The first of five programmes in which Hugh Canning and Andrew Clements discuss some of the outstanding new CD opera issues of the year with Michael Oliver , who introduces excerpts from the recordings. Two roughly contemporary but very different works are under consideration this week: Puccini's La Rondine, with a cast including Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna , and Die Vogel by Walter Braunfels , with Helen Kwon , Endrik Wottrich , Michael Kraus ,
Wolfgang Holzmair and Matthias Gome. Producer Peter Tanner