Kathleen Ferrier - Arias - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Armide was Lully and Quinault's last tragedie lyrique undoubtedly Quinault's finest dramatic achievement, and the culmination of the tragedie en musique conceived by Lully, who died the year after it's creation. Never has language appeared so beautiful and tragic in Lully's music, and the drama of this Christian knight falling in love with the sorceress who refuses to kill him was so deeply felt that it remained on stage for a century! Here, Vincent Dumestre passionately conducts Lully's last masterpiece, whose eponymous character, played by the immense Stephanie D'Oustrac, never ceases to bewitch us. Album Tracks 1. Armide~Prologue. Ouverture 2. Armide~Prologue. Tout doit céder dans l'univers 3. Armide~Prologue. D'une égale tendresse 4. Armide~Prologue. Entrée 5. Armide~Prologue. Menuet 6. Armide~Prologue. Rondeau 7. Armide~Prologue. Suivons notre héros 8. Armide~Prologue. Entrée 9. Armide~Prologue. Menuet 10. Armide~Prologue. Menuet 11. Armide~Prologue. Chœur Que dans le temple de mémoire 12. Armide~Prologue. Ouverture 13. Armide~Acte I. Scène 1 Dans un jour de triomphe 14. Armide~Acte I. Scène 2 Armide, que le sang qui m'until avec vous 15. Armide~Acte I. Scène 3 Entrée 16. Armide~Acte I. Armide est encore plus aimable 17. Armide~Acte I. Sarabande 18. Armide~Acte I. Suivons Armide et chanton sa victoire 19. Armide~Acte I. Sarabande 20. Armide~Acte I. Que la douceur d'un triomphe 21. Armide~Acte I. Sarabande 22. Armide~Acte I. Scène 4 Ô ciel! 23. Armide~Acte I. Poursuivons jsuqu'au trépas 24. Armide~Acte I. Entr'acte 25. Armide~Acte II. Scène 1 Invincible héros 26. Armide~Acte II. Scène 2 Arrêtons-nous ici 27. Armide~Acte II. Scène 3 & 4 Plus j'observe ces lieux 28. Armide~Acte II. Au temps heureux où l' on sait plaire 29. Armide~Acte II. Ah! Quelle erreur! 30. Armide~Acte II. Premier Air

A Limited Edition, Original Jackets collection showcasing the artistry of the magnificent American soprano, Kathleen Battle. Kathleen Battle enraptured opera audiences of the 1980s and 1990s. Here was a lyric soprano combining unsurpassable beauty of tone with a keen musical intelligence, a way with words and a communicative warmth that drew listeners to Strauss and spirituals alike. She has the easy phrasing of a great jazz singer combined with the breath, breadth and precise projection of a trained voice. James Levine coached her at the Metropolitan Opera, and when he accompanied her at the 1984 Salzburg Festival and DG recorded the recital as Battle's debut solo album, nothing less than a phenomenon was launched. She had been admired as a gifted singer since the age of eight, and a 1985 article in Time magazine declared that she was 'the greatest lyric coloratura soprano in the world'. Her performances at the Met of Susanna, Despina, Pamina and other lyric roles in the great Mozart operas, conducted by Levine, established her as one of the world's leading interpreters of this repertoire. Recorded near the end of her DG association, Battle and Levine recorded arias from those roles for an album which became a radiantly beautiful souvenir of an era when they formed an artistic team as celebrated and accomplished in their way as Schwarzkopf and Karajan or Nilsson and Solti. However, Battle had already recorded for several labels, and this Eloquence box uniquely brings together selected albums she made for Angel (the US branch of EMI - those which have repatriated to Universal Music Group) with the DG recitals. They include an imaginatively programmed guitar recital with Christopher Parkening and excerpts from a Messiah led by Sir Andrew Davis in Toronto. These Handel arias feature on a new compilation within the album, 'Kathleen Battle sings Sacred Music', which also

Bellini / Bada / Bori / Caruso - Opera Arias [COMPACT DISCS] date 06/28/2000