Dvorak's Prophecy - Film 4 - Aaron Copland: American Populist [DVD]
Naxos
DVD
$6.49$12.99Save 50%Nov 12, 2021
“Aaron Copland: American Populist” A PostClassical Ensemble “More than Music” film Written and produced by Joseph Horowitz Visual presentation by Peter Bogdanoff Film four in the six-film Naxos series: “Dvorak’s Prophecy: A New Narrative for American Classical Music”
Buffeted by social and political currents, Copland can seem unmoored: a cork in a stream. He was politicized by the Depression- and by the example of Mexico, whose artists galvanized national identity and progressive thought. He wrote a prize-winning workers’ song and addressed a Communist picnic in Minnesota. Twenty years later, the Red Scare targeted him as a traitor. Can his odyssey be read as a parable illuminating the fate of the American artist? This film features a reenactment of Copland’s grilling by Senator Joseph McCarthy (played by Edward Gero). It also highlights the most consequential Copland score we don’t know: his ingenious music of Lewis Mumford’s 1939 World’s Fair film The City, itself a complex product of the Popular Front. We reconsider the valedictory Piano Fantasy, in which Copland refreshed his modernist roots- a galvanizing performance by Benjamin Pasternack, who also recalls a telling encounter with the composer. The other commentators include the American historians Michael Kazin and Joseph McCartin, who ponder the tangled legacy of American populism of the left and right.
"The 'Dvořák’s Prophecy' film series makes an essential contribution to our understanding of the history of music in America, and of the role that music has played, and must continue to play, in American culture as a whole. The films are both enlightening and entertaining. I can readily envision their use in classrooms, in both introductory and advanced-research contexts. Non-specialists will also enjoy them thoroughly. Because Horowitz does not shy away from political, racial, and gender issues of intense contemporary relevance, these films are especially important right now." – Larry Starr, Emeritus Professor of Music, University of Washington
Founded in Tel-Aviv in 1964, the Batsheva Dance Company has been headed since 1990 by Ohad Naharin: an incredible dancer with musical training, who has a true passion for movement. Through his “Gaga” technique, a choreographic vocabulary that explores the sensations and the availability of the bodies, he made his mark on the dance world and offered the company its finest hours. In 2015, Tomer Heymann’s documentary “Mr. Gaga” paid tribute to the Naharin phenomenon, its influence on the contemporary dance scene and in pop culture. This diptych aims to broaden the Batsheva videography by, as a showcase of Naharin’s aesthetics and demanding technique, featuring two of the most emblematic works in the company’s current repertoire, both filmed in Paris: Naharin’s Virus and Last Work. A collective creation, Naharin’s Virus is, in a way, a dialogue between Naharin’s choreographic style and the Batsheva dancers’. Its starting point is the text Publikumsbeschimpfung (Offending the Audience) by the Austrian playwright Peter Handke. An aesthetic manifesto, it is also a political piece: it is worth noting, for instance, that it features traditional music written by a Palestinian composer… A carefully negotiated balance between frenzy and meditation, a frail and unstable whole saturated with an enigmatic opacity and symbolism, Last Work is also a politically committed, ethically-charged piece reflecting on war, peace, oppression and coercion. While dance is stretched up to its limits, Naharin’s choreographic gesture calls for a new outlook on our contemporary world, its violence, its possibilities, its future.
