cd Critique^TM

Little can be added to what's been written about this landmark recording, except that Walter Legge's 1953 mono production yields nothing to modern Tosca recordings ...

"There's a place that we must go: into the soul, into the heart, into the dark" sings Melissa Etheridge in "Into the Dark"; it might ...

This is a highly professional, sometimes outstanding production of one of Verdi's greatest operas. With lavish staging by Franco Zeffirelli and distinguished performances by ...

A favorite of many Gilbert and Sullivan aficionados, Patience is not for every taste. This satire of pretentious poets and their swooning followers, mocking the ...

This latest addition to Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road project is a thrill a minute. The most "famous" composer represented here is Osvaldo Golijov, whose "Night ...

A heartwarming film that demonstrates how good, hard-working people can become homeless almost overnight, Pursuit of Happyness is a tour-de-force showcase for Will Smith, who ...

This spectacular collection of more than 90 arias sung by 46 of the greatest singers of the century consists of recordings made between 1906 and ...

This mass, commissioned and performed by the superb 12-man American group Chanticleer, begins and ends with Plainsong, and is comprised of five movements by five ...

The 2,700 performances of Lerner and Loewe's musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion gracefully spanned the Eisenhower and Camelot eras, then begat a wildly ...

Adagio follows in the rosin-dusted footsteps of The Impressionists, A Different Mozart, and A Different Prelude. As with those releases, it was produced by Dawn ...

Placido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa were in top form vocally when this performance was recorded in 1984; Sinopoli's conducting is energetic and ...

Among the more charming--and improbable--of pre-millennial success stories is the left-field crossover triumph for this Welsh soprano, 12 years old at the time of her ...

This spectacular 1981 San Francisco production of Aida, directed by Sam Wanamaker, boasts production values more commonly associated with Hollywood to portray scenes from the ...

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry first published The Little Prince in 1943, only a year before his Lockheed P-38 vanished over the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission. ...

Opera is in fashion, and the woods are full of pop vocalists who think they have the chops to sing arias. The best contender so ...

Even by the unreal standards of Gilbert and Sullivan, Iolanthe is a fanciful piece of work, in which Fairyland meets the House of Lords. Needless ...

Who else but Tim Burton could make Corpse Bride, a necrophiliac's delight that's fun for the whole family? Returning to the richly imaginative realm of ...

Opera is an inherently theatrical medium that does not lend itself readily to the realism of film treatment. The shining exception is Puccini's Tosca, an ...

This compilation features excerpts from some of the greatest sacred works in the literature--including Bach's Mass in B Minor, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Missa solemnis, and ...

For anyone who thought the Oscar-winning documentary March of the Penguins was the most marvelous cinematic moment for these nomads of the south, you haven't ...

Chanticleer's repertoire ranges through many centuries. On this recording, the group again proves its infinite versatility in a program of gospel music and spirituals. The ...

Victor Borge was a master at combining two seemingly disparate elements: comedy and classical music. While the Dane's dapper dignity fit the image of "longhair" ...

Thanks to good marketing, good cover art, and good luck, this disc probably has sold more copies than most other recordings of Gregorian chant ...

Continuing the pilgrimage she began in her 2000 Christmas video, Dream a Dream: Charlotte Church in the Holy Land, the Welsh singing sensation ...

The bulk of this wonderful CD was recorded in l974, before the top of Scotto's voice--always a bit acidic--had turned positively treacherous. Selections from six ...