Opera Recordings

So Romantique! / Cyrille Dubois

‘So Romantique!’ illustrates the ‘profoundly sentimental’ side of French opera from the 1830s to the 1900s, which gradually came to be judged overwrought and was condemned to partial oblivion. With the Orchestre

National de Lille conducted by Pierre Dumoussaud, French tenor Cyrille Dubois deploys the full range of his artistry, the impressive high notes, the luminous tone and the graceful phrasing that is ‘so Cyrille’! (Alpha)

1CD# ALPHA924 $18.99

Tafreshipour: The Doll Behind the Curtain [CD]

An original and challenging work of musical theatre, The Doll Behind the Curtain was composed in 2015 and is Tafreshipour’s first opera as well as the first Iranian opera with an English libretto. It was premièred in London in 2015 and is here heard in a recording by the team that also performed it at the Royal Danish Opera in 2020. (BIS)

1CD# BIS-2596 $19.99

Saint-Georges: L’Amant Anonyme [3 CDs]

Haymarket Opera, Chicago’s premier early opera company, performs on this world-premiere recording of L’Amant Anonyme (The Anonymous Lover) by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de SaintGeorges (1745–1799). Premiered in 1780, L’Amant Anonyme was the most successful of Bologne’s six operas and is the only one to survive to the present day. (Cedille)

3CD# CDR 217 $32.99

Auber: Le Philtre [2 CDs]

The two leading operatic composers of their time were Rossini and Auber, one now fêted, the other largely overlooked. In 1831 Auber and his long-standing librettist Eugène Scribe produced Le Philtre, which took the concept of petit opéra to the extreme, even outdoing Rossini’s Le Comte Ory in depicting a rural setting peopled not with Arcadian shepherds but with ordinary country folk. (Naxos)

2CD# 8660514-15 $24.99

Dessau: Lanzelot [2 CDs]

Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor [2 CDs]

Among the countless studio recordings of Lucia di Lammermoor, this Westminster recording from the early seventies is particularly noteworthy. First of all for the conductor, Thomas Schippers, one of the most sensitive interpreters of Italian opera, especially in Verdi. The role of the protagonist is played by the American soprano Beverly Sills. An edition of constant reference. (Urania)

2CD# WS121.405 $29.99

Handel: Solomon [2 CDs]

Handel’s oratorio Solomon is now regarded by its performers and its listeners as one of his greatest compositions. This was not, however, always the case. Solomon was not performed outside of London during Handel’s lifetime, an unusual occurrence during his British career. Here, Leonardo García Alarcón and his singers and instrumentalists offer us a flamboyant version of the work. (Ricercar)

2CD# RIC449 $27.99

Rota: Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze [2 CDs]

Nino Rota: “How I’d like to be remembered...with a bit of nostalgia, lots of optimism, and good humor.” Rota’s wish should well come true. Not the least, if we lend our ears to his third (of ten) and most popular opera, the snappy Florentine Straw Hat (Il cappello di paglia di Firenze), which Rota wrote in Bari, after the War ended, and orchestrated a decade later for its premiere in Palermo. (Capriccio)

2CD# C5466 $27.99

Strauss: Elektra [2 CDs]

Based on ancient Greek mythology and Sophocles’ tragedy Electra, the opera is the second of Strauss’s two highly modernist operas. Laila Andersson-Palme was born in 1941 and moved to Stockholm in 1960. Following a hugely successful career often singing Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, in various roles, in 1985 she was appointed Court singer in 1985. (Sterling Records)

2CD# CDA1867 $29.99

Nowhere in his work does Dessau come up with a greater variety of musical styles than Lanzelot; from baroque concerto grosso and romantic parodies to agitprop music and modern sounds, he pulls out all the stops. With its plurality of musical levels and appeal to the courage of freedom, Lanzelot is the East German counterpart to the equally ambitious total theatre of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Soldaten. (Audite)

2CD# ADT23448 $31.99

Opera Albums In Brief

Porpora: Carlo il Calvo [3 CDs]

Porpora’s opera is based on a Venetian libretto dating from 1699 which, under various titles, has been set to music by composers such as Vinacessi, Keller, Alessandro Scarlatti, Orlandini and Telemann. (Parnassus Arts)

3CD# PARARTS002 $45.99

Mozart: The Singspiele Operas [5 CDs]

These two works represent the alpha and omega of Mozart. With these performances of Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Die Zauberflöte, René Jacobs penetrates to the heart of Mozartian singspiel. (Harmonia Mundi)

5CD# MOB946718 $39.99

Lortzing: Der Waffenschmied [2 CDs]

Lortzing’s Der Waffenschmied is a lighthearted and superbly crafted opera that bridges Mozart’s Singspiele and early Wagner. (Capriccio)

2CD# C5490 $22.99

Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana

Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chorus and a cast of outstanding soloists in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. (CSO Resound)

1CD# CSOR 901 2201 $19.99