Bringing together again, for the first time since their premiere, Tchaikovsky’s opera Iolanta and ballet The Nutcracker, was the audacious challenge that Russian stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov accepted for the Palais Garnier in Paris in March 2016 : a revolutionary production, which was to become one of the key events of the Paris Opera season. With great intelligence, Tcherniakov renews the dialogue between the two masterpieces, and reveals their common origins. He thus reminds us that both Iolanta and The Nutcracker are first and foremost initiatory journeys, in which the heroes experience love and loss, fortune and misfortune. In doing so, Dmitri Tcherniakov, with the collaboration of contemporary choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Edouard Lock and Arthur Pita, goes as far as to completely disregard the magical extravaganzas that Marius Petipa associated to The Nutcracker, and radically turns the dream into a nightmare dominated by despair and loneliness. To insure the continuity and a sense of dramatic consistency between the opera and the ballet, Tcherniakov skillfully modulates the space provided by the Palais Garnier. A solution that also enables him to question the very nature of both theater and illusion, as well as their specular relationship with the reality they try to make us forget. Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva delivers a flamboyant interpretation of the blind princess Iolanta, and shares the stage with Polish tenor Arnold Rutkowski and Ukrainian bass Alexander Tsymbalyuk. The internationally renowned French conductor Alain Altinoglu joins forces with the Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus, while the Paris Opera Ballet, among which Marion Barbeau- a radiant Marie - and the Etoiles Stéphane Bullion and Alice Renavand, revives the most popular ballet of all time.
Rameau’s first opera Hippolyte et Aricie delivered a lyrical tragedy of such extraordinary intensity it changed the course of French music, stunning and overwhelming its audiences. This breathtaking spectacle involves prince Hippolyte, who asks his mother-in-law Queen Phédre for help in wooing the beautiful Aricie, little knowing that Phèdre secretly wants Hippolyte for herself. In a single work Rameau re-invented tragédie en musique with dramatic expressiveness and shocking harmonic innovations. It is seen here in an acclaimed Opéra Comique production that personifies Rameau’s assertion that ‘music must speak to the soul, its true aim must be to express thoughts, feelings, and passions’.
In the last and most dramatic aria in “Roberto Devereux,” one of the four Tudor period operas composed by Donizetti in 1837 (along with “Anna Bolena,” “Maria Stuarda,” and “Il Castello di Kenilworth,”) the protagonist, Queen Elizabeth I of England, exclaims: “I do not reign, I do not live.” This statement encapsulates great operatic themes, and it is the culmination of an opera that reveals the passions of characters who live among palace intrigues. Written in the mature period of the leader of Italian romanticism, the opera displays a great vocal virtuosity, and is an example of Donizetti prizing the voice above all in the genre. The staging, by South African director Alessandro Talevi, who has been very successful in great opera houses as well as with more experimental theatre, places the play in an undetermined period, focusing on the chiaroscuro. Bruno Campanella conducts the production with Mariella Devia in the lead. “This was a most promising start to the season, a first-class rendition of a neglected work and a joyful confirmation of Mariella Devia’s well-deserved place in bel canto history.” (Bachtrack.com)
The Norwegian National Ballet’s Hedda Gabler is Henrik Ibsen’s drama retold in a way you’ve never seen it before. After the premiere in 2017, both Norwegian and international critics praised director Marit Moum Aune’s dance production, set to music by Nils Petter Molvær. Hedda is furious, on the verge of being consumed with disappointment. After a six-month honeymoon in Europe she has returned home to set up home with her husband, Jørgen – but nothing has turned out the way she intended. And when her former lover Eilert Løvborg enters the picture, she reacts in a way that proves perilous for everyone – including herself. Hedda Gabler is one of world theatre’s most well-known characters – an icon created by Henrik Ibsen. Is she cowardly or brave? Spoilt or stuck? Wicked or desperate? Our greatest actors have always found new ways to interpret this psychologically complex role. Now the talented dancers of the Norwegian National Ballet provide their own interpretation, adding another dimension to the drama. While the original play is an intense chamber play in which a lot is left unsaid, Moum Aune paints with a broad brush. Hedda’s world opens up as we delve deeper into her relationships and background. We get to see major scenes that are only hinted at in Ibsen’s text. The dancers in the eight central roles have all contributed to their own choreography, with each movement crucial in the telling of this intense story. Hedda Gabler is the follow-up to Moum Aune’s first success with Ibsen as dance, in which she directed and choreographed Ibsen’s Ghosts together with Cina Espejord. Both productions are among the Norwegian National Ballet’s greatest successes, and are in high demand around the world. BONUS : Hedda Gabler, The Other Side A 52 min. Documentary behind the scenes of the Norwegian National Opera
