The sole, completed opera by one of the nineteenth-century’s most shrewd librettists, ‘Mefistofele’ has always held a tenuous place on the fringes of the repertoire but its merits were established in the minds and ears of countless record-buyers in the 1960s and 70s by this 1958 Decca recording, the first to be made in stereo […]
At a time when Donizetti was represented on the world’s stages by little more than ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ and the recording industry was only beginning to capitalise on public hunger for the sublime art of bel canto, this complete recording of the composer’s first great international success was welcomed as a landmark in the history […]
Two murders, an attempted rape and a suicide, all packed into about a hundred minutes, makes for spellbinding drama. And this performance of highlights from ‘Tosca’ is just that, in one of Tebaldi’s early recordings for Decca.
This is Renata Tebaldi’s first (and more silvery) recording of ‘Madama Butterfly’ with some very strong singing from the supporting cast.
Besides Verdi, Puccini was the other great nineteenth-century Italian opera composer. This anthology brings together favourite arias and ensemble pieces from his operas. All the most famous are represented – ‘Bohème, Butterfly, Tosca, Gianni Schicchi…’ And of course the performers are the greatest operatic stars you can think of having all on a single CD!
La traviata – the ultimate opera of love and loss – is a great favourite of opera-goers and here Eloquence releases Joan Sutherland’s first recording of La Traviata, complete on 2CDs. It is for many, her greatest recorded portrayal of the doomed heroine Violetta. Her Alfredo is the ‘simply supreme’ (Gramophone) Carlo Bergonzi and Sir John Pritchard […]
Although overshadowed by the more celebrated second recording of Otello that Mario del Monaco and Renata Tebaldi made with Karajan (1960), many feel this earlier (1954) recording features both protagonists in fresher voice, and Alberto Erede and his Santa Cecilia forces really pack a punch.
Heralded by a priceless photo of Del Monaco, this classic 1954 recording of ‘Rigoletto’ is restored to the catalogue. Recorded about the same time as Erede’s ‘Otello’ sessions (also with Del Monaco and Protti), Del Monaco gives a powerful rendition of the Duke and Hilda Gueden’s crystalline purity gives Gilda all the innocence and largesse […]
These new re-masterings cast fresh light on seminal recordings of ‘Cavalleria rusticana’ and ‘Pagliacci’ both featuring Mario del Monaco. He was in his prime when he recorded Turiddu and Canio, and his performances in both recordings could hardly be more spine-tingling. ‘Cavalleria rusticana’ was recorded in 1954 and ‘Pagliacci’ in 1953. Franco Ghione’s feeling for the lyricism […]
