Last month, in AudioFile, the American audiobook magazine, the reviewer praised Rupert Degas’s reading of Haruki Murakami’s Dance Dance Dance. It is not, I think, immodest to print the review in its entirety, as it was given an ‘Earphones’ award, a gong of particular distinction.

DANCE DANCE DANCE
By Haruki Murakami
Read by Rupert Degas

The unnamed hero of Haruki Murakami’s sixth novel is a somber, lonely writer whose dreams call him back to a run-down Sapporo hotel where he once lived. But when he tracks down the hotel, he finds a newly refurbished luxury high-rise. He falls for the receptionist, becomes guardian to a clairvoyant teen, and is transported to a haunted hallway, all while trying to solve a mystery of dead or missing prostitutes. British actor Rupert Degas is masterful in his reading of Dance Dance Dance. Degas performs the entire novel in a flawless American accent, with Japanese names, phrases, and place names read with a believable Japanese accent. Once Degas starts reading, it’s nearly impossible to stop listening to this oddly brilliant psychological thriller. S.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: August 2008]

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Tags: Arthur Conan Doyle, clairvoyant, Glen McCready, NaxosAudiobooks, Professor Challenger, Rupert Degas

Almirante, an opera in three acts with music by Bach, Handel, and Henry and Daniel Purcell; and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and Kindertotenlieder with renowned bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff and baritone Håkan Hågegard

Almirante (PH 121) was conceived by Baroque and early music specialist Jörg Zwicker, who originally intended to compile a disc of Baroque duets for soprano and alto. Despite stylistic differences among the composers, compiling the arias was simple for Zwicker because the texts demonstrated a contextual bond. Instead of a straightforward compilation of Baroque duets, however, Zwicker and librettist Thomas Höft invented a new love story with a supplementary libretto, creating, in essence, a dramaturgical framework for these musically diverse masterpieces. Handel was known to have written a number of pastiches himself, including arias and melodies by other composers, so this idea was not so unique. By using recitatives to link arias together, Zwicker and Höft formed this “new” Baroque opera featuring the heroine Almirante. The opera features music by Daniel and Henry Purcell, Georg Friedrich Handel, Johann Joseph Fux, and Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by soprano Deborah York and alto Lydia Vierlinger.

This recording from 1992-93 features two powerhouse performers-German bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff and Swedish baritone Håkan Hågagard-in three beloved works by Gustav Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and Kindertotenlieder. The late Israeli conductor/composer Gary Bertini leads the Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester.