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

This week audiences will get to relive two acclaimed performances from the 2023 Salzburg Festival as well as two world premiere recordings.

Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth

C Major Entertainment releases Salzburg’s production of Verdi’s masterpiece which was recorded in August 2023. The production by Krzysztof Warlikowski stars Asmik Grigorian, Vladislav Sulimsky, Tareq Nazmi, Jonathan Tetelman, Evan LeRoy Johnson, and Caterina Piva. The Wiener Philharmoniker is conducted by Philippe Jordan.

OperaWire raved about Tetelman and said, “The tenor indeed has many elements that make for a strong Italian tenor.”

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro

C Major Entertainment releases the Salzburg Festival production of Mozart’s masterpiece recorded in August 2023. The cast includes Krzysztof Bączyk, Sabine Devieilhe, Andre Schuen, Adriana Gonzalez, Lea Desandre, and Kristina Hammarstrom. The Wiener Philharmoniker is conducted by Raphael Pichon and the production is directed by Martin Kušej.

OperaWire reviewed the production last season and said, “Led by Adriana Gonzalez, Sabine Devieilhe & Lea Desandre, This ‘Nozze’ is a Great Achievement.”

Pietro Auletta: L’Orazio

Festival Valle d’Itria in partnership with Dynamic will release the world premiere recording of Pietro Auletta’ “L’Orazio” featuring a libretto by Antonio Palomba and a new critical edition by Bernardo Ticci.

The cast includes Leandro Shira Patchornik, Giacomina Valeria La Grotta, Elisa Martina Licari, Lauretta Natalia Kawałek, Colagianni Camilo Delgado Díaz, and Lamberto Matteo Loi. The Orchestra Barocca Modo Antiquo is conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli.

Steal a Pencil for me 

Sono Luminus presents “Steal a Pencil for Me,” the haunting new opera album from composer Gerald Cohen and librettist Deborah Brevoort. The opera in two acts details one of the Holocaust’s most unusual love stories—between Jaap Polak, a Dutch accountant, and Ina Soep, the daughter of a wealthy diamond manufacturer—who fell in love while imprisoned in the Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.

The album, recorded in Denver in 2022, features most of the central performers of the Opera Colorado production, with Ari Pelto as conductor, and in the principal vocal roles Gideon Dabi as Jaap, Inna Dukach as Ina, and Adriana Zabala as Manja.