Donizetti: Torquato Tasso / Sebastiano Rolli, Orchestra e Coro del Bergamo Musica Festival
Bongiovanni
DVD
$34.99Feb 05, 2021
This work is captivating in its intensity and focuses on aspects of and moments in Tasso's rich, eventful life. Indeed, Donizetti seems to have been so actively involved in drafting his subject that he may well have seen in Tasso not a little of himself. After all, both composer and poet hailed from Bergamo. Reports at the time indicate the opera was initially received with considerable warmth and, on occasion, outright enthusiasm. Yet this success proved short-lived. The growing vogue for tragic subjects in opera probably made Torquato Tasso seem an odd hotchpotch of unrelated elements with a finale that, for all its outstanding approach to the music, in dramatic terms had neither a properly happy nor unhappy ending. The fact remains, however that the music of Torquato Tasso is highly inventive – outstandingly so. If today's audiences can strike a balance between the several approaches to stagecraft in this opera, Torquato Tasso will reveal new delights for the eye and ear and so become one of the finest instances of Donizetti at his most experimental and charismatic.
Rossini’s comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville was based on Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s French play Le Barbier de Séville and is the ultimate opera buffa. The score is a compendium of the composer’s wittiest and most brilliant writing, and includes the famous entrance aria Largo al factotum and a raft of superbly dynamic ensembles. This vibrant and youthful production features Florian Sempey, one of the world’s best Figaros, the ‘Rossini tenor’ Michele Angelini, vivacious and critically admired Catherine Trottmann, and the award-winning team of acclaimed director Laurent Pelly and conductor Jérémie Rhorer who directs his spirited period ensemble Le Cercle de l’Harmonie.
-----
REVIEW:
The cast are in modern dress but the interaction of characters is so forceful as to sweep away any lurking objections. Add to this some very fine singing, particularly from Michele Angelini’s glorious high tenor as Almaviva, and there is a great deal here to admire and enjoy.
The resounding success Handel’s Messiah encountered the first time it was presented in Dublin in 1742 set the scene for its future. The oratorio depicts the Sacred History of Christ in three parts: the Nativity, Christ’s Passion and Resurrection and finally, Redemption. The alternance of airs and choirs is perfect and Handel’s musical knowledge infallible. Messiah quickly became the composer’s most successful work. It was played thirty-six times during his lifetime and has continued to be presented to modern day, embodying just how majestic and sublime music can be. During its première in London, King George II was so moved by the mythical Hallelujah! that he could not help but leap to his feet, with the entire audience following his lead. In the sumptuous Royal Chapel at Versailles, Hervé Niquet leads four impassioned soloists and a tremulous choir to the height of Handel’s most resplendent baroque edifice!
Donizetti's three-act tragic opera Belisario was a resounding success in its day, driven by its composer’s superlative theatrical instinct and his skillful interweaving of intense tragic narrative and emotional pathos. Belisario is betrayed by his wife Antonina, who falsely accuses him of high treason. Belisario is blinded and exiled, with proof of his innocence coming too late, and is mortally wounded during a final military victory. This production was performed and recorded without an audience in Bergamo during the Covid-19 lockdown in November 2020 – a moving performance reflecting a spirit of defiance amidst ruin and darkness.
I puritani is one of Bellini's most creative and influential masterpieces, a bel canto opera stamped with vocal and orchestral writing of intoxicating beauty and dramatic intensity. Set in England in the Civil War shortly before Oliver Cromwell's triumph, it involves romantic and political intrigues that drew from Bellini music of melodic raptness and melancholic depth. It also inspired him to compose some of his most breathtakingly virtuosic passages, notably Elvira's Mad Scene, that call for the utmost in theatrical power. This production includes all the music performed at the work's Paris premiere.
