Classical Music Forum banner

List your top recommended opera recital discs

15K views 57 replies 23 participants last post by  Pugg 
#1 · (Edited)
As written. To make it more interesting, I suggest that people with broader collection should divide their lists into categories, depending on what kinds of repertoire they have the most of. Anyway, you'll see what I mean when you'll look at my list. Just make sure you list only CDs that you really recommend, not all that you have.

Top 10 Rossini Arias CDs:

1. Juan Diego Flórez: Rossini Arias
2. Jennifer Larmore: Amore per Rossini
3. Joyce DiDonato: Colbran, The Muse
4. Vasselina Kasarova: Rossini Arias & Duets (because JDF is in the duets, eh?)
5. Lawrence Brownlee: Virtuoso Rossini Arias
6. Rockwell Blake: Rossini Encore
7. Rockwell Blake: Rossini Tenor
8. Aleksandra Kurzak: Bel Raggio
9.. Samuel Ramey: Alle Voci Della Gloria
10. Raul Gimenez: Rossini Arias

Top 10 Mozart Arias:

1. Kiri te Kanawa - Mozart Concert Arias
2. Elina Garanca - Mozart Opera & Concert Arias
3. Kiri Te Kanawa - Mozart Arias
4. Edda Moser - Virtuoso arias of W.A Mozart
5. Magdalena Kozena - Mozart Arias
6. Anna Moffo - Mozart Arias
7. Rolando Villazon - Mozart Concert Arias
8. Raul Gimenez - Mozart Arias
9. Danielle De Niese - Mozart Album
10. Marina Rebeka - Mozart Opera Arias

Top 10 Various Italian Arias:


1. Juan Diego Flórez: Una Furtiva Lagrima
2. Juan Diego Flórez: Arias for Rubini
3. Juan Diego Flórez: Bel Canto Spectacular
4. Elina Garanca: Bel Canto
5. Leo Nucci - Bel Canto Arias
6. Rolando Villazon - Cielo e Mar
7. Rolando Villazon - Italian Opera Arias
8. Ramon Vargas - Rossini & Donizetti Arias
9. Anna Netrebko - Sempre Libera
10. Maria Callas - Mad Scenes

Top 8 French Arias:

1. Juan Diego Flórez: L'Amour
2. Jennifer Larmore: L'Etoile
3. Magdalena Kozena: French Arias
4. Veronique Gens: Tragediennes #3
5. Veronique Gens: Tragediennes #2
6. Veronique Gens: Tragediennes #1
7. Roberto Alagna: French Arias
8. Roberto Alagna: Berlioz Arias

Top 5 Baroque Arias :

1. Cecilia Bartoli: Vivaldi Album
2. Cecilia Bartoli: Opera Proibita
3. Joyce DiDonato: Drama Queens
4. Magdalena Kozena: Ah Mio Cor
5. Danielle De Niese: Handel Arias

Top 5 Duet recitals:


1. Samuel Ramey & Thomas Hampson: No Tenors Allowed
2. Mirella Freni & Renata Scotto: In Duet
3. Katia Ricciarelli & Jose Carreras: Duetti d'Amore
4. Rolando Villazon & Anna Netrebko: Duets
5. Franco Corelli & Renata Tebaldi: Great Opera Duets

10 Miscellaneous, Gorgerous:

1. Elina Garanca: Romantique
2. Mariusz Kwiecień: Slavic Heroes
3. Piotr Beczała: Slavic Opera Arias
4. Cecilia Bartoli: Salieri Album
5. Cecilia Bartoli: Gluck Italian Arias
6. Magdalena Kozena: Belle Imagini
7. Simon Keenlyside: Tales of Opera
8. Jennifer Larmore: Call me Mister
9. Jennifer Larmore: Where Shall I Fly
10. Jonas Kaufmann: Wagner

Alright now, I'm exhaused. I've certainly forgotten lots of stuff and skipped some categories on purpose. I want this thread to get interesting recommendations primarly, so pardon me. Your turn.
 
See less See more
#9 ·
Not a big fan of recital discs but this one is fabulous. It was nominated in the Opera Awards, didn't win. but I'd recommend it.



Borodin:
Ni sna, ni otdikha izmuchennoi dushe (from Prince Igor)

Moniuszko:
Kto z mych dziewek serce ktorej (from Straszny Dwor)

Mussorgsky:
Oy, dušno, dušno! - Prošcay, moy sïn (from Boris Godunov)

Tchaikovsky:
Vy mne pisali…Kogda by zhizn domashnim krugom (from Eugene Onegin)

Verdi:
Son io, mio Carlo... Io morro (from Don Carlo)
Perfidi!…Pietà, rispetto, amore (from Macbeth)
Di Provenza il mar (from La Traviata)
Cortigiani, vil razza dannata (from Rigoletto)
Son pur queste mie membra? Ah! fra le selve…Dio di Guida! (from Nabucco)

Wagner:
Wehe. Wehe mir der Qual! (from Parsifal)
 
#15 ·
Itu, please inform us how you like that recording, which should be fabulous. I frequently have problems with DG recordings in that they sound a bit faint in my audio system.
 
#16 ·
I can recommend any and all of Jonas Kaufmann's recital discs -- personal favorites are his CD of Verdi arias (Sony) and the album of German opera arias titled "Sehnsucht" (Decca). And while they really aren't recital discs, but compilations of material from EMI's and DG's archives, I can also recommend any of the recordings of Fritz Wunderlich singing opera and/or operetta arias.
 
#21 ·
I was hoping someone would pose this question!

My top ten as of now:

1. Joan Sutherland, "The Art of the Prima Donna"
2. Maria Callas, "Mad Scenes"
3. Cecilia Bartoli, "Mozart Portraits"
4. Renee Fleming, "Mozart Arias" (I bought this one on a visit to Montreal, and that's what's on the cover, though I understand it had a sappy original title like "Visions of Love":rolleyes:)
5. Ramon Vargas, "L'amour, l'amour"
6. Jerry Hadley and Thomas Hampson, "Great Operatic Duets"
7. Joan Sutherland, "Opera Arias" (I forget the title, actually -- it's her 1959 recital disc)
8. Hye-Kyung Hong and Jennifer Larmore, "Bellezza Vocale"
9. Juan Diego Florez, "Donizetti and Bellini Arias"
10. Jonas Kaufmann, "Romantic Arias" (I do also want to get his Verdi CD, and maybe his verismo one)

I also have several of the CDs the Met Guild put out in the 1990's called "Met Legends." My favorites are the ones devoted to Sherrill Milnes, Mirella Freni, Leontyne Price, and Robert Merrill.
 
#24 ·
Klaus Florian Vogt: Helden
Peter Mattei: Great Baritone arias
Topi Lehtipuu: Vivaldi - Arie per tenore
Jonas Kaufmann: Sehnsucht (although I love all his recitals and lieder cycles)
Ian Bostridge: Great Handel
María Bayo: Arias de Zarzuela Barroca
Christina Pluhar with Philippe Jaroussky and Núria Real: Monteverdi: Teatro D'amore
Philippe Jaroussky: Opium - Mélodies Françaises
René Pape: Wagner
Susan Graham: La Belle Époque - The Songs Of Reynaldo Hahn

And one complete wild card which is not even opera
Agnes Baltsa: Songs my country taught me- beautiful Greek traditional songs.
 
#29 ·


Polish baritone Andrzej Dobber started as a bass and it shows on here. Deliciously low for a baritone.

Borodin: Ni sna, ni otdikha izmuchennoi dushe (from Prince Igor)
Moniuszko: Kto z mych dziewek serce ktorej (from Straszny Dwor)
Mussorgsky: Oy, dušno, dušno! - Prošcay, moy sïn (from Boris Godunov)
Tchaikovsky: Vy mne pisali…Kogda by zhizn domashnim krugom (from Eugene Onegin)
Verdi: Son io, mio Carlo... Io morro (from Don Carlo)
Perfidi!…Pietà, rispetto, amore (from Macbeth)
Di Provenza il mar (from La Traviata)
Cortigiani, vil razza dannata (from Rigoletto)
Son pur queste mie membra? Ah! fra le selve…Dio di Guida! (from Nabucco)
Wagner: Wehe. Wehe mir der Qual! (from Parsifal)
 
#30 ·
A weird recommendation.

Weird, because Renée Fleming and verismo, Renée Fleming and the operas of the 'giovane scuola', are at first sight like oil and water.

However, Ms. Fleming and her team did a great job of selecting arias from this repertoire, and along with some well known pieces, they recorded others much less common, but equally beautiful.

About the performance, it's clear hat tMs. Fleming will never be Claudia Muzio, but she is delivering the goods here.

 
#32 ·
- Margaret Price "Opera & Concert Arias" (James Lockhart)
- Nathalie Stutzmann "Handel Opera Arias" (Roy Goodman)
- Inge Borkh "Scenes from Salome and Elektra" (Fritz Reiner)
- Huguette Tourangeau "Arias from forgotten operas" (Richard Bonynge)
- Russell Oberlin "Handel Arias" (Thomas Dunn)
- Jane Rhodes (Offenbach) "Airs d'Opérettes" (Roberto Benzi)
- Edda Moser "Virtuose Arien von W. A. MOZART" (Leopold Heger)
- Sandrine Piau (Haendel) "opera seria" (Christophe Rousset)
- Emma Kirkby (Mozart) "Arias" (Christopher Hogwood)
- Christa Ludwig (Strauss, Wagner, Gluck, Rossini) "Operatic Recital" (Heinrich Hollreiser)
- Vivica Genaux "Arias for Farinelli"
- Joan Sutherland "Romantic French Arias" (Richard Bonynge)
 
#33 ·
Here you go:



More to come but slowly rolling them out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Barbebleu
#35 ·


First an foremost my number one.
Elena Souliotis
The Anna Bolena final scene is second to none.
Really? Have you looked at the score? What about the rising set of trills in Coppia iniqua that she doesn't even attempt? If a singer can't actually sing the notes the composer wrote, how can that be a perfect rendition of the composer's intentions? We wouldn't accept it from an instrumentalist, so why accept it from a singer? It's a great attempt, but it's technically unfinished.

So, no, the Anna Bolena is not second to none. You evidently haven't heard Callas, either in the studio, or live from La Scala.
 
#41 ·










I must own literally hundreds of recital discs... with a good number of truly marvelous ones.
 
#44 ·
Just add Victoria de Los Angeles singing Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne and you have pure bliss.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top