Customer Reviews

The #1 Opera Album

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was raised in a large family headed by a single parent, my mother, who was widowed while pregnant with my brother. She had few moments of peace and quiet trying to raise the four of us in a small house. But Saturday afternoons, starting at 1:00, she demanded time for herself to listen, on the radio, to the Metropolitan Opera, live from Lincoln Center in New York, hosted by Milton Cross. This album nostalgically brings back to me those quiet Saturday afternoons, with the Opera on the radio, my mother sitting in her favourite chair reading.
None of us cared for Opera in those days. It wasn't until years later, watching a simulcast of Puccini's "La Boheme" on PBS that was also being broadcast on the radio, that I began to appreciate what my mother loved for all those years. To finally see the action, and to read the subtitles, made me realise how wonderfully romantic Opera really was, and this album is "mother's milk" to my ears. It's literally the best of the best of Opera arias and overtures, and now I regard this music with many fond memories of my childhood.
Also, if you are, like me, of the generation that was raised on Looney Tunes cartoons, you will recognise how many clever and downright hilarious send-ups they did of Opera, if you were listening to the music while watching the cartoons. Those cartoons were as much for the adult audiences as they were for children, and many of us received our earliest introductions to serious music through those classic cartoons. You will hear many of those arias and overtures that Warner Brothers used in those days in their cartoons. I only wish they would do something like that again so that today's children would not regard Classical Music as some kind of collosal bore.
If you've never listened to Opera, this is the album to get to introduce yourself to it. This features the very best of many composers and styles of Opera, and should be an essential part of any good music lover's library. I highly recommend this album for anyone who's either intimately familiar with Opera or who has never before listened to it. It's well worth your while to acquire this CD.

I have plenty of opera, but I wanted this CD for my favorites all in one place. There were three particular arias that made this a very good choice; the tenor duet from the Pearl Fishers (Les Pecheurs De Perles: C'est Toi... Au Fond Du Temple Saint), Montserrat Caballé doing Turandot and Lucia Popp in Mozart's Don Giovanni.

This is really a very well-thought-out assembly of opera. You can't go far wrong with this cd.

You must prepare yourself for the journey you are about to embark upon with this album. From the moving deliverance that only Pavarotti can give, to the remarkable Orchestration, right to "The Flower Duet" this album will never let you down. Whether you use it as background music as you prepare your favorite Italian recipe, or as a background to a wonderful evening this album has it all. It is flawless in its execution, has all of your current favorites and what soon will become your new favorites.
Buy it for yourself, buy it as a gift, but just buy it- you will only regret not owning it sooner.

This CD, released by Decca, is a perfect opera compilation. All the well-known pieces are displayed, as well as some lesser known works. The CD starts off with the Prelude from the opera Carmen. Luciano Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland star in the Brindisi from La Traviata. Pavarotti follows next with an aria from La Boheme (His best role), Che gelida manina. A perfect pair of singers, Joan Sutherland and Jane Berbie, sing in the Flower Duet from Lakme. The great Swedish tenor Jussi Bjorling comes next in Amor ti vieta from Fedora. The Habanera from Carmen follows next, sung brillantly by Tatiana Troyanos. The Cd continues with the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco. Kiri te Kanawa follows in Dove sono from Le Nozze di Figaro, a song that sounds like it was made just for her. Pavarotti comes again in a superb recording of La donna e mobile from Rigoletto. Wagner's Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin takes the 10th spot. O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi comes next, sung by Renata Tebaldi. The comic aria, Largo al factotum, from Il Barbiere di Siviglia comes next, sung by Leo Nucci. A modern-day singer follows next: Angela Gheorghiu in Ebben? ne andro lontana from La Wally. The Humming Chorus from Madama Butterfly,The Flower Song from Carmen, Barcarolle from Les Contes d'Hoffmann, E lucevan le stelle from Tosca, Un bel di from Madama Butterfly, and the Temple Duet from The Pearlfishers.
The second Cd is just as good as the first, with arias like: The toreador Song from Carmen, Nessun dorma from Turandot, Di quella pira from Il Trovatore, Voi che sapete from Le Nozze di Figaro, and many others.

It is difficult to differentiate among the several "only opera album you will ever need" offerings now available on the market, but this one is as good as any, showing exquisite good judgment in terms of both selections and performers (any compilation where Pavarotti does the honors on several numbers including the immortal Nessun Dorma has a leg up). Mirella Freni is particularly fine in Un Bel Di as well; Troyianos is a great choice for the Carmen; and perhaps my only quibble would be with the Pearl Fishers Duet. A perfect gift for someone who needs an introduction to the great world of opera.

In 2004, any recording by Luciano Pavarotti (Decca`s own house tenor) will seem great to many people. But not so much because of Pavarotti, but more so because there aren`t any really good tenors today. On this CD, there is however just too much of Pavarotti. He doesn`t sound romantic(Bohème or Madama Butterfly) and certainly not dramatic(Pagliacci).
His voice, although he sings with some freedom and brilliance in the upper register when his breathing allows it, does not evoke exstacy or other overwhelming feelings. But he is certainly famouse, no doubt about that. This CD is for beginners in Opera.
And therefore it is OK. But Pavarotti is merely one of many good singers, and there were better singers and greater artists before him. Two of them are certainly present on this disc; Jussi Björling in the tremendous aria from Fedora, which he sings with burning passion and with supreme vocal control seemingly without breathing, and Renata Tebaldi in Puccini`s aria from Gianni Schicchi. It should be added that these two fantastic singers together still hold an unbeatable curtain-call record at the Metropolitan from a Tosca performance in February 1957. It is enough to say that there has been no tenor to match Björling`s vocal brilliance ever since, and probably not many sopranos to match La Tebaldi either.

We just purchased this 2 CD set so we'd have something to listen to in the car (other than The Wiggles and Barney - lol) and we couldn't be happier. The offerings are great and include so many of the 'popular' arias that I wanted to introduce to our children: boy and girl; 4 and 6 y.o. respectively.

[You should have heard the silence that descended on the car when Leoncavallo's "Vesti La Giubba" from Pagliacci was playing. Pavarotti rocks in this role.]

Five Stars. Sound quality good. Singers are top notch. If you like tenors you should be content. Pavarotti fans should be happy. Selections are the best I've seen as far as presenting a range of composers. First pieces on both CD's are instrumental.

Even my four year old son is humming bits of Bizet.

I bought this album for one track (Recitar!... Vesti La Giubba from Pagliacci), but was really impressed with the entire double disc. Recording quality is quite good, and the song selection is fantastic. As only a casual opera/classical music listener, I was surprised at how many tracks I both recognized and really liked. For the price, it's certainly a worthwhile purchase to anyone interested in a solid collection of well-known opera performances.

This is a fantastic CD compiling some of the most beautiful music ever produced by the human voice. Stunning and tear invoking. A great introduction for neophyte opera explorers, and perhaps even a great summary statement for those who have climbed all opera vistas.

The best,the best,the best! What a beautiful choice of arias and opera highlights all on a double cd for a great price. Delibes' Flower Duet and Puccini's Turnadot are among my personal favorites but a bad one in the bunch. Makes me cry every time I listen to it. Rock on.