‘Queen Victoria loved music for music’s sake and singing appealed especially to her. It was a joy, a necessity to her to hear music every day and to keep in contact with the musicians of her time. Artists met with the most charming and graceful reception and the Queen always entertained herself for a long […]

Recorded in 1966 in superb ‘Decca Sound’, these highlights from Gounod’s most widely-performed opera, extract music from the second act onwards. The Soldiers’ Chorus has rarely been done with such swagger, Ghiaurov is a terrifying Mephistopheles and Corelli a passionate Dr. Faust.

It is difficult to dissociate the pure, warm tones of Renata Tebaldi’s voice from her usual operatic repertoire – the heroines of the Italian lyric stage of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which, thanks to her exceptional vocal and dramatic endowment, she interpreted so superbly. That these unforgettable portrayals were not just the product […]