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- Age of the Diva
- Albinoni
- Almost Christmas
- Arias, Hampson, Harnoncourt
- Bach Keyboard Concertos
- Bach Viola
- Bach, Barenboim
- Bach, Cantatas
- Bach, Concertos
- Bach, JS, Keyboard Works
- Bach, Mass in B Minor
- Bach, Mutter
- Bach, trio-sonatas
- Baroque Christmas Album
- Baroque Trumpet
- Bartok, Concertos
- Bartoli
- Bartoli, Opera Proibita
- Bax, Baroque
- Beethoven Piano
- Beethoven String Quartets
- Beethoven and Brahms
- Beethoven, piano
- Bella Donna: Courtly Love
- Belle Epoque Melodies
- Berlioz, Les Troyens
- Binchois, Dufay
- Boccherini, Cello Concertos
- Boxed Baroque
- Boyce, Eight Symphonies
- British Light Classics
- British Piano Concertos
- Brubeck, The Gates of Justice
- Bruch, Violin Concerto
- Callas
- Canteloube, Chants d'Auvergne
- Carols
- Chanticleer, Sound in Spirit
- Charpentier
- Charpentier, Lebegue
- Christmas 04
- Christmas Vespers
- Contemporary and Medieval
- Copland
- Delius
- Der Rosenkavalier
- Dukachev - Beethoven, Prokofiev, Rachminov
- Elgar
- Elgar, Marches
- Elgar, The Enigma Variations
- Faure songs
- French Medieval Songs
- Fux
- Gounod, Faust
- Graham: Causon, Ravel, Debussy
- Great Ballets
- Grieg, Franck
- Handel Arias
- Handel, Deborah
- Handel, Messiah
- Handel, The Triumph ...
- Handel, Water Music DVD
- Hapsburg Music
- Haydn
- Haydn, Handel DVD's
- Herz Piano
- Jane Austen's Songbook
- Josefowicz Recital
- King's Singers
- La Fille Mal Gardee
- Lang Lang and Yo Yo Ma: Farewell Isabella and Chinese things
- Lauridsen
- Llibre Vermell
- Luci, Bartoli, and a dead diva
- Lully, Comedies-ballets, Phaeton
- Maerzmusik sampler
- Mahler Symphony No 7
- Mahler, Berg
- Mantovani
- Matsudaira
- Medieval French Songs
- Mendelssohn Sacred
- Mendelssohn, Dvorak
- Messa di Gloria
- Michael Haydn
- Miles Davis ... sorta
- Monterverdi, Orfeo
- Monteverdi Vespers
- Monteverdi, Poppea
- Monteverdi, The Sacred Music 3
- Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Handel
- Montiverdi Vespers
- Morricone
- Mozart Symphonies
- Mozart, Cosi fan tutte
- Mozart, Exsultate Jubilate
- Mozart, Mass in C Minor
- Mozart, symphonies 40, 41
- Mozart: Die Zauberflote
- Mozart: the string quartets
- Mozrt Requiem
- Mutter Mozart
- New English Hymnal
- New RSS system and Feeds
- Nikolay Roslavets
- Peerson, Latin Motets
- Penguins March
- Pergolesi, La Serva Padrona
- Philip Glass, Symphonies 2 and 3
- Poulenc concerto
- Proms
- Purcell - Dido and Aeneas
- Purcell Sonatas
- Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
- Rachmaninov, Piano
- Ramallah - Beethoven No. 5
- Rameau, Les Paladins
- Reger, Bach and Telemann Variations
- Renaissance Organ Music
- Romantic Cello Concertos
- Romantic Violin
- Russian Album -Anna Netrebko
- Rutter Mass
- Sanctuary, the heart has its reasons
- Scarlatti, The complete Keyboard Sonatas
- Schubert and Mozart piano
- Schubert Ð Death and the Maiden
- Shostakovich
- Shostakovich and Schnittke, Cello
- Shostakovich/Josefowicz
- Sibelius String Quartets
- Sixteen: Ikon
- South American Baroque
- Stainer, The Crucifiction
- Sting does Dowland
- Strauss tone poem
- Takemitsu
- Tallis
- Tchaikovsky, Symphony No 5, Verdi, Sibelius
- The Kirov celebrates Nijinsky
- Toshiro Mayazumi
- Vaughan Williams
- Verdi
- View from a dark tunnel
- Virginal -Susann van Soldt
- Vivaldi Cello
- Vivaldi, Motezuma
- Vivaldi, Sacred Music
- Vivaldi: Dixit Dominus
- Von Otter
- Wagner, Das Rheingold
- Wagner, Gotterdammerung DVD
- Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks
- Weir, Gillian
- Weiss / Lindberg Lute
- Whitacre, Cloudburst
- Williams, Bingham: Mass
- von Weber, Chamber Music
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Fri, 02 Mar 2007
Age of the Diva
Various, Renee Fleming
Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
Valery Gergiev
LP, Decca
For me, the standout diva disc of recent times was
Cecilia Bartoli's Christmas 2005 offering. This was the
top-selling CD in France at the time and might have been
elsewhere as well. Just as an aside, how can a country
with general good taste have such dire television? Perhaps
they just admit it's for the bottom 2% and ignore it.
Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Korngold, Verdi, and
Janacek make up some of the composers on this disc.
Fleming has a very nice voice as well. It is rather
smooth and velvety and generally nice on the senses. This
is not true of everyone in the current crop and I have
to say that a real Bel Canto belter sets my teeth on edge
but this is exactly what some people like best. Which
prompts me to wonder, as a sort of extreme extension -
what would Janis Joplin, controlled as she was in the end
by the worst elements of big label greed, have made of this
sort of repertoire? heh heh.
(Baron K)
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