This is one of the zippiest, most life-affirming opera recordings I have heard in a long time. Well, this puts it a bit too blandly, because the work’s social satire also targets the smug self-satisfaction and careless cruelty of the powerful.
Opera
Opera Album Review: A Renaissance-Toned Opera by Saint-Saëns, Finally (and Finely) Recorded
One of Saint-Saëns’s most important operas, Proserpine, has recently been given its world-premiere recording, and the result is a revelation.
Opera Album Review: Now Hear What Berlioz and Wagner Admired — Gaspare Spontini’s “Olimpie” in a Stupendous New Recording
This world-premiere recording of the 1826 Paris version of Gaspare Spontini’s Olimpie makes a powerful case for a composer much admired in his own day.
Opera Review: Boston Early Music Opera’s “Orlando” — Divine Madness
This entertaining opera is a real soap opera, given that it chronicles the fallout of the passionate protagonist’s unrequited love.
Opera Review: BLO’S “Handmaid’s Tale” — Sublime Dystopia
The perversity of The Handmaid’s Tale oppressive allegory lends itself well to opera, and Boston Lyric Opera makes the most of the material’s emotional heights and depths.
Opera Review: A Sumptuous New Recording of Korngold’s “The Miracle of Heliane,” Centerpiece of This Summer’s Bard Music Festival
Once much-performed, then banished from the stage by the Nazis, The Miracle of Heliane, now available in a fine new recording, is perhaps the best opera by the man who would become one of Hollywood’s leading composers.
Opera Review: MassOpera’s “Die Fledermaus” — Modern Life, Lampooned
MassOpera’s updated version of Die Fledermaus pulls off a major feat.
Opera Review: “Dido and Aeneas” — A Memorable Evening of Purcell
Handel and Haydn Society assembled both a must-hear program and an extraordinary cast of singers.
Opera Review: Boston Lyric Opera’s “The Rape of Lucretia” — Bravi Tutti
The Boston Lyric Opera is mounting a fabulous staging of Benjamin Britten’s visceral opera.
Opera CD Review: Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger,” Sung in Italian, Beautifully, with Conversational Ease
A 1962 concert performance from Radio Italiana, now on CD, shows how delightful Wagner can sound without barking and slow wobbles.
