Editorial Reviews

Featuring an impressive run-down of great voices singing some of the most treasured music of the opera stage, EMI's The Opera Album gathers two discs of highlights excerpted from that label's estimable recording catalogue. No opera compilation would be complete without Maria Callas, and she offers three selections here (Catalani's "Ebben? ne andró lontana," Bellini's "Casta diva," and Giordano's "La Mamma morta"), while Montserrat Caballé, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Jussi Björling, Nicolai Gedda, and others fill out the roster of legendary performers. Plenty of today's stars are on hand, too, including Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Jessye Norman, Kiri Te Kanawa, Anne Sofie von Otter, and opera's golden couple, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, who offer the Act One love duet from La Bohème, Traviata's "Libiamo," and solo numbers. With composers ranging from Handel and Mozart to Verdi and Puccini, all the great artists are represented, supplying arias from popular works such as Madame Butterfly, La Traviata, The Marriage of Figaro, along with a few choice under-the-radar selections, like Dvorak's "Song to the Moon" from Rusalka and the "Temple Duet" from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. Of course, Bizet's famous "Habanera" from Carmen finds a place here, too, along with excerpts from Turandot, Aida, Don Giovanni, and many other evergreen favorites. EJ Johnson, Barnes & Noble

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