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VERDI La traviata

Rolando Villazón sings Alfredo, opposite Anna Netrebko, in what is probably one of the finest available versions of La traviata...

Reviewed by Hugo Shirley in issue: 02/2017

SALIERI La scuola de' gelosi

La scuola de’ gelosi was originally produced in Venice during the 1778/79 carnival. Haydn organised performances at Eszterháza (1780 81),...

Reviewed by David Vickers in issue: 02/2017

PUCCINI Manon Lescaut

Puccini dismissed concerns about following a hit version of the Abbé Prévost’s Manon with his own adaptation: ‘Massenet feels it...

Reviewed by Neil Fisher in issue: 02/2017

MASCAGNI Guglielmo Ratcliff

Wexford Festival Opera is catnip for those seeking out rare repertory. It specialises in digging up long-forgotten relics and has...

Reviewed by Mark Pullinger in issue: 02/2017

HUMPERDINCK Hansel and Gretel

The Vienna State Opera performed Hänsel und Gretel a few months after the end of the Second World War at...

Reviewed by Richard Lawrence in issue: 02/2017

HOLST At the Boar's Head

Both of these one-act operas remain on the fringes of the repertoire, so any new performance or recording is worthy...

Reviewed by Andrew Farach-Colton in issue: 02/2017

GRÉTRY L'Épreuve Villageoise

André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry was an important figure in the development of opéra comique – where the musical numbers are separated by...

Reviewed by Richard Lawrence in issue: 02/2017

BOITO Mefistofele

Though far from being the topless, red haired pantomime with which Samuel Ramey used to entertain us in this opera,...

Reviewed by Mike Ashman in issue: 02/2017

AHMAS Käärmesormus (Snake Ring)

You can appreciate why Harri Ahmas describes his 2008 work Käärmesormus (‘Snake Ring’) as a ‘chamber opera’ but the title...

Reviewed by Andrew Mellor in issue: 02/2017

The Glass Effect

Lavinia Meijer’s debut recording of Glass’s music (Channel Classics, 3/13) was a rather underwhelming experience. Consisting mainly of the dark...

Reviewed by Pwyll ap Siôn in issue: 02/2017

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