Kiri Te Kanawa Celebrates Over 50 Years Of Recording

"New Zealand soprano comes up with a staid celebration of 50 years in the recording studio. Te Kanawa's creamy lyric soprano was not made to evoke the malevolent sea monsters of Te Taniwha. Max Cryer's liner notes for Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's Waiata make an engaging read. He provides another succinct introduction to the thorny issue of "Maori song" (as he did for Te Kanawa's 1999 Maori Songs) followed by notes on individual tracks. This is a celebration of the soprano's half-century recording career, enlisting the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the University of Auckland Chamber Choir, in arrangements by Carl (Piano by Candlelight) Doy. In time for Christmas, Waiata is an unabashed stocking-stuffer, offering minimal rewards for those with a respect for the achievements of this singer. Beside it, her earlier Maori Songs CD, which occasioned a few giggles and squirms in its time, takes on classic status. It had stronger songs and Te Kanawa's voice was 14 years younger. Its ethnic trimmings of kapa haka groups (including Mahinarangi Tocker and George Henare) and a wash of taonga puoro now seem positively piquant. Waiata is a staid affair. Doy's arrangements have fleeting moments of inspiration, with a few impressive Mantovani string clusters, but tinkling piano and churning rhythmic ostinati try the patience, along with overlooked production glitches."[Source] In addition to the new release of Waiata by Sony (set globally for March 2014), other labels such as Warner Classics (featuring former EMI Classics material) and Decca (featuring former Philips Classics material) are reissuing box-sets of their own to commemorate the occasion. Check out the beautiful editions after the jump. 

Marina Rebeka Set To Release Mozart Arias CD On Warner Classics

"Marina Rebeka began her musical studies in Latvia, and in 2007 graduated from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. She also attended the 'Internationale Sommerakademie Universität Mozarteum“ in Salzburg where she studied with Grace Bumbry, and the Accademia Rossiniana in Pesaro, under the guidance of Alberto Zedda. Since her international debut in 2009 at the Salzburg Festival in Rossini’s Moise et Pharaon, Marina Rebeka has appeared as regular guest of the world’s most prestigious concert stages and opera houses including the New York Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall, Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, Vienna State Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, and the Palau de les Arts in Valencia. Marina Rebeka has sung under the baton of Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, Fabio Luisi, Paolo Carignani, Roberto Abbado, Alberto Zedda, Mikhail Jurowski, Stéphane Denève, Yves Abel, Michele Mariotti, Theodor Currentzis, Alessandro De Marchi, Gustav Kuhn, to name a few.....Her first EMI release was issued in April 2013 as the soprano soloist in Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle under the baton of Antonio Pappano with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia." [Source] Watch the EPK for the recording after the jump to hear a particularly well-phrased opening to "Non mi dir" from Don Giovanni, as well as other selections from the new disc.

Katherine Jenkins Dropped By Warner Music Entertainment

Welsh "opera singer" and millionairess Katherine Jenkins
will be left to count her money.

"Katherine Jenkins has been dropped from her record label following a slump in sales and a string of 'diva demands'. Executives at her record company are said to have lost patience after the singer requested up to £1,500-a-day be spent on her styling, hair and make-up during promotional and live events, while the label are understood to have lost around £2m on the star. The move comes just five years after the 32-year-old signed the biggest classical recording deal in history. However, sources have said that the singer was left angered at what she sees as a failure to market and promote her properly. The Welsh mezzo-soprano signed a £5.8m three-album contract with Warner Music Entertainment in 2008 in a bid to try and crack the US market and become a global superstar. Her last album, This is Christmas, was released last year, but peaked at number 26 in the UK album charts, while her previous album for the label, Daydream, reached number six." [Source]