Sony Classics Releases Live MET Operas, 3.0

The third round of Metropolitan Opera broadcasts featured on Sony Classical will be released domestically in the United States on August 16 and internationally in the United Kingdom on August 15, as well as France and Germany on August 29.

Sony Classical Launches Website for Nino Machaidze

With the release of her debut album Romantic Arias dropping on June 17 in Germany (as a limited edition), Sony Classical has launched an extensive site for soprano Nino Machaidze that features tons of glamorous photos, sound clips from the new release, latest news, as well as a full calendar engagements around the world. Check out the website by clicking here. Below are some of the gorgeous publicity photos that have been released:

Olga Peretyatko Debut CD on Sony Set For Summer Release

"Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko comes from St. Petersburg, where she began her musical career at the age of 15 in the children's choir of the Mariinsky Theatre. She completed a course of training as a choirmaster before enrolling to study voice at the Hanns Eisler-Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. Olga Peretyatko has already been among the prizewinners in several competitions, e.g. the international Operalia competition in Paris, where she was awarded second prize. From 2005-2007 she was a member of the opera studio at the Hamburg State Opera. There followed engagements at the Deutschen Oper Berlin, the Berlin and Munich state operas, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, La Fenice in Venice and at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and the Festival La Folle journée de Nantes. Ms Peretyatko attracted international attention as Rossignol in the acclaimed production of the opera of the same name that was put on at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2010. She will be making guest appearances with this part in the forthcoming season in Amsterdam, New York and Canada. Future commitments will take her to Vienna, Palermo and Paris. Olga Peretyatko has worked with such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Renato Palumbo, Marc Minkovsky and Alberto Zedda. She has an exclusive recording contract with Sony Classical." [Source]

See complete contents of the new disc and upcoming engagements for the soprano after the jump.

Tracklisting:
1. Gioacchino Rossini: Non si dà follia maggiore (Il Turco in Italia)
2. Gaetano Donizetti: Quel guardo, il cavaliere (Don Pasquale)
3. Gaetano Donizetti: Prendi, per me sei libero (L'elisir d’amore)
4. Gaetano Donizetti: O luce di quest` anima (Linda di Chamounix)
5. Gaetano Donizetti: Regnava nel silenzio (Lucia di Lammermoor)
6. Gioacchino Rossini: Canzone del salice (Otello)
7. Giuseppe Verdi: Caro nome che il mio cor (Rigoletto)
8. Jules Massenet: Je marche sur tous les chemins (Manon)
9. Jacques Offenbach: Les oiseaux dans la charmille (Les Contes d'Hoffmann)
10. Antonín Dvořák: Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém (Lied an den Mond) (Rusalka)
11. Giacomo Puccini: Chi il bel sogno (La Rondine)
12. Johann Strauss: Mein Herr Marquis (Die Fledermaus)
Olga Peretyatko, Sopran
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Miguel Ángel Gómez-Martínez (Leitung)

2011
June:
Lucia di Lammermoor (Palermo, Italy)

July:
Rigoletto (Avenches, Switzerland)

September:
Le Nozze di Figaro (Seville, Spain)

October:
Recital (Basel, Switzerland)

November:
I Capuletti e i Montecchi [concert] (Lyon, France/Paris, France)

December:
Rigoletto (Karlsruhe, Germany)
Concert [arias from Lucia di Lammermoor, I Puritana, La Sonnambula, Hamlet] (Paris, France)

2012
January:
Concert [arias by Strauss and Offenbach] (Peking, China)
Le Rossignol (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Concert [with Müncher Rundfunkorchester] (Munich, Germany)

February:
Alcina (Lausanne, Switzerland)

April:
Il turco in Italia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Arkiv Music Revives Classics From CBS/RCA Catalog

Many recordings by fine artists like Frederica von Stade and Shirley Verrett have never seen the light of day on compact disc. That has changed now that Arkiv Music has licensed eight releases from Sony, which holds the rights to the catalogs of CBS Masterworks and RCA, allowing the artistry of these two singers to be brought to the world. Now, any chance we could get re-issues of Anna Moffo's French Opera Arias, complete Thaïs, Debussy songs, Verdi arias, Irvin Berlin and Gershwin songs, La Juive highlights, bel canto songs of Bellini, Verdi, Rossini and Donizetti, Dream Duets with Sergio Franchi, One Night in Love with Skitch Henderson, the album of her singing works she composed, etc.?

Mecca Has Arrived For Tin-Can Era Recording Junkies

"The Library of Congress has unveiled a new website, the National Jukebox, with materials currently controlled by Sony Music. Users can stream — for free — some 10,000 sides. All the pre-1925 records from what was once the Victor Talking Machine Company have been made available, though who knows how many have disappeared in the years since...The Jukebox offers quite a variety of sonic bites, from classical to jazz, novelty acts to presidential speeches. There are more than 1300 recordings of operatic repertoire, more than 1200 classical sides and 32 recordings of yodeling. In that mix are some very tasty treats. And for the diehard opera buffs, there's the completely digitized "Victrola Book of Opera" from 1919, which includes synopses of over a hundred operas and discographies of those works presented as excerpts."

Travel back to a century ago and listen to a treasure trove of recordings: http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/

Louise Homer - "Stride la vampa" 1909


Johanna Gadski - "Ritorna vincitor" 1908


Edith Helena - "Tacea la notte" (in English) 1911


Lucy Isabelle Marsh - "O patria mia" 1913


Frieda Hempel "Ernani, involami" 1915


M.A. Michailova "Caro nome" 1905



Josephina Huguet "Una voce poco fa" 1906

Diva Débutantes Spice Up New Releases on Decca, DG & Sony

Among the sopranos making their debut recordings in the coming months, there are sprinklings of returning favorites like Diana Damrau and Danielle de Niese. Click on the images to enlarge. Enjoy!

Sony Classics Releases Live MET Operas, 2.0

Hot on the heels of the last set of releases in January, the Metropolitan Opera is ready for the second batch to officially be released May 27 (Europe). Of the live recordings being put out, it's hard to imagine a better cast than the one in Wagner's Die Walküre with Nilsson, Rysanek, Ludwig, Vickers and Stewart!