“Moments” hardly does justice to the extraordinary artistry compiled here from 20-plus years of live recordings. Renée Fleming made her debut at New York’s hallowed Metropolitan Opera as the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in 1991 and opens this unmissable double album with a spine-tingling reading of the role’s deeply affecting “Dove sono”. The American soprano’s technical consistency, linguistic command, expressive insight and dramatic imagination are put to the test and never found wanting in works from across the lyric-soprano repertoire. She’s on breathtaking form in the title roles of Richard Strauss’ Arabella, Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and Dvořák’s Rusalka, backed to the hilt by the Met’s equally superb orchestra. Even without periodic ovations, you’ll feel the love coming Fleming’s way from the Met audience.
- Riccardo Muti, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Barbara Frittoli, Olga Borodina, Mario Zeffiri & Ildar Abdrazakov
- Thomas Quasthoff, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnányi & James Levine
- Anna Moffo, Teresa Stratas, John Trehy, Kurt Herbert Adler, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Barry Morell, Robert Merrill, Joan Wall, Gabor Carelli, Calvin Marsh, George Cehanovsky, Louis Sgarro & Lou Marcella
- The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Montserrat Caballé, Fiorenza Cossotto, Carlo Cossutta, Giorgio Tozzi & Carlo Felice Cillario
- Margaret Harshaw, Gloria Lind, James McCracken, Margaret Roggero, Marianne Schech, Hermann Uhde, Sandra Warfield, Fritz Stiedry, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Wolfgang Windgassen, Kurt Böhme, Jean Madeira, Belen Amparan, Lawrence Davidson, Rosalind Elias, Osie Hawkins & Heidi Krall
- Eric Owens, Angel Blue, Frederick Ballentine, Alfred Walker, Latonia Moore, Golda Schultz, Ryan Speedo Green, Denyce Graves, David Robertson, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & The Metropolitan Opera Chorus
- Will Liverman, Latonia Moore, Angel Blue, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & The Metropolitan Opera Chorus