Alan Blyth (1929–2007)

Still lovely in its way, but the incredible proliferation of video opera over the last 25 years rather renders this volume moot. It's still an interesting read to check in on the older productions, which were often, ironically, more beautifully filmed and far more of an "event" because the work required to film and televise an opera was so much greater. The most useful information can sometimes be simply understanding different directorial approaches to the operas, even where one can no longer easily see the production in question. But many of these productions are now inaccessible, with quite a few having never made the transition even from VHS to DVD, let alone streaming. So there's only so much to be gained here.… (mais)

Alan Blyth and his friends at 'Gramophone' and 'Opera', the two most respected classical music magazines of the 20th century (surely), really gave us a lifelong treat with these three volumes (and their companion volumes, 'Song on Record' [1 and 2] and 'Choral Music on Record').

45 years on, naturally there are far too many omissions to make this book fully worthwhile. Yet that doesn't diminish the wonders of the 80 years of recording which Blyth and his team had access to, indeed it allows them often to go much further into the weeds, looking at recordings of individual arias, in a way that would be more difficult with all the additional recordings we have available today. Plus, the quality of the writing on each individual composer and opera is so high that the book is a pleasure to read regardless.… (mais)

A sweet book but not a highlight of the "opera discography" genre. Blyth was the editor of the three-volume "Opera on Record" collection in the 1980s, which really is the height of achievement for all commercial recordings up to that time. This came fairly early in the CD era, and is a much tinier, more focused collection. It is limited, naturally, by what had been released on CD at that point (really only ten years into the medium's lifespan) and by a desire to be a kind of pocket reference guide, just highlighting the most necessary recordings of each of the most recognisable operas - with a few surprises thrown in.

You'll do much better with the Penguin or Gramophone guides, or indeed these days simply using that - whaddaycall it? - world wide web.… (mais)