Josƒ Van Dam, Dawn Upshaw/hallƒ Orchestra, Kent Nagano

For all the many virtues of the new recordings of Puccini's "La Boheme" (on Decca) and Massenet's "Werther" (RCA), the excitement that attends those issues pales next to that accompanying this glorious enterprise. The live recording of the 1998 Salzburg production of Olivier Messiaen's epic tableau "Saint Franïois D'Assise," this beautifully packaged four-disc set in Deutsche Grammophon's "20/21" series gives the deluxe treatment to one of the most rarely heard of 20th-century operatic masterpieces. Josƒ van Dam and Dawn Upshaw are the stellar soloists, and the Hallƒ Orchestra plays beyond itself for Kent Nagano, who worked closely with Messiaen in the last years of his life. As much mystery play as opera, the rich, manifold "Saint Franïois" manages to touch upon a millennium's worth of Western musical devices, ranging from plainchant to serialism, as it encapsulates Messiaen's peculiar brew of ecstatic modernism. It's not for everyone, certainly, but the best things rarely are.