Opéra Magazine's top-rated recordings for December 2025 and January 2026

None of the recordings in the latest issue of France’s Opéra Magazine is designated their 'pick of the month.' I don’t know if this is because the new editor has decided against it for good, or if it’s just because their Christmas-gift suggestions have taken the place, in this edition, of the customary ‘coup de coeur’. 

The gift suggestions can’t have taken much thought. They are Joan Sutherland’s complete Decca opera recordings, 1959-1970 (49 CDs), Jonas Kaufmann’s Decca recordings (15 CDs), Andreas Scholl’s ‘legendary’ Harmoni Munci recitals (6 CDs), and a set issued by Alpha Classics as a tribute to the late Jodie Devos (7 CDs). 

They give their tip-top ‘Diamond’ award to two CD sets. 

The first, which also comes with a DVD, is Porpora’s Polifemo, with José Coca Loza, Franco Fagioli, Julia Lezhneva, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Eléonore Pancrazi and the orchestra of the Opéra Royal (i.e. in Versailles) under Stefan Plewniak. ‘If any single opera can be said to epitomise baroque bel canto, it is Porpora’s Polifemo.’ The ‘period’ production seen on the DVD is by Justin Way and Christian Lacroix. This set, they say, easily bears comparison with its main competitors.

The second ‘Diamond’ is awarded to Philippe Jaroussky’s Gelosia, an album of Italian cantatas from the 17th century that includes two world premiere recordings, both of works called Gelosia, by Porpora and Baldassare Galuppi. ‘A masterly demonstration of restraint and contained emotion.’