Capriccio releases Opera North performance, the first full recording in 35 years
The long wait is over for a new recording of Weill’s singular Broadway Opera Street Scene. October 2026 marks the release on the Capriccio label of the work captured live on the stage of Opera North in 2020. That acclaimed production was unfortunately cut short by the onset of the pandemic, but not before being recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 3. This month’s release remasters that broadcast audio into a brilliant, permanent realization of the work.
The most recent commercial recordings of Street Scene had been a pair both released in 1991, by Scottish Opera (conducted by John Mauceri) and English National Opera (conducted by Carl Davis), which came out on Decca and TER, respectively. As for Capriccio, it has long maintained the largest recorded catalogue of Weill works. The new Street Scene is its fourteenth such release.
Conducting the Opera North performances is eminent Weill expert James Holmes, one of a handful of recipients of the Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award presented by the Kurt Weill Foundation. Holmes’s deep engagement with Street Scene goes back to 1995, when he led the Houston Grand Opera’s production when it traveled to Germany. That performance was immortalized on home video and is viewable on Youtube.
The Opera North production paired Holmes with stage director Matthew Eberhardt, the duo also responsible for Love Life at Opera North in 2025. A recording of that production was released by Capriccio in October of last year, the first ever complete recording of Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s groundbreaking 1948 Broadway “Vaudeville.” It promptly won the Preis der Deutsche Schallplattenkritik in the Opera category for the first quarter of 2026, and most recently was announced as a finalist in the recording category of the 2026 International Opera Awards. Manuel Brug wrote for the Schallplattenkritik jury, “With this excellent recording from Opera North, Capriccio has added an important cornerstone to its Weill edition.”
The new Street Scene is available for streaming now, with CD purchases becoming available in territories around the world throughout the month of October. Sample it here!
