Own Every Note Joan Sutherland Recorded For Decca Studios

To commemorate the one year anniversary of Dame Joan Sutherland's death, the label she spent her entire career recording for will release a 23-CD box set complete with a 48-page booklet. Chances are that most opera fans will already own much (or all) of the material in the recitals left by the soprano known as "La Stupenda," but the many will not be able to pass up the original cover art sleeves and commentary by opera critic George Hall. Dame Joan would have turned 85 on November 7, 2011. This limited-edition box is set for release on October 3, 2011. A complete track listing is after the jump.

Sutherland devotees can opt for a slightly less extravagant package by getting The Prima Donna - Deluxe Edition. Issued on three CDs, you'll get the set as it was originally released plus a 73-minute interview CD that Dame Joan recorded in 2002. The package also comes with an 80-page booklet packed with photos. Release date is also set for October 3, 2011.



JOAN SUTHERLAND: THE COMPLETE DECCA RECITALS

CD 1: Operatic Arias

Scenes and arias from Lucia di Lammermoor, Ernani, I vespri siciliani, Linda di Chamounix

Orchestre des Concerts du Conservatoire; Nello Santi; recorded April 1959

CDs 2 & 3: The Art of the Prima Donna

Arias from Artaxerxes, Samson, Norma, I puritani, Semiramide, La sonnambula, Faust, Roméo et Juliette, Otello, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, La traviata, Hamlet, Lakmé, Les Huguenots, and Rigoletto

Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Francesco Molinari-Pradelli; recorded August 1960

CDs 4 & 5: Command Performance

Arias from Oberon, Le Cid, Dinorah, Pagliacci, I masnadieri, Luisa Miller, La cambiale di matrimonio, Beatrice di Tenda; songs - The Gypsy and the Bird, Parla!, Io non sono più, Ideale, Il bacio, La Serenata, Mattinata, Lo! here the gentle lark, The Last Rose of Summer, Scenes that are brightest may charm awhile, I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls, Home sweet home

London Symphony Orchestra; Richard Bonynge (conductor & piano); recorded October-November 1962

CDs 6 & 7: The Age of Bel Canto

6. Arias from La buona figliuola, Atalanta, Meraspe, Samson, Semele, Astarto, Artaxerxes, Rosina, Il re pastore, Die Zauberflöte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Angéla ou L'Atelier de Jean Cousin

7. Arias from Semiramide, La Muette de Portici, Der Freischütz, Beatrice di Tenda, Don Pasquale, Lucrezia Borgia, Attila, La straniera, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Arditi: Boléro

with Marilyn Horne (mezzo), Richard Conrad (tenor), New Symphony Orchestra of London (CD 6); London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (CD 7); recorded June 1963

CD 8: Joy to the World

Joy to the World, It came upon a midnight clear, O holy night, O divine Redeemer, What Child is this?, Adeste fideles, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Good King Wenceslas, Hark! the herald angels sing, The Virgin's Slumber Song,

Ave Maria, The Holly and the Ivy, Angels we have heard on high, Deck the hall

The Ambrosian Singers, New Philharmonia Orchestra; Richard Bonynge; recorded May 1965

CD 9: Noël Coward Album

Songs from Conversation Piece, Bitter Sweet, Operette, After the Ball, Pacific 1860

Chorus and Orchestra; Richard Bonynge; recorded July 1966

CDs 10 & 11: Love Live Forever

Songs from operetta: The Student Prince, The Boys from Syracuse, The Desert Song, Music in the Air, Rose Marie, The Only Girl, Show Boat, The Maid of the Mountains, Tom Jones, La Périchole, Chérubin, Der Vogelhändler, The Dubarry, Die geschiedene frau, Die spanische Nachtigall, Die Dollarprinzessin, Madame Pompadour, Der liebe Augustin, Eva, Ein Walzertraum, Der Opernball, Casanova, The Merry Widow, The King Steps Out, The Chocolate Soldier, Balalaika, Paganini

Ambrosian Light Opera Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra; Richard Bonynge; recorded March & July 1966

CD 12 & 13: Romantic French Arias

Arias from Robinson Crusoé, Dinorah, Louise, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Manon Lescaut, Fra Diavolo, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Cendrillon, Mireille, L'Étoile du Nord, Le Tribut de Zamora, Robert le Diable, Le Coeur et la Main, Les Noces de Jeannette, Faust, Vasco de Gama

L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; Richard Bonynge; recorded September 1969

CD 14: Songs my Mother taught me

Songs by Dvorák, Mendelssohn, Del Riego, Massenet, Gounod, Nelson, Delibes, LaForge, Juncker, Hahn, Abt, Grieg, Liszt, Delibes

New Philharmonia Orchestra; Richard Bonynge; recorded August 1972

CD 15: Operatic Duets

Duets from La traviata, La Sonnambula, Linda di Chamounix, Otello, Aida

Luciano Pavarotti (tenor); National Philharmonic Orchestra; Richard Bonynge; recorded September 1976

CDs 16 & 17: Serate musicali

Songs by Rossini, Leoncavallo, Donizetti, Respighi, Bellini, Verdi, Cimara, Ponchielli, Mascagni, Gounod, Godard, Massenet, Lalo, Thomas, Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Bizet, Meyerbeer, Chaminade, Delibes, Hahn, Adam

Richard Bonynge (piano), recorded June 1978

CD 18: Wagner recital

Arias from Rienzi, Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Die Walküre, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tristan und Isolde

National Philaharmonic Orchestra; Richard Bonynge

CD 19: Mozart recital

Arias from Il re pastore, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte; Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio, K418; Chi'io mi scordi di te... Non temer, amato bene, K505

National Philharmonic Orchestra; Richard Bonynge; recorded November 1978

CD 20: Bel canto arias

Arias from Il castello di Kenilworth, Attila, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Betly, La Favorite, L'Africaine, Guillaume Tell, Il barbiere di Siviglia

Orchestra of Welsh National Opera; Richard Bonynge; recorded September 1985

CD 21: Talking Pictures

A tribute to films and Hollywood musicals

English Chamber Orchestra; Richard Bonynge; recorded April 1986

CD 22: Romantic Trios

Songs for soprano, horn and piano

Songs by Denza, Panseron, Kreutzer, Nicolai, Proch, Skroup, Donizetti, Lachner, Kücken, Massenet, Berlioz

Barry Tuckwell (horn), Richard Bonynge (piano), recorded October 1987

CD 23: Rarities and first recordings

Arias by Bononcini, Paisiello, Piccinni, Arne, and Handel (Acis and Galatea, Alcina)

Philomusica of London; Granville Jones, Adrian Boult, Anthony Lewis; recorded 1958 and May/June 1959

Russian songs by Stravinsky, Cui & Gretchaninov

Gliere: Concerto for Coloratura soprano

London Symphony Orchestra; Richard Bonynge; recorded May 1968

Donizetti: La Fille du régiment: Par le rang... Salut à la France

Chorus and Orchestra of ther Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Richard Bonynge; recorded July 1967

Angela Gheorghiu Pays Homage to Maria Callas on EMI

Now that the vast majority of operatic recordings made by Maria Callas are in the public domain, EMI Classics needs to figure out how to keep profiting from its #1-selling artist. How do you do that when said artist has been deceased since 1977? Perhaps the answer lies in taking one of the current divas that signed onto your roster in 1998 and create a new tribute album of sorts. That is exactly what the public gets from the latest release from Angela Gheorghiu: Homage to Maria Callas. The soprano is joined by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of conductor Marco Armiliato and the part-time colleague tenor James Valenti for his offstage singing on the Traviata track. The curious part of this project is that Ms. Gheorghiu has always professed that fellow Romanian Virginia Zeani is the soprano she most admires
and practically modeled herself after once deciding to become an opera singer (listen to an audio interview here). Before becoming an exclusive artist with EMI, Ms. Gheorghiu had signed with competitor Decca records. It was for this label that Virginia Zeani herself recorded two full studio albums. One recording was an all-Puccini program of arias from Gianni Schicchi, Turandot, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, La Rondine and more, with conductor Franco Patanè. The second operatic recital with conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni featured coloratura arias from prime Callas territory including La Traviata, I Puritani, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Bohème and


La Sonnambula. In some ways it may seem that Zeani was Decca's answer to EMI's Callas. Recording repertoire wasn't the only thing they shared. In 1952, conductor Tullio Serafin replaced Maria Callas with Virginia Zeani as Elvira in I Puritani at the Teatro Communale in Florence. The bass that evening was Nicola Rossi Lemeni, future husband to Ms. Zeani. So it seems odd that Decca never took advantage of their exclusive rights to Ms. Gheorghiu when they had her in order to make a dedication album to her homeland heroine. One thing that Ms. Gheorghiu does share with Madame Callas is that this "homage" will feature music that dips into mezzo-soprano repertoire (Samson et Dalila, Le Cid, Carmen), something that the latter began to record once vocal decline began to set in. 2012 will mark the 60th anniversary of Callas joining the EMI family and that just might prompt an increase in sales of her greatest recordings. [Source]
Label Divas: Maria Callas (l) and Virginia Zeani (r) strike similar poses:"Homage to Maria Callas is a collection of beloved French and Italian operatic masterpieces performed by Angela Gheorghiu, the defining diva of this century. The programme is inspired by the career and recordings of Maria Callas, the greatest diva of the last century. The arias are shared favourites of both Callas and Gheorghiu, and Angela’s new recording demonstrates once again her extraordinary vocal and emotional range. Angela Gheorghiu said recently, 'Callas was original in everything she did; she was a phenomenon. In every performance she gave her all. She was the most wonderful painter and you can always hear exactly the right colour in her voice. Just hearing her sound, you understand all the power or fragility of her emotions. That’s a rare talent and a great gift.' Gheorghiu continued, 'EMI was her record label and it’s mine too. It feels like a family.' Recorded at London’s iconic Abbey Road Studios in London and in New York, the repertoire of Gheorghiu’s first studio recital in six years (during which time she recorded several complete operas, including a multi-award-winning Madama Butterfly), shows her versatility in lyric, spinto and mezzo roles, with each of which she feels a strong emotional connection. These include Mimi (La bohème), Marguerite (Faust), Imogene (Il Pirata), Adriana (Adriana Lecouvreur – an opera which Gheorghiu added to her repertoire in 2010 to great critical acclaim), Maddalena (Andrea Chénier), Nedda (Pagliacci), Wally (La Wally), Medea, Chimène (Le Cid) and Delilah (Samson et Delilah). The new album also includes two arias from the opera that launched her career: La traviata by Verdi, New York Magazine praised at the time that 'Her lady of the camellias is a worthy successor to Garbo and Callas.' [Source]
Did Angela Gheorghiu inadvertently pay tribute to Maria Callas
while still on the Decca label with this 1998 release?
Paul Pelkonen reports, "...the most controversial addition to the disc is a digitally built duet between La Gheorghiu and the late Maria Callas. The two sopranos, one living, one very dead, will sing 'L'amour c'est l'oiseaux rebelle,' the Habañera from Act I of Bizet's Carmen. According to a press release (received today from EMI Classics) the new 'duet' was created from the original master tape of Callas' 1961 recording of the aria. The engineers chose this over the '63 recording of the complete opera, because it lacked the usual choral accompaniment. In the engineering booth, the original orchestra (the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française under the baton of George Prêtre) was scrubbed out. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Marco Armiliato re-recorded the music, with the players using a special click track to match the original. Ms. Gheorghiu also chose to learn Callas' particular sense of rhythm and meter, enabling the two divas to warble together, or seperately. Leaving aside obvious reservations (the biggest one being that the Habañera is intended for one singer!) the new disc will hit New York's few remaining record shops in October [sic], shortly before Ms. Gheorghiu's scheduled appearance with the Opera Orchestra of New York. In the OONY performance, she will sing the title role in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvrer." [Source]

