Giuseppe Verdi: Otello

Actors:

Otello... Jon Vickers

Desdemona... Mirella Freni

Jago... Peter Glossop

Emilia... Stefania Malagù

Cassio... Aldo Bottion

Conductor: Herbert Von Karajan

Artistic Supervisor: Herbert Von Karajan

This film by Hebert von Karajan is the best rendition of Verdi's "Otello" available in any video format. The conducting and singing are superb and the drama is expressed with the utmost intensity. Jon Vickers is the best Otello in recent memory, superior even to Placido Domingo in vocal and dramatic power. Mirella Freni is a bit light-voiced for Desdemona, but she sings beautifully and looks like an angel. Peter Glossop sings the role of Iago with beauty and power, and sets just the right tone of evil playfulness. Picture and sound quality are both just fine. The supporting cast is wonderful, too, and includes Jose van Dam (Lodovico) and Michel Senechal (Roderigo).

Giuseppe Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

Actors:

Massimiliano Pisapia... Riccardo

Franco Vassallo... Renato

Chiara Taigi... Amelia

Anna Maria Chiuri... Ulrica

Eun Yee You... Oscar

Conductor: Riccardo Chailly

Stage Director: Ermanno Olmi

This film conflated from two live performances of 'Un Ballo in Maschera' comes from the Leipzig Opera and thus the marvelous Gewandhaus Orchestra is in the pit and the conductor is their new music director Riccardo Chailly, conducting his first-ever 'Ballo.' The singers are all

Shostakovich: Symphony No.8 in C minor, op.65

Dmitri Shostakovich  (Composer)

Valery Gergiev (Conductor)

Audio CD (1995)

Number of Discs: 1

Label: Philips

SPARS Code: DDD

Giacomo Puccini: La fanciulla del West

Actors:

Barbara Daniels... Minnie

Sherrill Milnes... Jack Rance

Placido Domingo... Dick Johnson

Anthony Laciura... Nick

Julien Robbins... Ashby

Conductor: Leonard Slatkin

Artistic Director: James Levine

The production provides plenty of dramatic contrast while it nicely captures the Wild West setting. The whole thing works exceptionally well, and is ultimately no more silly than any number of Verdi’s operas. This is rendered all the more realistic by a cast which I cannot imagine being surpassed. Barbara Daniels may not have the big or luscious soprano voice characteristic of the great Puccini sopranos, past and present (think Tebaldi, Price, Gheorghiu), but she immerses herself so completely into the dramatic aspects of her role that any vocal shortcomings are quickly forgotten. Domingo is fantastic in a role that is quite ideal for him, lying vocally somewhere between Rodolfo and Calaf.

Brahms: Klavierstücke op.116 - 119

Johannes Brahms (Composer)

Philippe Cassard (Performer)

Mozart: Ouvertures

Wolfanfg Amadeus Mozart (Composer)
Rinaldo Alessandrini(Conductor)

National Opera Orchestra (Orchestra)