Turandot, the late gem of Italian opera, is a celebration of the sounds and the mythical figures intimately associated with Chinese culture. The dramatic punch of the libretto inspired Giacomo Puccini to imagine a sound world of unusual splendor. The score is entrancing and unique, featuring original Chinese melodies, Asian pentatonic scales, and colorful orchestration with percussion writing that is strongly reminiscent of traditional Asian music. The NCPA’s production of this popular opera is a compelling feast for the senses. Chinese composer Hao Weiya gave this Turandot a new finale, performed for the first time in Beijing. In this captivating staging by director Chen Xinyi and under the musical direction of Daniel Oren an excellent cast offers a unique musical experience.

Audiences from the far east have always enjoyed opera. After the Japanese and the Koreans, who exported their musical glories since the 80s to Europe, now it is the turn of the Chinese, with a huge number of aspiring singers from that country studying at foreign Colleges of Music. Some twenty years ago, the name to conjure with was Warren Mok, a Hong Kong tenor tipped as Asia's answer to Pavarotti. Today, that moniker belongs to Chuanyue Wang an excellent tenor featured on this release, his very first. A grand slam in Chinese domestic vocal music competitions, Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music, San Francisco Opera signed singer, Chuanyue Wang has won first prizes in The International Vocal Competition of Seoul in Korea, the vocal competition Martini City of Mantova al Bibiena, the Chinese Culture Ministry's Wen Hua Competition, the 15th Young Singer CCTV Competition for Bel Canto, the Chinese Music Golden Bell Award, the 5th China International Voice Competition. Hewas also a participant in the Carlo Bergonzi Master Class, the Okazaki International Voice Master Class, the Brasov Opera House Training Program in Romania and the Schonberg Institute in Vienna.

Suor Angelica is one of the three one-act operas that comprise Puccini’s Il Trittico. Of the three, it’s the most lyrical and tragic; it also features an all female cast. Set in a 17th-century convent near Florence, it tells the tragic tale of a noblewoman who is forced to become a nun to repent the sin of having had a child outside wedlock, thus causing a huge scandal in her social circle. The baby is immediately taken from her, and Angelica is left with no news about him, nor her family, for seven long years. Although seemingly adjusted to the convent’s daily routine – she has become an expert in herbal remedies – Angelica is desperate to hear from her family, but when an aunt finally visits her, Suor Angelica is coldly informed that her son died from an incurable disease two years earlier. The aria Senza mamma (Without Mama) is the tragic peak of both this moment and the whole opera. In her distress, Angelica resolves there is only one option left to be reunited with her child: she proceeds to prepare some poison and drink it. On the verge of death she asks for forgiveness, which the Virgin Mary grants her, appearing with a young boy by her side. “Anna Maria Chiuri, who plays the character of the Princess, has a beautifully projected and even contralto voice, a monumental fraseggio which well suits the character’s elusiveness… Valerio Galli directs the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with great self assurance. The performance is excellent, the sound is homogeneous, round and sparkling with energy. Suor Angelica’s intimate religious sense flows naturally into the colors and shades of the finale.”

Till well into the 1960s it was common practice to perform operas in the language of the country where they were being performed. What now seems strange to us, with our reverence for the original, was taken for granted then – except perhaps by those who knew not only the music but the language originally set to it and were annoyed by more or less inappropriate translations. Today we have long since grown used to being distracted from the action on stage by subtitles, or surtitles, and thus being at least able to follow the crude, implausible or totally incomprehensible plot of this or that opera by reading the libretto. Whatever the language, the artistic value of the performance depends very much upon its exponents. And that was where the German-speaking nations of the 1950s and 1960s, when the recorded-music market had not yet succumbed to globalization, had a lot to offer. The proof is in the five complete recordings – complete, that is, but fo the cuts so often made in those days – that make up this box set. The cast lists read like a Who’s Who of contemporary vocalists. We can count ourselves lucky to have these audio documents – edited to the highest possible technical standards – at our disposal. They offer us a reunion with a great series of irreplaceable and unforgettable soloists.

James Rhodes has no formal academic musical education or dedicated mentoring. The title of the debut album “Razor Blades Little Pills and Big Pianos”, hints at the suffering that dogged Rhodes’s childhood and early adult life. Classical music became his solace and key to his survival. It was Bach, Beethoven and Chopin, not Faith Hope and Charity, that offered comfort. In 1993, mental health issues stopped him taking up a scholarship to the Guildhall. Suffering further setbacks due to health issues it was not until 2008, when Rhodes met his present manager, Denis Blais, that he was encouraged to record his first album. This enabled him to bare his soul and put many of the ghosts of the past to rest. With Blais, Rhodes also created a distinctive and unique approach to how the classical piano repertoire should be presented. Uncomfortable with the austere and traditional ‘white tie and tails’ recital they decided it was time for the performer to communicate directly with the audience. Rhodes was going to introduce his own programme notes and share what it takes to perform these works of art using fascinating anecdotes about the composers and his own life experience. Delivered in his unique trademark stand-up style he creates an immersive experience that has won him and classical music a dedicated new following. His new album, presented here, shows the same no-holds-barred approach to these time-honored classics.

The British soprano Linda Richardson has performed extensively across the UK and continental Europe under conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Edo de Waart, Sir Mark Elder, Daniele Rustioni, Libor Pešek, and Carlo Rizzi. Her extensive repertoire includes roles ranging from Monteverdi and Mozart to Janá?ek, Britten, and Wagner. Linda Richardson writes: ‘I have had the privilege of performing many of the great leading soprano roles in the operatic repertoire, but as my career progressed, I found a special love and affinity for the roles that stood as pillars in Italian opera. The beautiful melodic lines, dramatic language, and the overall musical craftsmanship of these Italian composers make their characters especially thrilling. I chose these particular arias because they show the huge variety of heroines that can be found in the greatest Italian operas. Although most of the arias are expressions of love and loss it is the individual emotional journey of each character which I find so compelling.’

Internationally renowned soprano Ekaterina Siurina, in her first album for Delos, presents a choice array of beautifully sung French and Italian opera arias by Gustave Charpentier, Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet, Giacomo Puccini and Giuseppe Verdi. Siurina’s husband, acclaimed tenor Charles Castronovo, joins her in famous duets from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Puccini’s La bohème. Sensitive and sonorous orchestral support comes courtesy of the Kaunas City Symphony orchestra under the baton of GRAMMY-nominated conductor Constantine Orbelian. One of the leading sopranos of her generation, Ekaterina Siurina performs at many of the top opera houses across the world. Ekaterina studied at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts, in Moscow and became a soloist with the Municipal Moscow Theater, Novaya Opera, where she made her professional debut as Gilda in Rigoletto singing opposite the world-renowned baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. She was also a prize winner of the Rimsky-Korsakov competition in St. Petersburg, and of the Elena Obraztsova Competition.

Critics, conductors and colleagues agree that Franco Bordoni’s voice, accent and interpretation constitute Verdi at his most noble. Which is hardly surprising given the singer’s awe of the composer and approach to his art. Bordoni had all the technique he needed to exploit to the full his voice’s volume, texture with its wealth of harmonics and two octave range with no uneven spots. The timbre and color of his voice made him the perfect dramatic baritone, a voice that saw its owner through years of unflagging, full-on performances.