VERDI
Les Vespres Siciliennes (complete opera recorded in 2010) Netherlands Opera / Barbara Haveman, Burkhard Fritz, Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester / Paolo Carignani (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / 2 DVD - released 1/Aug/2012 ] The Netherlands Opera Chorus...remains one of the most musically and dramatically responsive among major companies." (International Record Review) |
VERDI
Les Vespres Siciliennes (complete opera recorded in 2010) BLU-RAY Netherlands Opera / Barbara Haveman, Burkhard Fritz, Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester / Paolo Carignani (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Nov/2015 ] Les vêpres siciliennes, like the similarly epic Don Carlos, was conceived as a grand opéra for Paris and is driven by the tensions between private passions and public politics. Originally set during Sicily's 13th-century uprising against French rule,... |
GUSTAV MAHLER
Mahler: Complete Symphonies Barbara Hendricks (soprano), Christa Ludwig (mezzo),etc / New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein [ Deutsche Grammophon Collector's Edition / 11 CD Box Set - released 10/May/2012 ] "Thanks to a very clear and well-balanced recording, every subtlety of scoring, especially some of the lower strings's counterpoint, comes through as the conductor intended." (Gramophone on Symphony No 5) |
MEREDITH WILSON
The Music Man (Original Broadway Cast Recording 1957) Barbara Cook, Robert Preston,Helen Raymond,Paul Reed, Vern Reed, and others [ Naxos Nostalgia Musicals / CD - released 26/Oct/2009 ] Just call him 'Iowa Stubborn'. It took Meredith Wilson eight years and 32 drafts to bring his childhood memories of Iowa onto the stage, but anyone who has ever sat entranced by The Music Man will agree that it was well worth it. Willson was a... |
Orphei Drangar with guests: Margareta Krook, Toots Thielemans, Robert Broberg, Gasta Ekman and Barbara Hendricks
Caprices with OD - Vol.5 (1987-1990) [ BIS / CD - released 21/Dec/2004 ] When one of the world's greatest male choirs - made up of students past and present of venerable Uppsala University, founded in 1477 - lets it collective hair down, anything can happen. And anything does happen once a year, at the traditional... |
W. A. MOZART
Le Nozze di Figaro [The Marriage of Figaro] (complete opera recorded in 2010) BLU-RAY Paris Opera / Ludovic Tezier, Barbara Frittoli, Ekaterina Siurina / Philippe Jordan [ Bel Air Classiques Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Sep/2012 ] G:- "Unlike many Figaro productions these days, the physicality is never vulgar, and there are constant small touches that add character...[Pisaroni] displays the ideal bass-baritone instrument for this role" (International Record Review) |
RAMEAU
Les Boréades / Castor et Pollux / Les Indes Galantes / Les Paladins / Zoroastre (complete operas) Patricia Petibon, Barbara Bonney, Sandrine Piau, Laurent Naouri, Stephanie d'Oustrac / Les Arts Florissants / William Christie [ Opus Arte DVD / 11 DVD Box Set - released 23/Jun/2011 ] "the Paris production by Robert Carsen of Rameau's astonishing last opera, Les Boréades, is brilliantly sumptuous if cold, while Pierre Audi's typically sharp and forceful Castor et Pollux from Amsterdam is eloquent. Andrie Serban's Les Indes... |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Via Crucis: Rappresentazione della gloriosa Passione di Cristo Philippe Jaroussky (counter tenor) & Nuria Rial (soprano) / L'Arpeggiata & Ensemble Barbara Fortuna (Corsican Choir), Christina Pluhar [ Virgin / Erato / Warner Classics / CD - released 1/May/2010 ] "Concept discs uniting early music with folk music can be suspect, but this one is very classy...Pluhar's arrangements are stylishly varied." The Observer, 28th March 2010 |
CHARLES GOUNOD
Gounod: Mors et Vita Barbara Hendricks (sop) Nadine Denize (mezzo) John Aler (ten) José van Dam (bass-bar) / Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Michel Plasson [ Erato / Warner Classics / CD - released 1/Sep/2017 ] "Plasson's remains a serviceable rendition of Gounod's grandiose conspectus of human spiritual experience." BBC Music |
C. P. E. BACH
Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu Barbara Schlick, Christoph Prégardien, Paul Elliott & Stephen Varcoe / Rheinische Kantorei, Das Kleine Konzert, Hermann Max (conductor) [ Brilliant Classics / 2 CD - released 1/Apr/2014 ] Wholly conforming to this new aesthetic is C.P.E. Bach's grandiose Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu, written during the composer's sojourn in Hamburg and which earned high recognition beyond this city during his lifetime. |
Ronnie Harris & Barbara Lyon
De Dar, De Dar [ Vocalion / CD - released 6/Dec/2004 ] |
VERDI
Falstaff (complete opera recorded in 1999) Royal Opera, Covent Garden / Bryn Terfel / Barbara Frittoli / Bernard Haitink(cond) [ BBC / Opus Arte / Kultur / DVD - released 1/May/2009 ] G :- 'deliciously comic production...vividly filmed...The singers are on top form, dominated by Terfel's Falstaff...' Musical Opinion |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Puccini: Madama Butterfly (complete opera recorded in 2017) BLU-RAY Royal Opera / Ermonela Jaho, Marcelo Puente, Scott Hendricks, Carlo Bosi / Antonio Pappano (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-ray / Blu-ray - released 5/Dec/2018 ] Puccini's Japanese tragedy Madama Butterfly is given a ravishing production by The Royal Opera. Its alluring imagery of Japan from the 19th-century European Imagination heightens the intense clash of East and West. When the American naval officer... |
GEORGE BENJAMIN
Written on Skin (complete opera recorded in 2013) Royal Opera House / Christopher Purves, Barbara Hannigan, Bejun Mehta, Victoria Simmonds / George Benjamin (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 20/Aug/2014 ] GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE AWARD WINNER 2014 - Contemporary |
GEORGE BENJAMIN
Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence (complete opera recorded in 2018) BLU-RAY Royal Opera House / Stéphane Degout, Barbara Hannigan, Gyula Orendt, Peter Hoare / George (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Jul/2019 ] "At just 90 minutes, this is an opera of impressive concentration with not a word or note wasted." Gramophone |
VERDI
Il Trovatore (Complete opera recorded live in concert 2000) Salvatore Licitra, Barbara Frittoli, Leo Nucci, Violeta Urmana / Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Riccardo Muti [ Sony Opera House / 2 CD - released 1/Feb/2012 ] "Barbara Frittoli, like her conductor, has looked at the music anew and come up with a reading wholly eschewing prima donna antics and concentrating on the portrayal of Leonora's predicament. Quite apart from the tonal beauty, fine line and well-nigh... |
SILVESTRE REVUELTAS
La Coronela / Itinerarios / Colorines Santa Barbara Symphony / Gisèle Ben-Dor [ Naxos / CD - released 1/May/2010 ] Dubbed 'The Mexican Falla', Silvestre Revueltas lived hard and died young in poverty. His music was revolutionary, embracing the 'vulgarity' of the people and rejecting colonialist cultural models. His unfinished ballet La Coronela (The Lady Colonel)... |
MARK GREY
Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio Scott Hendricks (baritone) / The Phoenix Symphony and Chorus / Michael Christie [ Naxos American Classics / CD - released 1/Apr/2009 ] The Phoenix Symphony enjoys a long history of premièring new works that bridge gaps between Western art music and Native cultures. Hailed as 'a master', Mark Grey 'is a composer as well as a sound engineer, and what he is up to has far-reaching... |
GODARD / WIDOR / ROUSSEL / MILHAUD / SANCAN
French Delights: Suites & Sonatas Sharon Bezaly (flute) Love Derwinger (piano) with Barbara Hendricks (soprano) [ BIS / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Oct/2007 ] "The thing that strikes you first when you hear Sharon Bezaly play is the quality of the sound. It is distinctive, rich and overwhelmingly beautiful. Add to that a flawless technique and one would be hard pushed to find any fault with her playing.... |
GEORGE GERSHWIN
Gershwin: Orchestral Works [Incls 'An American in Paris'] St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, John Korman, Yuan Tung, George Silfies, Barbara Liberman, David Mortland, Leonard Slatkin [ Vox Classics / CD - released 16/Jun/2023 ] Soon after writing his great works for piano and orchestra (available on VOX-NX-3018CD), Gershwin turned to his 'tone poem for orchestra', An American in Paris. With indelible themes, and masterly string writing, it remains one of his best-known... |