CD-Charts Position 1

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Mozart: Complete Edition Box 15: Late Italian Operas (11 CDs)

Search: In The Garden
by: Various Artists

Release Date October 17, 2005

CD-Charts Position 2

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The Best Ever Opera Experience

Search: In The Garden
by: Various Artists

Release Date August 25, 2005

CD-Charts Position 3
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Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor

Search: In The Garden
from: Decca

Release Date August 08, 1985
In every respect, Sutherland's second studio recording is the benchmark for this work. Her performance remains supreme technically, with dazzling coloratura etc etc, as expected. But it is far more than that. Her Lucia is a real flesh and blood woman and she wrings evey last drop of pathos out of the role - with the most beautiful, evenly produced voice of the 20th century. And to cap it all, she sings it a semi-tone higher than any other recorded performance - as Donizetti intended it! Milnes is also wonderfully dramatic and Sutherland's scenes with him raise this set to a compendium of truly great singing. Pavarotti warbles beautifully but, like most of his interpretations, it could be any composer from the first half of the 19th century. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Ritorna Vincitor! The Legendary Birgit Nilsson

Search: In The Garden
by: Birgit Nilsson

Release Date January 20, 2006
There is no "the" Birgit Nilsson recording. In fact, she is one of the most recorded singers ever. And, it's also a fact, you can not get too much of her. Every recordning tell us something more about her passion, her fire, her brilliance and her big heart. This cd-album contains some of her finest recordnings. Of course you have heard her "Starke Scheite..." with Solti before, but whan did you listen to it together with the Wesendonc-songs?
Put these two cd:s in your player and enjoy. Again and again.

CD-Charts Position 5
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Britten conducts Britten: Opera Vol.1

Search: In The Garden
by: Benjamin Britten

Release Date May 10, 2004
There is no "the" Birgit Nilsson recording. In fact, she is one of the most recorded singers ever. And, it's also a fact, you can not get too much of her. Every recordning tell us something more about her passion, her fire, her brilliance and her big heart. This cd-album contains some of her finest recordnings. Of course you have heard her "Starke Scheite..." with Solti before, but whan did you listen to it together with the Wesendonc-songs?
Put these two cd:s in your player and enjoy. Again and again.

CD-Charts Position 6
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Britten: Peter Grimes

Search: In The Garden
by: Covent Garden Benjamin Britten, Covent Garden Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Peter Pears Chorus of the Royal Opera House

Release Date April 09, 2001
There have been many productions of Grimes around the world and a good few recordings made since this first one was committed to disc nearly half a century ago. From our perspective in the 21st Century it is hard to recall the huge impact made by the first production at Sadlers' Wells in 1946 and by this recording just a decade or so later. It's now easier to see the antecedents and ancestors of the piece - Verdi, Mahler, even Mozart. At the time it seemed a really revolutionary piece, not only for British but also for worldwide opera.

The recording, too, was something new. This was the first time that John Culshaw and his Decca team had fully implemented their ideas for making a real production out of a stereo opera recording. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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Britten: Peter Grimes

Search: In The Garden
from: Duo

Release Date April 19, 1999
This was the first opera recording I ever listened to and it got me hooked. I've since acquired the Pears / Britten interpretation on Decca, but (so far) have been unable to relinquish my loyalty to this Philips set. The two major pillars here are Jon Vickers as Peter Grimes and Colin Davis overseeing the whole work. Vickers makes Grimes much more powerful, agressive, threatening and tortured than Pears. Right from the first bars - in the court room scene - it's clear that Vickers is going to put his heart and soul into this role. Indeed, such is the depth of his portrayal that one cannot help a degree of sympathy for the "sadistic fisherman". In fact, it is Vickers' ability to generate a complex mix of feelings in the listener that gives Grimes ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Tippett: Vocal Music

Search: In The Garden
by: Various Artists

Release Date November 14, 2005
I have chosen to review this set as it would appear to be the only way now left by which to acquire the sublime Byzantium, as performed by Solti, the Chicago Symphony and the majectic Faye Robinson.

The first disc comprises Tippett songs which I am in no position to comment on as they are some of the few Tippett items I do not own and know. A situation I will most certainly remedy.

The second disc gives us A Child of our Time, probably Tippett's most popular and performed work. Ironically so in my opinion because this is representative of the earliest era of Tippett's career when arguably he had yet to find the utterly distinctive voice and commence the journey to the most refined individuality that would eventually define ... Read More: