Posts tagged as "richard-bonygne"

Adam: Giselle

April 28, 2016

Following a stream of requests – not least from the conductor himself! – we’ve releasing for the first time on CD internationally, Richard Bonynge’s first (1967/analogue) recording of ‘Giselle’. The enchanting score has even more spontaneity and bounce than Bonynge’s later digital remake for Decca.

Romantic Trios

April 28, 2016

One of Joan Sutherland’s last records was a disc of trios for soprano, horn and piano. All the music is virtually unknown (and texts/English translations are included), all of it charming and lovingly performed by the trio of Australians.

Royal Opera Gala

April 22, 2016

The stunning ‘Covent Garden Anniversary Album’ released complete for the first time on CD, coupled with Solti’s firecracker accounts of Overtures and Preludes. Soloists include a range of 1960s Covent Garden stalwarts, – Carlyle, Sutherland, Veasey, Minton, Shuard, Collier, Gobbi, Evans, Pears and Ward; and conductors – Downes, Bonynge, Walton and Goodall. Nearly 160 minutes […]

Verdi: Ballet Music; Leoni: The Prayer and the Sword

April 20, 2016

What the French expected from opera changed in 1831 with the success of Meyerbeer’s ‘Robert le Diable’. Lengthy works with abundant scenic spectacle became practically obligatory and at least one ballet had to be included, in order to give the gentlemen of the influential Jockey Club an opportunity to see their favourites from the ‘corps […]

Gay: The Beggar’s Opera

April 20, 2016

In 1981, Richard Bonynge, together with an illustrious cast of singers (Joan Sutherland, Kiri Te Kanawa, et. al.) and actors (Angela Lansbury, Warren Mitchell, Michael Hordern, et. al.) went into Kingsway Hall for a recording of a new edition (by Richard Bonynge and Douglas Gamley) of John Gay’s ‘The Beggar’s Opera’. Written in 1728, it […]

The World of Offenbach

April 20, 2016

In October 1880, at the age of 61, having poured out his high-spirited talent into over a hundred works for the stage, Offenbach lay exhausted on his deathbed. A strange figure wearing dark glasses and a floppy white cravat knocked at the door. It was Léonce, the comedian who had made such a big hit […]