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In the years 1955-1990, the large global recording companies, where they could sign up a star singer, were prepared to venture beyond the popular operas of this era and built up a reasonable catalogue of lesser known works. Changes in the industry and the fact that many of the most marketable singers tend to be focussed on other repertory has meant that current efforts outside the mainstream now seem to be rarer and much more opportunistic or are older recordings recycled. Nowadays, the main efforts to explore the bel canto repertoire rest with smaller independent companies. These include a few original modern studio recordings but a cheaper alternative is modern recordings (CD and increasingly DVD) of live performances from opera houses, festivals, concert performances etc.. These can sometimes be more exciting but can also have extraneous stage noises. Finally there is a wealth of historic recordings, often of live performances, which can be of very variable recorded quality. Celestial Audio , Premiere Opera, www.live-rare-opera.com and House of Opera specialise in such recordings some of which have never been made commercially available. The following lists some of the companies offering bel canto operas. It can sometimes be a problem obtaining these recordings but web sites such as www.amazon.com , www.iclassics.com, www.jpc.de and www.arkivmusic.com hold quite a selection and many companies have their own mail order.
Arte Nova, part of BMG Entertainments, have put out a number of rare operas, some recorded live from the Putbus Festival, Stuttgart. BMG also own RCA Red Seal and Victor . In the past , ARTS have issued several lesser known bel canto operas in the past, such as Rossini Armida but their web site is no longer operating so it is not clear if they are still in existence. Bongiovanni have a broader remit than just bel canto opera but include several operas by Donizetti, Coccia, Mercadante, Persiani, Ricci, Rossini and Vaccai. These are mainly modern recordings of live performances, although there are some historic ones. Specialises in historic live recordings. It has a message board where you can post enquiries for recordings that you are seeking. While not particularly specialising in bel canto they have some interesting recordings, usually of recent live performances. In particular, they have made an agreement with Teatro La Fenice, Venice to record and distribute their productions. Their collection includes operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer and Pacini. EMI are currently trading heavily on their back catalogues of Callas as well as later recordings by Sills, Gruberova and Anderson. A very broad selection of composers represented on their own recordings, including 4 works by Mayr, each with some detailed notes on the web site. However, there is nothing by later bel canto composers. Naxos have issued several historic Metropolitan Opera broadcasts of Donizetti operas as well as a few original recordings, notably out of the mainstream Rossini's Tancredi. They have also issued CDs that include some of Donizetti's instrumental music including sinfonias, flute concertos and the glass harmonica accompaniment to the Lucia mad scene, click here for their list of Donizetti recordings and here for Bellini. They have recorded the Wexford Festival production of Mercadante's Elena da Feltre but it does not appear to be available at the moment. They offer quite generous excerpts from their recordings for free over the net as well as the ability to listen to complete tracks for a small fee. Nightingale are focussed on recordings by Edita Gruberova, with whom they have recorded several Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini operas. Another Italian company with a good catalogue of well and lesser known Donizetti and Bellini , usually fairly recent recordings of live performances or re issues of past recordings, although some appear to be original studio recordings. Use the Italian version on the web to search for items. In the years around 1990, they made several recordings with the tenor Guiseppe Morino, who, while not to everyone's taste, makes for some fascinating listening. Opera d'Oro, the main opera label of Allegro Music , issues historic live recordings. As their name suggests, Opera Rara is the foremost creator of original modern studio recordings of rare bel canto opera and have an outstanding and unique list that includes little known operas by Donizetti, Ricci, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Pacini, Mercadante and Mayr. The booklets accompanying their recordings are usually very good and highly informative. Opera Rara began a project under the general title of A Hundred Years of Italian Opera. Thus far they have issued 3 volumes (each of 3 CDs) with excerpts from operas from each of the first three decades of the 19th century. They includes many composers whose work has never otherwise been performed, as well as little known operas from Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Meyerbeer. The years 1800-1810 are covered by ORCH 101, 1810-1820 by ORCH 103 and 1820-1830 by ORCH 104. You can also join the Opera Rara Association which gives access to their rehearsals, recording sessions, etc. Prima Voce, part of Nimbus Records, concentrates on historic recording of singers mainly from the early decades of the last century. They include a Great Singers in Donizetti double CD, several tracks from which can be played by clicking on the track listing at the above site. In the years 1965-1990, Decca with their core squad of Sutherland, Pavarotti and Bonynge produced many bel canto operas, some classic performances. Now part of Universal Classics, they continue to release these as well as some newer recordings. Universal Classics also includes Philips and DG, the latter who now own the Westminster, ABC and MCA catalogues, have recently reissued (in some countries on the Westminster label) several Donizetti operas featuring Beverly Sills from the 1970's. Warner are reorganising their site so it is difficult to know what they offer. They recently took over Fonit Cetra who issued many historic opera recordings but also modern live recordings. Part of the Fonit Cetra catalogue can be seen at www.arkivmusic.com . Other labels Several important producers of bel canto recordings do not appear to have their own web sites but catalogues for some of them can be found at www.arkivmusic.com which has a good cross reference of composers, works, performers and recording labels. These companies focus mainly on historic recordings, such as radio broadcasts and thus can be of variable quality but do offer a unique opportunity to hear rare material. They include Gala, Melodram, Legato, Frequenz, Hommage GmbH., Myto, Preiser and On Stage.
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Page last updated January 1, 2008
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