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Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (1956)
MYTO Historical Apr 2009
CD
$10.99

Goldmark: Die Koenigin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba) / Hebelkova, Bollon, Freiburg Philharmonic

CPO

$53.99 Jun 10, 2016

Die Koenigin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba) was Karl Goldmark's first opera. It conquered stages across Europe after its premiere in 1875. This production of the opera was recorded at Theater Freiburg, The four act opera stars vocalists Katerina Hebelkova and Nuttaporn Thammathi.

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Goldmark: Die Koenigin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba) / Hebelkova, Bollon, Freiburg Philharmonic
CPO Jun 2016
CD
$53.99

Auber: La Muette De Portici / Hermus, Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau

CPO

$36.99 Jul 30, 2013

AUBER La Muette de Portici • Antony Hermus, cond; Diego Torre ( Masaniello ); Oscar de la Torre ( Alphonse ); Angelina Ruzzafante ( Elvire ); Wiard Witholt ( Pietro ); Anhaltische PO & Op Ch • CPO 777694 (2 CDs: 135:09 & French only) Live: Dessau 5/24–26/2011

Hard for us to believe nowadays, but in its time Daniel-François-Esprit Auber’s opera La Muette de Portici (The Mute Girl of Portici) was to the Belgian fight for independence what Verdi’s Nabucco was to become a dozen years later for Italy—possibly even more so, since its Brussels premiere led directly to a public revolution on the very night the opera was given. The rebel leader tossed his red Jacobin cap into the air at the sight and sound of every appearance of the rebel Masaniello and his followers onstage; immediately after the performance, huge, unexpected mobs formed in the streets and marched into the office of the government newspaper Le National, smashing windows. All night long the victorious rebels loudly sang the passage from the opera declaring that nothing is more glorious than dying for one’s fatherland. Talk about a wildly successful premiere!

Very briefly, the plot concerns Alphonse, son of the Spanish Viceroy of Naples. He is in love with the mute girl Fenella, sister of a fisherman named Masaniello who becomes the leader of the peasants’ revolt (this is based on real events of 1647), but his father coerces him into marrying the more socially acceptable Elvire. Yet Fenella, imprisoned by Alphonse’s father, manages to escape and begs Elvire to help her. Fenella witnesses Alphonse’s marriage and is stunned to discover that Elvire is the bride, but the latter keeps her promise to help her and Alphonse, still in love with Fenella, also helps her escape. Masaniello and his fishermen plan for the revolution; when Alphonse and Elvire are captured, she begs the rebel leader to help them escape, and he does so before learning who they really are. When his actions are discovered, Masaniello is considered a traitor by the rebels and poisoned by his rival leader, Pietro; but this must be a rather odd, weak, and slow-acting poison, because Masaniello doesn’t die but just goes mad. Oddly enough, the peasants still trust him to lead them into battle, which he does. Fleeing from him this time, Elvire tries to convince Fenella to escape with her, but the mute girl learns that her brother was killed by his own men when he tried once again to protect Elvire and takes her own life.

Listening to the opera, especially as well and tautly conducted as it is by Antony Hermus, one is continually struck by the impressive and original music with which Auber graced this plot. Unlike so many Auber opera arias I’ve heard (think of “L’eclat de rire” from his Manon Lescaut ), this music demands that rare combination of vocal agility and flexibility with dramatic declamation. And let me tell you, this music is hard to sing: just listen to Elvire’s act 1 aria, “O moment enchanteur,” and you’ll hear what I mean. Angelina Ruzzafante, like so many of her soprano sisters nowadays (think of Barbara Frittoli or Patricia Racette), has a good enough technique to cope with the music’s difficulties and acts very well with the voice (a real necessity in this opera), yet has an inconsistent and sometimes acidic tone in the upper register (which does improve tonally as the performance goes on). This, however, is not entirely a detriment to a role which, like the opera itself, calls for drama over sheer vocalism, and the almost relentless drive of Auber’s music, in this opera at least, is a major factor in determining the prescribed style in which it is to be performed.

