Donizetti: Don Pasquale / Wallberg, Popp, Araiza, Weikl
Eurodisc
CD
$31.99Jun 19, 2014
If Mosè is Rossini uncharacteristically serious, Don Pasquale is Donizetti almost as uncharacteristically comic. But the opera is a charmer, and while this performance is frisky and well sung, it is almost defiantly unidiomatic with its German, Mexican and Russian principals.
Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande / Baudo, Command, Dormoy, Bacquier
Eurodisc
CD
$41.99May 14, 2014
Serge Baudo, a very find and under-appreciated conductor of the French repertoire, led a studio recording from 1978 with Claude Dormoy, Michèle Command and Gabriel Bacquier... [It] was highly praised at the time of its release and should be re-released. It is the only commercial recording of the wonderful Bacquier as Golaud, and Michèle Command was a beguiling as Mélisande.
...an appealing balance between theatrical vivacity and stylistic refinement. In 1977, when the recording sessions were held, the microphones caught Popp and Jerusalem in pristine estate...