Tennis: Algonquin sweeps Leominster
First singles Chris Blanchard and second singles Andrew Stukalin both won their matches without losing a game to spark Algonquin to a 5-0 sweep of Leominster in Mid-Wach A action yesterday.

Gounod – Romeo et Juliette / Mackerras, Alagna, Vaduva, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] $7.94 Gounod’s version of Shakespeare’s tragedy about two “star-crossed lovers” has never been considered a first-class opera, but as this 1994 Royal Opera production movingly shows, with the right singers and conductor it can be a quite emotional experience. Tenor Roberto Alagna is all youthful ardor and aching romance as Romeo, while soprano Leontina Vaduva plays Juliet as a lover frightfully awa…

Offenbach – Les contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) / Pretre, Domingo, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] $6.95 This is as good a video of the traditional Tales of Hoffmann as we are ever likely to see. It alters the material Offenbach left when he died, but it is the Hoffmann that audiences have loved for decades in a brilliant all-star production. Plácido Domingo is vocally resplendent and theatrically convincing as the poet Hoffmann enduring one amorous disappointment after another. He is supported…

Rossini – Il barbiere di Seviglia (The Barber of Seville) / Ralf Weikert, The Metropolitan Opera [VHS] $34.95 Gioacchino Rossini’s opera “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” (Melodramma buffo in due atti; Libretto/Livret: Cesare Sterbini) is performed here by Kathleen Battle (Rosina), Rockwell Blake (Il Conte d’Almaviva), Leo Nucci (Figaro), Enzo Dara (Bartolo), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Basilio), and the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Ralf Weikert. This VHS is a digital recording by Deutsche Gramm…

Gounod – Romeo et Juliette / Mackerras, Alagna, Vaduva, Royal Opera Covent Garden $16.70 Gounod’s version of Shakespeare’s tragedy about two “star-crossed lovers” has never been considered a first-class opera, but as this 1994 Royal Opera production movingly shows, with the right singers and conductor it can be a quite emotional experience. Tenor Roberto Alagna is all youthful ardor and aching romance as Romeo, while soprano Leontina Vaduva plays Juliet as a lover frightfully awa…

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