Inva Mula and Aquiles Macnado star in this Giancarlo del Monaco-directed Teatro Real Madrid production of the Puccini opera with Jesus Lopez Cobos conducting.

This new production of Tosca from Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is set in the late 1920s. Puccini's 'Roman Opera' sees a city bathed in majesty but also curdled by eroticism and sadism, where sartorial elegance and pathological violence co-exist. Taking visual clues from Bernardo Bertolucci's cinematic masterpiece, Il conformista, the cast is led by the passionate Vanessa Goikoetxea and features the magnetic Alexey Markov in the role of Scarpia. Daniele Gatti directs a performance praised for it's 'courageous and surprising' impact.

This new production of Tosca from Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is set in the late 1920s. Puccini's 'Roman Opera' sees a city bathed in majesty but also curdled by eroticism and sadism, where sartorial elegance and pathological violence co-exist. Taking visual clues from Bernardo Bertolucci's cinematic masterpiece, Il conformista, the cast is led by the passionate Vanessa Goikoetxea and features the magnetic Alexey Markov in the role of Scarpia. Daniele Gatti directs a performance praised for it's 'courageous and surprising' impact.

Puccini: Madama Butterfly

Starring Fabio Armiliato, Juan Pons, Daniela Dessi.

Italian Opera Arias

[In Suor Angelica] Popp and Patané himself are the main attractions. She...is touching throughout and moving by the end.

-- Gramophone [9/1997]

"When in November 1988 I reviewed both the Maazel box and the separate Eurodisc issues of Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi, I went into some detail over the relative merits. Broadly Patanè at generally faster, more flowing speeds sounds consistently more idiomatic, more concerned over suggesting stage action, and I imagine these performances owe a lot to stage productions with some or all of the same performers. The recording too has greater atmosphere, with singers not so closely recorded...it gains enormously in conviction from the persuasiveness of Patané and the atmospheric warmth of both the performance and the recorded sound. Nimsgern as Michele in Il tabarro give[s a] memorable performance."

-- Gramophone [4/1990] Reviewing Il Trittico

"'Il Tabarro'...is a passionate account of a tale of jealousy and murder on a river barge. Siegmund Nimsgern is brooding and ominous in the role of Michele, the wronged husband...the soprano Ilona Tokody captures Giorgetta's anguish believably and movingly. Giorgio Lamberti's...bright tenor rings out with passion and energy. Among the supporting singers, mezzo-soprano Vera Baniewicz stands out as a ripe and characterful Frugola. Patane provides brisk and propulsive leadership, and the Bavarian players rise to his urging with some rousing climaxes."

-- George Jellinek, New York Times 3/1989

Having admitted to only qualified enthusiasm for Dame Kiri's recent CD albums of popular repertoire and folk-songs, it is a pleasure to recommend this programme of Verdi and Puccini arias without reservation. The beautiful voice has never sounded better and the clear well-balanced recording allows us to hear the expressive pointing of meaning and characterization to perfection. Orchestral sound too is excellent, though slightly set back in relation to the ideally perspectived voice.

-- John Borwick, Gramophone [5/1985]

It makes an apt coupling having the long-buried pieces by Ponchielli (Puccini’s teacher) and Catalani (his contemporary from the same city, Lucca) alongside the three most impressive examples of Puccini’s early orchestral writing. Like Puccini’s Preludio and Capriccio the works by Ponchielli and Catalani have been resurrected by the Italian musicologist, Pietro Spada, and similarly offer easily lyrical invention from composers who, like Puccini, were concentrating on opera.

The Ponchielli Elegia sustains its length well up to passionate climaxes, rather like film music. The two Catalani items were both arranged from piano pieces, the Scherzo a charming dance, Contemplazione much more ambitious, leading to a tender and hushed reprise of the opening theme (track 3, 8'32''). The orchestration was evidently made for the Scala orchestra’s appearance at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.

Welcome as those compositions are, it is striking that the Puccini pieces are markedly more memorable, above all in their melodic writing. That is immediately apparent in the free-flowing Preludio sinfonico, and “La tregenda” (“Witches’ Sabbath”), the dance interlude from Puccini’s first opera, Le villi, is the most brilliant of his early inspirations.

The Capriccio sinfonico, the longest piece here, was written as a graduation exercise, very well orchestrated, with structure well controlled. A moment of revelation comes when the Allegro opens on the theme which Puccini later used for the opening of La boheme. Muti brings out the emotional warmth in all these works.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [9/1998]

When young Japanese geisha Cio-Cio-San marries American naval officer Pinkerton, she believes she is entering a marriage for life. Forsaking her religion and community, she dreams of a future with her new husband, only to learn that for Pinkerton, their marriage is merely an illusion - one with tragic consequences. With it's exquisite score, Giacomo Puccini's poignant 1904 opera is as beautiful as it is shattering. Drawing inspiration from 19th-century European images of Japan, Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's production stars Asmik Grigorian with Kevin John Edusei conducting.

Filmed in HD at a live 2012 performance in the Teatro Carlo Felice, one of the best known and the last of Puccini’s operas “Turandot” is directed and filmed by Giuliano Montaldo in a cast led by Daniela Dessì in the titular role and Mario Malagnini as the Calaf . Based on a 12th century Persian tale, the story of Turandot has long entranced audiences worldwide with its lyrical pageantry and pentatonic laden score containing an astonishing amount of now beloved arias such as “Nessun Dorma” and “In Questa Reggia”. With the Franco Alfano score to the final act and with the Orchestra and Choir of the Teatro Carlo Felice conducted by Donato Renzetti, this production features the acclaimed stage design of Giuliano Montaldo’s. With generous subtitle availability in Italian, English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Korean.

When young Japanese geisha Cio-Cio-San marries American naval officer Pinkerton, she believes she is entering a marriage for life. Forsaking her religion and community, she dreams of a future with her new husband, only to learn that for Pinkerton, their marriage is merely an illusion - one with tragic consequences. With it's exquisite score, Giacomo Puccini's poignant 1904 opera is as beautiful as it is shattering. Drawing inspiration from 19th-century European images of Japan, Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's production stars Asmik Grigorian with Kevin John Edusei conducting.

Puccini Arias & Songs / Te Kanawa, Composer: Giacomo Puccini, Performer: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Roger Vignoles, Conductor: Kent Nagano, Orchestra/Ensemble: Lyon Opera Orchestra, Date of Recording: 05/1996, Venue: National Opera House, Lyon, France. Madame Butterfly, La Boh�me, Turandot, Tosca and more performed by Kiri Te Kanawa.

Puccini: La Boheme / Nagano, Te Kanawa, Leech, Ambrosian Singers, LSO. Composer: Giacomo Puccini, Performer: Alan Ewing, Richard Leech, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Carlos Chausson, Conductor: Kent Nagano Orchestra/Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra, Ambrosian Singers, St. Clement Danes Nearly a century after it's premiere in Turin in February 1896 we have a fresh and vibrant new recording of this opera - one of the best known and probably most loved in Puccini's output. Nagano is well able to delineate Puccini's large musical canvas, sweeping the colors of the orchestral scoring and the glorious vocal lines onwards and upwards with an intoxicating, rumbustious swagger. If Te Kanawa had made a recording of this role around the time she sang it at Covent Garden in 1976 (with Pavarotti as Rodolfo) or in the subsequent revival in 1979, it would have made for a fascinating comparison. Amazingly, this is her first recording of Mim� and she has successfully managed to integrate her mature, lustrous sound with the poignant vulnerability and gradually ebbing strength of Mim� to remarkable effect. It is a hauntingly convincing performance. Leech provides an excellent shaping of Rodolfo with a rich, passionate tone. Titus (Marcello) and Gustafson (Musetta) are as finely characterized and vividly sung as one could hope and all the ensemble interplays, especially in Acts III and IV, have a fresh and dynamic intensity.

Puccini: Manon Lescaut (Recorded 1952-1956)

Puccini: Turandot (Recorded 1955)

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Giacomo Puccini
LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST

Minnie – Eva-Maria Westbroek
Jack Rance – Lucio Gallo
Dick Johnson – Zoran Todorovich
Nick – Roman Sadnik
Ashby – Diogenes Randes
Sonora – Stephen Gadd
Billy Jackrabbit – Tijl Faveyts
Wowkle – Ellen Rabiner
Jake Wallace – André Morsch
José Castro – Roger Smeets

Netherlands Opera Chorus
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Carlo Rizzi, conductor

Nikolaus Lehnhoff, stage director

Recorded live at The Amsterdam Music Theater, November and December 2009.

Bonus:
- Cast gallery
- Documentary on Eva-Maria Westbroek

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch
Running time: 160 mins
No. of Discs: 1

Review of a prior CD issue of this recording:

Both Scotto and Domingo, and Scotto especially, sing with real conviction and affection, and to have Tito Gobbi, no less, so obviously relishing the preposterous text of his spoken role is a considerable bonus. In all the score's more interesting passages Maazel too makes it clear that this score has as much of accomplishment to it as promise.

– Gramophone

MADAMA BUTTERFLY

Puccini: La fanciulla del West

Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Recorded 1962)

Puccini: Tosca, S. 69 (Recorded 1957)

PUCCINI, G.: Madama Butterfly (DNO, 2003) (NTSC)

LICIA ALBANESE - PUCCINI, MOZA