Editorial Product Review: :Given the renaissance in recent years of an interest in Jules Massenet--consider, for example, the 1999 release of two Werthers back to back--the time definitely has become ripe for a new account of his late opera, Thaïs. This is the first alternative to appear on CD since the problematic version with Beverly Sills from the 1970s. While far from flawless (curiously, it was recorded in two stretches, with a pause of 15 months between them), it makes a mostly convincing case for the stirring beauty of Massenet's much-misunderstood work. For Thaïs, with ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:This recording was made near the end of Maria Callas's career. It is a role she never sang onstage, but it suited her almost perfectly, and she gives a deep, compelling performance on this recording. The mezzo-soprano tessitura was comfortable for her voice, and the role did not call for a pretty sound. Nor did the recording studio require the kind of huge vocal power expected in an opera house. And furthermore, the character of a strong-willed, capricious, sexually compelling woman who thinks exclusively of herself was close to the ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:This recording was made near the end of Maria Callas's career. It is a role she never sang onstage, but it suited her almost perfectly, and she gives a deep, compelling performance on this recording. The mezzo-soprano tessitura was comfortable for her voice, and the role did not call for a pretty sound. Nor did the recording studio require the kind of huge vocal power expected in an opera house. And furthermore, the character of a strong-willed, capricious, sexually compelling woman who thinks exclusively of herself was close to the ...
Editorial Product Review:Description:Deutsche Grammophon proudly presents the new faces of the opera world in a glamorous new live concert DVD: Anna Netrebko, Elı - na Garancˇa, Ramón Vargas and the highly acclaimed young French baritone Ludovic Tézier sing a wide range of Italian and French opera favorites. This recording features highlights from concerts at Baden- Baden's Festspielhaus, where tickets to this extraordinary event sold out in record time. The DVD features the four young stars performing duets and the popular quartet 'Bella figlia dell'amore' from Rigoletto. Other highlights include Delibes' famous flower duet from ...
Editorial Product Review: :There's a commercial inevitability to holiday song collections that can tempt music fans to mutter 'humbug' under their breath. Yet while this collection (released in conjunction with the Tenors' Christmas Spectacular tour of 2003) is no less market savvy, in the end the trio's earnest, energetic performances earn their fair shair of respect. The trio's Celtic shadings impart considerable warmth to 'Fairytale of New York' and other performances, but it's the range of influences they (also in solo and duet turns, all solidly backed by the Czech National Chamber Orchestra) bring to ...
Editorial Product Review:Album Description:StingÂ’s Songs From The Labyrinth is an album of 17th century music composed by John Dowland and performed on the lute, an ancient acoustic guitar. After being given a lute nearly two years ago as a gift, Sting became fascinated and immersed himself with the instrument and the history of lute music. Reminded of his almost 25 year long enthrallment with the works of John Dowland, the Elizabethan composer who wrote songs for the lute, Sting has recorded a new album of vocal and lute music. All songs were composed by ...
Editorial Product Review:Album Description:For her second recording as an exclusive Virgin Classics artist, soprano sensation Diana Damrau has chosen to sing a remarkably varied selection of concert and operatic arias by Mozart, ranging from the bravura (Donna Anna, Konstanze, Donna Elvira) to the more serious (Pamina) to the lighter soprano (soubrette roles such as Susanna, Blonde, and others). Damrau has gained international acclaim for her Mozart renditions, alternating the roles of Pamina and The Queen of the Night at the Met last fall, as well as Konstanze in Die Entführung later in the season. ...
Editorial Product Review: :This disc could be more succinctly titled Christmas for Anglophiles. Few sounds are more British than the boy soprano-dominated Choir of King's College in Cambridge. And the group is heard--in some sections recorded live--in an actual Christmastide service amid the generous reverberation of a cathedral acoustic with little more than a tasteful though austere organ accompaniment. The repertoire isn't just conservative, traditional hymns and carols. One is harmonized by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and there are a number of contributions by contemporary composers Thomas Adès, Judith Weir, and John Tavener, all of which ...
Editorial Product Review: :This disc could be more succinctly titled Christmas for Anglophiles. Few sounds are more British than the boy soprano-dominated Choir of King's College in Cambridge. And the group is heard--in some sections recorded live--in an actual Christmastide service amid the generous reverberation of a cathedral acoustic with little more than a tasteful though austere organ accompaniment. The repertoire isn't just conservative, traditional hymns and carols. One is harmonized by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and there are a number of contributions by contemporary composers Thomas Adès, Judith Weir, and John Tavener, all of which ...
Editorial Product Review: :This disc could be more succinctly titled Christmas for Anglophiles. Few sounds are more British than the boy soprano-dominated Choir of King's College in Cambridge. And the group is heard--in some sections recorded live--in an actual Christmastide service amid the generous reverberation of a cathedral acoustic with little more than a tasteful though austere organ accompaniment. The repertoire isn't just conservative, traditional hymns and carols. One is harmonized by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and there are a number of contributions by contemporary composers Thomas Adès, Judith Weir, and John Tavener, all of which ...
Intel's Core 2 Duo E6700 offers the best price-to-performance ratio we've seen in a desktop chip. For half the cost of AMD's top-of-the-line chip, you get identical if not superior performance and better power efficiency. AMD surprised us last year with its completely dominant dual-core chips, but Intel regains the crown with Core 2 Duo.
India expects to see rough diamond supplies fall by up to a fourth after the Diamond Trading Co (DTC), the distribution arm of De Beers, cuts down on Indian clients, an industry body said on Wednesday.