Gilbert Hetherwick, vice president and general manger of BMG Classics, called their repertory "real, honest classical music without any frills".
The luxury is that I can make sure there is real balance in my repertory.
How can theater make the excitement of its past real, not just the repertory but the aura and the greatness of its stars?
As the Met artists prepare the New York version, revisiting an existing work, the question will be whether these changes help the opera, well liked at its premiere, to gain a real foothold in the repertory.
A genuine thrill is Andrea Gruber, who as Abigaille, one of the toughest roles in the repertory, shows real vocal presence and character: hers may not be a perfect performance, but it's undeniably an exciting one.
He wants to find a real need in the recorded repertory and fill it.
Yet for real rarefied heights in this repertory, few groups can match the elegant a cappella quartet Anonymous 4, which performs its "Wolcum Yule" program today at the Troy Savings Bank in Troy, N.Y.
And if the new symphony or chamber piece or opera is to have a real shot at entering the repertory, then third and fourth and fifth presentations must happen.
Mr. Irons, who was terrific as the British prime minister Harold Macmillan in "Never So Good" in London last year, is perhaps too effective in suppressing his considerable sex appeal, though his delivery of the only real joke in Thomas's repertory is the show's high point.
Today, however, you'd have to go to Moscow to see the real range of the company's repertory.
