his
guide is meant to help both those new to opera and those immersed
in it who may find thumbnail retrospectives useful. (When no decent
Video recommendation is possible, none are listed, so someone viewing
an unfamiliar opera won't be turned off for good through a sub-standard
purchase.)
All operas covered are sometimes
performed; I try to avoid too much esoterica.
A work never absent from the
international stage since its world premiere is marked
"Standard Repertory." Here, I sometimes
recommend more than the usual two or three AUDIO sets.
Still, due attention is paid to the supremacy of certain
sets that may never be surpassed as a whole, despite the
high caliber of individual interpretations -- in certain
roles -- cited here in addition. For instance, on the one
hand, one must acknowledge the strict standards of some
Walter Legge recordings for EMI/ANGEL; it's hard to
imagine a finer Fidelio as a whole than the
Ludwig/Vickers/Klemperer set (the finest complete opera
recording ever?), a finer Rigoletto than the
Gobbi/Callas/Serafin or a finer Tosca than the Callas/Di
Stefano/De Sabata. (Such recordings only enhance the
elusive lure of perfection in the opera world.) On the
other hand, in works of this stature, one must not
neglect other benchmarks like Furtwängler's superb
conducting in Fidelio, Stracciari's superb Rigoletto or
the galvanizing duo of Nilsson and Corelli in the last
act of Tosca. In giving my preferred recordings, all
recommendations within each division (video first, audio
second) are listed here in order of personal
preference.
Other works here have only recently
grown in stature and acceptance; here, a personal crystal
ball has dictated certain choices.
Some exceptional videos have come from
Japan with Japanese subtitles only; since this site is
primarily, though not exclusively, aimed at an
English-speaking audience, I have been sparing in listing
such items. Only where a performance fills a clear void
do I list it with an appropriate warning. Interested
viewers are advised to obtain a libretto with full
translation into the vernacular.
A few outside sources are occasionally
used. I'll give certain specifics, say, from the German
Language Video Center catalog (duly acknowledged), or
whatever. But virtually all critical evaluations are
firsthand from personal research and are marked
"[G.R.]"
--G. Riggs.