Blog
- Best Recordings of La Traviata
La Traviata was, according to Operabase, the most performed opera worldwide in the 2015-2016 and 2013-2014 seasons. Why is it so popular? Well, there are many reasons for this. The characters … - Best Recording of Die tote Stadt
There are certain operas that I adore that simply don’t have a common place in the repertory. Often times with these operas there is only one good recording of the opera … - Best Recordings of La Forza del Destino
Last week I presented the best recordings of Le Nozze di Figaro. Mozart’s masterpiece is a perfect, flawless opera. For me, the natural comparison point is to find the perfectly flawed opera. … - Best Recordings of Le Nozze di Figaro
Le Nozze di Figaro is Mozart’s truly delightful comedic masterpiece. There’s something truly infectious about this opera from the beginning of that famous overture to the sweet surrender of the final … - The Best Recordings of Tosca
Puccini’s “shabby little shocker” is considered by many opera aficionados to be one of the most superb combinations of musical brilliance and maudlin melodrama to ever be put on stage. Sprinkled … - Homo, hetero, mezzo
Paris Opera, 2005. Annio lies next to Sesto as they sing a duet about their mutual affection. After the final notes, Annio rolls towards Sesto, places a blindfold over her eyes, …
Biographies
- Francesco Merli
With his voluminous and heroic tenor voice, Francesco Merli came to represent a hallmark interpreter of Samson, Don José and Wagner’s Walther auf Stolzing in Italy during the 20’s and the 30’s. Born in … - Achille Braschi
“On Cetra we can hear the tenor Achille Braschi (the man who sang the ‘Di quella pira’ thrice in one evening!) as Turiddu: Instead of excessive complexes a voice like elemental forces, with a … - Aida Garifullina
Aida Garifullina was born in 1987 into a Tarar household. She enrolled in the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts in 2007 and studied there with Claudia Visca. Two years later, in the …
Articles, Interviews & Memories
- An Artistic Home – Beniamino Gigli
The following is a chapter from Gigli: The Master Tenor, a new English-language biography of the great Italian tenor by the late Colin Bain. THE ARRIVAL OF Gigli in … - Beniamino Gigli: The Record of Prejudice
During the controversial period in his career, in the years leading up to and immediately following World War II, Beniamino Gigli was, above all, the most international of … - Reflections on the greatness of Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso was a unique great tenor, without any doubt. I included him in my personal choice of the XX century “avant guard” group of great tenors. The group comprises the Italians Caruso,
Focus Feature
- Le Postillon de Lonjumeau
The history of opera is littered with shipwrecks which sail with great success when first launched only to sink into oblivion for one reason or another. Some are lost forever and some are re-floated only to sail out briefly before returning to dry-dock. It seems that ‘Le Postillon de Lonjumeau’ has become something of a pleasure boat which is only given the odd cruise in its home waters of France, kept afloat almost solely by its famous tenor aria of the same title. It is an aria full of verve, humour, melody requiring great vocal skill.
