Sir Antonio Pappano’s new recording of Verdi’s monumental Aida, with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, has been attracting excellent reviews. A sample is below:

Thiemo Wind, for De Telegraaf: ‘to say it’s the opera sensation of the year […] is not overstated’

Richard Osborne, for Gramophone: ‘as fine an all-round Aida as the gramophone has yet given us’

Neil Fisher, for The Times: ‘Directing his Roman orchestra and chorus, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the conductor judges the spatial resonance of the piece superbly’

Andrew Clements, for The Guardian: ‘These spectacular set pieces, spaciously recorded, anchor the dramatic trajectory that Pappano gives so convincingly to the whole opera.’

Mark Pullinger, for Sinfini: ‘the Santa Cecilia chorus and orchestra giving it their Egyptian blockbuster best.’

Sinfini have also released an Opera Strip, summarising the plot of Aida.

Presto Classical: ‘This magnificent recording of Aida, made in Rome, rises to all the musical and dramatic challenges presented by Verdi’s richly-coloured Egyptian epic’

5* from George Hall in BBC Music Magazine: ‘the Roman chorus and orchestra excel themselves’

5* from Rupert Christiansen in the Telegraph: ‘[Aida] comes thrillingly alive here in a superb new recording which could hardly be bettered today’

The Telegraph have also named Aida as one of the best classical releases of 2015.

A glowing review from Hugh Canning in the Sunday Times, who named Aida their Album of the Week: ‘a version unmissable for Pappano’s expansive, poetic yet tautly dramatic conducting’

Max Loppert, writing for Opera magazine: ‘Orchestra and chorus join conductor as stars of the enterprise, and guarantors of its authenticity’

Aida also featured on BBC Radio 3’s CD Review on Saturday 3 October, where it was Disc of the Week (from around 02:48:40): ‘the orchestra and chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia giving their considerable best for conductor Sir Antonio Pappano. You sense they know this opera as well as any of the soloists […] it’s a triumph.’