Album notes The exact spelling of the title is crucial here, for this is the original French version of 'La Favorite' written for the Theatre l'Opera in Paris, not the frequently performed but badly censored and edited Italian version, 'La Favorita.' In the tradition of French grand opera, the subject is historical, involving a love triangle in the court of King Alphonse XI in 14th-century Seville. And though it is not regarded to be among the greatest of Gaetano Donizetti's works, it is still his work, and as such, brimming with melody and opportunities for beautiful singing. This live performance features the ravishing voice of Bulgarian mezzo Vesselina Kasarova as Léonor de Guzman, the favorite of the title, and the alert direction of Marcello Viotti, whose Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra is recorded with great clarity and presence, beautifully balanced with the singers in a natural, atmospheric soundstage.

A superficial view may regard Offenbach’s lightweight masterpiece, La belle Hélène, as „merely“ an opera buffa. But closer scrutiny of this charming, imaginative firework of intrigue makes one thing clear: the story of the Greek queen who started off the Trojan war is, in this version, a humorous and satirical caricature of the vulgar, decadent Parisian upper classes of Offenbach’s own day. Who better suited to produce a modern rendering of this work than the now highly acclaimed Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who also ensured the work’s historical accuracy? Employing a small string section, shining, colourful brass and richly varied percussion, the opera still strikes one as exceptionally modern. This impression is also enhanced by the designers of the production, recorded in 1997 at the Zurich Opera House: no less a figure than the fashion designer Jean–Charles de Castelbajac was responsible for the humorously expansive costumes; and the highly subtle stage–set was the work of Paolo Pivas.

Handels operas are now so thoroughly a part of modern musical life that you might think every major opera house welcomes them. But until November 2010, when it introduced an absorbing new production of Alcina, the Vienna Staatsoper resisted them, not having done a Baroque opera since Monteverdis Poppea in the 1960s. The present production boasted an all-star cast of Baroque specialists, a former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company Adrian Noble, the highly-acclaimed conductor Marc Minkowski and his Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble in the pit. Adrian Noble places his Alcina into a framework which begins in the magnificent ballroom of the Devonshire-House in London Piccadilly. The legendary Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, stages a play in which she is acting together with her friends, a stage on the stage. Alcina is a great musical experience geared to the Baroque curiosity. Marc Minkowski revives Handels music in an outstanding way.

TDK presents a truly new way of looking at La clemenza di Tito with this famous and star-studded production from the Salzburg Festival 2003. Here Nikolaus Harnoncourt, renowned for his analytical approach to the search for the core of the music, interprets Mozart’s last opera. Martin Kušej, who is acclaimed for his theatre productions directs the production. Nikolaus Harnoncourt identifies with Mozart’s score as both an extremely knowledgeable musician and a conductor who invariably plays an active part in helping to shape the drama. Together with the Vienna Philharmonic, he savours the miracles of Mozart’s late work, bringing out its instrumental colours and effects and at the same time stimulating his singers while proving a solicitous accompanist.

Die Festspielpremiere von ALCINA im Prinzregententheater am 17. Juli 2005 wurde wie so viele andere Premieren von Barock-Opern zu einem Höhepunkt der Münchner Opernsaison. Wer erinnert sich nicht gerne an die "Poppea", den "Rinaldo" oder natürlich "Giulio Cesare". Mit Anja Harteros und Vesselina Kasarova hatten sich zwei Topstars der internationalen Opernszene in dieser Inszenierung eingefunden. Unter der bewährten Leitung von Ivor Bolton wurde das ganze Ensemble vom Publikum bei jeder Vorstellung mit Ovationen gefeiert, der Nachhall in der Presse war nicht minder euphorisch!

In 1733 the Opera of the Nobility was set up in London in opposition to Handel's own opera company. Handel lost all of his star singers except for the soprano Anna Strada del Po - she was rewarded with two of Handel's finest roles, Alcina and Ginevra (Ariodante)). Handel engaged the castrato Carestini as leading man. He had a range of two octaves and an ability to sing elaborate coloratura. He only sang for Handel from 1733 to 1735 but Handel wrote the roles of Ariodante and Ruggiero (Alcina) for him. These are roles which exploited Carestini's virtuosity in instrument-like vocal writing.

