths to which she descends are astonishing. Her tender and vulnerable Amina is completely convincing. She and Flórez have a nice chemistry, and their interactions are among the highlights of the recording. The performers in the secondary roles, Gemma Bertagnolli, Liliana Nichiteanu, and Peter Kálmán, are all first-rate. The chorus of townspeople, which has an unusually large part in the goings-on, is sung with spirit by the Chorus of the Opernhaus Zürich. The sound is clean and full, but on the loud side, so the volume may require some adjustment. The novelty of this version and the quality of performances make this a recording that should be of strong interest to fans of the bel canto repertoire and would make a fine introduction for listeners new to the opera.© TiVo
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Verdi : Le Trouvère (Diapason n°609)

Choeur de L'Opera de Vienne

Classical - Released September 25, 2011 | Les Indispensables de Diapason

Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Casta Diva - Operatic arias transcribed for trumpet

Matilda Lloyd

Opera - Released April 28, 2023 | Chandos

Hi-Res Booklet
Five years after her solo debut recording, Direct Message, which programmed 20th and 21st century works for trumpet and piano, trumpet player Matilda Lloyd departs the traditional repertoire (aside from the two Arban arrangements from the Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet). Instead of following more well-worn routes, Lloyd elects to present a program of Romantic period opera arias, mostly in arrangements for trumpet and chamber orchestra (undertaken here by the Britten Sinfonia under Rumon Gamba) by William Foster, who worked closely with Lloyd on this project. Lloyd's skill as a musician is evident throughout, though the two Arban tracks most clearly allow her abilities to shine. The arrangements throughout are good, though how much they add to the performances rather than transcriptions and transpositions is up for debate. Lloyd notes with excitement the decision to include two pieces by Pauline Viardot, and one of the highlights here is the treatment of Viardot's Havanaise. This is certainly a trumpet release aimed at a wider audience than trumpet and brass circles, and it has already found success on the retail market. Chandos delivers just the right atmosphere from the Church of St. Augustine, Kilburn, in London. The future is bright for this trumpeter, and one looks forward to where her path may take her. © Keith Finke /TiVo
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Handel: Parnasso in festa, HWV 73 (Live)

La Cetra Barockorchester Basel

Opera - Released August 1, 2017 | PentaTone

Hi-Res Booklet
Andrea Marcon and La Cetra Barockorchester & Vokalensemble Basel sparkle in this new release of Handel’s forgotten masterpiece Parnasso in festa, recorded shortly before their hugely successful Netherlands premiere of the opera in November 2016. Handel wrote this sumptuous work in 1734 to celebrate the marriage in London of Princess Anne and Prince William of Orange. Cast in the form of a serenata, Parnasso in festa recounts the joyful wedding feast of Thetis and Peleus at which the Muses are present. It’s packed with breathtaking arias, duets and choruses, all written with the verve, drama and sense of occasion to be expected from Handel. The soloists that he had on hand for the premiere were among the greatest Italian singers of the day – Giovanni Carestini, Margherita Durastanti, Anna Maria Strada del Po and Maria Caterina Negri. The care he lavished on the richly instrumented score is striking, from the masterly reworking of material from his oratorio Athalia to the ravishing original material, making this work unique among Handel’s output. Parnasso in festa proved to be very popular in its day it and was revived several times, yet after 1741 was largely forgotten. Now after years of neglect, this superbly crafted work has been recognised for the glorious entertainment that it is. © Pentatone
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Scarlatti - Father and Son. Cantatas and Sonatas (con idea humana)

Tenta La Fuga

Classical - Released May 5, 2023 | Prospero Classical

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Verdi : Il Trovatore (Remastered)

Zubin Mehta

Classical - Released September 16, 2013 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Distinctions The Qobuz Ideal Discography
Unquestionably a jewel in the crown of the discography: incandescent and inspired conducting from start to finish (under the baton of Zubin Mehta, not the only example), and great voices of the time, sumptuous and committed — Leontyne Price, Fiorenza Cossotto, Sherrill Milnes and Placido Domingo. A fascinating and burning work is answered by an interpretation of flesh, fire and ashes to be counted in the leading pack of Trovatori in the catalog. (Qobuz/GG) 
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Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto

René Jacobs

Classical - Released December 1, 1991 | harmonia mundi

Distinctions The Qobuz Ideal Discography
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Verdi

Ludovic Tezier

Classical - Released February 5, 2021 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or / Arte
It was time for Ludovic Tézier to finally provide his admirers with a recital. His performances as a Verdian baritone are impressive: Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra, Falstaff, Giorgio Germont (La Traviata), Posa (Don Carlo), Le Conte De Luna (Il Trovatore), Renato (Un ballo in maschera), Iago (Otello). And almost all of these are reprised in this solo album. To this impressive list of stage roles, Tézier brings the welcome addition of arias from Ernani, Macbeth and Nabucco all accompanied by Frédéric Chaslin at the head of the orchestra of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna. It was in 1998 in Tel Aviv that the French baritone played his first Verdian role. He was thirty years old when he was Ford in a production of Falstaff. "There is an absolutely fascinating energy in Verdi, both for the audience and for the singers", he admits. "His roles are usually very challenging, but his music acts at the same time as a fountain of youth. Verdi is brimming with vitality, which is what allowed me to return to the stage just two days after my father's death". Now with a fully-matured voice, Ludovic Tézier is in demand all over the world for his Verdi roles. He is one of the best performers of Verdi's work, standing alongside the late Piero Cappuccilli who remains his great role model. This record offers timely confirmation of his stature. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Verdi : Ernani (Remastered)

Thomas Schippers

Classical - Released January 1, 1968 | Sony Classical

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Zazzarazàz - Uno Spettacolo D'arte Varia

Paolo Conte

Pop - Released October 27, 2017 | Universal Music Italia srL.

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Verdi: Falstaff

Herbert von Karajan

Classical - Released March 14, 2011 | Warner Classics

Distinctions Choc de Classica
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L'arte del madrigale

Voces Suaves

Classical - Released November 18, 2016 | Ambronay Éditions

Hi-Res Booklet
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Louise Bertin: Fausto

Les Talens Lyriques

Classical - Released January 26, 2024 | Bru Zane

Hi-Res Booklet
The classical best-seller charts are unfamiliar environs for the Palazzetto Bru Zane label, which specializes in forgotten 19th century opera. However, this release achieved best-seller status in early 2024, and this is absolutely no surprise, for Louise Bertin's Fausto is a remarkable work. One wonders how long it will take programmers to present it in a cycle with Berlioz's and Gounod's versions of the Faust tale (and perhaps Arrigo Boito's); the work is colorful in the extreme and is sure to be a crowd-pleaser even though it closed after three performances in 1831 and was shelved for the next 190 years. Perhaps the opera mixed so many influences that audiences just did not know what to make of it. Bertin, who was 25 when the work had its premiere in Paris, wrote the libretto herself in Italian. It has all the trappings of Rossinian opera -- fortepiano-accompanied recitative, aria, scena, preghiera, cavatina, big multi-part finales ending with a fast stretta -- but the effect of the music is completely different, and the settings stand up to the weighty aspect of the material. It is as if Weber had written a Faust opera, sometimes even as if Beethoven had written one. The role of Faust is sung by a mezzo-soprano, which is how Bertin wrote it, although a tenor version also exists. This results in intriguing equal-status duets between Karine Deshayes as Fausto and Karina Gauvin as Margarita. Conductor Christophe Rousset catches the ambition and the drama; his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques uses historical instruments but wisely bulks up to an adequate size for the work. Palazzetto Bru Zane, as usual, does the opera justice sonically with a studio recording. This is a remarkable release, not only for lovers of 19th century opera or those interested in music by women, but for anyone.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Pontiac

Lyle Lovett

Country - Released October 1, 1987 | Curb Records

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Live At Sin-é (Legacy Edition)

Jeff Buckley

Folk/Americana - Released January 1, 1993 | Columbia - Legacy

Jeff Buckley resented being called a folk singer, but he made his name playing solo sets like this one on the New York coffee circuit. Sony released this live EP before his first fully produced rock album, Grace, perhaps to attract attention to the raw power of Buckley's greatest gift, his voice. These four songs certainly accomplished that end. Buckley hurdles seemingly unreachable octaves, suspends notes for what seems like minutes, and belts out his falsetto without a scintilla of restraint. That's a positive inasmuch as it allowed him to show off his considerable talent; it's a negative when it sounded like he was showing off. But his ten-minute cover of Van Morrison's "The Way Young Lovers Do" is a tour de force of strumming and scatting, and his acoustic "Eternal Life" has an electricity that is paradoxically lacking on the plugged-in album version. [A deluxe edition released after his death added dozens of additional live tracks.]© Darryl Cater /TiVo
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Bellini: Norma

James Levine

Opera - Released January 1, 1980 | Sony Classical

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The Off-Season

J. Cole

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released May 14, 2021 | Dreamville, Inc., Under exclusive license to Roc Nation Records

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J. Cole can come across as a man with something to prove. The Off-Season opens up with the hysteria-inducing blowout piece 95.south, followed by amari, which is strongly influenced by the Chicago sound. These choices seem to show us a J. Cole who is trying to contradict his image as a nice rapper, but for all that, hardness isn't necessarily his strong suit. J. Cole's real strength, as this sixth album shows, is that balance between modern sounds, boom bap samples and vocal melodies that he has been putting out throughout his career, in which smart songwriting trumps pure attitude. Tracks like close or the.climb.back demonstrate this perfectly. Although sometimes a bit hampered by the artist's affected seriousness, this album is nevertheless one of his best releases in five years. Listen to one of its singles, my.life featuring 21 Savage and Morray, and you'll be convinced. © Brice Miclet/Qobuz
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Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, K.492

Luca Pisaroni

Classical - Released July 1, 2016 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Hi-Res Booklet
This Marriage of Figaro is perhaps the most exciting to happen for quite some time. The maestro in charge is Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who directs the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and a star-studded roster of singers specially selected for the occasion. The idea for this recording came out of the numerous modern reinterpretations of the piece, coupled with the aim to recreate the sounds of the past. As such, when you listen to the piece, it's at once powerfully modern yet "obvious". The recitativos are conceived musically rather than theatrically (surely a plus on an audio recording!) while the recording itself took place at a concert in Baden-Baden in 2015, which helps the performance move along tremendously and flow between each piece. A real gem.