THOMSON, V.: Plow that Broke the Plains (The) / The River (N
Naxos AudioVisual
DVD
$30.99Jan 30, 2007
Pare Lorentz's "The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936)," and "The River (1937)" are landmark American documentary films. Aesthetically, they break new ground in seamlessly marrying pictoral imagery, symphonic music, and poetic free verse. Ideologically, they encapsulate the strivings of FDR's "New Deal." Virgil Thompson's scores for both films are among the most famous ever composed for the movies. These classic films make their DVD debut with newly recreated & recorded scores.
All Star Orchestra: Programs 3 & 4 - Dvorak, Shostakovich / Gerard Schwarz
Naxos AudioVisual
DVD
$20.99Nov 19, 2013
The All-Star Orchestra gives you a front row seat to the world's greatest music, performed by top players chosen from over 30 great American orchestras. The programs feature complete performances of popular masterpieces and world premieres of new works by leading American composers. Filmed in High-Definition with 19 cameras during a once-a-year 'summit' in New York's historic Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center, the All-Star Orchestra celebrates the symphonic experience in the 21st century. Program #3 the New World and It's Music Inspired by American dreams and legends, Dvorák created some of his greatest works while living in the United States, above all the 'New World' Symphony. This program illuminates the multiple stories and influences Native American, African-American and Czech that Dvorák transformed in his most beloved work. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Avanti! Offers a contemporary interpretation of the American archetype of 'moving on.' Program #4 Politics and Art Music has sometimes reflected, and at other times challenged repressive ideologies. Shostakovich abandoned the premiere of his challenging 4th symphony for fear of reprisals from the Stalinist government. His triumphant 5th Symphony was next, and the authorities were pleased. To this day the 5th is Shostakovich's most popular symphony. What is it's message? What does 'political music' mean today?
Puccini’s Japanese tragedy Madama Butterfly is given a ravishing production by The Royal Opera. Its alluring imagery of Japan from the 19th-century European Imagination heightens the intense clash of East and West. When the American naval officer Pinkerton seduces the young ‘Butterfly’ Cio-Cio-San, he seems to promise every happiness – but his cruel abandonment leads to her tragic self-sacrifice. Antonio Pappano, Music Director of The Royal Opera and renowned for his interpretations of Puccini, conducts an exceptionally fine cast with the Royal Opera Chorus and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Powerful performances show why Madama Butterfly remains one of the all-time operatic favourites. ‘‘Always at his best in Puccini, Antonio Pappano conducts with passionate sincerity.’’ (The Guardian 5 Stars) ‘‘An opera that ranks among the very greatest of the 20th century.’’ (The Daily Telegraph 4 Stars) ‘‘Ermonela Jaho is the best Cio-Cio-San London has seen in years’’ (Independent 4 Stars) -----
REVIEWS:
The Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho is one of the great singing actresses of our time. Hers is not a sumptuous soprano, but the colors she brings to her portrayal are astonishing. Her Flower Duet with Elizabeth DeShong's feisty, sympathetic Suzuki is quite beautifully sung. Pappano - arguably today's greatest Puccianian conductor - draws ardent playing from the orchestra, superbly detailed in its commentaries.
– Gramophone
Pappano is particularly alert to Puccini borrowing traditional Japanese melodies; at times he makes you hear this score, as well as the drama on stage, as a tug of war between East and West. It’s Sharpless and Suzuki who steal the show – a consul with a tender conscience from Scott Hendricks and Elizabeth DeShong as a maid who could melt the stoniest of hearts.
Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande / Pascal, Malmo Opera [Blu-ray]
BelAir Classiques
Blu-Ray
$36.99Nov 17, 2017
When Debussy completes the score, based on the eponymous symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck, of Pelleas et Melisande in 1902, the world of opera still abides by Richard Wagner and the upheaval he caused with Tristan und Isolde. But Debussy decides to stand on the exact opposite side, and uses his new opus to preach a new aesthetic creed. In depicting the forbidden love story between the timid Pelleas and the beautiful Melisande, kept apart by an unfortunate marriage, the French composer brings us back to the immortal legend of Tristan and Isolde, but this time showing the world that the future of music could very well lie far away from Wagner’s overwhelming lyricism and outsized rhetoric. This new production, created by one of the rising stars of French stage direction Benjamin Lazar for the Malmö Opera (headed by Ingmar Bergman from 1952 to 1958), encapsulates all the different aspects of this mysterious work, from the oniric poetry invented by Maeterlinck and Debussy to the realism, poignant because openly simple and even mundane, of these profoundly human beings lost in a forest full of sound and symbols that will never let them escape. The young French conductor Maxime Pascal, the Orchestra of the Malmö Opera, and an almost all-French cast (among which the excellent Marc Mauillon and Jenny Daviet), bring forth with intelligence all the refinement and all the vitality this unique and fascinating score has to offer.
