Editorial Reviews

This album's title, Great Opera Choirs, is somewhat misleading; due to a glitch in translation, it might lead the listener to believe that the CD is a sampling of selections by the choral forces of various opera houses, but it's actually a collection of opera choruses performed by the Chorus of the Stuttgart State Opera and Stuttgart State Orchestra. The collection contains a pleasantly wide variety of opera choruses, some well known and some fairly obscure. It's a pleasure to hear the choral versions of the "Polovtsian Dances" from "Prince Igor" and the "Triumphal March" from "Aida" in their original choral versions. The CD also includes a chorus from Monteverdi's "Orfeo" and from Schoenberg's "Moses und Aron," not usual choral fare. The Chorus and Orchestra perform with energy, but in general the performances are more pedestrian than inspired; they are perfectly respectable, but they fail to stir the blood, as some of this music ought to. The sound lacks clarity and tends to favor the orchestra, so that the chorus sounds somewhat murky. Stephen Eddins, All Music Guide

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