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

Check the latest solo releases, including a digital concert from a leading countertenor and a world premiere recording of a modern-day requiem.

Warsaw Sessions

Award-winning Iranian-Canadian countertenor Cameron Shahbazi releases his latest digital concert project, Warsaw Sessions, created in collaboration with pianist Sophia Muñoz and filmed at the Teatr Wielki – Opera Narodowa.

The two-part concert film reimagines both familiar and overlooked repertoire, celebrating the power of cross-cultural collaboration, community, and creative renewal.

Sonata for Broken Fingers

Birmingham Record Company is releasing a new opera by Joe Cutler and Max Hoehn. The recording features Claire Booth, James Cleverton, Stephen Richardson, Lucy Schaufer, and Christopher Lemmings and is conducted by Sian Edwards.

Celestial Voices Vol. II

On CELESTIAL VOICES VOL. II, the renowned Kühn Choir of Prague brings timeless texts and new inspirations from several contemporary composers into radiant focus, presenting sacred and spiritual works that reach across cultures, traditions, and generations. With repertoire spanning ancient canticles, newly written motets, and music rooted in both scripture and lived experience, this Navona Records release offers a vibrant testimony to the enduring power of the human voice to illuminate, console, and inspire.

Frano Parać: Judita

This world premiere live recording of a concert performance of “Judita” stars Sofija Petrović, Evelin Novak, Diana Haller, Stjepan Franetović, Matteo Ivan Rašić, Ivica Čikeš, Matija Meić, and Sava Vemić. The Croatian Radio Choir and Münchner Rundfunkorchester are conducted byIvan Repušić.

The recording was made in December 2023 and is supplemented by “Dance of the Baroness (Ples Barunice).” BR Klassik releases.

Rameau: Pygmalion / Iso: Zémide

The album combines two short one-act operas and features casts that include Ema Nikolovska, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Gwendoline Blondeel, Virginie Thomas, and Philippe Estèphe. Reinoud Van Mechelen conducts.

Elegy

Mary Bevan releases her fifth album on Signum Records and is accompanied by Joseph Middleton. The album is a wide-ranging mix of French, German, Norwegian, American, and Canadian composers that includes works by Ravel, Chausson, Fauré, Pauline Viardot, Schubert, Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, Strauss, Grieg, Purcell, Bridge, Vaughan Williams, Errollyn Wallen, Samuel Barber, and Jeanne Landry.

The Living Spiritual

Opera lovers are likely to be acquainted with the energetically expressive baritone Kenneth Overton. What few might suspect is how aptly Overton navigates a much more intimate form, the piano-voice duo. On THE LIVING SPIRITUAL, Overton performs 23 spirituals arranged by 23 living Black composers, accompanied by pianist Elizabeth G. Hill.

Solitude

Reginald Mobley, Brandon Acker, and Douglas Balliett join forces for a new album devoted to repertoire in English, accompanied primarily by lute and viola da gamba. The program includes music by Purcell, Dowland, and the 17th-century English composers as well as music by Jonathan Woody and Douglas Balliett.

Alpha Classics Releases.

Refound

Hugh Cutting and Audrey Hyland release an album with music by Ravel, Vaughan Williams, Howells, Dvořák, Wolf, Hahn, Beach, Rodrigo, and Lama.

Les Divas d’Offenbach

Véronique Gens is joined by the Chœur et Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and Hervé Niquet for her new album on Alpha Classics. The new album is devoted to the variety of musical forms produced by the prolific Jacques Offenbach: operetta, opéra-bouffe, fairy tales, and opéracomique.

Nikolai Medtner: Complete Songs

Ekaterina Levental and Frank Peters release an album dedicated to Nikolai Medtner, a younger contemporary of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff.

Songs and Such

Douglas Anderson’s new album explores the vocal chamber oeuvre written over a period of 50 years.

The album documents Anderson’s evolution as an artist, chronicling a style that’s filled out and developed while maintaining a creative consistency.

“Je Te Veux”

Julie Fuchs releases her latest album on Sony Classical, in which she pays tribute to Erik Satie and the Belle Époque.

The album showcases arrangements with piano, accordion, violin, and double bass,  and is accompanied by Alphonse Cemin (piano), Félicien Brut (accordion), Alexis Cardenas (violin), Davide Vittone (double bass), as well as Levy Sekgapane (tenor) and Florent Baffi (bass).