We left at the interval...

Photos © Barbara Aumüller Every month, France's Opéra Magazine rates new recordings (CD and video) on a scale from 1 to 5 and hands out the occasional ' Diamant ' ('Diamond') award to what it considers exceptional ones, for whatever reason. This month, its ' coup de coeur ', complete with a ' Diamant ', is a 3-CD set of Schreker's Der ferne Klang,  recorded in Frankfurt. Sebastian Weigle conducts the Frankfurt Opera, with Magnus Baldvinsson, Barbara Zechmeister, Jennifer Holloway, Nadine Secunde...  Opéra Magazine 's reviewer regrets that there is no DVD, as Michieletto's production was 'as technically accomplished as its characterisations were analytical...' Nevertheless, this recording is a ' référence ' version (the French critics love those) in the Schreker catalogue, 'A very great historical moment for the Frankfurt Opera, with Der ferne Klang 's dazzling return, almost exactly one century later, to the city ...

Photo © Elisa Haberer/OnP The Paris Opera's Tcherniakov production of The Snow Maiden , which I saw in May 2017 , is now available on video (BelAir Classiques). The July issue of France's Opéra Magazine says this was a ' 'Formidable spectacle on the Opera Bastille's vast plateau' and asks 'how, finally, could anyone fail to melt before Snegurochka as portrayed by Aida Garifullina, whom Paris discovered at the time in a rôle that seemed tailor-made for the spun gold of her voice?' I see it's also available in full on YouTube . No telling how long that will last, so see it while you can! Here it is: