Customer Reviews

Escape Through Opera

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What a lush and lovely collection, featuring one magical and exquisite presentation after another! As I said, if you adore opera then you will treasure these CDs. The 2 CD album states: Long drives, Lazy afternoons, Romantic dinners. My favorite however is to put it on when I lie down to sleep. Currently it resides in the CD player by my bed so that I can access it with ease. These scrumptious performances carry me to a lovely cloud and allow dreamy relaxation.. I recently acquired RAPTURE which I also heartily endorse.

Having 6 compilations of Opera by the various labels under my belt, I was afraid this SONY album would have repeats, but joyfully it contains all work that is new to me , movingly and professionally executed and skillfully recorded. Perhaps not all the most popular or the best selections in the world but this charming compilation album deserves to be heard.

Despite the title and presentation -- and the fact that this came from "odd socks" that the makers had available -- this is really a collection of gems. Richard Tucker isn't often heard these days and it's great to have a number of selections from him. There are also several wonderful selections by Renata Scotto and Ileana Cotrubas, very much in their prime. Te Kanawa's Puccini arias are out of her usual repertoire (at least to what I've heard) and she does them very beautifully. Among other highlights I should point out an E lucevan le stella by Domingo at his absolute best. There are no duds except maybe Denyce Grave's Dalila, which needs more legato, and Pavarotti's ubiquitous Nessun dorma, which here lacks the choral backup. But that's being picky. And you really can be, with this collection, because the producers pretty-much picked only the best. Highly recommended, even to someone like me who already has a large collection of complete versions of these operas.

This is a fantastic collection of all of your favorite arias and sung by only the best! What a treat!!