Customer Reviews

Essential Opera 2

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

 

 

This CD is quite simply one of my favourites and has been for the last three years. The collection is as timeless as the voices of the contributing artists. I have traveled between North America, Europe and the Middle East with only this CD and a good book for company. One of my favourite memories of travelling is watching the sunrise in Amsterdam while listening to Pavarotti and Cecilia Bartoli. I have several of the songs on this CD in other collections but my favourite versions of: La ci darem la mano, Soave sia il vento, La donna e mobile and Non piu andrai are the ones included in this CD.

I would recommended this collection to anyone who loves opera.

This is a better compilation than Essential Opera 1, which itself is a very good collection for opera lovers and opera beginners alike. That said, I however can't agree that this is "essential" opera. Where is Maria Callas in the line-up? Absent Maria, any opera collection that deems itself "essential" deludes itself. Callas is as indispensable to opera as, say, Picasso is to cubism. She is essential to great opera.

I'd give this disc five stars if not for Callas' omission, a grave mistake. In any case, Tatiana Troyano's Habanera, Cecilia Bartoli's "Una Voce Poco fa," Krause, Popp, and Fassbaender's "Saove sia il vento," and Sutherland and Berbie's Lakme duet make this compilation wonderful, exciting, and highly commendable.