2014 Maria Callas remastered series reissue. With this Abbey Road 24-bit 96kHz remaster, engineers returned to the original master tapes, bringing new clarity & brilliance to her legendary studio recordings. Callas sang the role of Turandot 24 times on stage, in the late 1940s. It was the role originally planned for her US debut, but the opera company went bankrupt and the performances (scheduled for Chicago in 1947) never took place. She brings unusual subtlety to Puccini's icy princess, while Elisabeth Schwarzkopf - more readily identified with Fiordiligi and the Marschallin - is surprise casting as the self-sacrificing Liu.

2014 Maria Callas re-mastered series reissue. With this Abbey Road 24-bit 96kHz re-master, engineers returned to the original master tapes, bringing new clarity & brilliance to her legendary studio recordings. A famous backstage photo was taken in Chicago after one of just three performances that Callas gave of Madama Butterfly; it shows the soprano in her Japanese costume, snarling furiously at a bailiff who had served a writ on her - the very image of the tempestuous diva. By contrast, in her recording of the role, 'it is, miraculously,' as the critic John Osborne observed, 'the 15-year old girl and not the great Callas who stands before us.' Her genius for vocal characterization finds an apt complement in Herbert von Karajan's conducting: 'a wholly sympathetic rendering [that]brings out more of the detail of the score than I have ever heard before', wrote Gramophone.

When "Mario Lanza: Greatest Operatic Recordings" (SEPIA 1274) was released in February 2015, Lanza fans were delighted, for this compilation disc was said "to do justice to his much misrepresented recording legacy". Now, in response to requests from around the world, we gather some more Lanza operatic recordings; some never before released commercially ("Qual occhio al mondo"), some private ("Aria sconosciuta" and "Questa bocca tua"), some live ("Lasciatemi morire" and "Gi� il sole dal Gange") and some radio broadcasts ("Vesti la giubba") etc. To form a Volume 2 compilation, lovingly presented in re-mastered sound including Lanza rehearsing and warming up his voice.

2014 Maria Callas remastered series reissue. With this Abbey Road 24-bit 96 kHz remaster, engineers returned to the original master tapes, bringing new clarity & brilliance to her legendary studio recordings. Tosca was the role in which - in 1965, the year this recording was made - Callas gave her last complete performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera and the Paris Opera. This was her final complete recording of an opera, and, 12 years after her first version of Tosca, it reunited her with the Scarpia of Tito Gobbi. They were joined by Carlo Bergonzi as Cavaradossi. Gramophone praised 'a thrilling and very complete interpretation, with scene after scene, bar after bar, brought to life by sheer intelligence and dramatic insight'.

2014 Maria Callas re-mastered series reissue. With this Abbey Road 24-bit 96kHz re-master, engineers returned to the original master tapes, bringing new clarity & brilliance to her legendary studio recordings. As she demonstrated in both Il barbiere di Siviglia and Il turco in Italia, Callas, the great tragedienne, could also turn her skills to comedy. As it happened, the 1956 La Scala production of Rossini's most popular opera did not prove a great success with audiences, but it's stars - Callas, Tito Gobbi and Luigi Alva - reassembled in London the following year for this recording. Callas sang the role of Rosina at it's original mezzo-soprano pitch and her version of 'Una voce poco fa' - punctuated by an unforgettable 'ma' ('but') in the cabaletta - is a miracle of both elegance and wit.

2014 Maria Callas remastered series reissue. With this Abbey Road 24-bit 96kHz remaster, engineers returned to the original master tapes, bringing new clarity & brilliance to her legendary studio recordings. Towards the end of Callas's career, there were many rumours that she was planning to perform Carmen on stage. This was never to be, but Carmen became her penultimate complete recording of an opera - and her only complete recording of a French opera. With Georges Pretre, one of her favored conductors, and the ever-stylish Nicolai Gedda as her Don Jose', she captured every facet of the role. As Gramophone said when the set was first released: 'Hers is a Carmen to haunt you. '

Classical Music

Classical Music

Verdi's, Falstaff performed by the Chorus and Orchestra of Hungarian State Opera, Chorus Master Aniko Katona, leads under the direction of Will Humbrug.

CARMINA BURANA

Orff: Carmina Burana

First release of these recordings of the amazing works of Salmanov, one of the great 20th Century Russian composers.

On March 14, 2022, the Met presented a benefit performance to support Ukrainian citizens under attack with Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducting the Met Orchestra and Chorus and star soloists in a performance that was broadcast live globally. This CD contains the entire 70-minute program with music by Valentin Silvestrov, Barber, Verdi, Strauss, and Beethoven, as well as Ukrainian bass-baritone Vladyslav Buialskyi who led the Met Chorus in a performance of the Ukrainian national anthem.

