James McCracken (1926–1988) recorded the arias on the first half of this disc in 1969, four years after the duets he recordeed with his wife, mezzo-soprano Sandra Warfield (1921-2009). Both singers were in their prime leon during those years and in the decade following. These performances of distinction offer some of the sappiest and most […]
In the 1950s and much of the 60s, the great bass roles in the Italian repertoire and the title part in ‘Don Giovanni’, were synonymous with the name of Cesare Siepi. Gifted with a commanding presence on stage and a firm, sonorous, pliant ‘basso cantante ‘– a true successor to the mantle of Pinza and Pasero, […]
Gifted with great beauty and a natural stage presence, Hilde Gueden was unfailingly easy on the ear as well as the eye. With her creamy tone and ability to spin the silvery upper-register sonority needed for her Strauss roles, she was a natural successor to Elisabeth Schumann, Lotte Schöne and Adele Kern. Fortunately for posterity, […]
The 1961 recording of Rigoletto is the first of two in which Joan Sutherland sang the role of Gilda. Although the later cast – conducted by Richard Bonynge – was starrier with Pavarotti taking the role of the Duke, this earlier version is still favoured by Sutherland aficionados. ‘Sutherland is extraordinary’ wrote an Amazon customer. […]
This is a classic recording from 1968, of Leoncavallo’s one-act, grisly tale of ‘live’ murder during a village stage production. This is ‘verismo’ at its finest and most potent and the star-studded cast gives a thrilling, edge-of-the-seat performance.
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.
A superb collection of Verdi overtures, marvellously performed by the one-and-only Vienna Philharmonic in sumptuous readings by the late Giuseppe Sinopoli.
This compilation, drawn from the archive of ‘the Opera Company’ – Decca – boasts many of the greatest Verdi recordings ever made and features the greatest highlights of his operatic works. Here you’ll find the stars of the opera performing Overtures, Arias and Choruses from La Traviata, Aida, Luisa Miller, Otello, Nabucco, Rigoletto and Il […]
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!
The Romanian soprano, Virginia Zeani made only two studio recordings with a major label: these recordings for Decca of coloratura arias conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, and Puccini arias conducted by Franco Patanè. Generally, she favoured the spontaneity of live recordings. She did not have an agent and was not an active self-promoter which may account […]
Verdi’s mighty operatic Requiem and Fauré’s more demure offering are stablemates in this collection of rare recordings of these masterpieces. Reissues of Paul van Kempen’s recordings on Eloquence have been garnering great critical plaudits and this is the first international release on CD of his recording of the Verdi, made for Philips in 1955 and […]
Five composers, three LPs … an all-Italian, all-rare, 2CD compendium. Fernando Previtali’s orchestral recordings for Decca of music by Respighi, Casella, Ghedini, Petrassi and Casella were recorded in July 1956 and had a relatively short lifespan. Other than Respighi’s ‘Pines of Rome’, the remaining music was then – as it is now – largely unfamiliar […]
