This 10CD box has been released to celebrate the 75th birthday of a great artist who has beguiled audiences over a 50-year career of great integrity and an extraordinary range of roles. Van Dam’s effortless musicality, burnished velvety sound and ability to inhabit a character made him one of the outstanding singing actors of our time. While an obvious starting-point for the curious newcomer, these sorts of compilations are usually spurned by serious collectors as most are a ragtag assembly of bits and pieces from complete recordings that they will already have sitting on their crowded shelves – unless there is an unreleased nugget buried inside and then the completist will pounce. However the intelligent programming offered here is something else and bodes well for the launch of this new Erato Autograph series.  The discs are compiled thematically with one for Devils, one for Fathers, and one for Don Quichottes. CD5 cleverly duplicates the big scene for Jochanaan in Strauss’s Salome with the original German version conducted by Karajan and the alternate French version conducted by Nagano – fascinating stuff for the Straussian. Discs 1-6 celebrate van Dam’s versatility and breadth of roles on the opera stage and 7-9 his…

Editor’s Choice, Opera – August 2015 A few years ago I welcomed unreservedly the revelatory recording of Leonardo Vinci’s late opera Artaserse (Virgin 6028692) as an undiscovered masterpiece. Featuring a stellar line-up of no less than five countertenors (thanks to prudish Roman fashions, the women’s parts too were written for men), the opera, composed in the high-Neapolitan gallant style is a glorious succession of imaginatively scored virtuosic arias with no duds and plenty of hummable tunes. With the same cast bar one, this DVD is in some ways even better as the confusion between who is singing what, when so many roles are sung in falsetto, is no longer an issue. Artaserse was one of the hit libretti of the period, set by everyone who was anyone, but Vinci’s is rather special. The villainous vizier (Artabano) has killed his king letting suspicion fall upon his own son (Arbace), best friend to the new king (Artaserse). When Arbace won’t dob on dad, a tangled web of blame and deceit ensues before all comes good in a magnanimous finale involving a poisoned chalice. Silviu Purca˘rete’s production is the campest thing you’ll see this side of Eurovision, with costumes that would make Cinderella’s…

★★★★☆ Romanian Diva shows Sydney exactly why she’s where she is today.

The 60 metre-long dragon will encircle a 16-metre high pagoda for next year’s production of Turandot.

Three young artists discuss their drive to succeed ahead of ROH’s staging of The Lighthouse. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

With LP nostalgia now playing a major role in classical music purchases, we open our ears to a blast from the past.

As Warners release his new studio recording of Aida, we go behind the scenes with the British maestro. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Modern Australian composition and ABC Music are the biggest winners in this year’s list of nominations

Angela Cavalieri’s intriguing art brings illumination to Monteverdi’s final opera. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

American Julie Adams and New Zealander Isabella Moore triumph in an impressive night of opera.

Has classical lost its power to protest? Or was Bernstein at the Berlin Wall, music’s last stand?

A look at Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, the work that changed the course of musical history.