Classica Best of 2020

Tosca is a story of overwhelming passion amidst the perils of war. Set in Rome at the time of Napoleon’s advance on the city, the opera opens with the flight of Angelotti, an escaped political prisoner. He seeks refuge in a church where he is protected by Cavaradossi, a local artist who is also the lover of the famous singer, Floria Tosca. Tosca desperately begs Scarpia to spare Cavaradossi, offering her affections in exchange for his life. After securing a note saving her lover from his death sentence, she stabs Scarpia and hurries off to be with Cavaradossi. Tosca finds she has been tricked, however, and the artist dies at the hands of a firing squad. Facing capture for her crime, she leaps to her death to join her lover in the afterlife. Let yourself be carried away by this spectacular production of Giacomo Puccini's fiery dramatic opera Tosca! Daniel Oren conducts the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion in this state-of-the-art production by director Nicolas Joel. Main soloists are Sergei Muzaev (Scarpia), Gustavo Porta (Cavaradossi) and Svetla Vasillieva (Floria).

The legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989) won his first praise on his interpretation of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto from the composer himself. When Rachmaninoff heard the young Kiev-born pianist play his work shortly after Horowitz's arrival in New York in 1928, he exclaimed: "He swallowed it whole." Fifty years later, on September 24, 1978, Horowitz electrified his audience once again with this monumental work. Accompanied by the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, he gave a special performance of this work as part of the celebrations honoring his U.S. debut 50 years earlier. His unforgettable account was recorded live on video and broadcast simultaneously throughout the United States. It was the last time Horowitz played the Third in his lifetime. The work itself, reverently called "Rach 3" by pianists brave enough to tackle its monstrous technical challenges, achieved international celebrity of a different kind in recent years.

Benjamin Britten - Peace and Conflict is a feature-length drama documentary, written, directed and produced by British composer Tony Britten. The star-studded 2013 production explores how Britten’s pacifist beliefs developed from a young man’s curiosity about communism and its links with pacifism, to a gradual realisation that politicising the peace movement, at the time a reaction to the fascist threat, was for him, not the answer. This manifestation of beliefs led the Suffolk-born artist to the adoption of what might be called a “pure” pacifism, informing various of his compositions from the mid-1940s onwards, culminating in the famous War Requiem. Starring as young Benjamin Britten himself is Alex Lawther, known for his roles in several Netflix original productions.

Louis Langrée conducts the Metropolitan Opera in a performance of Bizet’s masterpiece of the Gypsy seductress, who lives by her own rules, no matter the cost. The opera’s melodic sweep is as irresistible as the title character herself, a force of nature who has become a defining cultural figure. This drama—of a soldier torn between doing the right thing and pursuing the woman that he cannot resist—bursts with melody and seethes with all the erotic vitality of its unforgettable title character. Carmen was a scandal at its premiere and was much denounced in the press for its flagrant immorality. The power of the music and the drama, however, created an equally vocal faction in favour of the work. The composer Tchaikovsky and the philosopher Nietzsche both praised the opera, the latter identifying in the robustness of the score nothing less than a cure-all for the world’s spiritual ills. This performance features Clémentine Margaine (soprano), Roberto Alagna (tenor), and Alexander Vinogradov (bass) and was recorded at the Metropolitan Opera Hall in New York City, USA, in 2019.

Eímear Noone conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir in a spectacular performance of some of the most well-known video game soundtracks of the last forty years. This programme showcases the depth and breadth of the video game music genre, featuring pieces from Nintendo legend Koji Kondo, DOOM veteran Mick Gordon and a whole host of contemporary game composers including Noone herself. Key soundtracks featured include Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, Assassin's Creed, Halo and World of Warcraft. Soloists for this performance are Tuva Semmingsen (mezzo) and Christine Nonbo Andersen (soprano). Recorded at the DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2018.

This exclusive live concert production presents a unique selection of movie classics - from Sergio Leone’s iconic Spaghetti Westerns to modern mafia masterpieces by Francis Ford Coppola and the cult movies of Tarantino. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir are conducted by Sarah Hicks in this premiere performance of authentic soundtracks by composer legends Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, Sonny Bono, and Bernard Herrmann. Soloists for this performance are Tuva Semmingsen (mezzo), Christine Nonbo Andersen (soprano), Hans Ulrik (saxophone) and Mads Kjølby (guitars). Recorded at the DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2018.

Bach's famous Saint Matthew Passion premiered on Good Friday of 1727 in the St. Thomas Church of Leipzig in Eastern Germany. Since then, it has become essential to the repertoire of Easter compositions. In this 2014 concert from the Grande Auditório Gulbenkian in Lisbon, the Portuguese Gulbenkian Orchestra interprets the work under the baton of Swiss conductor Michel Corboz, accompanied by the wonderful vocalists of the Gulbenkian Choir, and the children's choir Coro Infantil da Universidade de Lisboa. The soloists are Sandrine Piau (soprano), Carlos Mena (counter-tenor), Vincent Lièvre-Picard (evangelist), Christophe Genz (tenor), André Baleiro (Christ) and Peter Harvey (bass).

Based on one of the most iconic works of Russian literature, Tchaikovsky's adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin is coloured by a broad range of emotions. This opera projects the restless romantic anti-hero archetype through a bored Russian aristocrat caught between convention and listlessness. Tchaikovsky's beloved lyrical ability is on full display in this opera, which transforms western European operatic idioms into a truly Russian work of art. The composer takes a neatly episodic approach to examining all manner of societal walks of life, from the pastoral to rural gentry and aristocratic. This performance includes Peter Mattei (baritone), Larissa Diadkova (mezzo soprano), Elena Maximova (mezzo soprano) and Anna Netrebko (soprano). It was recorded at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, United States, in 2017.

The Metropolitan Opera presents Puccini's "American" opera based on David Belasco's play The Girl of the Golden West. During the height of the California gold rush, the titular heroine must steel herself in the face of adversity in order to win the affections of the man she loves. Despite its glamorised and highly publicised premiere, La Fanciulla del West disappeared from the repertory for a number of decades. Critics argued that despite its traditional handling of the themes of sacrifice and redemption, Fanciulla's setting was not conducive to grand opera conventions. Equally, the opera's lead role is notoriously demanding, often making casting difficult. In recent years however, it has returned to popularity, and is now considered amongst Puccini's great works. This performance features Eva-Maria Westbroek (soprano), Carlo Bosi (tenor), and Oren Gradus (bass). Recorded at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, United States, in 2018.