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The Grapes of Wrath/Live from the Minnesota Opera World Premiere
from: P.S. Classics
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I'll Say Yes
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Menotti: Amahl and the Night Visitors
: :Back in the days when the forces that controlled television actually cared about art, it was perfectly normal to see original plays and live musical performances right in your living room. In 1950, Menotti was commissioned to write an opera for television, and on Christmas Eve, 1951, Amahl and the Night Visitors was performed by the NBC Television Theater. This recording, under the composer's personal direction, was made a few days later, and it remains the definitive version, even though the sound is very dated ...
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World's Very Best Opera for Kids... in English!
from: Children's Group
: :Back in the days when the forces that controlled television actually cared about art, it was perfectly normal to see original plays and live musical performances right in your living room. In 1950, Menotti was commissioned to write an opera for television, and on Christmas Eve, 1951, Amahl and the Night Visitors was performed by the NBC Television Theater. This recording, under the composer's personal direction, was made a few days later, and it remains the definitive version, even though the sound is very dated ...
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Massenet - Thaïs / Fleming, Hampson, Sabbatini, Shkosa, Vidal, Devellereau, Cals, Yves Abel
: :Given the renaissance in recent years of an interest in Jules Massenet--consider, for example, the 1999 release of two Werthers back to back--the time definitely has become ripe for a new account of his late opera, Thaïs. This is the first alternative to appear on CD since the problematic version with Beverly Sills from the 1970s. While far from flawless (curiously, it was recorded in two stretches, with a pause of 15 months between them), it makes a mostly convincing case for the stirring beauty ...
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Gomidas Songs
from: Nonesuch
: :Although the pieces performed here by the internationally acclaimed, Canadian-based soprano Isabel Bayrakdarianare sung entirely in Armenian, these songs cast a powerful spell long before their literal meaning has been gleaned.Bayrakdarian born in Lebanon, the daughter of Armenian parents explores the extraordinary legacy of GomidasVardabet, a well-traveled, turn-of-the-nineteenth-century composer who made it his life' s work to seek out, transcribeand re-interpret the ancient liturgy, songs, lullabies, hymns and folk dances of his homeland. His work would havebeen remarkable under any circumstances, but it has ...
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Songs from the Labyrinth (Music by John Dowland)
from: Deutsche Grammophon
: : In choosing to cover the music of John Dowland (1563-1626), who is known as the 'melancholy madrigalist' from his output of cheerful ditties like 'Flow My Tears,' Police bandleader Sting has entered into a whole new realm of austere eeriness. Originally inspired by the gift of a lute, the rock superstar and activist sings the songs, deliciously sweet and tender or spirited by turn, accompanying himself, with Edin Karamazov sitting on lute and archlute. For listeners accustomed to hearing material of this period interpreted ...
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Harem
: :If one's notion of 'world music' promises a touch of the exotic and indigenous, often overlooked is the fact that the influence of western pop music has seeped into every corner of the globe, creating a hybrid that's often more than merely the sum of its influences. Theater vet Brightman steps into that pan-cultural hall of mirrors here, wedding her fascination with the music and rhythms of the 'forbidden places' (the title's Arabic meaning) of the Middle East to her own oft ethereal vocal charms ...
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Essential Bach
from: Decca
: :It is not possible to fit 36 Bach masterpieces on two CDs, so what Essential Bach does is present individual movements from across a range of the composer's work. The anthology is clearly aimed at the newcomer, and the absence of booklet notes to put the music in context is disappointing. We are only given titles, performers, and what films the extracts have been featured in, from Rollerball to The English Patient. On the plus side, most if not all of the music is instantly ...
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Philip Glass: Waiting for the Barbarians
from: Orange Mountain Music
: :Philip Glass' 2005 opera, Waiting for the Barbarians is based on the 1980 novel by Nobel Prize winning South African writer J.M. Coetzee (Disgrace, Life & Times of Michael K) with a libretto by Academy-Award winning playwright Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement). Waiting for the Barbarians is a harrowing allegory of the war between oppressors and the oppressed. The protagonist is a loyal civil servant who conscientiously runs the affairs of a tiny frontier garrison town, ignoring the threat of impending war with the ...
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