VERSIONS AVAILABLE:
- Deluxe Edition comprises a CD encased in a hardcover book containing an essay from Angela in three languages, a gallery of glamorous new photos and exclusive access to a video and mini-feature on the making of the CD.
- Standard Edition consists of a CD in a digipack with a booklet excerpting Gheorghiu’s essay. Both Deluxe and Standard editions feature song texts in English, French, German and the original language, if different, as well as booklet text in all three languages.
- Standard Digital Version offers the entire standard CD contents.

RELEASE DATES: USA (9/28),  UK (11/7) and Germany (11/18)
Sample tracks by clicking here.
TRACK LISTING:
1. "Donde Lieta Uscì" (Mimì's Farewell): La Bohème, Act Iii
2. "O Dieu! Que De Bijoux" (Jewel Song ): Faust, Act Iii, Scene 6
3. "Col Sorriso D'innocenza": Il Pirata, Act Ii, Scene 3
4. "Qual Fiamma Avea Nel Guardo!...Stridono Lassu": I Pagliacci
5. "Mon Coeur S'ouvre à Ta Voix": Samson Et Dalila
6. "Ebben?...Ne Andrò Lontana": La Wally
7. "L'amour Est Un Oiseau Rebelle" (Habanera): Carmen
8. "La Mamma Morta": Andrea Chénier, Act Iii
9. "Dei Tuoi Figli La Madre": Medea, Act I, Scene 1
10. "De Cet Affreux Combat...Pleurez Mes Yeux": Le Cid
11. "Poveri Fiori": Adriana Lecouvreur
12. "È strano! È strano!...Ah, Fors` è Lui": La Traviata
13. "Follie! Follie!...Sempre Libera": La Traviata - with James Valenti

NEW Harmonia Mundi: Gheorghiu, Mehta and Pendatchanska

Harmonia Mundi will be making three fall releases that may grab the attention of vocal enthusiasts. The first is a disc with soprano Teodora Gheorghiu titled Anna de Amicis with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques on the subsidiary label Aparté. "The pre-classicist programme is dedicated to the historic figure of Anna de Amicis, famous soprano who first created the role of Giunia in W.A. Mozart's Lucio Silla. Besides works of the young Mozart the programme comprises arias by N. Jomelli, J. C. Bach, C.W. Gluck and others." [Source] Watch a video (below) featuring the recording of some wonderful music that has been forgotten for many years. (Release dates: Germany - September 11, 2011; UK - October 3, 2011)

The second disc is a follow-up for countertenor Bejun Mehta to his debut disc with Harmonia Mundi (Ombra Cara featuring Händel arias). This time around the singer chose to work with pianist Julius Drake to focus on English songs of the 19th & 20th centuries on a disc called Down By The Salley Gardens. Included are such legendary composers as Howells, Finzi, Tippett and Britten. To listen to some audio clips from the album, click here. (Release dates: USA - September 13, 2011; Internationally - September 16, 2011)

Lastly is a complete recording of Händel's opera Agrippina featuring Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Jennifer Rivera, Sunhae Im, Bejun Mehta, Marcos Fink, Neal Davies and Dominique Visse with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin under the direction of René Jacobs. Ms. Pendatchanska has performed on other Harmonia Mundi recordings with René Jacobs including Mozart's Don Giovanni, Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito. This particular recording is taken from a live stage version done in Berlin and there will be a limited edition of the opera put out with a DVD. Watch (below) Alexandrina Pendatchanska sing "L'alma mia fra le tempeste" from Agrippina. (Release dates: USA - October 11, 2011; Internationally - January 1, 2012)

