Vladimir Atlantov

Verdi's 'Otello', based on Shakespeare's famous tragedy, is performed at the famous Arena of Verona, with Kiri Te Kanawa and Vladimir Atlantov heading an international cast.

The last and arguably finest opera of Modest Mussorgsky is captured in one of its most powerful interpretations in this 1989 recording from the Vienna State Opera, conducted by Claudio Abbado. A moody opera that is thematically broad at times and intimately personal in others, "Khovanshchina" tells the story of the 17th-century clash between Russian conservatives and Peter the Great's reformists. Among the singers is renowned basso Nicolai Ghiaurov and Paata Burchuladze, as well as Anatoly Kocherga, Ludmila Semtchuk, and Heinz Zednik.

I Pagliacci

1980 Bolshoi production of the Rimsky-Korsakov opera conducted by Yuri Simonov.

Based on the opera of the same name by A. A. Dargomyzhsky on the plot of the tragedy by A. S. Pushkin.