Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

One of the greatest and most revolutionary composers of the nineteenth century, Richard Wagner transformed the realm of musical drama. Years before his towering successes of the Ring Cycle, Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnb

First performed in 1917 in Munich (conducted by Bruno Walter), Pfitzner's opera on the great 16th-century composer Palestrina became popular with those in German musical society who had become hostile to the direction which Schoenberg and B

Of all the Strauss-Hoffmansthal collaborations, Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow) is by far the most ambitious, and perhaps the opera with the richest musical ideas. Dealing with a complex and lofty subject -- the relation

Béatrice et Bénédict was borne of Berlioz's lifelong fascination with Shakespeare. A performance by the Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet reportedly inspired him to commence work on his own Roméo et Juliet

The only recording ever made of this 20th-century masterpiece features the towering artistry of Fischer-Dieskau in the title role of a Renaissance goldsmith who murders his customers because he can’t bear to let go of his creations. Availab

The newest release in Opera d’Oro’s Grand Tier series is of a live performance at the Salzburg Festival in 1972, with an all-star cast in one of Mozart’s greatest operas. Although everyone agrees today that Cosi fan tutte is one of the best