Tenor Oscar de la Torre, as Alphonse, has slightly tight voice production but superb phrasing, excellent declamation, and high notes in abundance—and he needs every last one of them, as they are written into the score and not optional. The other tenor, Diego Torre as Masaniello, has a similarly light, bright voice, and to my ears a more even tone production. Both are excellent in what they do. In fact, the only really poor voice in the cast is that of Masaniello’s rival, Pietro, sung by baritone Wiard Witholt.

The only other complete commercial recording of this opera that I could track down was the one made in September 1996 (EMI) with a considerably over-the-hill Alfredo Kraus and, though she was much younger, an already over-the-hill June Anderson (who also had, in my estimation, ZERO excitement as an interpreter); this is therefore clearly the better of the two recordings. (Since Kraus wanted to sing Masaniello’s famous aria, “Du pauvre seul ami fidèle,” he took that role, giving the equally cruel tessitura of Alphonse to a good but not great tenor, John Aler.)

There are two negatives, only one of which really affects us as listeners: 1) the stage production seems to have been updated to represent a gang war, as Masaniello is wearing a do-rag and a sleeveless T-shirt with “FSBN Bulldogs” proudly printed on it, and 2) the libretto is in French only. Other than that, this recording is a must-get for any lovers of truly dramatic opera of the ottocento period. This music is so great as to almost beggar belief, driving forward with an impulse that is sheerly visceral and practically irresistible. After hearing it, I almost wanted to go out and smash a government newspaper window myself! Go for it!

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Auber: La Muette De Portici / Hermus, Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau
CPO Jul 2013
CD
$36.99

Lehár: Eva / Bozic, Fadayomi, Et Al

CPO

$36.99 Jul 25, 2006

cpo are doing great things for lesser known music, many times undeservedly neglected works. The cycle of Kurt Atterberg’s nine symphonies is one recent project, gloriously realised, Carl Loewe’s songs and ballads is another long-time undertaking; I reviewed volume 20 not long ago, and Franz Lehár’s “other” operettas – apart from that handful that is frequently played – have been given brand new recordings. This is the third within a year. They may not always have picked the best singers in the business and presentation has sometimes been a bit slipshod, but operetta lovers must still feel grateful that the music becomes available.

Eva has never been much of a success and set beside some of his other stage-works the musical – or rather – melodic inspiration seems a bit meagre. The only hit-song is Eva’s Lied early in act I, Wär es auch nichts als ein Augenblick, which also appears a couple of times later on in the operetta as a kind of Leitmotif. There are good enough melodies of typical Lehár Schmalz and a great deal of light-hearted rhythmic dances, but they tend to slip out of one’s memory as soon as they are over. What is obvious though is his masterly handling of the orchestra and more than in any other operetta I know gives grateful and attractive solos to many of the instrumentalists in a transparent orchestral web. I think he is closer to Puccini’s sensuality than Richard Strauss’s overblown bombast, even though in the second act finale there are reminiscences of Der Rosenkavalier, which was premiered almost a year before Eva was first performed, on 24 November 1911 at Theater an der Wien. That was the same theatre that also saw the premiere of Die lustige Witwe, and the first Hanna Glawari and Danilo, Mizzi Günther and Louis Treumann, also sang the leading roles in the new operetta.

