Fiery Angel-Complete Opera

This is a piece in many ways better experienced with both the visual and aural aspects (and, in fact, there is a fine video of this production available from Philips), but the score is powerful on its own. Soprano Galina Gorchakova is dramatically and vocally astounding in the role of Renata, which she makes her own; Sergey Leiferkus, usually heard singing unidiomatic Italian or French roles in the West, is much more at home as the knight Ruprecht. The large supporting cast shows the merits of the Kirov's old ensemble system. In an amusing (and logical, if you think about it) touch, Prokofiev has made his Mephistopheles a grating character tenor (think Herod), and his scholarly Faust a bass. --Sarah Bryan Miller