Various - Opera Gala [CD]

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From Adam to Zandonai, from 1954 to 1996, 20 CDs made up of no less than 28 Decca opera recordings, most of them recorded as highlights albums, many long unavailable, newly remastered and all featuring the greatest singers of their age.\r
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In bygone years, before 24/7 streaming, recorded music was less readily available than it is now. Complete opera sets were an expensive luxury; yet opera, and singers, still captured the classical music public\u2019s imagination like no other genre. The advent of LP allowed for up to an hour\u2019s highlights from a stage-work, including the most popular arias and numbers, to be issued in a single, cost-effective product. Listeners who baulked at the cost of Solti\u2019s Ring cycle could nevertheless acquire Birgit Nilsson singing the Immolation Scene on one side the climactic scene of Salome on the other. But with John Pritchard in charge she also recorded a sequence of scenes from Verdi\u2019s Aida in 1963, and four years earlier the first-act scena from Tristan with Grace Hoffman as Brang\xe4ne and Knappertsbusch in Vienna. \r
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Many of these \u2018highlights only\u2019 recordings have fallen from currency, but now we can all relive the pleasures of Regina Resnik\u2019s Mistress Quickly and Luigi Alva\u2019s Fenton (excerpts from Falstaff, 1963) and Marilyn Horne\u2019s first recorded Carmen (with her husband Henry Lewis, 1970). A sequence of rare Baroque operas features the most husband-and-wife team of all, Richard Bonynge and Joan Sutherland, in vocally spectacular excerpts from operas by Bononcini, Graun and Handel; Monica Sinclair\u2019s \u2018Si spietata\u2019 from Giulio Cesare is an astonishing piece of Baroque virtuosity. Meanwhile single-act operas (notably Cimarosa\u2019s Il Maestro di capella with Fernando Corena, 1960) Wolf-Ferrari\u2019s Il segreto di Susanna, 1976, directed by Lamberto Gardelli) and single acts of Wagner (the first and third acts of Die Walkure in Vienna, 1957) enjoyed all the attention to engineering and dramatic effect for which Decca\u2019s production team was famous. \r
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Further highlights albums functioned as artist showcases: for the superb Greek-French mezzo Irma Kolassi in Berlioz and Massenet\u2019s Werther; Horne again in rare Rossini; and Lisa della Casa reprising her most notable Strauss heroines. The booklet of this uniquely compiled new set includes a new essay by Andrew Dalton on the history of opera highlights on disc as well as many treasurable artist and session photos: Resnik and her luggage, Nilsson and her Valkyrie\u2019s steed, Sutherland and her son in full cowboy rig.\r
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\u2018Lisa della Casa is an enchanting Arabella whose voice blends ideally with the no less clear but harder-grained soprano of Hilde Gueden.\u2019 The Record Guide, 1955 (Strauss, Arabella)\r
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\u2018This release\u2019s chief attraction \u2013 apart from its excellent sound \u2013 is [Corena\u2019s] splendid performance of the Cimarosa intermezzo, easily the best on records.\u2019 High Fidelity, April 1961 (Cimarosa, Il Maestro di capella)\r
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\u2018I recommend this delightful disc enthusiastically to all who enjoy Viennese operetta.\u2019 Gramophone, December 1961 (Kalman, Grafin Mariza)\r
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\u2018A fascinating disc \u2026 A pure, heroic style is what [Nilsson] Nilsson gives us on this record. The many exposed notes have a ping about them, and once tenses with excitement at the accuracy.\u2019 Gramophone, October 1963 (Verdi, Aida)\r
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\u2018Everything that sounds a bit contrived in Evans\u2019s portrayal [of Falstaff] sounds natural in Corena\u2019s; there is more bubbling fun, more bite, more elegance in the pointing of words\u2026 This sounds like a lovable. genuinely funny Sir John ... these passages play well even out of context.\u2019 High Fidelity, March 1964 (Verdi, Falstaff)\r
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\u2018The result is far more spectacular and exciting Handel than one is used to hearing.\u2019 Stereo Review, April 1965 (Handel, Giulio Cesare)

ADOLPHE ADAM: Le Toreador

HECTOR BERLIOZ: La Damnation De Faust, Op. 24 (excerpts)

GEORGES BIZET: Carmen (excerpts)

ARRIGO BOITO: Mefistofele (excerpts)

GIOVANNI BONONCINI: Griselda (excerpts)

CARL HEINRICH GRAUN: Montezuma (excerpts)

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL: Giulio Cesare, HWV 17 (excerpts)

EMMERICH KALMAN: Grafin Mariza (excerpts)

FRANZ LEHAR: The Merry Widow (excerpts)

GIOACHINO ROSSINI: Le Siege De Corinthe (excerpts)

RICHARD STRAUSS: Arabella 1: Er Ist Der Richtige Nicht Fur Mich!

RICHARD STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier (excerpts)

GIUSEPPE VERDI: Aida

GIUSEPPE VERDI: Falstaff

RICHARD WAGNER: Die Walkure (Act I)

RICHARD WAGNER: Die Walkure (Act III)

RICHARD WAGNER: Die Walkure - Siegmund! Sieh Auf Mich (Todesverk\xfcndigung)

RICHARD STRAUSS: Salome

ERMANNO WOLF-FERRARI: Il Segreto Di Susanna

RICCARDO ZANDONAI: Francesca Da Rimini (excerpts)

Das War Sehr Gut, Mandryka (Final Scene)

Gotterdammerung: Prologue: Dawn And Siegfried\u2019s Rhine Journey

La Donna Del Lago (excerpts)

Der Richtige \u2013 So Hab Ich Still Zu Mir Gesagt

Siegfried\u2019s Funeral March

Capriccio: Closing Scene

Tristan Und Isolde (excerpts)

RICHARD WAGNER: Gotterdammerung (excerpts)

JULES MASSENET: Werther (excerpts)

Les Pecheurs De Perles (excerpts)

DOMENICO CIMAROSA: Il Maestro Di Cappella

Ariadne Auf Naxos- Es Gibt Ein Reich

Grossm\xe4chtige Prinzessin

CHARLES GOUNOD: Mireille (excerpts)

MOZART: Mia Speranza Adorate \u2026 Ah, Non Sai Qual Pena, KV 416