I currently have the LP version of Le Nozze Di Figaro, London Records A 4407. Wondering if you have any recommendations for favorite performances of this opera, LP or CD. I tend to like staged productions as opposed to live recordings. Audience noise and footfalls drive me nuts when listening through headphones.
Mine is the EMI recoding conducted by Otto Klemperer. It was recorded in 1970 at Abbey Road studios so there is no audience noise, but musician noise is sometimes apparent.
Some of my favourite recordings are the Giulini set on EMI, the Erich Kleiber set (recently re-released in a 24/96 re-master) on Decca/London and Solti on Decca/London. If I has to choose one, it would probably be Giulini.
I just picked up a copy of Rene Jacobs's Hybrid SACD recording of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro on Harmonia Mundi, and am enjoying it greatly. For those who may be familiar with Jacobs's past work (like his famous Handel's Rinaldo), this is a similarly exuberant, elaborately ornamented performance one could perhaps even call neo-HIP. The emphasis here is on forward motion, and color and texture everywhere.
Recording quality is very good, best in SACD multichannel, but still quite good in 2-channel Redbook CD (I haven't listened to the 2-channel SACD). The documentation is stupendous with the libretto in 4 languages, and excellent essays on the performance style choices, as well as a history of the work.
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