Carl Maria von Weber:
- "Der Freischütz" Overture
- Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra, Op. 26
Giuseppe Verdi:
- "La Forza Del Destino" Overture
- Solo from "La Forza Del Destino" (Act 3)
Donato Lovreglio: Fantasia da Concerto from "La Traviata"
Luigi Bassi: Fantasia da Concerto from "Rigoletto"

You will not find more than a scattering of reviews for opera recordings on this website, and the reason for this is really quite simple. Opera is a vast world all its own within the confines of classical music, so to become an authority on the subject one has to dive deep within this operatic macrocosm and devote years of research and critical listening not only to the music, but to the casts of singers, stage settings and productions, etc ... to do it full justice. My defense is that I spent all my time and effort listening to everything else within classical music to even consider dipping my toe into this voluminous operatic ocean.

Unfortunately for me, opera and especially Italian opera, is where you hear most of classical music's most memorable melodies. So this is when recordings like this Echi D'Opera (Echoes of Opera) are highly valuable, not only for people like me but for all opera followers, as well as clarinet enthusiasts. Clarinetist Nicolai Pfeffer believes that because of its fluid "singability", this instrument is perfectly at home within the Italian bel canto repertoire. So much so that he took it upon himself to write and prepare special orchestral arrangements for this recording, of the "La Traviata" and "Rigoletto" Concert Fantasies, originally scored for clarinet and piano. This immediately projects their "operatic" disposition more effectively. And throughout these as well as the works by Verdi and Weber, Pfeffer's delivery and embouchure technique are impeccable. The end result is an unblemished sound that quite simply rolls off the ears.