W. A. MOZART
Die Zauberflote [The Magic Flute] (complete opera recorded in 1988) Barbara Bonny / Edita Gruberova / Hans Peter Blochwitz / Thomas Hampson / Zurich Opera / Nikolaus Harnoncourt [ Warner Classics Opera Collection / 2 CD - released 1/Sep/2009 ] "Harnoncourt's Mozart can veer between the playful and the over solemn, but here it's spot on and sustained by a strong cast. Gruberova is a stellar Queen of the Night." BBC Music Magazine, January 2010 *** |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Semele (complete opera recorded in 2007) Zurich Opera / Cecilia Bartoli, Liliana Nikiteanu, Birgit Remmert, Isabel Rey / William Christie (cond) [ Decca Music Group DVD / 2 DVD - released 12/Mar/2009 ] G - "Sung dazzlingly, "Myself I shall adore" was one of many high points in Bartoli's stunning performance, her first operatic role in a language other than Italian…The wonderfully intimate Zurich Opera House allows every detail of her performance... |
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Fidelio (complete opera recorded in 2004) BLU-RAY Jonas Kaufmann, Camilla Nylund, Chor and Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House, Nikolaus Harnoncourt [ Arthaus Blu-ray / Blu-ray - released 2/Aug/2019 ] "Jonas Kaufmann and Camilla Nylund fearlessly [pack] every phrase with compellingly truthful shades of meaning. Harnoncourt's Beethoven is famously raw and earthy: strong on struggle and on the composer's robust musical roots" BBC Music Five Stars |
Juliane Banse, Cornelia Kallisch, Zurich Opera, Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger - Schneewittchen (Snow White) (Complete Opera) [ ECM Records / 2 CD - released 1/Apr/2009 ] Critic's Choice-the Best CDs of 2001 (BBC Music Magazine) |
ROSSINI
Le Comte Ory (complete opera recorded in 2013) Zurich Opera / Cecilia Bartoli, Javier Camarena, Rebecca Olvera, Carlos Chausson / Muhai Tang (cond) [ Decca DVD / DVD - released 7/Mar/2014 ] Cecilia Bartoli stars in this ebullient Zurich Opera House production of Rossini's first French-language comedy opera described by the international press as "pure, unadulterated fun". |
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Rossini: Le Comte Ory (complete opera recorded in 2013) BLU-RAY Zurich Opera / Cecilia Bartoli, Javier Camarena, Rebecca Olvera, Carlos Chausson / Muhai Tang (cond) [ Decca Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 7/Mar/2014 ] "Musical standards are high, with Tang and the orchestra bouncing the score merrily along. Bartoli sends herself up...vocally, she is in more consistent voice than on some recent recordings" (BBC Music) |
ALBAN BERG
Lulu (complete opera recorded in 2002) Zürich Opera / Laura Aikin / Cornelia Kallisch / Alfred Muff / Franz Welser-Most (cond) [ TDK / DVD - released 19/May/2006 ] |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer [The Flying Dutchman] (complete opera recorded in 2013) Zurich Opera / Bryn Terfel, Anja Kampe, Matti Salminen, Marco Jentzsch / Alain Altinoglu (cond) [ Deutsche Grammophon DVD / DVD - released 30/Jan/2015 ] DG is proud to present an exciting and exceptional new opera production on DVD and BR: Bryn Terfel stars in Richard Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman). |
ROSSINI
Otello (complete opera recorded in 2013) Zurich Opera / Cecilia Bartoli, Peter Kálmán, John Osborn, Javier Camarena / Muhai Tang (cond) [ Decca DVD / DVD - released 4/Apr/2014 ] Cecilia Bartoli makes her long-anticipated debut in the role of Desdemona in Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's new production of Rossini's Otello for the Zurich Opera House. |
ROSSINI
Otello (complete opera recorded in 2013) BLU-RAY Zurich Opera / Cecilia Bartoli, Peter Kálmán, John Osborn, Javier Camarena / Muhai Tang (cond) [ Decca Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Jul/2014 ] DVD/Blu-ray of the Month - July 2014 |
ALBAN BERG
Berg: Wozzeck (complete opera recorded in 2015) BLU-RAY Zurich Opera / Christian Gerhaher, Brandon Jovanovich, Mauro Peter, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke / Fabio Luisi (cond) [ Accentus Music Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Dec/2016 ] "This is a finely honed production that follows its premise to an absurdist conclusion with slick theatricality and dispassionate zeal." Gramophone Award WINNER 2017 - Opera |