Bach: Concerto for 2 Violins - Mozart: Sinfonia concertante
ICA Classics
DVD
$26.99Feb 22, 2011
David Oistrakh and Igor Oistrakh perform in this 1961 recording of the Bach. Sir Colin Davis conducts the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra with Yehudi Menuhin and Kirill Kondrashin in these works by Bach, Mozart, and Brahms recorded in 1961 and 1963.
Franz Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 99, D. 898 Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 100, D. 929
Beaux Arts Trio
Recorded at Signet Library, Edinburgh, 13 July 1987 (Piano Trio No. 1) and 6 September 1977 (Piano Trio No. 2)
Picture format: NTSC 4:3 Sound format: LPCM Mono Region code: 0 (worldwide) Menu language: English Running time: 81 mins No. of DVDs: 1
The Beaux Arts Trio performs two central pieces of their repertoire on this DVD. Filmed at the majestic Signet Library in Edinburgh, the ensemble demonstrates its mastery in bringing out the deeply lyrical romantic expressions that have made these trios two of Schubert’s most cherished chamber music works. With founding member, Menahem Pressler on piano, Isidore Cohen on violin and Bernard Greenhouse on cello, the ensemble’s distinguished heritage is apparent.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world’s greatest artists. These performances are released on DVD for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored. - ICA Classics
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem in D minor, K. 626 (Sanctus completed by Robert Levin. All other movements completed by Franz X. Sussmayr, edited by Franz Beyer.)
Anna Prohaska, soprano Sara Mingardo, alto Maximilian Schmitt, tenor Rene Pape, bass
Bavarian Radio Chorus Swedish Radio Chorus (chorus master: Peter Dijkstra) Lucerne Festival Orchestra Claudio Abbado, conductor
Recorded live at the Concert Hall of the Culture and Convention Center, Lucerne, 8 and 10 August 2012
Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: Latin, English, Japanese Running time: 60 mins No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)
Nothing else that he wrote is as all-encompassing as the Mass in B minor, not even the great Passions,” says Herbert Blomstedt about Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Opus summum”. The Dresdner Kammerchor and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under the musical direction of Herbert Blomstedt have merged ingeniously to conclude the Bachfest Leipzig with this unrivaled work – a work that bears close connections to choir and orchestra, as well as to Herbert Blomstedt himself. J. S. Bach Mass in B minor, BWV 232 Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Performing this monumental work is the ever-capable Dresdner Kammerchor conducted by Herbert Blomstedt. Featured soloists include Christina Landshamer, soprano, Elisabeth Kulman, alto, Wolfram Lattke, tenor, and Luca Pisaroni, bass.
Cavalli: Il Giasone / Alarcon, Sabadus, Hammarstrom, Cappella Mediterranea
Alpha
DVD
$34.99Feb 22, 2019
This production of Francesco Cavalli’s Il Giasone was filmed in January 2017 at the Grand Théâtre of Geneva. It forms a part of the ‘Cavalli tetralogy’ of the past few years, conducted by the man who has become Cavalli’s great ambassador: Leonardo Garcia Alarcón. Il Giasone, Dramma musicale, in a Prologue and Three Acts, first performed on 5 January 1649, alternates the tragic with the comic, with no concern for fidelity to the mythological legend of Jason and Medea. Francesco Cavalli’s opera, composed for the carnival season in Venice, presents a mosaic of contrasted episodes, rich in musical emotions. His music here attains a remarkable degree of evocative power, with la musica having the upper hand over la dramma. Il Giasone represents the subtle equilibrium between lyricism and narrative. The comic, the tragic, and the supernatural all meet and mingle, and Cavalli’s Lamenti – forming the climax of the work – are particularly unequalled,. Resolutely burlesque and zany, Serena Singaglia’s production celebrates the opera’s sensuality. Le Temps commented: ‘In the pit, the Cappella Mediterranea with Garcia Alarcón pursue a sense of musical flux with delicacy, lightness and quick-footedness, ideally responding to the score’s demands. With an instrumental sound that is both round and sprightly, they succeed in capturing the ludic dimension of the work, its melodic freshness, and its harmonic tensions. Drama and rapture are artfully fused together.”