The libretto is a variant of the old Cinderella story, where the poor factory girl wins the prince, in this case the owner of the glass factory, situated near Brussels. A kind of social realism, one could think, but in the second act we are back in the normal upper class operetta world, in Octave Flaubert’s villa. The third and last act takes us, not for the first time in a Lehár operetta, to Paris. There are rather few arias, and those few are labelled Lied (song) to make them less pretentious, since they are often very short. Most of the musical numbers are duets, but there are no less than three melodramas that grow into songs or duets. The three finales are quite extended numbers, the one in act II is almost 14 minutes long, and here, just as in the melodrama numbers, Lehár works in freer, partly recitative style, more related to opera. It is also in these more ambitious numbers that his inventive scoring is at its most colourful. This recording is complete with all the spoken dialogue, in some places fairly stilted and unatmospheric but there are several heated scenes where the acting is lively and involved. It is a pity, though, as is unfortunately often the case, that the spoken dialogue is recorded at a seemingly lower level. This means that you have to turn up the volume quite a bit to hear it properly and then turn it down again when the music starts. The melodramas are likewise afflicted and even though Lehár has scored the music lightly, the orchestra still tends to mask some of the spoken words. I also regret that the sung and spoken texts are not printed in the booklet, which would have been a great asset even for fluent German speakers. Apart from the balance problem the recording is good without being very atmospheric. It was recorded in the Festival Hall in Bad Ischl, where every summer there is a Lehár festival. Lehár lived in a beautiful villa in Bad Ischl in Salzkammergut in Austria, from 1910 until his death, but he also had a house in Vienna. This recording was not made during performances but with a cast that had played a number of performances and were settled into their roles. Conducted by Wolfgang Bozic, who is well versed in this genre – I have heard him conduct operetta in Vienna – and he finds that typical Lehárian lilt in the music with tempos that feel absolutely right. The chorus is good. There is even some a cappella singing at the beginning of Act I.

Of the soloists Morenike Fadayomi impresses in the title role with a large vibrant dramatic soprano voice. It comes as no surprise to find that she has been singing both Aida and Salome. Reinhard Alessandri, an experienced operetta singer. I saw his Edwin in Die Csardasfürstin at Volksoper some years ago. He is a good actor while his voice is rather small and he has some trouble with the top notes. But he can sing meltingly beautifully when the tessitura is not too high and in the main he makes a positive impression. Zora Antonic as Pipsi is fully into her role and Thomas Malik is just perfect for the comic part as Dagobert with his expressive and fluent buffo tenor. Stefan Frey contributes one of his well-researched liner notes and also a synopsis that unfortunately isn’t related to the track-list, but rather gives a general overview. On the credit side it is nice to have several photos, both from the original production back in 1911 and from the Bad Ischl event.

A matter of swings and roundabouts but operetta lovers will find much to enjoy here.

Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

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Lehár: Eva / Bozic, Fadayomi, Et Al
CPO Jul 2006
CD
$36.99

Wolfgang Sawallisch - The Complete Opera Recordings on Warner Classics

WARNER CLASSICS

$120.49 Nov 01, 2024

This 31CD-box brings together all the operatic recordings that the German conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) made in the years from 1956 to 1993 for EMI Classics and Electrola (now Warner Classics). Aged 11, Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) heard a performance of Humperdinck's fairytale opera Hansel und Gretel in his native Munich and, there and then, decided that he wanted to be the man in the orchestra pit who waved his arms and made things happen. It took him a while - war service as a radio operator and a spell as a prisoner of war delayed the inevitable - but by his late 20s he was conducting opera at Augsburg (starting with Hansel und Gretel) and he had barely turned 30 when at Aachen he became the youngest Generalmusikdirektor in Germany. Opera recordings followed and his 1957 version of Richard Strauss's Capriccio is still regarded as the benchmark. Also in this box, along with more Strauss, perhaps the finest achievements of Sawallisch's other operatic hero, Wagner.

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Wolfgang Sawallisch - The Complete Opera Recordings on Warner Classics
WARNER CLASSICS Nov 2024
CD
$120.49

Zoraida di Granata

Dynamic

DVD

$36.99 Jul 18, 2025

Zoraida di Granata, a stirring tale of love, betrayal and reconciliation, set in the Moorish kingdom of Granada in Andalusia in 1480, gave the 24-year-old Donizetti his first major operatic triumph. It marked his establishment as a true musical dramatist with a sure sense of craftsmanship and a flair for the dramatic. The opera's virtuosic central roles, fine choruses and powerful set-pieces show Rossini's unavoidable influence, though it is more a presence rather than imitation. This performance of the 1822 edition, not the 1824 revision, is performed on original instruments by Gli Originali and conducted by Alberto Zanardi.

