Disc of the Day #21 - James Levine's 25th anniversary gala

James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala
A few years ago I submitted a question for the Met's live Saturday night broadcast interval quiz - the question had to do with opera characters who are first heard off-stage (Tosca, Mimi, Siegfried etc). It was used during a broadcast and I got an email letting me know that I should expect a package of goodies through the post - it never came. I let them know and another was posted - again, nothing. I think they were about to give up on me but, luckily, decided to try a third time.

A week or two later I received a box containing complete recordings on CD of Met productions of Carmen and Figaro, DVDs of Carmen and Don Giovanni, the Complete Kobbe's Opera Book and several other CDs! This disc was one of them.

I can only imagine what it must have been like to attend the gala - as a collection of singing this disc is unbelievably good (and so it should be, given the list of talent).

We have:

Pearl Fishers duet - Alagna/Terfel
Depuis le Jour (Louise) - Renee Fleming
Act 1 duet from Faust - Domingo/Ramey
Meine Lippen... (Giuditta) - Cotrubas
O Don Fatale (Don Carlos) - Dolora Zajick
Act 2 sextet (Don Giovanni) - Fleming/Te Kanawa/Hei-Kyung Hong/Hadley/Terfel/Julien Robbins
Juliet's Waltz - Ruth Ann Swenson
Watch Duet (Fledermaus) - Mattila/Hagegard
Pourquoi me Reveiller (Werther) - Kraus
Mon Coeur... (Samson et Dalila) - Bumbry
Dich Teure Halle (Tannhauser) - Voigt
Ah quel Diner (La Perichole) - von Stade
Rosenkavalier act 3 trio - Fleming/von Otter/Heidi Grant Murphy

(oh, and a tribute to Jimmy Levine from Birgit Nilsson)

Wonderful stuff!

#10 Wagner - Tristan und Isolde (Domingo/Stemme/Pappano - EMI)

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
I bough this on a whim second hand a few months ago (in its original release rather than the new version with e-libretto) for about £4 as it was missing the booklet and box.

I love Domingo but my main reason for buying this was Nina Stemme as I saw her as Isolde at Covent Garden recently and she was simply jaw-droppingly good (even with Ben Heppner walking the role of Tristan as - I think - Lars Cleveman sang it from the wings). She doesn't disappoint in this set either, although with a few more years (and a few more performances of Isolde under her belt) she's even better now than in 2005 when this set was released.

So, you get Nina Stemme and Domingo, who else? Rene Pape as King Marke, Olaf Bar as Kurwenal, Ian Bostridge as the shepherd and Matthew Rose (who I very much like) as the steersman (oh, and some bloke called Villazon as the young seaman). Not bad for £4 I don't think!

Admittedly I would pick the Bohm/Nilsson/Windgassen 1966 Bayreuth recording over this if you forced me to choose but you wouldn't do that...would you?