MASCAGNI / LEONCAVALLO
Cavalleria Rusticana & I Pagliacci (complete opera recorded in 2009) BLU-RAY Zurich Opera / Fiorenza Cedolins, José Cura, Carlo Guelfi, Cheyne Davidson, Paoletta Marrocu / Stefano Ranzani (cond) [ Arthaus Musik Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 22/Dec/2015 ] Two timeless stories of love, honour, justice and violence - a highlight for every opera lover. Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci speak to one's heart and soul. They are regarded as the most absorbing... |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: Falstaff (complete opera recorded in October 2012) BLU-RAY Zurich Opera House / Ambrogio Maestri, Barbara Frittoli, Meg Page, Mistress Quickly, Massimo Cavalletti / Daniele Gatti (cond) [ C Major Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Jan/2017 ] "The cast, led by a secure Maestri, can boast a lovable Nannetta in Liebau and further clever variations on Quickly's eccentricity from Naef." Gramophone |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: Rigoletto (complete opera recorded in 2006) Zurich Opera House / Leo Nucci, Elena Moscu, Piotr Beczala / Nello Santi (cond) [ Arthaus Musik DVD / DVD - released 14/Oct/2007 ] G - "First we must salute the 64-year old Leo Nucci's Rigoletto. Visually, the pathetic figure with the haunted, apprehensive expression will prove memorable, as well those notes and phrases which still proclaim him one of the most richly endowed... |
VINCENZO BELLINI
Bellini: I Capuleti e I Montecchi (complet opera recorded in 2015) BLU-RAY Zurich Opera / Joyce DiDonato, Olga Kulchynska, Benjamin Bernheim, Roberto Lorenzi / Fabio Luisi (cond) [ Accentus Music Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Sep/2015 ] The story of Romeo and Juliet, who pay for their passion with their lives, has been interpreted in the widest variety of literary and musical genres ever since the Renaissance. Vincenzo Bellini's much too rarely staged Romeo and Juliet opera, I... |
GLUCK
Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride (complete opera recorded in 2001) BLU-RAY Zurich Opera / Juliette Galstian, Rodney Gilfrey, Deon Van Der Walt, Anton Scharinger / William Christie (cond) [ Arthaus Legendary Performances BLU-RAY / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Mar/2016 ] Gluck's wonderful but neglected 1774 opera Iphigénie en Tauride, inspired by the Greek legend, is treated with forceful and convincing simplicity in Claus Guth's revolutionary production staged at the Zurich Opera House. The psychological drama in a... |
HUMPERDINCK
Hansel Und Gretel (complete opera recorded in 1999) Zurich Opera / Liliana Nikiteanu / Malin Hartelius / Volker Vogel / Franz Welser-Most (cond) [ Kultur / DVD - released 19/Jan/2008 ] G - Humperdinck's first and most successful opera began life as a commission from his sister Adelheid Wette, who asked him to write music for a children's play she had adapted from the Brothers Grimm tale, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck initially... |
VERDI
Aida (complete opera recorded in 2006) Zurich Opera / Nina Stemme / Luciana D'Intino / Salvatore Licitra / Juan Pons / Adam Fisher (cond) [ Bel Air Classiques / 2 DVD - released 24/Jul/2007 ] G :- Gramophone Magazine DVD of the Month - September 2007 |
FRANZ LEHAR
Lehár: Das Land des Lächelns [The Land Of Smiles] (complete operetta recorded in 2017) BLU-RAY Zurich Opera / Piotr Beczala, Julia Kleiter, Rebeca Olvera, Spencer Lang / Fabio Luisi (conductor) [ Accentus Blu-ray / Blu-ray - released 20/Nov/2018 ] Always smile and always be cheerful, always satisfied, no matter what happens, smile in spite of your sorrows and a thousand aches and pains', sings Prince Sou-Chong, thus introducing the fundamentally melancholic tone of Das Land des Lächelns ('The... |
BUSONI
Doktor Faust (complete opera recorded in 2006) BLU-RAY Zurich Opera / Thomas Hampson / GAnther GroissbAck / Gregory Kunde / Philippe Jordan (conductor) [ Arthaus Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 2/Feb/2009 ] Blu-Ray - "[Thomas Hampson possesses] all the physical and vocal energy one could wish for…..flourishes and ornaments leap out of his melodic lines….the gestures [are] also natural, his phrasing and pitch sure. Mr. Hampson, as his career justifi ably... |