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Zoraida di Granata
Dynamic Jul 2025
DVD
$36.99

Alfano: Risurrezione / Duprels, Vickers, Lanzillotta, Orchestra Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Dynamic

Blu-Ray

$36.99 Feb 12, 2021

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

Also available on standard DVD

Franco Alfano’s opera Risurrezione draws its inspiration from Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection and was the work that ensured Alfano’s considerable success as a composer. The plot narrates the story of Katiusha and her tragic love for prince Dimitri who seduces and abandons her, condemning her to a life of sacrifice and desperation. Seen here in Fancesco Lanzillotta’s acclaimed Florence production, Risurrezione recalls Richard Strauss and Puccini – the drama evolving in an uninterrupted flow with moments of soaring lyricism alongside striking and evocative orchestration. The work gives voice to an idea that Alfano left in his memoirs: ‘Recoiling from catastrophes, I believed and still believe in the renovation, regeneration, and final purification of human passions from evil to goodness.’

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Alfano: Risurrezione / Duprels, Vickers, Lanzillotta, Orchestra Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Dynamic Feb 2021
Blu-Ray
$36.99

Donizetti: Pietro Il Grande, Czar Delle Russie / Alessandrini, Coro E Orchestra Donizetti Opera

Dynamic

Blu-Ray

$36.99 Jan 22, 2021

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

Also available on standard DVD

Pietro il Grande, kzar delle Russie – composed when Donizetti was 22 years old – was the first of the composer’s operas to receive more than one production. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the work’s première in 2019, the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo staged this rare melodramma burlesco in a new critical edition. The influence of Rossini and Mozart is clear, but the young Donizetti still managed to create a fresh and lively work that displayed early evidence of his mature style. This Donizetti Festival performance received widespread international acclaim, with a cast of excellent singers and a unique staging by Ondadurto Teatro (Marco Paciotti and Lorenzo Pasquali), influenced by Russian avant-garde art of the early 20th century.

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Donizetti: Pietro Il Grande, Czar Delle Russie / Alessandrini, Coro E Orchestra Donizetti Opera
Dynamic Jan 2021
Blu-Ray
$36.99

Cavalli: Il Giasone / Sardelli, Dumaux, Wagner, Johannsen [blu-ray]

Dynamic

Blu-Ray

$36.99 Jun 26, 2012

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

Also available on standard DVD

Francesco Cavalli was the most successful Venetian opera composer of the mid-seventeenth century. In the wake of Monteverdi, opera was enjoying a real boom, and this spread to the rest of Europe because the ruling classes often met up at the Venice carnival. Giasone displays Cavalli’s sense of drama and musical lightness, as well as a grotesque humour typical of the great Italian baroque operas.

This new production is orchestrated and conducted by the internationally reputed baroque specialist Federico Maria Sardelli. It is directed by the young Frenchwoman Mariame Clément, who is currently making a name for herself with her infectious directing in German and French opera houses. The title role is sung by the promising countertenor Christophe Dumaux.

