A greatest-hits album ought to stick to the middle of the road, playing to what an artist does best. Yet it ought not simply wallow in past glories: this collection from Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, arguably the best-known soprano of the present day, hits the spot and can safely be recommended to newcomers. Netrebko is at her best in core Italian repertory like Casta Diva from Bellini's Norma or Libiamo ne 'lieti calici from Verdi's La Traviata.

Lang Lang presents a treasure trove of musical discoveries in this album: Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2, recorded with the Gewandhausorchester and Andris Nelsons, is a true romantic masterpiece for Lang Lang that rivals the great concertos by Rachmaninoff or Tchaikovsky. Pairing it with Carnival of the Animals, a whimsical menagerie that has captivated young hearts for generations, Lang Lang continues his heartfelt wish to promote the love of classical music to young people and it also gives him a chance to collaborate with his wife, pianist Gina Alice. These two large scale orchestral works are complemented with solo compositions, including hidden gems by five female French composers as well as beloved French Classics.

The Lehar hits are a predictable overture/waltz selection, but the performances by Janos Sandor and the Budapest Philharmonic are ideal, ablaze with color and striking rhythmic elasticity (the Budapest rubato is more daring than the Viennese). Sandor programs the standalone concert-waltz masterpiece GOLD UND SILBER as well as rarer selections from FRASQUITA and EVA, and in the PAGANINI extract there's a stellar violin solo played by Istvan Tamas. These performances are so wholly within the authentic Lehar idiom that I rank them alongside the reference standards conducted by Paulik, Boskovsky and Lehar himself. Sandor (1933-2010), it turns out, was born to do this.

Neeme Järvi returns to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for a dazzling album of suites from the ballets Sylvia, La Source, and Coppélia by Delibes. Born into a musical family, Delibes enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire aged twelve, studying under several professors including Adolphe Adam. He spent the 1850s and early 1860s composing light operettas and working as a church organist, before achieving public recognition for his music for the ballet La Source in 1866. His later ballets Coppélia and Sylvia were key works in the development of modern ballet, giving the music much greater importance than was previously the case.

This disc demonstrates that Cecilia Bartoli is as much at home in the world of the salon recital as she is in the swoops and vocal acrobatics of the Rossini coloratura repertoire. Her voice is in fine form here- -rich, resonant and full of surprising colours–but her talent for characterisation is even finer. In Pauline Viardot's "Havanaise" for example, she perfectly captures the flirtatious, almost desperate pleadings of a Spanish sailor for a French girl to accompany him on his boat –and then switches easily to the more capricious and teasing reply of the girl in French. In a number by Ravel (sung in Yiddish and Hebrew) she brings a rather elliptical exchange between a father and his young son to life with exquisite tenderness, and finds yet another voice out of her repertoire to characterise the little boy.

For all its exotically tinged, trademark Orientalism, so fashionable in late-19th-century France, Delibe's opera Lakmé is at heart a simple story of tragically misplaced love. This marvelous and sensitively wrought interpretation renders the intensity of that love story with a surprising emotional credibility. Conductor Michel Plasson allows the music's arching melodies to breathe and unfold leisurely, like a lovingly cultivated floral display; he even discovers hidden nuances within the formulaic fluff that pads Delibe's score. And his vision is shared by the outstanding principals here. As the titular Hindu princess, Natalie Dessay gives a jewel-like performance, full of stunningly shaped phrases and tapered notes that sound like spun silk (and one that can favorably compare with Joan Sutherland's account on London).

These two concerts, from very early in Maria Callas' career, are of the if-you've-got-it-flaunt-it school of singing. At these points in her performing life there was little Callas couldn't do: almost three octaves were at her command; she was fearless (and reckless) with her resources; and her innate dramatic sense was, if not quite in full-bloom, then at least in mid-blush.

Lakmé, Delibes greatest opera, is performed by Opera Australia in all its oriental glory. Starring the exquisite coloratura soprano Emma Matthews as the innocent girl priestess Lakmé, and superb tenor Aldo Di Toro as the love-struck Gerald, the story tackles religion and cross-cultural love against a backdrop of British rule in India in the mid-19th century.

Léo Delibess Coppélia is not only a collection of fine dances. It is primarily an abrasive and sardonic comedy, which is somewhat unusual in the world of classical ballet. But most importantly, it is a comedy for which excellent music was composed. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys assessment of Delibess ballet scores, allegedly capable of overshadowing the choreography itself, is well known: What beauty, what elegance, what richness of melody, rhythm and harmony! It is not fortuitous that music from this ballet should be performed, for its own merits, during concerts. Funnily enough, the main theme of this light-hearted ballet is taken from E.T.A. Hoffmanns anything but joyful novellas mainly from The Sandman.

French Touch is soprano Petibon's 2003 release which features the works of such French composers for example Delibes, Massenet and Offenbach to mention a few. Petibon sings with much enthusiasm and joy which makes it a very enjoyable recording. Yves Abel leads the national orchestra and choir of Lyon. On track she sings duet with mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes.

Léo Delibes was 30 years old when he achieved his critical breakthrough in France’s musical metropolis and created his classic Coppélia. The scenery for this fairy-tale piece was designed by Charles Nuitter, and the story was taken from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Der Sandmann (The Sandman). In 1994 the Opéra National de Lyon performed Léo Delibes’s ballet Coppélia under the choreography of Maguy Marin. This special video production by legend Thomas Grimm was fi lmed on location in Lyon and in the studio. Star conductor Kent Nagano directs the orchestra of the Lyon National Opera.

Darcey Bussell and Roberto Bolle star in Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia, restored to the splendour of its elegant and opulent three-act form for the 75th anniversary celebrations of The Royal Ballet. Ashton was inspired by the music of Léo Delibes to create such great choreographic sequences as the famous Act 3 pas de deux and the mischievous role of Eros, one of the delightful, darkly comic characterisations for which Ashton became known and loved.