The Most Famous Opera Duets

Inspiring collection of some of Opera's finest musical duets. On this release, the compositions of Bizet, Puccini, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss and others is explored by vocalists such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Nicolai Gedda, Leontyne Price, Jon Vickers, Victora de Los Angeles, Renata Scotto, Lucia Popp and Christa Ludwig.

This is a misnomer--not all of these duets are all that famous--but it's a fine compilation nonetheless. You'll hear selections from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers (Nicolai Gedda and Ernest Blanc at their most elegant French), Madama Butterfly (Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto--an impassioned pair), Lucia di Lammermoor (a classy Alfredo Kraus and Edita Gruberova), the lovely Lakme duet, The Presentation of the Silver Rose from Der Rosenkavalier (with the earnest Christa Ludwig and the other-worldly Teresa Stich-Randall), and a fine Trovatore "Miserere" (with Leontyne Price and Franco Bonisolli singing up a storm). There are many others, too--a veritable cornucopia of couplings--and a treat for the opera lover. --Robert Levine