This box set contains three extraordinary ballet choreographies by the successful German choreographer Christian Spuck for the Ballett Zürich whose ballet director he has been since the 2012/13 season: Verdi’s Messa da Requiem conducted by Fabio Luisi, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Mouse King, conducted by Paul Connelly, and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet conducted by Michail Jurowski. Christian Spuck comes from Marburg and was trained at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart. He began his dance career with Jan Lauwers’ Needcompany and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Ensemble Rosas. In 1995 he became a member of the Stuttgart Ballet and served as the company’s resident choreographer from 2001 to 2012. In Stuttgart he created fifteen world premieres, including the story ballet Lulu. Eine Monstretragödie after Frank Wedekind, Der Sandmann and Das Fräulein von S. after E.T.A. Hoffmann. Since the 2012/13 season, Christian Spuck has been director of Ballett Zürich.
This is the accomplished and stylish Russian debut of Tianwa Yang – one of the most unusual and energetic violinists of our time. To an enthusiastic audience within the walls of the beautiful Court Capella in St Petersburg, she performs the much-loved concertos of Tchaikovsky and Brahms with the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra under the sensitive direction of Vladimir Lande. The remarkable intensity of her playing is just as apparent in both her encore– Ysaÿe’s Violin Sonata No. 3 – and her separate performance of Bach’s solo Partita No. 2. Tianwa Yang has quickly established herself as a leading international performer and recording artist. She has recorded critically acclaimed interpretations of the complete music for violin andpiano, and for violin and orchestra, by Sarasate. Her recording of Mendelssohn’s two violin concertos (8572662) has won the highest praise.
This box set contains three extraordinary ballet choreographies by the successful German choreographer Christian Spuck for the Ballett Zürich whose ballet director he has been since the 2012/13 season: Verdi’s Messa da Requiem conducted by Fabio Luisi, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Mouse King, conducted by Paul Connelly, and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet conducted by Michail Jurowski. Christian Spuck comes from Marburg and was trained at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart. He began his dance career with Jan Lauwers’ Needcompany and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Ensemble Rosas. In 1995 he became a member of the Stuttgart Ballet and served as the company’s resident choreographer from 2001 to 2012. In Stuttgart he created fifteen world premieres, including the story ballet Lulu. Eine Monstretragödie after Frank Wedekind, Der Sandmann and Das Fräulein von S. after E.T.A. Hoffmann. Since the 2012/13 season, Christian Spuck has been director of Ballett Zürich.
This box set contains four exceptional and star-studded opera and operetta recordings from the Opernhaus Zürich: Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi, Berg’s Wozzeck, Massenet’s Werther, and Lehar’s Das Land des Lachelns. Philharmonia Zurich is the orchestra of Zurich Opera. As an independent body of 116 contract players, it has existed since 1985 under the name of Zurich Opera Orchestra. It was renamed in 2012 with the appointment of director Andreas Homoki and general music director Fabio Luisi. The Choir of the Zurich Opera House, with its 60 permanent members and the participation of up to 160 performances per season, forms an essential cornerstone of the artistic ensemble at the Zurich Opera House. Under the umbrella of the most traditional Swiss opera house, it unites singers on the highest professional level, whose musical and stylistic versatility is combined with the power of acting and spontaneity. On a regular basis, the members also prove their artistic format as soloists. The choir reflects the claim and the radiance of the Zurich Opera in its international composition, which have been proven by numerous DVD recordings and were awarded the “Opera Company of the Year” in 2014.
Excerpts of reviews of previously released volumes in this set:
Berg: Wozzeck
This is a finely honed production that follows its premise to an absurdist conclusion with slick theatricality and dispassionate zeal. All sentimentalism is banished here. So, largely, is the opera’s plea for justice and compassion. It is left to Christian Gerhaher’s Wozzeck to fight that battle, which he does with formidable diction and great lyrical beauty, offering, where he can, a still centre in the tumult.
