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Puccini - Il Trittico / Alagna, Gheorghiu, Guelfi, Guleghina, Gallardo-Domás, Manca di Nissa, Palmer, Shicoff, van Dam, LSO, PO, Pappano
: essential recording:Aficionados are familiar with Puccini's Il Trittico or 'Triptych,' his three one-act operas that premiered at New York's Metropolitan in 1918; everyday opera lovers should know them as well. Here is Puccini at his most imaginative: Il Tabarro, a shocker about the jealousy of an older man towards his deceitful younger wife on a houseboat on the Seine is dark and foreboding, and is, incidentally, probably his greatest, tightest opera. It is given a superb performance here, ...
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Gilbert & Sullivan - Highlights from The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Yeomen of the Guard, Trial of Jury
: essential recording:Aficionados are familiar with Puccini's Il Trittico or 'Triptych,' his three one-act operas that premiered at New York's Metropolitan in 1918; everyday opera lovers should know them as well. Here is Puccini at his most imaginative: Il Tabarro, a shocker about the jealousy of an older man towards his deceitful younger wife on a houseboat on the Seine is dark and foreboding, and is, incidentally, probably his greatest, tightest opera. It is given a superb performance here, ...
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Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
: :This new, period instrument version of Purcell's wonderful, brief Dido and Aeneas shows up in a very crowded field. There are close to two dozen other versions available, many of them also historically informed. Here we have a dignified, beautifully sung reading, with instrumentalists performing with a similar sense of loveliness and reserve; indeed, the only time true overt emotionalism shows up is when the witches appear: Felicity Palmer is a nasty handful as the Sorceress. Susan Graham's Dido ...
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Janacek: Sinfonietta/Glagolitic Mass - Felicity Palmer, Malcolm King, Sir Simon Rattle, Philharmonia Orchestra
: :This new, period instrument version of Purcell's wonderful, brief Dido and Aeneas shows up in a very crowded field. There are close to two dozen other versions available, many of them also historically informed. Here we have a dignified, beautifully sung reading, with instrumentalists performing with a similar sense of loveliness and reserve; indeed, the only time true overt emotionalism shows up is when the witches appear: Felicity Palmer is a nasty handful as the Sorceress. Susan Graham's Dido ...
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Gilbert & Sullivan - The Mikado / WNO · Mackerras
: :Regarded by G & S fans as the best of the all the operettas, The Mikado is given a sizzling performance by Sir Charles Mackerras, who--by leaving off the overture (which isn't by Sullivan anyway)-- manages to squeeze the piece onto one CD. He also shortens the 'list' song since Gilbert's original features a prominent use of the 'N' word, which, not withstanding the fact that he's making fun of people who performed in black-face in the 19th century, ...
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Gilbert & Sullivan: H.M.S. Pinafore / Mackerras, Welsh National Opera
: :Pinafore is a hit that never fails in production, and that gets performed everywhere, from elementary schools with piano accompaniment to full-scale extravaganzas in major opera houses and theaters. In fact I would go so far as to say that rarely in the history of music has there been a happier marriage of words and music than Gilbert and Sullivan, and this piece is one of their best. --David Hurwitz
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The Essential Wedding Collection
from: Decca
: :Pinafore is a hit that never fails in production, and that gets performed everywhere, from elementary schools with piano accompaniment to full-scale extravaganzas in major opera houses and theaters. In fact I would go so far as to say that rarely in the history of music has there been a happier marriage of words and music than Gilbert and Sullivan, and this piece is one of their best. --David Hurwitz
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Maw: Scenes and Arias; Milner: Salutario Angelica, Roman Spring
from: Lyrita
:Album Description:Legendary performances on CD for the first time! Born in 1935, Nicholas Maw created a personal synthesis of serial and tonal traditions. Scenes and Arias is considered one of the finest British scores of the 1960s. Anthony Milner (1925-2002) was a more conservative composer who left a small but finely-wrought output.
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Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard; Trial by Jury
from: Telarc
: :The Yeoman of the Guard' is the 'serious' Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, a comic work that actually ends tragically. Trial by Jury, by contrast, is a one-act farce that initiated Sullivan's association with Gilbert, and which deals with one of their stock gags: a woman of mature years and less than compelling looks seeks to trap a younger man into fulfilling a marriage vow. Charles Mackerras is the world's foremost expert on Sullivan. He even concocted a delightful ballet ...
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Albert Herring
: :Having taken the operatic world by storm with his shatteringly tragic masterpiece Peter Grimes in 1945, Britten followed it only two years later with Albert Herring, a light-hearted, gently ironic comedy. The two operas, though obviously different, share certain elements--notably the locale, a small English village, where both protagonists are treated as social misfits by the meddlesome, class- and moral-obsessed inhabitants. But unlike Peter Grimes, whom the villagers ultimately destroy, Albert Herring asserts himself and breaks free. Librettist Eric ...
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