CD-Charts Position 1
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The Three Tenors Christmas

by: Luciano Pavarotti, Carreras, Domingo

Release Date October 13, 2008
The Three Tenors are on top form here with all their usual pomp. Cantique de Noel as the opening carol is perfect. Few carols are as reverently uplifting and this sets the tone perfectly. The CD provides a lovely contrast to the more well known popular Christmas song collections and adds a sparkle to the decorations when listening.

CD-Charts Position 2
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The Only Opera Album You'll Ever Need

by: Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Release Date March 31, 2001
The tracks on this cd are excellent and well worth the money. I get worried about the packaging of this sort of disc though because it reminds me of Tesco's attempt to sell wine to the masses by renaming a mediocre chablis as 'Good with meat' or whatever. If this was called 'Fine Opera' or 'An Opera Sampler' then I'd be a lot happier but the dumb approach of 'The Only Opera Album You'll Ever Need' makes me cringe. Once again though: the music is very good and the performances are excellent on the whole.

CD-Charts Position 3
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The Only Classical Album You'll Ever Need

from: Classics

Release Date November 03, 2003

The budget price doesn't reflect the quality of this 2 disc collection of classical music highlights, for the soloists, orchestras, conductors and the recordings themselves ensure it is a good quality selection of mostly familiar music from the classical music repertoire.

The choices lean heavily towards the opera style, so for that reason alone will not be the only album necessary to cover everyone's taste - even the complete classical beginner will find many of their familiar favourites are absent.

The tracks are mostly single movements from the whole score, which may not please the more enthusiastic classical fan, but it's unavoidable given the short time permitted by only 2 CDs. In any case, this album really ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Puccini: Turandot

from: Decca

Release Date February 07, 1985
Read all the other reviews for soloist analysis etc. What I wish to add is do not be put off by the age of this recording. This was recorded by Decca in their glory days.The dynamic range, frequency range, soundstaging, capture of the hall sound, can (and does) put many a modern recording to shame. The breathing sounds and creaking stage boards only cement the performance. If you want to know how good your system is, can you hear the tube trains passing underneath and the birds outside.

For many including myself this is and will always be a definitive/landmark recording/performance.

CD-Charts Position 5
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The Ultimate Collection

by: Pavarotti

Release Date September 06, 2007

This 2007 single CD release is a compilation of opera's best known arias performed by one of our generations most popular and successful tenors.

None of the recordings are particularly new, ranging from the 1973 version of 'Nessun Dorma' (long before the Three Tenors era) to slightly newer releases like the 1989 'Live like Horses' duet with Elton John.

In between these two are all the favourites like Verdi's 'Brindisi' and 'La Donna e Mobile', and of course Lara's 'Granada'.

Whether this is, or if in fact any 1 CD of just one hour of music could be, the ultimate Pavarotti collection I'm not certain, for there are several other such titled releases available (most notable being Decca's 2 disc compilation which guests ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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Puccini: La Bohème

from: Decca

Release Date August 05, 1987
In a recent BBC3 "CD Review" broadcast, Alexandra Wilson made a gallant attempt to achieve the impossible task of choosing amongst forty or so recordings of "La Boheme" - and while I agreed with her ultimate choice of the Beecham recording with Bjorling, Merrill and De Los Angeles, I have rather more regard for this discarded Karajan recording simply because Pavarotti's voice, in its prime, as she herself put it, "runs through the recording like a golden seam". The rest of the cast is wonderful, too, although Karajan's love for the score is manifested in a rather deliberately "beautiful" approach and thereby slightly undercuts the drama. I cannot be without either recording of this eternally youthful and moving opera, and although Freni was captured in slightly fresher, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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The Best of the Three Tenors

by: José Carreras Plácido Domingo Luciano Pavarotti James Levine Zubin Mehta

Release Date June 23, 2003
I am not really a classical music buff, but with my father in law being one its an obvious choice for presents. knowing that he likes the 3 tenors is a big help seeing as i do not really know much at all about classical music apart form the odd few bits world cup and films. I bought this disc for his birthday not really relishing the thought of hearing it, however I was pleasently supprised indeed. This was very easy on the ears indeed and shock horror on the whole i enjoyed cd there was the odd one i was not that overly keen on not to sure which one it was called i think it was track 4 Sous le ciel de Paris. By comparrison you'll never walk alone i thought was very enjoyable along with nessumdora the world cup anthum from a few years back now. Untill listening to this cd i thought ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert

from: Decca

Release Date June 29, 1998

Living in Oman/ Arabia, working in Abu Dhabi & Dubai/ U.A. Emirates and travelling for business reasons all over the Gulf region and the Middle East I like to discuss with my Arabian friends and customers about the world most famous opera singers and most popular popmusic singers of both cultures - the Western (European & North American) and the Oriental culture.

We enjoy to listen to the best opera singers in Europe and in the Middle East. I was astonished to find CDs with music of Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti in the homes of my Arabian friends - no wonder, many of them studied in their youth in the U.S. or in U.K.! My friends in Arabia deeply admire and truly appreciate CARRERAS, DOMINGO and PAVAROTTI !


LUCIANO PAVAROTTI received ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Verdi - La Traviata / Sutherland, Pavarotti, Manuguerra, NPO, Bonynge

by: Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Matteo Manuguerra, Richard Bonynge, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Della Jones, John Tomlinson, Jonathan Summers, David Wilson-Johnson

Release Date March 05, 1991
In many ways, this was Sutherland's return to form, for the much criticised mooning is largely absent. The voice is firm, rich, and she's fully in control of it. And for me that's the first problem: There's just no getting away from the fact that here is a very mature, matronly heroine, who sounds in the pink of health. Violetta is supposed to be young and desperately ill...

Some singers allow little vocal frailties into their singing to bring the character alive (Cotrubas, Gheorghiu, Callas). Sutherland never does, and her attempts at being expressive strike me as...manufactured. She sounds like a not-so-young diva enjoying a big sing. But in a role she's grown out of. The artful drawing on the cover, which attempts to take back the years, says it all really.

Bonynge ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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Verdi: Rigoletto

by: Sherrill Milnes, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti

Release Date May 02, 1985
Pavarotti in his prime in the role he embodied perfectly, bringing the wicked Ducca a charm that adds a whole new dimension to his lecherous wickedness, and he has in la Stupenda a wonderful Gilda, [albeit slightly long in the tooth] each seemingly inspired by the other, and Richard Boynge handles both very well, the music rolling and crashing beautifully with the story and the singers and never dominating.
A truly great Rigoletto, almost certainly the best recorded so far.