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REVIEW:
The top-notch cast really savor the score’s lyricism, balancing all the cross-dressing camp with something disarmingly heartfelt. Dominique Visse is an irrepressible Delfa, taking ‘her’ pleasure wherever possible, and there are fine cameos from the veteran tenor Raúl Giménez as the cuckolded Egeo (cruelly styled as Peter Ustinov’s Poirot in Death on the Nile), Willard White’s Oreste and Migran Agadzhanyan as a nervily energetic Demo.
Aleko, The Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini are the only three operas composed by Sergei Rachmaninov. Reunited here in an amazing production by Kirsten Dehlholm and Hotel Pro Forma under the name le titre "Rachmaninov Troika". Rachmaninov represents the waning of Romanticism in Russia yet, even by Russian standards, he was extremely fatalistic. His three one-act operas with libretti based on writings by Pushkin and Dante are linked by their theme: fat follows in the footsteps on sin, whether it be a matter of jealous murder, gree or illicit passion
A modern and visionary work, this ballet, set to music by Dmitri Shostakovich, was created in 1930. It's central theme was the highly moralized battle and triumph of the proletariat against the decadent bourgeoisie, set in europe during the roaring twenties. Surprisingly, the score by Shsotakovich raised political controversies, probably because it borrowed much to European dance forms and consequently, the ballet vanished from the theaters until 1982, when Yuri Grigorovich restaged it with sets by Sion Virsaladze and a completely new libretto mainly revolving around the love story between Rita, a cabaret dancer, and Boris, a young idealist. The conflict in teh original production was also recast as a clash between fishermen - the morally superior workers - and society's criminal elements. To bring back on stage The Golden Age in autumn 2016, a few months prior to Yuri Grigorovich's 90th birthday, was a highly symbolic choice for the Bolshoi Ballet: this work, teh last Grigorovich would ever choreograph for his company, hadn't been staged for almost 10 years. A rare and refined ballet, which ran the risk of falling into oblivion twice, is danced by the new generation of the Bolshoi Ballet, among which Nina Kaptsova et Mikhail Lobukhin.
VERDI; GIORDANO; MEYERBEER; PUCCINI; MASSENET; DI CAPUA; CARILLO; DE CURTIS; TOSTI: Franco Corelli, tenor; NHK Orchestra/Alberto Ventura; Live: Tokyo, August 11, 1971NTSC All Region; Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS; PCM Stereo 2.0; Color; 16:9; Aprox. 60 mins; Subtitled in Italian, English, French, Germa FRANCO CORELLI - THE 1971 TOKYO CONCERT.
Martin Y Soler: L'arbore Di Diana / Bicket, Workman, Davislim, Vinco, Aikin
Dynamic
DVD
$36.99Jan 01, 2011
Artists: Charles Workman, Steve Davislim, tenors; Marco Vinco, bass-baritone; Laura Aikin, Ainhoa Garmendia, sopranos; Michael Maniaci, countertenor; Marisa Martins, Jossie Perez, mezzo-sopranos; Liceu Grand Theatre Orchestra, Harry Bicket, conductor; Thomas MacManus, choreographer; Francisco Negrin, director.
Audio Format: LPCM 2.0 | Region Code: 0 | Format: NTSC, 16:9 Booklet: English, French, Italian, German | Subtitles: English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Catalan Running Time: 148 minutes Location: Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona | Recorded: October 7, 2009 Packaging: DVD Keep Case
L’arbore di Diana is a two-act opera buffa by the composer Vincent Martin y Soler with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, first performed in Vienna in 1787. Popular throughout Europe at that time, this comic pastorale includes a plot that centers on an apple tree with apples that mutate in the presence of chaste and wanton individuals in the goddess Diana’s garden, and an unhappy god of Love who schemes to destroy the apple tree. Diana’s Tree is a trove of flowing melodies and a feast for the eyes.
“…immersed in an unreal atmosphere that takes advantage of cutting edge technology and an intelligent use of lighting and sound, …[transposing] the fable and satire..to modern times..with genius, explaining the story without confusing it.” – Pablo Meléndez-Haddad, ABC, October 2009.
“…Francis Negrin’s work has managed to maintain the piece’s narrative and to underline its best comical moments.” – Roger Alier, La Vanguardia, Oct. 2009.
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL: Veronique Gens, soprano; Philippe Jaroussky, male alto; Ingrid Perruche, soprano; Nigel Smith, baritone; Thierry Gregoire, male alto; Bernard Deletre, bass; Fabrice Di Falco, male soprano; AlainBuet, bass; La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy/Jean-Claude Mal GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL: Agrippina.
A brand new production of ‘Tannhäuser’ from the Staatsoper Berlin, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, staged and choreographed by Sasha Waltz, who has brought to the stage this Romantic Wagner opera with a star cast of some of today's best Wagnerian singers: Peter Seiffert in the title role, Réne Pape as Landgraf and Peter Mattei as Wolfram, Ann Petersen sings Elisabeth and Marina Prudenskaya is Venus.
HD recording: Staatsoper im Schiller Theater, Berlin – 04/2014 BLURAY Running time: 192 min. Booklet: French / English / German, Subtitles: French / English / German 16/9, Full HD, Audio:PCM 2.0, DTS HD Master Audio
ANTONIO VIVALDI: "I Solisti Veneti"/Claudio Scimone; Wiener Singakademie Choir; Adriana Damato, soprano; Laur Brioli, mezzo. ANTONIO VIVALDI - GLORIA AND OTHER SACRED WORKS: Gloria RV 589; Concerto in D major RV581; Falve Regina RV 616: Ad Te suspiramus;Sonata Al Santo Sepolcro RV 130; Stabat Mater RV 621: Stabat Mater, O quam tristis, Fac ut ardeat cor meum, Amen; Dal Gloria RV 588: Qui sedes ad desteram; Concerto in D major RV 562: Allegro.
ITALY: A Musical Tour of Tuscany, Rome and Perugia (NTSC)
The Places The journey starts in the countryside near Arezzo, and passes from there to other districts of Tuscany, to the wine-producing fields near Montalcino, and thence to Rome and to the volcanic Lake Bracciano. The tour ends in the ancient town of Perugia, for long an artistic centre.
The Music The music of the tour consists of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 of 1812 and two overtures, Coriolanus and The Consecration of the House. The Coriolanus overture was written for a play by Heinrich von Collin on the plot familiar from Shakespeare, and the second overture for the opening of a new theatre in Vienna in 1822.
Picture format: NTSC 4:3 Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Running time: 54 mins No. of DVDs: 1
The production of Siegfried Wagner's "Sonnenflammen" in Bayreuth was unanimously highly praised in the media, describing it as "a discovery, at least in musical terms. The two and a half hours of performance will not be long at any time. The music is pleasant, pleasing, very onomatopoeic, narrative, the composition is well done, the orchestration post-romantic revelling." (IOCO) About the effect of the music, Opera Lounge says: "There is wonderful music in Sonnenflammen. Perhaps more than anything else, the richness of colour and stylistic variety fascinates: even the secondary characters, the fortune teller announcing the end of the world, Fridolin's father cursing his son, each have their own idiom. When Fridolin remembers his homeland now forever lost, his singing is unusually simple and intimate. Some of it, like the mocking choir of the girls who shave the new court jester, is almost operatic." The artists involved are members of piano-pianissimo-musiktheater, which was founded in 1980 by Peter P. Pachl thanks to the encouragement of August Everding, director of the Munich Opera at that time. At the biannual Wagner-Spectacular in Upper Franconian Pegnitz, Richard Wagner's unknown works were staged for the first time, as were works by Franz Schreker and Alexander Zemlinsky, and works by writers such as Herbert Rosendorfer and Bernd Schünemann.
This ravishing production from Covent Garden, recorded in May, 2015, certainly takes its cues from Freud... The score is a stunner, alternately sensual and sumptuous, with dissonant eruptions. It can sometimes overwhelm with its exotic, anointed quality, which makes it seem obvious, but it is certainly one of a kind. It requires, of course, a cast willing to learn Polish, and for that alone we should praise this production – it sometimes sounds as if it has no vowels. I suspect it would not have come to be were it not for Polish-born Mariusz Kwiecien, a remarkable singing actor in foreign languages and now even more remarkable in the comfort of his own. Roger is a veritable garden of uncertainties and hungers, and Kwiecien’s acting and singing give us each doubt, each fear, each unresolved bit of passion. His voice is in wonderful shape as well–a highly placed, bright baritone.
There are subtitles in English, French, German, Japanese, and Korean and bonus features including explanations by Pappano and Holten – as well as a blow-by-blow documentary. King Roger is not an oddity or a rarity–it’s a major part of the operatic canon and this is an ideal way to get to know it.
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