The Fiery Angel
Teatro dell’Opera di Roma's The Fiery Angel

What's new on disc

Sex-crazed nuns and a Swedish trombonist’s tribute to Wollongong headline a month of new takes with plenty of surprises

This month produced a bumper crop of new recordings but for this column I thought I’d focus on some quirky highlights and a few that just plain surprised me.

I’ll admit that CDs of Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel have never quite done it for me, but Emma Dante’s inspired staging for Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera (Naxos DVD 2110663 or NBD0113V for Blu-ray) has made me reconsider. Based on a Symbolist novel, its themes of possession, love, betrayal and sexual hysteria clearly appealed to an up-and-coming composer with a...