Thomas’s opera Hamlet contains one of the most famous of all ‘mad scenes’ for the soprano, something of which Joan Sutherland made a speciality. In 1983, she recorded the opera in what was to be one of her final recordings of complete operas. The set is adorned with Michael Stennett’s beautiful portrait of Sutherland as […]
This is one of the most successful and stylish of Don Giovanni recordings. Having sung Donna Anna in her early (Giulini) recording, Sutherland here is, if anything, even more spine-tingling in this role. Bonynge and the English Chamber Orchestra, together with the Ambrosian Singers, really deliver the goods and the rest of the stellar cast […]
Although Sutherland and Bonynge gave many memorable performances of ‘The Merry Widow’ on stage, they never recorded it completely. However, this recording – sung in English – offers a choice collection of the opera’s ‘greatest hits’, including ‘Vilja’, the famous waltz and some of the big scenes in the operetta.
A sprightly recording of Respighi’s wonderful tapestry of Rossini’s music for the ballet stage is coupled with some of the most gorgeous orchestral playing you’ll ever hear in the Chopin/Douglas ‘Les Sylphides’. And to finish off, a much-popularised recording of the ‘Meditation from Thaïs’ – from a young Nigel Kennedy!
A real rarity of the ballet world, this marvellous score, ‘rediscovered’ by Sir Frederick Ashton, was one of Decca’s most glorious recordings of ballet music by that pioneer of this genre, Richard Bonynge.
Light opera and musical theatre rub shoulders in this delightful compendium of favourites from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. With a few exceptions, such as Lehár’s ‘Merry Widow’, many of the operettas from which these songs and arias are taken are largely forgotten and seldom performed but their ‘hits’ remain evergreen. This reissue includes the […]
Christmas Eve 1974 was a nightmare for the inhabitants of Darwin (in Australia’s Northern Territory) when it was destroyed by a violent cyclone. A Darwin Appeal Fund was launched and a month later, on 25 January 1975, Richard Bonynge conducted a fund-raising concert at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The idea was that of […]
‘Rodelinda’ stems from a period of great creativity in Handel’s life, 1724-25, following quickly on ‘Giulio Cesare and Tamerlano’ although it met with only moderate success. One of its first revivals was via the German Handel Society in the 1920s and then the Handel Opera Society revived it again, with a cast including Joan Sutherland, during […]
While Richard Bonynge has long been associated with opera, particularly with that of the Bel Canto age, he has been one of the most active revivers and conductors of ballet in the 20th and 21st centuries. His recordings of the major Romantic classical ballet scores have been critically acclaimed but he has also been responsible for making […]
While Richard Bonynge has long been associated with opera, particularly with that of the Bel Canto age, he has been one of the most active revivers and conductors of ballet in the 20th and 21st centuries. His recordings of the major Romantic classical ballet scores have been critically acclaimed but he has also been responsible for making […]
While Richard Bonynge has long been associated with opera, particularly with that of the Bel Canto age, he has been one of the most active revivers and conductors of ballet in the 20th and 21st centuries. His recordings of the major Romantic classical ballet scores have been critically acclaimed but he has also been responsible for making […]
Among the bel canto and verismo operatic repertoire Richard Bonynge recorded for Decca, he also found time to unearth much hitherto forgotten ballet scores as well as forgotten music from the Baroque and Classical eras. Music by J.C. Bach and Salieri were recorded, rare Baroque overtures were explored and he also recorded three largely forgotten […]
