Showing results by narrator "David Timson" in All Categories

When Mr. Earnshaw brings a black-haired foundling child into his home on the Yorkshire moors, he little imagines the dramatic events which will follow. The passionate relationship between Cathy Earnshaw and the foundling, Heathcliff, is a story of love, hate, pity, and retribution: the effects of which reverberate throughout the succeeding generations.

Dating from the last decade of the 19th century, Pelléas et Mélisande points the way into the 20th century. The score is hauntingly beautiful, but there is more to the work than shifting panels of elusive, impressionistic sound. Debussy retains the text of Maeterlinck’s play, and the linguistic subtleties of the French text are matched perfectly by the musical detail. Taking a little time to explore the romantic, elusive world of this opera is particularly rewarding.

This is a story from The Return of Sherlock Holmes I collection.

Penguin Classics presents Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, adapted for audio and now available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by the actor David Timson. 'What! to come here a stranger, a young, unknown, and unfriended stranger, and tell us, in the...

'A lyrical, fascinating, important book. More than just a family story, it is an essay on belonging, denying, pretending, self-deception and, at least for the main characters, survival.' Literary Review 'Simon May's remarkable How to Be a Refugee is a memoir of family secrets with a ruminative...

Many opera-lovers would name The Marriage of Figaro as their favorite opera. It appeals to the most intellectual listener, but also to music-lovers seeking great melodies and ensembles (while it remains accessible through its fascinating plot and memorable characters) and to those seeking only entertainment. One of three operas by Mozart to libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte, it represents one of the pinnacles not just of operatic but of human achievement.

This is a story from the The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes I collection.

Monteverdi’s Orfeo, first performed in 1607, generates a special excitement because it is the first unquestioned masterpiece of opera. Notable for its precise orchestration and powerful drama it was a groundbreaking work. It concerns the legend of Orpheus, the demigod whose music had the power to conquer the forces of Hell and to bring his wife back, briefly, to life. The extracts used in this introduction are from Naxos’ full recording; it uses authentic period instruments, which serve to evoke the early Baroque period of the opera’s composition.

One evening, wealthy diamond merchant Rudolph Kesselbach is visited at the Palace Hotel by Arsène Lupin. The next day, Kesselbach is found dead from a gunshot wound, with Lupin’s card pinned to his shirt. The wanted Lupin is forced to use all his guile to outwit the gendarmerie and find the real murderer.

Pagliacci may be the most completely compelling short opera in the repertory and owes much of its impact to a brilliant story based, it is said, on true life and told through the device of a play-within-a-play. The action is set in Calabria in the deep south of Italy where the jealousies and illicit passions of a troupe of strolling actors precisely intersect with the play they are performing - to both touching and tragic effect.

An exciting and entertaining listen for fans of detective fiction, The Hollow Needle features the popular character Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar and master of disguise. Intrigued by a legend concerning a hollow needle that supposedly holds a secret connected to the French monarchy–a secret that could potentially change the course of history–Lupin embarks on a quest to find the needle and unravel its mystery.

When Arsène Lupin and two of his criminal associates try to rob the villa of Deputy Daubrecq, things do not go according to plan and Lupin’s two partners are arrested and sentenced to death, leaving him to try and save them from the guillotine. To achieve this, Lupin must not only evade Daubrecq but also outwit a ruthless blackmailer who holds incriminating evidence in a crystal stopper.

Don Giovanni has long been regarded as Mozart’s supreme theatrical achievement. The subject seems unpromising - the last day in the life of the notorious womanizer Don Juan - but the skill of the librettist allied to the genius of Mozart at the very peak of his powers has created a work which is not only highly entertaining but reflects an incredible understanding of the human condition.

Sometimes called the greatest detective story ever written, The Hound of the Baskervilles, set on wild and desolate Dartmoor, with its menacing Tors, treacherous mires, and enveloping mists, pits the supernatural in the form of a spectral Hound against the rational mind of Sherlock Holmes, who with his companion Dr. Watson, attempts to solve the savage murder of the local squire, and save his successor from the curse of the Baskervilles.

Cavalleria rusticana is the short opera that has all the elements of a grand opera compressed into a single highly dramatic time span. The story of love, lust, blood-feud, and betrayal played out against the pageantry of the Easter celebrations in a Sicilian village delivers an emotional wallop because of the youthful vigor and musical wealth of its great score which includes the glorious "Easter Hymn" and the deeply moving "Intermezzo". Mascagni was never to repeat his youthful success but this brief work is enough to ensure his immortality.

The 'Young Adult Classics' series continues with The Hound of the Baskervilles, the most popular Sherlock Holmes story. It is a chilling tale of a slavering dog on the moor that will excite listeners of any age. The popular classics, presented in an abridged form, are brilliantly brought to life by master Holmes reader David Timson and enhanced with atmospheric music.

Massenet’s Werther combines a deeply tender story with music of beauty and eloquence. One act alone contains two of the greatest arias in the repertoire: the mezzo-soprano aria "Va! Laisse couler mes larmes" and the tenor’s "Pourquoi me rèveiller". In their sentimental power and melodic richness these arias encapsulate the qualities that account for the universal popularity of this great work.

This is a story from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes IV collection. Four more stories from the master detective. The mystery of the missing suitor is solved and Sherlock Holmes raises his whip: an Indian pot stands in the shadows of a Colonel's death; serious affairs of state and international diplomacy are threatened by a theft; and surely evil intent lies behind threats in a hidden house. The cool observations and swift action of Mr. Sherlock Holmes resolves all.

This is a story from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes VI collection. In "The Final Problem", perhaps the greatest of the short stories of Sherlock Holmes, the English detective encounters his most formidable rival, Professor Moriarty. 'The Napoleon of Crime' is how Holmes describes his adversary to his faithful companion, Dr Watson, as they move to the ultimate confrontation at the Reichenbach Falls.

In Monsieur Lecoq, two men are found dead at a bar in a seedy area of Paris, and a third man, wounded, stands in the doorway and dies shortly afterwards. To the Inspector of Police, the case seems straightforward – a pub brawl that ended in murder – but Lecoq is unconvinced and is permitted to investigate further with the help of an older officer, Father Absinthe. In the course of his investigations – which take an ever-tortuous direction – Lecoq is assisted by the ‘armchair’ detective Tabaret.