It was hard to muster much enthusiasm for Welser-Möst’s soft-grained, untheatrical approach to Mozart’s score and his careful avoidance of appoggiaturas, though it has to be admitted that the clarinet and basset-horn obbligatos — their players not credited in the program — sounded ravishing. Welser-Möst’s beat could certainly have been fueled by some extra zest, his syncopations by stronger incisiveness. Little was made of the explosive clashes of contrasting keys, Welser-Möst’s opera gentile dallyings replacing Mozart’s needed opera seria gravitas.

An exceptionally talented mezzo-soprano who stood out even in an era with no shortage of them, Vesselina Kasarova emerged as a popular favorite in the late 1990s, both as a recitalist and as an operatic specialist in the bel canto works of Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. Born in the medium-sized city of Stara Zagora in Bulgaria's center, Kasarova attended music school there, majoring in piano rather than voice. She dreamed of a vocal career, however, and auditioned at the national Academy of Sofia. She was accepted and blossomed rapidly as a singer, joining the company of the National Opera of Sofia even before her graduation in 1989.

Make no mistake, this is not William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. This version, by Vincenzo Bellini with a libretto by Felice Romani, has often been dismissed for its story line, which is very different from the familiar tale of the star-crossed lovers. Actually, as noted by musicologist-bel canto answer man Philip Gossett in his liner notes, Bellini and Romani hadn't read Shakespeare when they composed the opera. They had, however, read the sources on which Shakespeare based his play, but while both they and the Bard departed from the original, they departed in different directions. No matter: the opera has some gorgeous music, and it's given some gorgeous performances here by some very fine singers.

Donizetti considered Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal (1843), his final completed opera written for the Paris Opéra, to be his masterpiece. In spite of its relative obscurity, on the basis of this recording, one is inclined to agree with him. The opera has several attributes that in the past have proved to be obstacles to its popularity. The first is its length – it's in five substantial acts and lasts three hours, but that's not so onerous for contemporary audiences accustomed to Wagner and Strauss. Besides, the composer created an abbreviated version for Viennese audiences, who at that time wanted to be out of the theater by 10 p.m., and that version could be used if necessary.

Das war ein Abend, wie Opernfreunde ihn lieben: Tschaikowskis »Pique Dame«, ein Werk des Repertoires und doch selten gespielt, ein Ensemble nicht nur berühmter Namen, sondern großer Singschauspieler, dazu ein Dirigent der Sonderklasse – eine Aufführung, wie sie auch an einem Haus wie der Wiener Staatsoper nicht zum »Alltag« gehört. Der Erfolg der Aufführung, der Jubel waren gleichsam vorprogrammiert. Zumal die Wiener Staatsoper ihrem Publikum noch eine ganz besondere Attraktion anzubieten hatte: Im Mittelpunkt des Abends und schier endloser Ovationen stand eine der großen Heroinen der Opernbühne, Martha Mödl, die hier in den Fünfziger- und Sechzigerjahren des Jahrhunderts als Leonore in Beethovens »Fidelio«, als Isolde und Brünnhilde, aber auch in so manchen Partien des dramatischen Mezzofachs Triumphe gefeiert hatte.

This imaginative staging of Berlioz's dramatic symphony for chorus, soloists and orchestra relies heavily on the moving of massed choirs across a large stage. It has vivid lighting effects–rather too many of them using strobes–and monolithic multi-purpose sets, in particular a revolving glass drum which functions both as cinema screen and rostrum for singers, so that the final ride to Hell, for example, is sung by Mephistopheles and Faust above a cavalcade of projected horses, like the inside of a zoetrope. The three main soloists have voices on a scale that can compete with these flashy production values–White and Kasarova, in particular, sing at a level of intensity that would swamp anything less; the climactic seduction trio has rarely been sung so well or with such an overpoweringly polymorphous eroticism. Cambreling marshals his forces effectively, giving full rein to the work's showstoppers like the "Hungarian March" but not neglecting the subtler less kinetic Gluckian side of Berlioz's vocal writing. (Roz Kaveney)

The press enthusiastically declared this Barber of Seville a “firework display of exhilarating comedy” and praised the "unforced liveliness" of the cast. EuroArts releases this highly acclaimed staging of one of the most popular operas ever written. Vesselina Kasarova is the undisputed star of this production – she shines musically and dramatically in the part of Rosina, one of her signature roles, which she has since been invited to sing in many major opera houses from Vienna to New York.