The Yellow Guide: Opera

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Music reviews of The Yellow Guide: Opera

Music Review: Not recommended because of competing products
Rating: 3 Stars

"The Yellow Guide to Opera" is an excellent collection of 42 opera tracks that would please the ear of any novice or early-intermediate opera fan. In fact, the collection of tracks is to be commended for its richness and variety, including for example Russian composers. The sound quality is excellent, too.

The included booklet, however, is a real turkey, and seems to have been including for the purpose of getting you to buy more Deutsche Grammophon CDs. (Shame on them!)

Now let's talk competition. On Amazon.com, you can find two outstanding collections for under $20 each (these collections, each comprised of 2 CDs, are called "The Best Opera Album in the World Ever" by Virgin and "The #1 Opera Album" by Decca). These two do not come with an accompanying booklet, but their selection of tracks is outstanding and of very high sound quality. But the best one available, in my humble opinion, is put out by Naxos and is called "The A to Z of Opera." This one comes with a smart, thick, useful booklet, and two lovely CDs. Like the Deutsche Grammophon product, the Naxos collection scoots off the beaten path a little bit and scoops up some gems usually not found on this type of collection.

So, in brief, "The Yellow Guide to Opera" is a very pleasing collection of opera music, but its booklet is a dud and there are very fine, very similar collections to be had for half the price. I recommend the Naxos product.

General CDs

• Styles > Classical
• Ballets & Dances > Dances
• Featured Composers, A-Z > ( B ) > Beethoven, Ludwig van
• Berg, Alban
• Berlioz, Hector
• ( D ) > Donizetti, Gaetano
• ( L ) > Leoncavallo, Ruggiero
• ( M ) > Mascagni, Pietro
• Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
• ( O ) > Offenbach, Jacques
• ( P ) > Puccini, Giacomo
• Purcell, Henry
• ( R ) > Rossini, Gioacchino
• ( S ) > Strauss Jr., Johann
• Strauss, Richard
• ( T ) > Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich > All Works by Tchaikovsky
• ( V ) > Verdi, Giuseppe
• ( W ) > Wagner, Richard
• Weber, Carl Maria von
• Featured Performers, A-Z > ( B ) > Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
• ( H ) > Hadley, Jerry
• ( L ) > London Philharmonic Orchestra
• ( S ) > Studer, Cheryl
• ( V ) > Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
• Forms & Genres > Theatrical, Incidental & Program Music > Incidental Music
• Marches
• Overtures
• Historical Periods > Baroque (c.1600-1750) > Composers > Purcell, Henry
• Vocal & Song
• General
• Classical (c.1770-1830) > Vocal & Song
• General
• Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > General Modern
• Romantic (c.1820-1910) > Vocal & Song
• Opera & Vocal > General
• Arias
• Historical Periods > Baroque (c.1600-1750)
• Classical (c.1770-1830)
• Modern & 20th Century
• Romantic (c.1820-1910)
• Languages > French
• German
• Italian
• Russian
• Operettas
• Vocal Non-Opera > Songs & Lieder > General
• Beethoven, Ludwig van - Works by Beethoven
• Berg, Alban - Works by Berg
• Berlioz, Hector - Works by Berlioz
• Donizetti, Gaetano - Works by Donizetti
• Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus - Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Offenbach, Jacques - Works by Offenbach
• Puccini, Giacomo - Works by Puccini
• Classical - Historical Periods - Baroque (c.1600-1750) - Composers - Purcell, Henry - General