A greatest-hits album ought to stick to the middle of the road, playing to what an artist does best. Yet it ought not simply wallow in past glories: this collection from Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, arguably the best-known soprano of the present day, hits the spot and can safely be recommended to newcomers. Netrebko is at her best in core Italian repertory like Casta Diva from Bellini's Norma or Libiamo ne 'lieti calici from Verdi's La Traviata.

Bellini’s penultimate opera was received unenthusiastically at its premiere in 1833, and has never attained the popularity of Norma. Early this century it disappeared completely until revived in 1935, as part of the centennial commemoration of the composer’s death. In recent years, its tragic heroine, the wife of a Milanese duke, falsely accused of infidelity and executed at her husband’s command, has been portrayed by such notable bel canto specialists as Joan Sutherland, Leyla Gencer and June Anderson. This dramatically vigorous and well-constructed work contains some of Bellini’s finest and most characteristic melodies, among them a ravishingly beautiful trio, ‘Angiol di pace’. Its neglect for so many years is difficult to comprehend.

This production of Bellini's famous masterpiece Norma was extraordinary in many aspects. Staged by Italian director and filmmaker Roberto Ando at the Teatro Regio in Parma, it gathered international stars like American soprano June Anderson and shooting star Daniela Barcellona as well as Russian bass lldar Abdrazakov. Audience and critics alike enthusiastically received the remarkable orchestral accompaniment. Fabio Biondi's transparent conducting and the authentic performance practice of Europa Galante illuminated the musical structure of Bellini's opera and provided a new perspective on early 19th century opera.

Known for her dramatic singing style, Renata Scotto excelled in the Italian repertoire, including Bellini's Norma and Puccini's Madame Butterfly. She performed in more than 45 operas all over the world and worked with such singers as Renata Tebaldi and Mario Del Monaco.

Renata Scotto (born 24 February 1934) is an Italian soprano and opera director.
Recognized for her sense of style, musicality and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation, specializing in the bel canto repertoire with excursions into the verismo and Verdi repertoires.
Since retiring from the stage as a singer in 2002, she has turned successfully to directing opera as well as teaching in Italy and America, along with academic posts at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Juilliard School in New York.

Hans-Ola Ericsson was born in Stockholm in 1958. He is a renowned organist with hundreds of recitals and concerts behind him, as well as an esteemed pedagogue at several institutions and a bold composer of contemporary music.
Known for his renditions of music as diverse as Olivier Messiaen and John Cage, his interpretory range stretches between György Ligety and the ubiquitous Johann Sebastian Bach as well as many more. Among the crown jewels of the repertoire is the collected works of Messiaen and a recently finished series of Bach in chamber and organ settings.

The 19th century was a significant time for both opera and the guitar. Opera was everywhere, and its characteristics gradually began to appear in other styles of music as composers tried to encapsulate the expressiveness and flexibility of the voice into their works. At the same time, the guitar underwent major changes in construction; this disc showcases pieces that combine these two major elements of 19th? century music, all of which are played by Roch Modrzejewski – praised in Les Cahiers de la Guitare as an ‘extraordinary, demanding, gifted and clever guitarist’.

Vincenzo Bellini was among the most important Italian opera composers of the early 19th century, and the quintessential representative of its bel canto tradition. Despite his enduring renown, his official operatic début Bianca e Gernando was known only in its revised version of Bianca e Fernando until this rediscovery and revival at Bad Wildbad in July 2016. Set in the ducal palace of Agrigento and with its tale of secretive plots and triumph over tyranny, this original version of the opera presents both unknown music and significant differences from the revised version, giving its dramatic shape a distinctive new character.

The gleaming smile in the cover shot belongs to a young mezzo-soprano coasting at the top of her game, thrilled at the chance to show off in the 400-year-old Teatro Olimpico in Vicenze. The cheers interspersed throughout this June 1998 concert are her adoring fellow Italians. Count yourself lucky to be able to join them and Cecilia Bartoli with a recording that faithfully reflects the scrumptious range of both her voice and emotional dynamics.

This first-ever, specially remastered collection compiles highlights chosen by Renée of her “most magical experiences”, captured live on stage in this pinnacle of opera houses. Produced by GRAMMY-winning David Frost, the collection features duets with Cecilia Bartoli, Susan Graham, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Samuel Ramey, Bryn Terfel & more. Since her 1991 debut when she stepped in for Felicity Lott, Renée has performed on the MET stage over 250 times and describes the MET as “my musical home, the theater where I feel welcome amongst friends – backstage, onstage, and in the audience.” Renée will return to the MET on 22 November for the world premiere work by Kevin Puts, The Hours, with Joyce DiDonato & Kelli O’Hara.

This recording of La Sonnambula is notable on a number of fronts. It's the first recording of the opera based on a 2004 critical edition of the score that confirms the leading role was indeed written for a mezzo-soprano, although it has been performed by sopranos for much of its history. (Among the first Aminas were the celebrated mezzos Giuditta Pasta and Maria Malibran.) It's also the first recording using period instruments, in this case Orchestra La Scintilla, based at the Basel Opera and conducted by Alessandro de Marchi in an idiomatic and lively reading. And, as the promotional materials trumpet, it's the first recorded collaboration between superstars Cecilia Bartoli and Juan Diego Flórez. Although less hoopla is made of him, the recording also features a superbly lyrical performance by baritone Ildebrando D'Arcangelo.

In this high-definition film of Bellini's historical bel canto drama, "I Puritani", tenor superstar Juan Diego Flórez is partnered by new young Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze, in her first appearance on a Decca DVD. Joining them in a striking new staging by Pier'Alli at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna is celebrated bass baritone, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (DG).
The context is England's Civil War between the Roundheads (the Parliamentarians, or Puritans of the title) and the Cavaliers (Royalists). A love triangle between Arturo (a Puritan), Riccardo (a Royalist) and the beautiful Elvira results in a drama of escapes, disguises and captures, during which Elvira loses her reason, before a final pardon restores her senses and unites her with her beloved Arturo.

Bellini suits June Anderson surprisingly well: 'surprisingly' because her voice is bright and her manner somewhat impersonal and unyielding very much the opposite of sopranos like Selma Kurz and Galli-Curci, or in later days Montserrat Caballe, who could make the cantilena of ''Qui la voce'' and ''Ah, non credea mirarti'' a thing of ethereal tenderness and limpid purity. Yet the Sonnambula aria and a similarly sad and lovely solo from I Capuleti e i Montecchi are among the most satisfying items here. In both of them a prime virtue is that of the well-drawn line, closer to (say) dal Monte and Pagliughi than to Sutherland. She is also, if not exactly imaginative, at least sensitive in her handling of the phrases, and there is no hardening of the sort that with many Italians (dal Monte among them) makes one flinch at the approach of high notes.

Here in Orange, France, on a windswept, night in 1974, they had greatness itself. Pierre Jourdan's film of the event is a priceless document, first of all, in the history of the opera. Stage-settings of Norma are usually hopeless: an offence to the eye, a chafing confutation of the spirit by gross matter. The ancient Roman amphitheatre is at any rate worthy and appropriate, and the Mistral, which threatened to close down the whole show and turn away an audience estimated at 10,000, adds a fine reminder of the power of Nature as it sets the druidical robes billowing and attacks the microphones.