Verdi I due Foscari opera to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. Directed 2019 by Leo Muscato at the Teatro Regio di Parma. Stars Vladimir Stoyanov (Francesco Foscari), Stefan Pop (Jacopo Foscari), Maria Katzarava (Lucrezia Contarini), Giacomo Prestia (Jacopo Loredano), Francesco Marsiglia (Barbarigo), Erica Wenmeng Gu (Pisana), Vasyl Solodkyy (Attendant of the Council of Ten), and Gianni De Angelis (Servant of the Doge). Paolo Arrivabeni conducts the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, the Orchestra Giovanile della Via Emilia, and the Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma (Chorus Master Martino Faggiani). Set design by Andrea Belli; costume design by Silvia Aymonino; lighting design by Alessandro Verazzi. Directed for TV by Matteo Ricchetti and Adriano Figari. Sung in Italian. Released 2020, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Beethoven Leonore opera to libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner. (This is the 1805 version of “Leonore/Fildelio.”) Performed 2020 by Opera Lafayette as directed by Oriol Tomas at the Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College, New York. Stars Nathalie Paulin (Leonore/Fidelio), Jean-Michel Richer (Florestan), Stephen Hegedus (Rocco), Pascale Beaudin (Marzelline), Matthew Scollin (Pizarro), Keven Geddes (Jaquino), and Alexandre Sylvestre (Don Fernando). Ryan Brown conducts the Opera Lafayette Orchestra and Chorus. Set and costume design by Laurence Mongeau; lighting design by Rob Siler; hair and make-up design by Georgiana Eberhard; sound engineering by Marlan Barry. Directed for TV by Jason Starr. Sung in German. Released 2021, disc has PCM stereo sound only. Grade: NA

We usually don’t cover operas that are recorded in stereo sound only. But we make an exception because this fills in a gap in our coverage of Beethoven’s Leonore/Fidelio opera adventures. There are 3 versions of what we call “Leonore/Fidelio,” and this 1805 effort was the earliest of them. It’s offered here by the highly respected and specialized Opera Lafayette, which focuses mostly on French Baroque works. One of those French operas, Léonore; ou, L'amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, was the inspiration for Beethoven to do a German language version, and this was Beethoven’s first stab at it. Today the 1805 version is mostly ignored, but some experts say it’s better than Beethoven’s later revisions in 1806 and 1814.

Gaspare Spontini Fernand Cortez, ou la Conquête du Mexique (“Hernán Cortés, or The Conquest of Mexico”) opera to a libretto by Étienne de Jouy and Joseph-Alphonse d’Esménard. Directed 2019 by Cecilia Ligorio at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Stars Dario Schmunck (Fernand Cortez), Luca Lombardo (Télasco), David Ferri Durà (Alvar), André Courville (Le Grand Prètre des Mexicains), Gianluca Margheri (Moralez), Lisandro Guinis (Un Officier Espagnol), David Ciarrocchi and Nicolò Ayroldi (Deux Prisonniers Espagnols), Leonardo Melani (Un Officier Mexicain), Davide Siega (Un Marin), Alexia Voulgaridou (Amazily), and Silvia Capra and Delia Palmieri (Deux Femmes de la Suite d’Amazily). Also stars dancers from Compagnia Nuovo BallettO di ToscanA (Artistic Director Cristina Bozzolini) Jean-Luc Tingaud conducts the Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Chorus Master Lorenzo Fratini). Set design by Massimo Checchetto and Alessia Colosso; costume design by Vera Pierantoni Giua; lighting design by Maria Domènech Gimenez; choreography by Alessio Maria Romano. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini. Sung in French. Released 2020, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio. Grade: NA