After a week full of high-profile releases, the offerings are rather sparse. The main offering highlights the work of a famed conductor and his operatic legacy. Another highlights a production of one of the greatest operas of all time.

Claudio Abbado: The Opera Edition

Also available throughout Europe is a 60-disc set entitled “Claudio Abbado: The Opera Edition.” Among the operas included in the set are Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte,” “Don Giovanni,” “Le Nozze di Figaro,” “Fidelio,” “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,”  and “Macbeth” among many, many others. Per a press release, “Abbado was as much a man of the theatre as he was one of the greatest of all late 20th century symphonic conductors. Opera was central to all his orchestral posts, with three great composers forming the major pillars of his recorded opera legacy: Mozart, Rossini and Verdi. Throughout his recorded legacy, the listener feels a real sense that characters are thought through in great detail and Abbado conducts with an obvious love for the music but also with a flexibility informed from the drama of the moment. Claudio Abbado The Opera Edition is testimony to an extraordinary operatic legacy and a memorial to a truly great maestro.”

Norma

A DVD production of “Norma” from Macerata Opera Festival starring María José Sirí will also be getting a release this week. It also stars Sonia Ganassi with Michele Gamba as the conductor. The opera will be released by Dynamic.