Operas... Any fans?


Hi all,
I'm starting to get into Opera (I actually have season tickets to the Opera de Montreal)...

I would like to find some well recorded and well interpreted opera on CDs. The only problem is that I find that most CDs I purchased have a poor recording (or they sound like they were recorded from the 250th row).

Does anyone have any suggestion as to what opera CDs I should try getting (or any better labels than other ones)?

By the way, I am looking for complete operas or CDs with multiple opera passages (sorry, I don't know any better english words).

So in short, I'm looking for must have CDs...

So far the operas I really liked were:

Madama Butterfly
Rigoletto
Turandot
Lakmé
Carmen

Any of the above operas or any other operas worth while listenning would be appreciated...

Thanks ahead
lgregoir

Showing 1 response by lgregoir

I seem to appreciate more Italian and French Operas. Don't know why since I don't understand italian at all... They sound more smooth to my ears than German or English operas (which sound more brutal to me).

I totally agree that the singing is very important (that's the main point in Opera I guess) but I just have a hard time with opera which the orchestra sounds miles behind the singers (low dynamics for a lack of a better word)... I agree that the orchestra should be a little away from the singers but I would still like to have a 10th row experience (wide soundstage and very present orchestra without overwelming the singers).

Like I mentionned in my first post, since I'm new to Opera, it is very possible that I'm asking for something that's not possible or just doesn't exist, but it's worth asking...

Thanks again