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

For the final edition of the year, we look at the last releases that 2023 has to offer including a unique album dedicated to Strauss and Wagner and Menotti’s famed Christmas opera. Enjoy these releases and Happy New Year! We can’t wait for what is to come in 2024.

RICHARD

Daniel Behle records an album dedicated to Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Together with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra under the conductor Thomas Rösner, Behle sings selected orchestral songs by Richard Strauss as well as scenes from “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”, “Lohengrin” and “Tannhäuser” by Richard Wagner.

All is Mere Breath 

The Empire City Men’s Chorus debuts and records “ALL IS MERE BREATH” which asks us to question the nature of our changed society in the thought of mere breath alone, and offers us refuge in the breath of song, perhaps, now and then, the purest form of it.

The piece is composed by Nicholas Weininger.

Francesco Cavalli: Il Xerse

Naxos releases Cavalli’s work in a critical edition which stars Dioklea Hoxha, Carolina Lippo, Ekaterina Protsenko, Gaia Petrone, and Carlo Vistoli. The Orchestra Barocca Modo Antiquo is conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli.

Brahms Complete Songs, Vol. 4

Alina Wunderlin, Kieran Carrel, and Ulrich Eisenlohr release the fourth volume in their series of Brahms’s complete songs. This new edition features Opp. 6, 14, 19 and 48.

Gian Carlo Menotti: Amahl and the Night Visitors

Naxos releases a production of Menotti’s work from the Theater an der Wien by Stefan Herheim. The opera stars Tempu Ishijima, Dshamilja Kaiser, Paul Schweinester, Nikolay Borchev, and Wilhelm Schwinghammer. The Wiener Symphoniker is led by Magnus Loddgard.