Customer Reviews

Best Opera Album In The World ... Ever!

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In addition to the great male tenors, Maria Callas, Victoria de los Angeles, Renata Scotto, Helga Dernesch, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Mirella Freni, Madi Mespli, and others sing the great arias. This double CD will make you cry, it is so beautiful, and this from someone who never paid much attention to opera. I listen to it only about once a week, so I won't get tired of it, and after several months it still grabs my by the throat and makes tears run down my face. In 40 years of listening to rock and pop, I have never experienced this before. Buy it!

This may well indeed be "The Best Opera Album in the World...Ever!" I certainly have yet to find one that is better, but I do want to point out that there is room for improvement. This double-CD set offers up 38 tracks and yet nothing by Donzetti or Bellini. How you can leave out the Sextet from "Lucia di Lammamoor" is beyond me. There are ten tracks by Puccini along with six by Moazart five by Verdi, but only one by Wagner. This makes sense when you are covering the works of Rossini, Offenbach and Leoncavallo, for whom "Largo al factotum," the "Barcarolle" and "Vesti la guibba" are far and away their best known pieces, but where is "The Ride of the Valkyrie"? Okay, enough of the albums shortcomings. Let us now talk about why the album total is not exactly hyperbole.

Most of the arias included here are instantly recognizable, such as "La donne e mobile" "The Anvil Chorus" and "Der Holle Rache," but even the lesser known works such as Dvorak's "Song to the Moon" or Mascagni's "Suzei, bon di." When the album includes multiple tracks from the same opera, such as "La Boheme" or "Le Nozze di Figaro," they are grouped together. Featured singers include Montserat Caballe, Maria Callas, Renata Scotto, Kiri Te Kanawa, Roberto Algna, Helga Dernesch, Thomas Allen and all three of the 3 Tenors; Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. This album certainly makes ever effort to connect with those who have only recently come to enjoy opera. The linear notes point out that Maria Callas' "La Mamma Morta" aria from Giordano's "Andrea Chenier" was featured in "Philadelphia," and note the appearance of other noted arias in films such as "The Untouchables," "Fatal Attraction," "A Room With A View," "Moonstruck" and even the Marx Brother's "A Night at the Opera." The final cut offers "Nessun dorma," Pavarotti's famous encore piece, performed by Carreras with the full chorus, which you never really get to hear. A nice touch upon which to end the album. "The Best Opera Album in the World" will not be the only Opera Hits CD you own, but it is a good place to start.

In describing this album, which is a compilation of nearly every famous aria you've ever heard, I could easily run out of superlatives.

This album runs the gamut from Bizet's "Au fond du temple saint" (Nicolai Gedda and Ernest Blanc) to a chillingly beautiful rendition of "Nessun dorma" (Jose' Carreras). Also included on this 2-disc album are such standards as "The Flower Duet" from Lakme and "Brindisi" from La Traviata.

Opera fans who lack either the space or the funds to collect all of the works represented here should seriously consider this album.

This is a marvelous collection of better known arias and duets in Opera. The singers are those famous for setting, and raising, the bar in their field and for their times: Renata Scotto, Maria Callas, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti. If you are only somewhat familiar with opera, these recordings give you the highest feeling of what an aria or duet can sound like when sung and interpreted at its best. If you are already familiar with these songs, then you will appreciate this collection all the more for having gathered them in one place. I play both discs all the time. I've especially appreciated being able to compare vocal qualities side by side, so to speak, as Maria Callas can be heard next to Mirella Freni and Victoria de los Angeles. Even if you are not familiar with these singers, this is the way to meet them. Maria Callas has a much darker, back of the throat tone. Mirella Freni is pure, clear and light floating up in the higher notes. You can almost visualize the singers as they place the notes in their throats and set them out in the air to vibrate.

Compilations usually receive negative feedback from experienced opera listeners. However, this compilation by no means should be only welcomed by opera listeners, it should be welcomed by all music listeners. This CD is a great one to own for a first time opera listener. Also, for the person who wants to listen to opera once in a while and who does not want to buy a myriad of CD's in order to have the same amount of arias as this CD has. Eighty-percent of the singers are high-quality singers in this CD and the orchestras along with their respective conductors, do justice to the songs. All of the arias in this CD are what we in the field call, standard repertoire, and therefore are a good source for a beginning musician to help him or her listen to phrasing, colour, dynamics, language etc. I certainly recommend it, without a doubt.

This is truly a brilliant collection of some of the most beloved operatic music in the world. All of the artists give impressive performances with their talented and strong voices. The orchestras play magnificently, making you feel as if you are in attendance at your favorite opera. In my opinion, many operas has their lists of great songs and okay songs. This two disc set includes the most widely popular and the BEST, unique songs from a huge selection of operas. Listen to the entertaining chorus in Il Trovatore's Anvil Chorus, or the splendor of Turandot's Nessun Dorma. You can't go wrong with this cd set.

I have only critiqued books not music. Please forgive me if my observations are not as poignant or succinct as other reviewers. My knowledge of Opera is minimal. I purchased this CD after listening to it at one of the chain stores and was absolutely amazed by the powerful and awsome arias in this CD. Even the opera minimalist will recognize some of the masters of music. Hence the movies 'Fatal Attraction' and 'Philadelphia' to name a few. These compositions are classic and addictive. One reviewer stated he listened to his CD once a week in order to prevent getting tired of it. Perhaps not a bad idea. I listen to mine about three times a week. It would be almost criminal to allow this music to become stale and tired.

As a long time armchair Opera listener I'm shocked that I hadn't come across this album until recently. I'm not really an Opera connoisseur so my review is based on just the fact that I love Opera, but mostly by listening to arias or occasionally going to the Opera.

This CD is quite comprehensive and offers a broad spectrum of aria's and some chorus's from several composers as well as the more famous of singers. In 2 CD's, 19 tracts each, many of the most famous arias are represented. If you are a Wagner fan you might be disappointed, however, Puccini, Mozart, Bizet, and Verdi are well represented. If you want a taste of Opera without sitting down and listening to a full Opera, this is perfect. My only complaint is that there is not enough Jose Carreras!

I'm not opera literate, so I was looking for some kind of introduction that had some familiar arias and that would connect me to others that I had not heard. I liked that the notes with the cd indicated where a new listener may have heard some of the music (in a commercial, during an important scene in a movie, etc). This was the source of a lot of 'Ah ha!' moments. It even inspired me to rent a dvd of a live version of Turandot and to put others on my Netflix queue. I owe my newly aroused curiosity about opera, believe it or not, to Il Divo. I had to know what these guys sing when they're not reinterpreting pop songs. I'm glad I started this journey and this cd was a good start.

While this is no doubt a very good collection which I've enjoyed, I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the "Best In The World". With a title like that it sets expectations just a bit too high.