Anna Netrebko Gets MET Release for the Autumn

On September 16, Deutsche Grammophon will release Anna Netrebko - Live at the Metropolitan Opera. According to the Anna Netrebko blog:

"The CD...includes works by Prokofiev, Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Gounod, Offenbach and Puccini. Anna Netrebko sings with top opera singers such as Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Juan Diego Florez, Roberto Alagna, Joseph Calleja and Piotr Beczala. Valery Gerviev, Sylvain Cambreling, Placido Domingo and James Levine conduct the Metroplitan Opera Orchestra." [Source]

Anna Moffo Concert & Opera Rarities Released on Gala Label

Although RCA has neglected to release the complete catalog of Anna Moffo since her death in 2006, the public relies heavily on pirated recordings of this great artist from several decades of performances. The latest addition is "The Art of Anna Moffo" released on July 22 by the budget label Gala. The 4-CD set features works of Händel, Bellini, Verdi and Respighi. To purchase the discs, click here. A full list of tracks and dates is after the jump.

Glossa Music Packages Roberta Invernizzi 2-CD Händel Set

Italian Händelian Soprano
(Photo: Bruna Ginammi)

Milanese soprano Roberta Invernizzi studied piano and double bass before focusing on singing. She worked with voice teacher Margaret Heyward to focus on early music repertoire before going on to sing with some of the world's most important conductors including Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ivor Bolton, Ton Koopman and Gustav Leonhardt. Important performances in her career are Händel's Rinaldo at Teatro alla Scala, Galuppi's L'Olimpiade at Fenice di Venezia and Mozart's Mass in C minor at the Musikverein in Vienna and Davide Penitente at the Festival Styriarte di Graz with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Recently she has sung at the Salzburg Festival, Lufthansa Festival, Teatro San Carlo, Theatre des Champs Elysees and Teatro Massimo. Her discography includes over 60 recordings for Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI/Virgin, Naïve, Opus 111 and Symphonia, that have won numerous awards including Diapason d'Or de l'année, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grammophone Awards, Schallplatten Preis and a Midem Classical Award. Between 2005-09 the soprano was one of the main artists featured on a project to record the complete Händel cantatas with Fabio Bonizzoni. [Source]

Listen to some samples by going here. To order the new 2-CD set, click here. Complete track listing and album cover art is after the jump.

GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL (1685-1759)

Arias from Italian Cantatas

CD I [60:46]

from Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, Vol. 1:

Tra le fiamme, HWV 170
01 Tra le fiamme
02 Pien di nuovo e bel diletto
03 Voli per l’aria

Pensieri notturni di Filli, HWV 134
04 Giacché il sonno a lei dipinge
05 Ha l’inganno

Il delirio amoroso, HWV 90
06 Sonata (instr.)
07 Un pensiero voli in cielo
08 Per te lasciai la luce
09 Lascia ormai le brune vele
10 In queste amene

Figlio d’alte speranze, HWV 113
11 Troppo costa
12 Sia guida, sia stella
13 Brillava protetto

from Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, Vol. II:

Diana cacciatrice, HWV 79
14 La Marche (instr.)
15 Alla caccia, alla caccia
16 Foriera la tromba

CD II [61:23]

from Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, Vol. V:

Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, HWV 96
01 Ouverture (instr.)
02 Cor fedele
03 Quell’erbetta
04 Fermati! No, crudel
05 Tra le fere la fera più cruda
06 Un sospiretto d’un labbro pallido
07 Vivere e non amar, amare e non languir

from Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, Vol. VI:

Olinto, pastore arcade, HWV 143
08 Sonata (instr.)
09 Oh! Come chiare e belle
10 Al suon che destano
11 Alle voci del bronzo guerriero

from Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, Vol. VII:

Apollo e Dafne, HWV 122
12 Felicissima quest’alma
13 Ardi, ardori e preghi
14 Una guerra ho dentro il seno
15 Come in ciel benigna stella
16 Deh, lascia addolcire

Agrippina condotta a morire, HWV 110
17 Orrida, oscura
18 Renda cenere il tiranno
19 Se infelice al mondo
20 Su, lacerate il seno

—

About this CD

For the second Glossa Portrait release the spotlight falls upon a singer who, since the 1990s, has been excelling in broad swathes of Italian Baroque music, whose qualities had remained under-performed and under-appreciated until musicians of sufficient quality and understanding of such repertoire had emerged. The soprano Roberta Invernizzi has been one such musician, gifted with an ability to master the technical, expressive and temperamental challenges set by composers of that time. Many are the recordings of the music of Vivaldi, Monteverdi and Alessandro Scarlatti graced by Invernizzi’s sparkling presence (and she has also added a scintillating theatrical verve to many of the incursions into Neapolitan opera buffa in the company of Antonio Florio).

Given Roberta Invernizzi’s notable successes on stage (and on recordings) in portraying some of Handel’s more famous female characters from the operas of his maturity, it was an inspired choice of Fabio Bonizzoni to involve the Milanese singer in his series of Le Cantate Italiane di Handel, and Invernizzi appeared on no less than five of the seven discs in that greatly-admired series. This two-disc Portrait album draws on those recordings to highlight the delicious characterizations of Invernizzi in Handel’s vivid and visceral portrayals of nymphs and goddesses such as Diana, Cloris, Amarilis, Lidia and Fili, Arcadian characters one and all but nonetheless human in personality. Alongside the opportunity to experience the “feminine” viewpoint explored through arias from Handel’s Italian Cantatas there is a chance also to enjoy with this new release the instrumental qualities of players found in Fabio Bonizzoni’s La Risonanza.

Rolando Villazón Takes on Barbara Streisand in New Recording

"Although he has starred in a glittering roll-call of operatic roles, Rolando Villazón has always felt inspired by a broader range of music. 'I love musicals!' he declares. 'When I was twelve I used to sing the soundtrack of Man of La Mancha. I was Don Quixote.' Villazón also adores zarzuela, that distinctively Spanish genre which mixes opera, popular song and dance, and so it’s no great surprise to find that the ever-enthusiastic Mexican tenor should also be a fan of classic songs from the movies, of which he has made a personal selection for this new album. It is a collection of memorable and evocative tunes, sung with passion and brio by Villazón. He has enlisted some expert musical assistance in his quest to capture the spirit of the movies on disc. Arrangers Nicholas Dodd and Steven Baker can reel off a list of

Villazón: Opera Star to Pop Star

credits in choral, orchestral and vocal recordings, and Dodd has regularly collaborated with David Arnold on his James Bond soundtracks. Grammy-winning producer Simon Franglen has experienced Hollywood at its most lavish, having worked on James Cameron’s big-budget epics Avatar and Titanic, as well as on Baz Luhrmann’s musical fantasy Moulin Rouge. In addition, he has collaborated with some of the music industry’s all-time best-selling divas, namely Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand. It was of course Streisand who made the world sing along to the soundtrack from Yentl, in which she starred in 1983 and from whose soundtrack Villazón has picked 'A Piece of Sky.' Like many listeners, he was captivated by the song’s spirit

of wonder and its aspirational mood, which he movingly evokes here. Streisand was also one of the singers who popularized 'The Summer Knows,' taken from Michel Legrand’s soundtrack to the 1971 coming-of-age drama Summer of ’42. In fact the song became such a popular favourite that it was recorded by a host of legendary performers, not least Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Andy Williams, so Villazón had to make sure he was tuned to perfection the day he recorded that one." [Source]

Sony Classical Launches Website for Nino Machaidze

With the release of her debut album Romantic Arias dropping on June 17 in Germany (as a limited edition), Sony Classical has launched an extensive site for soprano Nino Machaidze that features tons of glamorous photos, sound clips from the new release, latest news, as well as a full calendar engagements around the world. Check out the website by clicking here. Below are some of the gorgeous publicity photos that have been released: