Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world.

This week audiences will get a good helping of baroque favorites and rarities, star-studded albums, world premieres and some fantastic modern works by recognized composers.

Rufus Wainwright’s Dream Requiem

The new album showcases Wainwright’s “Dream Requiem,” an epic work for orchestra, chorus, soprano, and narrator. It received its world premiere in June this year in Paris with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the chorus and children’s choir of Radio France conducted by Mikko Franck with Meryl Streep as the narrator and soprano Anna Prohaska. Warner Classics will release the live recording from the premiere.

In a statement, Wainwright said, “No matter what one’s [spiritual] leanings are, as an artist when dealing with a strong and ancient sacred text revolving around death, you kinda have to go there. This, I humbly believe, happened while composing Dream Requiem. Be it turning 50 and my final earthly landscape beginning to form on the horizon; my latent catholic upbringing which, though not strict, was still incredibly impactful; or just the fact that this ain’t my first time at the rodeo; many strong forces converged in the composition of this piece and not once was I lacking in a sense of direction.”

De Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat, Nights in the Gardens of Spain, and Seven Spanish Folksongs

SOMM Recordings releases an album devoted to 20th-century Spanish composer and pianist, Manuel de Falla, with three late-Romantic scores. The recording features the Ulster Orchestra with their Principal Guest Conductor, Jac van Steen. The soloist for “Noches en los jardines de España” is the London based Brazilian pianist, Clelia Iruzun while mezzo soprano, Sarah Richmond is featured on “Siete canciones populares españolas.”

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

PENTATONE releases Gordon Getty’s fourth opera, “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” in a new studio recording featuring Nathan Granner, Melody Moore, Lester Lynch, and Kevin Short, as well as the San Francisco Boys Choir and Barbary Coast Orchestra, under the baton of Dennis Doubin.

The new opera is based on the popular 1934 novella “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” and other stories by James Hilton.

In a statement, Getty said, “I first encountered the story in a re-release of the 1939 film with Robert Donat and Greer Garson, and I knew I would write the opera sooner or later. After reading Hilton’s novella many, many years later, I immediately read it twice more, I was so tremendously moved. I then read the short stories Hilton wrote on Chips, and was off and running with the libretto. The story captured me immediately, as well as the character of Chips himself and the affirmation of what he stood for.”

Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins

The LSO releases Si Simon Rattle’s interpretation of Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht’s work. The cast includes Magdalena Kožená, Andrew Staples, Alessandro Fisher, Ross Ramgobin, and Florian Boesch.

The last castrato. Arias for Velluti

Prometheus

Lukas Foss: The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

This latest album captures two of Foss’s one-act operas. The first is the nine-minute “Introductions and Good-Byes” and the second is the album’s title track. “The Jumping Frog” is based on Mark Twain’s earliest and most famous short story, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog.”

Lukas Foss: Night Music for John Lennon

This album showcases an experimental “middle age” period of Foss’s career, when he served as music director of both the Buffalo and Brooklyn Philharmonics. The eponymous work was written on the day John Lennon was killed.

Handel: Lotario

Handel’s opera is released with Attilio Cremonesi conducting the Händelfestspielorchester Halle. The live recording captures Handel’s least-known work with a cast that includes Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli, Anna Bonitatibus, Carlo Vistoli, Rafał Tomkiewicz, Krystian Adam, Ki-Hyun Park.

Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande

Naxos releases Fauré’s Suite and Prométhée, Shylock, and Songs. The album features Tara Erraught, Ruth Rosique, and Julien Dran. Jean-Luc Tingaud conducts the Chamber Choir Ireland and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland.

André Grétry: La Caravane du Caire

“La Caravane du Caire” became the greatest success of its composer, André Grétry. The latest recording featuring Hélène Guilmette, Jean-Gabriel Saint-Martin, Marie Perbost, Pierre Derhet, Enguerrand de Hys, Robert Gleadow, Lili Aymonino, Chantal Santon Jeffery, Lucie Edel, Benoît Descamps, and Samuel Guibal. The Ballet de l’Opéra Royal and Le Concert Spirituel are led by Hervé Niquet.

Watching glass, I hear you

Ablaze Recordings releases American mezzo-soprano Leandra Ramm’s latest album which is comprised of works derived from predominantly female-penned poetry and personal accounts. The album features works by Lisa Bielawa, Douglas Knehans, David T. Little, Cyril Deaconoff, and Daron Hagen. Michael Delfin accompanies.