Francesco Cavalli
IL GIASONE
Federico Maria Sardelli, conductor
Symfonisch Orkest van de Vlaamse Opera
Mariame Clément, stage director
Julia Hansen, scenes & costume designer
Giasone: Christophe Dumaux
Medea: Katarina Bradic
Isifile: Robin Johannsen
Giove/Besso: Josef Wagner
Demo: Filippo Adami
Delfa/Eolo: Yaniv d’Or
Amore/Alinda: Angélique Noldus
Ercole/Oreste: Andrew Ashwin
Vlaamse Opera, Antwerpen, 2010

Sound Format: LPCM 2.0, Dolby digital 5.1
Picture Format: 16:9
Running Time: 198 minutes & 5 minutes (interview)
Language: Italian
Subtitles: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean
Booklet Notes: English, German, French, Italian

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Cavalli: Il Giasone / Sardelli, Dumaux, Wagner, Johannsen [blu-ray]
Dynamic Jun 2012
Blu-Ray
$36.99

NABUCCO
Dynamic Jan 2011
DVD
$36.99

Ernelinde, princesse de Norvege

Château de Versailles Spectacles

$29.99 Apr 25, 2025

Torn between her love for the King of Denmark, Sandomir, and her duty to her father, Rodoald, King of Norway, Princess Ernelinde finds herself caught up in a political whirlwind in the heart of medieval Scandinavia. Beyond the exotic setting of this lyrical tragedy, the boldness of Philidor's composition reflects an unprecedented modernity, paving the way for Gluck's reforms. Under the passionate direction of Martin Wahlberg, the Orkester Nord and the Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles bring this forgotten opera back to life!

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Ernelinde, princesse de Norvege
Château de Versailles Spectacles Apr 2025
CD
$29.99

Chamber Works

CPO

$64.99 Jul 03, 2026

Of his important contemporaries, Hans Pfitzner was certainly the one who devoted himself most strongly to chamber music. Often described as the last Romantic, Pfitzner also represents this epoch in a very personal way in his chamber music works.

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Chamber Works
CPO Jul 2026
CD
$64.99

The Art of Fantasy

Ramee

$20.99 Sep 28, 2018

Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger, viol player at the court of Elizabeth I and Charles I, was the most innovative and influential composer of viol consort music of his generation. Following the steps of his father, composer Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder, he continued the specifically English "In Nomine" tradition for viol consort into the seventeenth century while adding his own special touch in the "In Nomine through all parts" in using the cantus firmus in all voices with various rhythms and transpositions. His greatest achievement was the development of an imitative counterpoint perfectly adapted to the viol. The particular character of Ferrabosco's music was determined by his love for architecture and symmetrical forms which were integrated in all possible ways into his Fantasies: flexible motives, augmentations and diminutions of themes and a clear harmonic structure. On this release, the Hathor Consort explores his works.

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The Art of Fantasy
Ramee Sep 2018
CD
$20.99

Fasch: Orchestral Suites / Pal Nemeth, Capella Savaria

Dynamic

$10.99 May 29, 2012

The orchestral suite is a genre that was mostly popular during the first half of the 18th century. Johan Friedrich Fasch is noted as being one of the more prolific German composers of orchestral suites. The overtures of the orchestral suites recorded here have all the traditional elements of the French overture. With it's light-hearted and lively developments, Fasch's music is both entertaining and brilliant.

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Fasch: Orchestral Suites / Pal Nemeth, Capella Savaria
Dynamic May 2012
CD
$10.99

Rossini Buffo - Collector's Box Set

Dynamic

DVD

$64.99 Jan 22, 2021

Rossini had a truly explosive effect when, at the age of eighteen, his comic one-act farce La cambiale di matrimonio was staged at the San Moisé theatre in Venice, on the evening of November 3rd, 1810. From that moment, Rossini’s career would be a series of masterpieces, with triumphs and flops. It was in the comic genre that he achieved his greatest successes, with works such as L’Italiana in Algeri (1813), Il Turco in Italia (1814), Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816), and Cenerentola in 1817, which was Rossini’s last great comic work in the traditional sense. Between 1817 and 1819, year of that Guillaume Tell that prematurely cut short his operatic career, Rossini composed fifteen serious operas and only three comic ones; but he had already given his best in his incomparable youth, with the four incredible masterpieces that are in this box set. In this release DYNAMIC assembles some of the most famous opera buffa by Rossini, played by great performers, conductors and directors, including some rarely performed works such La Gazzetta, L’Equivoco stravagante, La Cambiale di matrimonio.

