Georges Bizej: "Carmen" Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Sinopoli/Larmore /Moser/Gheorghiu/Ramey Teldec, 0630-2672-2 (3 discs, 158 mins)
Dial-a-track code: 1531
There are dozens of recordings of Carmen on the market, so another one is unlikely to save the world; on the other hand, unless it's very bad it probably won't do the world any harm, for an infusion of the vivid colour and over the top passion of Bizet's tourist office Seville is always welcome. This glitzy Teldec production certainly isn't bad. From the triumphant smash bang wallop of the overture to the final doom and gloom, Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Bavarian State Orchestra produce a compellingly brilliant version of the score that is as beautifully recorded as it is played; and there is singing luminous enough to brighten even the drabbest autumn day. Some of the latter comes from the American mezzo Jennifer Larmore, who sings like an angel - a Blue Angel, a la Dietrich - and from the Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, a melting Micaela; there is also great pleasure to be had from the inch perfect performance of the chorus and from the bit players in the drama, especially the bubbly Italian bass Maurizio Muraro and a perky tenor by the name of Jan Zinkler. I didn't care much for the principal men: Thomas Moser failed to charm me with what is, admittedly, an intelligently sung Don Jose, and Samuel Ramey sounds uncharacteristically pompous as the macho bullfighter Escamillo.
Gaetano Donizetti: "L'elisir d'amore" Hungarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Morandi/La Scola/Rufflni/Alaimo
Naxos, 8.660045-6 (2 discs, 136 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1641
Next year will see the bicentenary of Donizetti's birth and, presumably a flood of new recordings. Is it too much to hope that some of those recordings will feature the composer's mouthwatering tragic operas, or will we just get a flood of L'elisirs and Don Pasquales and Lucias? One way or another, Naxos dives in early with this delightful version of L'elisir d'amore recorded in the baroque surroundings at the Italian Institute in Budapest. The crystalline Alessandra Ruffini plays it straight - perhaps a little too straight as the pouty heroine Adina. Vincenzo La Scala as the much put upon Nemayino is a sweet lyric tenor almost (almost) reminiscent of Jose Carreras in the role and Simone Alaimo turns in an estimable comic performance as the quack doctor Dulcamara. The Italian conductor Pier Giorgio Morandi presides over an occasionally unwieldy assembly of Hungarian choral and orchestral forces - at times you can't help wishing that he had cracked the whip a little harder, for many of the ensembles fall some way short of the ideal buffo crispness and the chorus sometimes sounds more jaded than jolly - but he keeps the action rattling along nicely and if you're one of the few people on earth who haven't got a copy of this opera on your shelves, this one would fill the gap comfortably enough.
Igor Stravinsky: "The Rake's Progress"
Lyon Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Nagano/
Upshaw/Hadley/Ramey
Erato, 0630-12715-2 (2 discs, 137
mins)
Dial-a-track code: 1751
It's easy to be uneasy about the Rake's Progress, to write a rococo classical stage work in 1948 is, after all, a little like designing a Georgian building in the 1980s. But if you stop worrying about which composer Stravinsky might be ripping off at any given moment (Mozart? Handel? Donizetti? Rossini?) and just put your trust in, one of the greatest composers of all time, the music is consistently exhilarating. And let's face it, unless you're something of a rake yourself and severely under the influence of alcohol and/or loose women, you're hardly likely to mistake The Rake for Cosi Fan Tutte - there are too many Stravinsky-esque angles for that. This exciting new recording is distinguished by sterling performances from Jerry Hadley as the dreamy, easily led Tom Rakewell, a gentle but firm Dawn Upshaw as his true love Anne and Samuel Ramey as a cavalier Nick Shadow; seldom can evil incarnate have been portrayed as more alluring.