To celebrate the 225th anniversary of Gaetano Donizetti's birth, Opera Rara has restored L'esule di Roma (1828), an opera which is considered a milestone in the composer's illustrious career. Set in Imperial Rome, L'esule di Roma is filled with political conspiracy, romantic intrigue and great sacrifice. Vocal fireworks flies in this opera, punctuating remarkable ensembles and touching arias. Carlo Rizzi, Opera Rara's Artistic Director, leads a star cast with soprano Albina Shagimuratova, The Times' "new queen of bel canto", Nicola Alaimo in one of Donizetti's finest roles for bass-baritone, and tenor Sergey Romanovsky in the title role.

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Davis... magnificently crowns his whole career as a Berlioz interpreter, generally outshining even his pioneer version of 30 years earlier... Petra Lang is superb, firm, rich and intense, investing every phrase with emotional power, instantly establishing her dominance... Ben Heppner excels himself (Penguin Guide ROSETTE). Gramophone Awards' Best Opera; Academie Charles Cros' Grand Prix du Disc, Opera News' Recordings of the Year; Grammy Opera of the Year Award 2001

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Financial Times' Disc of the Year; New York Times' CDs of the Year/ "Performance: * Recording: * 'Beuron, probably today's finest lyric tenor, gives the performance an essential idiomatic core in his narration... [Tenebrae are] dramatically alert and glowing as stained glass, the angelic messages skin-pricklingly ethereal." (BBC Music Magazine) "[Sir Colin's] revisitation of this truly classic score is utterly and totally compelling.' (International Record Review)

As an example of luscious late-Romantic orchestral writing, Die Seejungfrau could scarcely be bettered: a fine performance of a gorgeous orchestral score (MusicWeb) "Steinbacher's technique on the other hand is immaculate; how gracefully those swirls and leaps are articulated. Foster's support is always vivid and colourful" (MWeb) "Steinbacher's expressive cantabile alternates with enthusiastic verve in the virtuoso passages." (Gramophone)

First performance arranged at the prestigious Bolshoi, where it shared a double bill with Tchaikovsky's Iolanta (at his insistence). The composition was highly esteemed by the examiners' board which included Taneyev and Arensky. Rachmaninov got the highest mark, and was awarded the gold medal. In 1897, Aleko premiered in St Petersburg, the title role taken by the famous bass Feodor Chaliapin, who would go on to record the cavati na, endearing it to generations of record collectors. Russian bass Evgeni Nesterenko joined Moscow's famed Bolshoi Opera in 1971 and has taken on all of the major Russian bass roles and recorded widely.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

In his exploration of the vocal music of Mozart and his contemporaries, soprano Bruno de S� evokes Mille affetti - a thousand emotions - and adds six world premiere recordings to the catalogue: arias by Luigi Cherubini, Luigi Caruso, Felice Alessandrini, Franz Seydelmann, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, and Niccolo` Antonio Zingarelli. Joining him for this adventurous programme of sacred and secular repertoire are the Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, organist Marcin Szelest, the NFM Choir and conductor Jaroslaw Thiel. For his debut Erato album, Roma Travestita, Bruno de S� focused on Baroque repertoire, causing BBC Music Magazine to marvel at his "immaculate legato, gift for scintillating decoration, dramatic octave drops and stratospheric ascents above the stave." Now he applies those talents to the Classical era. "This seemed like the moment to explore different musical possibilities," he says, "and also a period that really speaks to me - emotionally, musically and technically. There are some very virtuosic things here, but I've never struggled with them because they are such a joy to sing. I hope that people feel and hear that." Repertoire features: W.A. Mozart: Exsultate Jubilate, Franz Seydelmann: excerpts from Il Turco in Italia, Johann Friedrich Reichardt: excerpts from Andromeda, Niccol� Antonio Zingarelli: Salve, Regina, and more (repertoire selection by Yannis Fran�ois).

Six virtuoso vocal soloists and the instrumentalists of Les Accents rise to the dramatic and expressive challenges of Serpentes ignei in deserto - 'Fiery Serpents in the Desert' - a biblical oratorio by Johann Adolf Hasse. As the conductor and violinist Thibault Noally explains: "Hasse was probably one of the most famous composers of his time - as famous as Handel, or even more famous than Handel in some countries." Born near Hamburg in 1699, Hasse studied in Italy and was active in such musical centers as Naples, Vienna, Dresden and Venice, where he composed Serpentes ignei in deserto. The central role of Moses is taken by countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, who is joined by soprano Julia Lezhneva as an Angel, sopranist Bruno de S�, and three further star countertenors - Jakub J�zef Orlinski, Carlo Vistoli and David Hansen. "The score is demanding for all the singers," continues Thibault Noally. "Every character is very different from the others and each of our soloists has a unique personality and a unique vocal timbre. The result is a huge variety of temperaments and colors."