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Rossini Buffo - Collector's Box Set
Dynamic Jan 2021
DVD
$64.99

Schumann: Fantasie - Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor
Berlin Classics Sep 2010
CD
$18.99

Wagner: Götterdämmerung / Runnicles, Deutsche Oper Berlin

Naxos AudioVisual

DVD

$18.99 ~~$37.99~~ Save 50% May 10, 2024

Götterdämmerung ('Twilight of the Gods') is the final opera of Wagner’s epic tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ('The Ring of the Nibelung') in which his visionary masterpiece reaches its cataclysmic conclusion. Betrayal and death, murder and remorse, lie at the opera’s heart, in a work that draws together every plot element in writing of blazing intensity. As the ring is restored to the Rhinemaidens, the age of the gods ends, with the opera offering the certainty of destruction but the consolation of renewal. Staged by the award-winning director Stefan Herheim, this innovative new production from Deutsche Oper Berlin features a leading international cast conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. The release includes "Making Of" documentary featuring interviews with Stefan Herheim and Sir Donald Runnicles, and behind the scenes footage.

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Wagner: Götterdämmerung / Runnicles, Deutsche Oper Berlin
Naxos AudioVisual May 2024
DVD
~~$37.99~~ $18.99

Gli Uccellatori

Dynamic

$22.99 May 16, 2025

Gli uccellatori ('The Bird Catchers') was first staged in Venice in 1759 and proved so successful that the opera was performed during the next decade throughout Italy, Spain, Poland and Germany before being performed in Vienna in 1768. It's composer was the distinguished Bohemian, Florian Leopold Gassmann, teacher of Salieri and nominated as Gluck's successor in Vienna. The plot, based on a libretto by Carlo Goldoni, concerns amorous intrigues and the buffo antics of three bird catchers and two knowing maids. Gli uccellatori is an opera with a wealth of motifs and a vibrant atmosphere, full of spirited wit and theatrical charm.

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Gli Uccellatori
Dynamic May 2025
CD
$22.99

Marschner: Hans Heiling

Oehms Classics

$31.99 Jun 14, 2019

The link between Weber and Wagner, Marschner’s Hans Heiling, was staged in the Aalto Music Theatre in February 2018. The production by Andreas Baesler received a mixed reaction, but the music was unanimously lauded by critics, above all the performance of Essen Philharmonic under the baton of Frank Beermann. The German Romantic opera in 3 acts is the composer’s most successful opera, and brought the composer a considerable reputation. The story is based on a folk legend, and the opera’s libretto was written by Eduard Devrient, who also sang the title role at the premiere at what is now the Berlin State Opera. In this production, Heiko Trinsinger performs the title role.

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Marschner: Hans Heiling
Oehms Classics Jun 2019
CD
$31.99

Schubert: Wanderer-fantasie & Piano Sonata No. 15

Gramola Records

$20.99 Oct 14, 2014

The great pianist Paul Badura-Skoda presents two milestones of piano literature and the most important works by Franz Schubert in this genre: the monumental ‘Wanderer Fantasia’ in C, D760 and the unfinished and posthumously published Sonata in C, D840 ‘Reliquie’. Paul Badura-Skoda’s intensive study of Schubert’s oeuvre and the preserved fragments of the third and fourth movements as well as of Viennese Classicism in general led to this completion of the great sonata, kept entirely in Schubert’s style so that the transitions take place flowingly and no stylistic ruptures can be discerned.

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Schubert: Wanderer-fantasie & Piano Sonata No. 15
Gramola Records Oct 2014
CD
$20.99

Der Wald (Opera in 1 Act)

CPO

$18.99 Jan 30, 2026

Choirs of spirits, wild passions, unshakeable loyalty, a gruesome act of murder, and the eternal triumph of love over death - these are the thoroughly familiar ingredients of the libretto that Ethel Smyth wrote (in German) for her one-act opera Der Wald (The Forest). The music, however, is anything but gruesome. Echoes of Robert Schumann, some striking reminiscences of Richard Wagner, and, particularly in the prologue, an unmistakable touch of Art Nouveau carry the drama. It had it's premiere at the Berlin Court Opera on 9 April 1902. It was subsequently staged at the Royal Opera House in London and presented with triumphant success at the Met in New York in March 1903. There were standing ovations and a veritable sea of flowers for the 44-year-old Englishwoman, who was the first woman to conquer the classical music temple on Broadway with her work. Talent can achieve anything.

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Der Wald (Opera in 1 Act)
CPO Jan 2026
CD
$18.99

Mix & Match

Porpora: Polifemo

Château de Versailles Spectacles

CD with DVD

$42.99 Dec 12, 2025

In 1735, Porpora challenged Handel in London with Polifemo, a work that still resonates today as a vibrant ode to triumphant love. On the bewitching shores of Sicily, Galatea falls in love with the mortal Acis. This pure passion arouses the fierce jealousy of the Cyclops Polifemo, whose rage threatens to sweep everything away. But the unexpected arrival of Ulysses and the intrigues hatched by Calypso weave a complex web where gods and mortals clash. Carried by a constellation of exceptional soloists and conducted by Stefan Plewniak, this opera masterfully weaves together the legacy of a baroque golden age and the timeless power of myth.

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Porpora: Polifemo
Château de Versailles Spectacles Dec 2025
CD with DVD
$42.99

MAGISCHE TONE

MASTERWORKS

$15.99 May 29, 2026

With Magische Tone, Jonas Kaufmann returns to the world of operetta and late Romantic opera, presenting a collection of some of the genre's most beautiful and beloved melodies. Recorded in Budapest with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra under the baton of Dirk Kaftan, the album celebrates the rich musical heritage of the Austro Hungarian Empire (1867-1918). The new recording brings together perennial favourites by Emmerich Kalman, Franz Lehar, and Paul Abraham, alongside lesser known treasures such as Bob's entrance aria from Jeno Huszka's (Bob Herceg). Several duets enrich the programme further, including the sparkling "Komm mit nach Varasdin" from Grafin Mariza, performed with soprano Nikola Hillebrand, one of today's most sought after voices. Among the collection's highlights are the two opera arias "Hazam, hazam" from Ferenc Erkel's Bank ban and the album's title track, "Magische Tone" from Karl Goldmark's Die Konigin von Saba. These works demonstrate Kaufmann's versatility across contrasting styles and vocal demands, resulting in a glowing tribute to a cosmopolitan era of European music.

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MAGISCHE TONE
MASTERWORKS May 2026
CD
$15.99

Mix & Match

Mattheson: Boris Goudenow / Marchiol, Theresia

CPO

$36.99 Nov 04, 2022

Boris Godunov - but not by Mussorgsky! The story of how Johann Mattheson's political comedy "Boris Goudenow" came into being reads in large parts more exciting than many a mystery script: written in 1710 for the Hamburg Opera at the Gänsemarkt, the work was suddenly withdrawn by the composer. The score fell into oblivion, eventually ended up in the Hamburg City Library, and was long considered lost after World War II. It was not until the end of the 20th century that the opera was tracked down in Armenia and returned to Hamburg, where the premiere finally took place in 2005 after a delay of almost 300 years.

The place of action is the Moscow Kremlin. The opera's plot revolves around the story of how the Russian prince Boris Goudenov rises to power through intrigue and becomes Russian tsar. The new Innsbruck production, under the musical direction of renowned Italian harpsichordist and conductor Andrea Marchiol, makes this baroque gem resound anew.

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Mattheson: Boris Goudenow / Marchiol, Theresia
CPO Nov 2022
CD
$36.99

Suppe: Fatinitza
CPO Aug 2007
CD
$36.99