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Luciano Pavarotti: The Best (Farewell Tour)

from: Decca

September 13, 2005
Listening to Pavarotti every day, particularly his "The Best" CD, is a MUST. Disc #2 was glorious, his interpretation of folk songs is so seamless that your swept along with his joy in performing these gorgeous pieces. Do you want to be uplifted? Buy Pavarotti's The Best.

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Pavarotti's Greatest Hits

from: Decca

September 18, 2007
I checked this cd many times at my local Library that I decided to buy it, it is great! I like that the lyrics are included. beautiful songs.
Love it.

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The #1 Opera Album

by: Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Léo Delibes, Georges Bizet, Umberto Giordano, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, Gioachino Rossini, Alfredo Catalani, Jacques Offenbach, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Charles Gounod, Gaetano Donizetti, Pietro Mascagni, Antonin Dvorak, Richard Bonynge, Herbert von Karajan, Alberto Erede, Lamberto Gardelli, Giuseppe Patane, John Mauceri, Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, Gyorgy Fischer, Riccardo Chailly, Istvan Kertesz, Leone Magiera, Evelino Pido, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Luciano Pavarotti, Jussi Bjorling, Renata Tebaldi

February 27, 2001
I heard this CD on a PBS pledge drive (it was a premium) and found myself loving every cut on it! I was in my car and just wanted to keep on driving and listening. This is by far my most-played CD - I've had to make it a weekend only listen to prevent getting burned out on it. HIGHLY recommend it. Even if you are unfamiliar with some of the pieces, you will quickly learn to love them. . . . I must end this review - I'm off to listen to the "flower duet" for the 100th time. . .

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The Most Relaxing Classical Album in the World...Ever!

by: Johann Sebastian Bach, Léo Delibes, Gabriel Fauré, Erik Satie, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Edvard Grieg, Johann Pachelbel, Claude Debussy, Felix Mendelssohn, Camille Saint-Saens, Henryk Gorecki, Antonio Vivaldi, Edward Elgar, Jocelyn Pook, Sergey Rachmaninov, Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni, Luigi Boccherini, Jules Massenet, Ludwig van Beethoven, Jacques Offenbach, Pietro Mascagni, Antonin Dvorak, Giacomo Puccini, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Alexander Borodin, Joaquin Rodrigo, Samuel Barber

March 30, 1999
If you are looking for a soothing, beautiful collection of well-known classical music, this is the one. This purchse was for a gift to my sister, who heard my album and "Had to have it."

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Essential Mozart: 32 Of His Greatest Masterpieces

from: Decca

March 13, 2001
You get Mozart's best works in 2 CD. The sound is flawless to the common ear. Get it! if you love Mozart

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The Very Best of Maria Callas

by: Maria Callas

February 12, 2002
I grew up on opera but not on Maria Callas. Joan Sutherland, Schwartzkoff, Victoria Los Angeles, and Mady Mesple (to name a few) crowded the airwaves of our home growing up. I had heard that Maria Callas was THE Diva of opera and bought one of her obscure recordings from a low budget bin while in Paris 10 years ago. It didn't impress me that much. Perhaps it was recorded during her voice decline. I could certainly tell she had a powerhouse voice but many of those arias were unknown to me and I didn't connect all that well with the CD.

After reading some of these reviews I decided to give her one more chance. Surely 50 million opera fans can't be all wrong! So I bought this disc and listened to it the other day. There are plenty of ... Read More:

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The Most Famous Opera Duets

from: EMI Classics

April 12, 1994
Maybe these don't represent absolutely the greatest duets in all opera. But they represent some awfully good ones! The CD begins with a duet from "Les Pecheurs des Perles" (Puccini) and ends with the gloomy Miserere (from "Il Trovatore," by Verdi). In between are many more operas, from Donizetti and Mozart to Strauss and Wagner. Some of the finer singers of the past half century appear in various of these duets.

A bit more detail on a handful of these to illustrate.

"Sull'aria" from Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro." Heather Harper and Judith Blegen sing the parts here. This is a sweet duet from the opera. The singer's voices meld well together and this represents a poignantly sung piece.

"Ah! Verrana a tell ... Read More:

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Puccini - La Bohème / Freni, Pavarotti, Harwood, Ghiaurov, Karajan

by: Giacomo Puccini, Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan, Elizabeth Harwood, Rolando Panerai, Nicolai Ghiaurov

October 25, 1990
When you compare Freni with the light roles that she used to sing in the 60s and this Freni, you will think they are two different singers. But what is truly amazed is the fact that not only her voice changed, but she became bar none to one the hardest heavy lyric soprano roles ever: Mimi. And when she has Pavarotti next to her, it is like heaven. But, wait... Who is conducting is Karajan, unarguably one of the best puccinian ever. This is a record to listen, re-listen, re-listen, re-listen until I don't know when...

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Puccini: Madama Butterfly (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Lucia Danieli, Nicolai Gedda, Herbert von Karajan, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan

from: EMI Classics

August 19, 1997
While working on the PARALLEL PERSPECTIVES Archives page, I started thinking about Maria Callas & her rather bizarre, non-singing role in the equally bizarre 1970's Pier Passolini film MEDEA--and noticed this CD of Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY. I must admit that I was kind of turned-off to see that the CD was remastered from the original non-sterophonic LP (there's just so much even digital technology can do in salvaging pre-stereo operatic recordings) and I really only purchased it because I was curious hear Callas in one of her less notable roles (unbelievably there were only 3 performances).

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself really enjoying the entire production.

Of course director Herbert Von Karajan is a famous talent ... Read More:

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 / Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

from: Deutsche Grammophon

January 23, 1996
Previously, a reviewer wrote:

"Karajan in 1962 wanted to perform Beethoven in a modern way compared to the overtly spiritual, often very slow, heavy, and rubato-laden style of the past in Germany. ... in the last movement Karajan takes the vocal line faster...

"By comparison, Karajan wasn't as hectically fast or intense as Toscanini,..."

I don't wish to take anything away from Karajan's technical mastery, his orchestra's wonderful sound, or his "smoothness." It's all good.

But folks should understand the real reason Karajan's original recorded version of this work, at least in terms of its tempos, comes out as the previous reviewer accurately observed. He kept to his version in subsequent recordings, of which ... Read More: