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| This 1973 recital LP "Virtuoso Arias by W. A. Mozart" received the Grand Prix du Disque. "Astonish me!" Diaghilev would cry. He should have met Miss Moser. Her singing on this album is a ballet in itself, an astonishing exercise in daring and poise; but what sets the nerves dancing in response is the sense of dramatic command and musical intelligence that accompany the virtuosity. Such a sense is 01 - O Zittre Nicht, Mein Lieber Sohn (04:54) |
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| Alfredo Kraus remained an EMI Classics artist throughout most of his career. It is for that reason that this compilation extends from the early 1960s (two arias from Così, as conducted by Karl Böhm) up to a live recording from December 1987 ("Una furtiva lagrima" from L'Elisir d'amore and "Salut! demeure chaste et pure" from Faust). Kraus, who was born on September 24, 1927 in the Canary Islands, was 60 at the time, and hardly less of fresh of voice than he was in the Così recording. Kraus was a lyric tenor who never sounded juvenile. In lighter bel canto roles such as Ernesto (Don Pasquale) a more youthful vocal persona Most of these selections are taken from Kraus's complete recordings; the exceptions are the two indicated above from 1987, which were recorded at this Paris Opéra. (Frankly, it is a shame that Kraus left commercial recordings of neither L'Elisir nor Faust.) This means that Kraus is joined by excellent singers, including Montserrat Caballé in I Puritani, Renata Scotto in La bohème and La traviata, and Beverly Sills in Rigoletto and Don Pasquale. The selections have been chosen well, although, as with the other releases, there are some untidy fade-in and fade-outs. With the exception of Così, the engineering remains bright and shiny. This is an excellent compilation, and for those who are less familiar with Kraus than with the "Three Tenors," this might whet their appetite for more. |
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| Hands down, Nicolai Gedda was the classiest lyric tenor of the 1950s and '60s (and very early '70s). For the most part he wisely kept away from the after-1860 Italian repertoire: his voice lacked the necessary juice, and with Björling, Bergonzi, Corelli, and del Monaco around, why bother? These CDs offer two hours and 35 minutes of singing--and interpreting--that never tire the ear and never bore.
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 Mozart's opera about an emperor with a heart of gold and the plotters who betray him ends with reconciliation and forgiveness. Along the way we meet characters who include a good man tortured by his conscience, a vindictive seductress, a selfless heroine, and sundry others, all in a work in which Mozart reverts to the old opera seria style. That means lots of long recitatives which, together with a credulity-straining plot, resulted in many condemning the opera to the second tier of Mozart's works. But when given in a performance of such volatile vitality and superb singing, it commands our attention. The music certainly is top-drawer Mozart, thanks to Jacobs's incisive conducting, the period orchestra's lively playing, and a cast of singers who handle difficult coloratura with ease and offer persuasive portrayals.
Performer: Mark Padmore, Sunhae Im, Bernarda Fink, Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Sergio Foresti |
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| The appeal of La Clemenza di Tito, if less immediate and less obvious than that of the other operas of Mozart's maturity, is still very powerful and very individual. Take no notice of those who talk of the stiff Metastasian plot: Tito is a classicalrevival opera, a true child of its time, its emotions deeply human—Mozart was doing something new, not rehashing something old (as indeed the opera's continuing popularity after his time bears out). I am moved to make these points not only on hearing the music but also by the character of the present performance, and especially by the sheer emotional force that is evident in much |
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| Mozart wrote Idomeneo in Munich during 1780-1, with the heroic role of Idamantes as a soprano castrato. He later expressed the intention of revising it, "more in the French manner", with a tenor Idamantes (the French did not countenance castratos) and with Idomeneus played by a bass. But the closest he got to doing that—since the opera was never staged again in his lifetime—was to organize a concert performance, mainly by amateurs, in Vienna in 1786; there, it seems, Idamantes was sung by a tenor, but we do not know much else about that performance except, probably, that the minor role of Arbaces was I have greatly enjoyed the way Bohm plays it. He may be an octogenarian, but he directs the opera for the most part with a spirit and an urgency that many a young man might envy. Most of the accompanied recitatives are alert and fiery, and in this particular work they carry a great deal of the emotional weight. Mozart's orchestral writing is often unusually complex, and here every strand of it can be heard without any feeling of unnatural perspectives. Performer: Wieslaw Ochman, Edith Mathis, Julia Varády, Peter Schreier |
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| This is a wonderful recording. William Christie brings to Mozart all the finesse and class he brought to the French repertoire. The musicians of Les Arts |
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| René Jacobs ongoing coverage of the entire Mozart opera oeuvre continues with The Magic Flute, performed as usual with the RIAS Kammerchor and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. You never quite know what to expect as you peel the cellophane off a new René Jacobs' approach is undoubtedly refreshing and, as always, everything is executed with the utmost committment, not to mention gloriously virtuosic playing from the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
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| This (Mitridate) full-length opera seria--written by Mozart at age 14--has had some strong recorded exposure in the past, but this set may bring it to a broader public than ever before. Now that Handel's operas in the same genre are much more in evidence, what once might've seemed like the work of an underdeveloped dramatist is only Mozart maintaining the status quo, which is a long, expository, musically conservative first act followed by two shorter acts with much more |
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It was only a matter of time before William Christie got around to recording Mozart's delightful 1782 singspiel, and the results are very happy indeed. Period instruments are just right for the raucous "Turkish" music Mozart composed for Entführung, and they go very nicely with the light voices Christie has chosen as well. Most successful is the Belmonte of tenor Ian Bostridge, already famous for his lieder singing. This is a sensitive yet ardent portrayal, and while the voice may be somewhat limited at the bottom end of the scale, its colors and expressive use more than make up for any limitations. Not only is Christine Schäfer's Konstanze handsomely sung, but for once we feel her rage in "Martern |
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...no matter how many Mozart discs you may already possess, this new recording demands to be added to the collection.
individualistic arias, some of them exquisite and among the composer's very best. Conductor Christophe Rousset is perfect for finding the dramatic center of every moment. But the set is worth buying just for its passionate cast, which features 
