Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1476 in Music
• Released on: 2001-03-31
• Number of discs: 2

Customer Reviews

A great introduction to opera.
This double album is an ideal one for getting a taste of opera.

As an Indie music fan with diverse tastes, my exposure to opera had been limited to those pieces used in films and commercials. From those snippets, I had decided that I would like to hear a bit more opera, but was at a loss as to what to buy. I decided upon this album, and was not disappointed.

The album contains most of the famous arias from all the big opera's and most listeners will recognise several from recent films and adverts (Trainspotting, Mrs. Doubtfire, Driving Miss Daisy, Dangerous Liaisons, etc.).

Where this album falls down is on disc 2, which contains quite a bit of "filler" amongst the better pieces.

However, overall this album is a great showcase for some extraordinary human voices, and a great introduction to an opera novice, or a "best of" album for the connoisseur.

Good selection: awful concept.
The tracks on this cd are excellent and well worth the money. I get worried about the packaging of this sort of disc though because it reminds me of Tesco's attempt to sell wine to the masses by renaming a mediocre chablis as 'Good with meat' or whatever. If this was called 'Fine Opera' or 'An Opera Sampler' then I'd be a lot happier but the dumb approach of 'The Only Opera Album You'll Ever Need' makes me cringe. Once again though: the music is very good and the performances are excellent on the whole.

the album lives up to its title
Many people discover Opera at different stages of their life. This is an excellent introduction to Opera and beautiful background music. Hearing familiar arias only encourages you to see the real thing. For the novice you just can't go wrong.