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The #1 Opera Album
Giacomo Puccini , Giuseppe Verdi , Léo Delibes , Georges Bizet , Umberto Giordano , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Richard Wagner , Gioachino Rossini , Alfredo Catalani , Jacques Offenbach , Ruggiero Leoncavallo , Charles Gounod , Gaetano Donizetti , Pietro Mascagni , Antonin Dvorak , Richard Bonynge , Herbert von Karajan , Alberto Erede , Lamberto Gardelli , Giuseppe Patane , John Mauceri , Zubin Mehta , Charles Dutoit , Gyorgy Fischer , Riccardo Chailly , Istvan Kertesz , Leone Magiera , Evelino Pido , Gianandrea Gavazzeni , Renée Fleming , Cecilia Bartoli , Luciano Pavarotti , Jussi Bjorling , and Renata Tebaldi Manufacturer: Decca ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000059RXO Release Date: 2001-02-27 |
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Amazon.com
The labels that are now gathered under the Universal Classics umbrella have a pretty impressive scorecard in the area of classical compilations. We've seen The Greatest Opera Show on Earth, The Yellow Guide: Classical Music, Best of the Millennium, and now there's The No. 1 Opera Album. But that's no surprise, since Universal has some of the finest interpreters in its catalogue to draw from. This two-CD set (at the price of one), for example, brings together the likes of Cecilia Bartoli, Renée Fleming, Luciano Pavarotti, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan, and many more. Yet the other key to a successful compilation is canny anthologizing, and here again, you have a nice selection to give you a smattering of opera's heavyweights from the Italian, German, and French repertory (there's even a step outside the standard framework with an aria from Dvorák's lovely Rusalka). Ranging from 1959 to 1997, the choices from back catalogue will doubtless be the entry ticket for many into this grandest of the arts. --Sarah ChinCustomer Reviews:
The beautiful gift of opera..........2007-07-17
Pretty darn good.......2007-07-04
The Opera #1 Opera Album.......2007-06-07
Excellent assortment.......2007-05-12
Great Selections.......2007-03-31
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Idiot's Guide to Classical Music
Manufacturer: RCA ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000003FPT Release Date: 1995-02-14 |
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I can name that tune in three notes.......2005-02-19
A Fabulous CD.......2004-10-14
Mega-Sampler! This really does have 99 tracks!.......2002-03-20
If you like burning your own CDs, then this is a great source for intra-track fillers, along the lines of They Might Be Giants' "Apollo 18" album, which has all of those short tracks on the end. The idea is to put your CD player on shuffle, so the short tracks get mixed in with the bona fide songs. The result being a very unusual album.
The booklet gives an explanation of the track, where you heard it (i.e. the Warner Brother's Cartoons, or on famous films), and where you can get the full piece of music. So it's a mega sampler CD.
I can honestly say that this CD is a great gift for the friend who has everything.
Fun Sampler.......2001-11-09
Useful........1999-03-22
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Opera Without Words
Manufacturer: RCA ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000003F7N Release Date: 1992-05-12 |
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Pops and Fiedler Provide Opera to Drive in Rush Hour...........2005-08-27
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Amelita Galli-Curci: Complete Acoustic Recordings, Vol. 2 (1920-24)
Manufacturer: Romophone ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000001S37 Release Date: 1995-11-01 |
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Classical Music 101
Manufacturer: RCA ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0002XEECK Release Date: 2004-09-28 |
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It's only snippets of the music!.......2006-02-12
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Carmen Jones (1943 Original Broadway Cast)
Manufacturer: Decca U.S. ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00008BNUK Release Date: 2003-02-25 |
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Carmen Jones is one of the weirdest projects to ever hit the American musical theater. In 1943, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II adapted Georges Bizet's Carmen for Broadway. The music was pretty much left intact, but Hammerstein transferred the action to WWII America. Carmen's tobacco factory became Carmen Jones' parachute factory, bullfighter Escamillo became boxer Husky Miller, and so on. As if this weren't enough, there also was the "small" detail of casting the show only with African-Americans. All in all, this ambitious endeavor makes Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme seem timid. Hammerstein's attempt at writing "black" hasn't aged all that well, but many of the show's songs retain a surprising impact. The feverish intensity of "Beat Out dat Rhythm on a Drum," for instance, hasn't dimmed over the years, and the song's been covered by a wide variety of performers, from Pearl Bailey and Marc Almond to Mandy Patinkin. The track is reprised as a bonus track at the end of the CD in a version sung by Kitty Carlisle (who's rather stiff compared to the show's June Hawkins). --Elisabeth VincentelliCustomer Reviews:
A Contemporary Adaptation of Carmen.......2003-12-02
What makes CARMEN JONES different, however, is that it uses Bizet's original music, though it changes the setting and the lyrics (they're in English, too, rather than the original French). And who would have done such a thing? Oscar Hammerstein II (as in Rodgers & Hammerstein, I know you've heard of them. If not, shame on you, go straight to OKLAHOMA, do not pass go, do not collect CD of CARMEN JONES). This is one of Hammerstein's earlier works, and it's a great show. (There's a very successful movie version available on video, if you want to see it.)
CARMEN JONES updates the story of CARMEN. The original plot took place in Spain in 1820, Carmen was a gypsy. The first performance of CARMEN was in Paris in 1875. (Wow! Over 125 years, and it still plays regularly all over the world, talk about a great run!) What Hammerstein did was akin to what our current composers are doing with shows like RENT. He updated the show for his audience. Instead of Spaniards and gypsies, he used African-American factory workers, and set the story in 1943 during the war in a Southern town.
The story makes this a darker musical than Hammerstein's later shows like OKLAHOMA, CAROUSEL, THE KING AND I and SOUTH PACIFIC, some of which had their heavier elements, but were focused more on the romance. The tone of CARMEN JONES is more akin to his first show (the first musical) SHOWBOAT. It is also unusual not just for it's time but in general that it had an entirely African-American cast. While recent shows like Disney's THE LION KING and ONCE ON THIS ISLAND have also had predominantly African/African-American casts, these shows are few and far between. Another comparable show in terms of music and style would perhaps be Gershwin's PORGY AND BESS, though it's considered an opera rather than a musical.
Now THIS is how CARMEN JONES should sound like!.......2003-02-26
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Bryn Terfel Sings Favorites
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B0000B1JWJ Release Date: 2004-04-27 |
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100 World's Best Loved Melodies
Manufacturer: Madacy Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD |