Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Don Carlos ~ Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)

Don Carlos Opéra en cinq actes

Don Carlos, Infant d‘Espagne ~ Placido Domingo
Elisabeth de Valois ~ Katia Ricciarelli
Philippe II, Roi d‘Espagne ~ Ruggero Raimondi
Rodrigue, Marquis de Posa ~ Leo Nucci
Le Grand Inquisiteur ~ Nicolai Ghiaurov
Un Moine ~ Nikita Storojev
La Princesse Eboli ~ Lucia Valentini Terrani
Thibault, Page d‘Elisabet de Valois ~ Ann Murray
Une Voix d‘en Haut ~ Arleen Augér
Le Comte de Lerme ~ Tibere Raffalli
Un Héraut Royal ~ Antonio Savastano
Un Bucheron ~ Alessandro Corbelli

Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
Maestri del coro ~ Romano Gandolfi * Giulio Bertola
Maestro della banda ~ Franco Lizzio

Direttore ~ Claudio Abbado

Chanté sur le texte francais original

Deutsche grammophon 1985, DDD
Format: Flac, 4 disk set, Libretto courtesy of KAREOL

Disk 1: 212 mb.
http://rapidshare.com/files/201379524/Verdi_Don_Carlos_1.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/201379522/Verdi_Don_Carlos_1.part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/201379787/Verdi_Don_Carlos_1.part3.rar.html

Disk 2: 247 mb.
http://rapidshare.com/files/201379714/Verdi_Don_Carlos_2.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/201379594/Verdi_Don_Carlos_2.part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/201525901/Verdi_Don_Carlos_2.part3.rar.html

Disk 3: 182 mb.
http://rapidshare.com/files/201539576/Verdi_Don_Carlos_3.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/201539651/Verdi_Don_Carlos_3.part2.rar.html

Disk 4: 264 mb.
http://rapidshare.com/files/201540349/Verdi_Don_Carlos_4.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/201540475/Verdi_Don_Carlos_4.part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/201559819/Verdi_Don_Carlos_4.part3.rar.html

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)


Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Melodrama buffo in two acts
Figaro ~ Thomas Allen, Baritone
Rosina ~ Agnes Baltsa, Mezzo-soprano
Almaviva ~ Francisco Araiza, Tenor
Bartolo ~ Domenico Trimarchi, Baritone
Basilio ~ Robert Lloyd, Bass
Berta ~ Sally Burgess, Mezzo-soprano
Fiorello ~ Matthew Best, Bass
Ufficiale ~ John Noble, Baritone
~
Ambrosian Opera Chorus. Director: John McCarthy
~
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
Conductor: Sir Neville Marriner
~
Mezzo-soprano Agnes Baltsa was born on the Greek island of Lefkas on 19 November 1944. From the age of six she took piano lessons. In 1958 she moved to Athens where she graduated from the conservatory in 1965. In the same year she won a Maria Callas scholarship which enabled her to continue her studies in Munich (Germany). In 1968 she made her first appearance as Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart) at the Frankfurt Opera, followed by Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier, R. Strauss) at the Vienna State Opera in 1970. Until today, she is the youngest Ocativian ever at the Vienna State Opera.
~
Sir Thomas Allen is an established star of the great opera houses of the world. At the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, where in 2006 he celebrated the thirty-fifth anniversary of his début with the company, he has sung over forty roles. In 2006, he also celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary of his début at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. Equally renowned on the concert platform, he appears in recital in the United Kingdom, throughout Europe, in Australia and America, and has performed with the world's great orchestras and conductors. The greatest part of his repertoire has been extensively recorded.
His plans include a return to the Metropolitan Opera; his role debut as Gianni Schicchi for Los Angeles Opera, Don Alfonso (Cosi fan tutte) at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich and for Dallas Opera and Father (Hansel und Gretel) and Faninal (Der Rosenkavalier) for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
He made a triumphant directing debut in 2003 with ‘Albert Herring’ at the Royal College of Music and he has recently directed tremendously successful productions of ‘Don Giovanni’ and ‘Così fan tutte’ for Samling Opera at The Sage, Gateshead. He made an equally acclaimed U.S. directing debut with ‘Le nozze di Figaro’ for Arizona Opera at the beginning of the 2006/07 season and with ‘Il barbiere di Siviglia’ for Scottish Opera in 2007.
In the New Year's Honours of 1989 he was created a Commander of the British Empire and, in the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was made a Knight Bachelor.
~
Philips 1983. Format: Flac 3 disks.
Libretto incl: Courtesy of KAREOL.
~
Disk 1: 190 mb.
Disk 2: 184 mb.
Disk 3: 241 mb.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Giuseppe Verdi ~ Aida


Reupload with tracknames; older links on request

Giuseppe Verdi ~ Aida

Aida ~ Katia Ricciarelli
Radamés ~ Placido Domingo
Amneris ~ Elena Obraztsova
Amonasro ~ Leo Nucci
Ramfis ~ Nicolai Ghiaurov
Il Re ~ Ruggero Raimondi
Sacerdotessa ~ Lucia Valentini Terrani
Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
Maestro del Coro ~ Romano Gandolfi
Claudio Abbado

Deutsche Grammophon 1982

Format: Flac, Libretto incl. Courtesy of KARADAR

Disk 1. 133 mb.

Disk 2. 155 mb.

Disk 3. 216 mb.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Thomas Quasthoff ~ Die Stimme

Thomas Quasthoff ~ Die Stimme
Deutsche Opernarien
Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Christian Thielemann

1. Zar und Zimmermann: O sancta justitia! by Albert Lortzing
2. Zar und Zimmermann: Den Hohen Herrscher...Heil sei dem Tag by Albert Lortzing
3. Zar und Zimmermann: Sonst spielt ich mit Szepter by Albert Lortzing
4. Der Wildschütz: Fünftausend Taler by Albert Lortzing
5. Der Wildschütz: Lass Er doch hören...Bei diesem schliemmen Fall by Albert Lortzing
6. Der Wildschütz: Wie freundlich strahlt die holde Morgensonne by Albert Lortzing
7. Tannhäuser: Gar viel und schön by Richard Wagner
8. Tannhäuser: O, du mein holder Abendstern by Richard Wagner
9. Die schweigsame Frau, Op. 80: Wie schön ist doch die Musik by Richard Strauss
10. Euryanthe, J 291/Op. 81: Wo berg'ich mich?...Und er soll by Carl Maria von Weber


Once more Thomas Quasthoff puts us in his debt with a recital wholly out of the ordinary, executed – with Thielemann’s eager cooperation – confidently in singing of such strength and beauty as to almost silence criticism. Surveying German Romantic opera from the now-neglected Lortzing to Richard Strauss, he ranges easily through roles usually assigned to either a specifically baritone or bass voice.

In the lengthy extracts from Zar und Zimmermann he portrays both the pompous, amusingly portrayed mayor Van Bett and the upright figure of the Tsar, whose Act 3 aria he sings with refined tone and elegiac feeling having by then portrayed Van Bett’s preening in a voice perhaps not quite ‘fat’ enough for the ridiculous fellow. In Der Wildschütz he is funny as the schoolmaster Baculus, a buffo bass figure whose ‘Fünftausend Taler’ used to be a staple of a German bass’s repertory; then he sings Graf Eberbach’s lovely solo in a mellow baritone. It’s good to be reminded in such a positive way of Lortzing’s merits.

In a complete change of mood he then projects all the malevolent ardour of Lysiart’s highly original aria from Euryanthe, a work just revived this summer at Glyndebourne. This is a reading that recalls the style, in compact tone and verbal acuity, of the late, great Hermann Uhde. In the Tannhäuser pieces he projects the address of the benevolent Landgrave with complete authority and then sings Wolfram’s Evening Star aria, from which the CD takes its title, with perfection of tone and line. Finally he catches finely old Morosus’s restored peace after all the disturbing events of Die schweigsame Frau have finally come to an end. Once again, like his bass-baritone predecessor Hans Hotter, he easily encompasses the low range of this solo.

Thielemann, and his Berlin orchestra and chorus, are at one with their soloist throughout, and the recording catches everything in a clear, warm perspective.
--Gramophone Magazine

DDD 2002 Deutscher Grammophon
Format: Flac. 262 mb.
http://rapidshare.com/files/195722508/Thomas_Quasthoff.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/195722609/Thomas_Quasthoff.part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/195722595/Thomas_Quasthoff.part3.rar.html