The best of the year.

FULL MEASURES: Top ten among complete opera recordings were Berkeley's antic A Dinner Engagement, set sparkling by Richard Hickox (Chandos); Gluck's Orphee et Euridice (Virgin), conducted by Marc Minkowski; Handelian Andreas Spering's persuasive reading of Siroe (Harmonia Mundi); Moniuszko's majestic The Haunted Manor, from Polish National Opera (EMI); a thrilling account of Monteverdi's Orfeo, led by Emmanuelle Haim (Virgin); Rene Jacobs's revelatory take on Le Nozze di Figaro (Harmonia Mundi); Einojuhani Rautavaara's time-traveling The House of the Sun (Ondine); Jesus Lopez-Cobos's expert romp through Rossini's Le Comte Ory (DG); a crisp, vigorous Zelmira from Rossinian Maurizio Benini (Opera Rara); and Christian Thielemann's transparently textured Vienna Tristan und Isolde (DG).

RECITAL PLATFORMS: A baker's dozen of must-haves were Isabel Bayrakdarian's seductive Azulao (CBC); a Copland recital from Susan Chilcott (BBC); Eric Cutfer's debut disc (EMI); Natalie Dessay's all-Strauss dazzler (Virgin); tenor flights from Juan Diego FIorez (Decca) and Rolando Villazon (Virgin); Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's Handel arias (Avie); a transfixing Grieg and Sibelius program from Karita Mattila (Warner); Anna Netrebko's knockout Sempre Libera (DG); Thomas Quasthoff's Romantic Songbook (DG); Rene Pape's rock-tinged Mein Herz Brennt (DG); Dawn Upshaw's adventurous Voices of Light; and the Obsessions of Deborah Voigt (EMI).

DELICIOUS CONCOCTION: La Maga Abbandonata (BMG), a compelling "new" Handel opera, was devised by conductor Alan Curtis and librettist Donna Leon.

CONDUCT BECOMING: Stephen Mercurio's pacing provided the real fire in Marcello Oiordani's TenorArias (Naxos); Colin Davis and his LSO worked magic on Falstaff ...