– Gramophone (DVD/Blu-ray of the Month, November 2016)
Massenet: Werther
Director Tatjana Gürbaca and designer Klaus Grünberg have transformed Massenet’s masterpiece into a compelling drama that glues you to the edge of your seat from start to finish. Flórez gives the performance of his career as a hero who knows that death is where passion is fulfilled. Anna Stéphany’s Charlotte, by turns terrified, tender and tearful, is with him all the way.
Johann Sebastian Bach was undoubtedly the greatest musical thinker of his age. Dubbed ‘the Old Testament of music’ by the conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow, the Well-Tempered Clavier is acknowledged to be one of the most significant works ever written for the keyboard. Each of these 24 preludes and fugues encapsulates its own mood, and Bach’s delight in mixing technical strictness with freedom of expression has made this work an indispensable element of Western culture for centuries. Sir András Schiff is heralded as one of the finest Bach interpreters today, and this first complete performance at the prestigious BBC Proms was summed up as ‘stupendous’ by The Independent.
-----
REVIEW:
That he played the one hundred and ten minutes of the First Book from The Well-Tempered Clavier from memory was a feat in itself; that he played it without a blemish was remarkable, and that he imbued it with such happiness was something to remember. Played without an interval, and with both feet firmly planted on the stage, we come as near to Bach’s harpsichord as you can get from a modern Steinway concert grand piano.
Der fliegende Holländer is considered to be the first ‘true’ Wagner opera. The story of the phantom ship and its haunted master becomes a sensually charged drama with love and tragic sacrifice at its heart, and this original 1841 version leaves the ultimate redemption of its central characters unresolved. Wagner originally conceived the opera for Paris, so it is fitting that this production from the Theater an der Wien is driven by French director Olivier Py’s unique vision, with a staging that dispels many of the misconceptions surrounding Wagner’s art.
-----
REVIEW:
Played out in stylish black and white on Pierre-André Weitz’s ingenious, frequently revolving set, actors and set elements come and go to sometimes dizzying effect. There’s a dreamlike quality to the action—something only has to be mentioned and it magically appears. The graveyard that springs up at the Dutchman’s feet, the waves that appear at the end, the skull and skeletons, are all theatrical coups. It’s sometimes brain-taxing, yet never less than theatrically engaging and dramatically compelling.
As the Dutchman, Samuel Youn sings with incisive power and great attention to text. Ingela Brimberg’s Senta is viscerally felt with thrilling top notes, if occasionally strident, while Bernard Richter’s warm-toned tenor is spot on as Georg. Lars Woldt’s grasping bully of a Donald raises a nasty misogynist flag about the world in which his daughter is bartered and sold. François Roussillon’s astute video direction manages to focus the action without losing the appropriate sense of scale. Sound—especially orchestral detail—is excitingly meticulous.
The Royal Opera Collection brings together eighteen outstanding productions from The Royal Opera, spanning all-time classics and contemporary masterpieces. Featuring some of the world’s finest performers and leading directors, The Collection demonstrates the breadth of The Royal Opera’s work including Le nozze di Figaro, Carmen, Turandot, La traviata, Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, and the Multiple award-winning Written on Skin. A special edition book is also included, containing new articles about The Royal Opera, richly illustrated with stunning photographs.
![The Art of Ohad Naharin / Batsheva Dance Company [Blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3848910_5f6ba950-7322-4602-bbf9-d0dbd7d9d0cd.jpg?v=1786834607&width=400)
![Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie / van Mechelen, Benoit, Pichon, Pygmalion [Blu-ray]](//arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/4013075-2754035.jpg?v=1788121739&width=400)
Sale
![The Art of Ohad Naharin / Batsheva Dance Company [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3848910_5f6ba950-7322-4602-bbf9-d0dbd7d9d0cd.jpg?v=1786834607&width=400)
![Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie / van Mechelen, Benoit, Pichon, Pygmalion [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/4013075-2754035.jpg?v=1788121739&width=400)
![Dvorak's Prophecy - Film 4 - Aaron Copland: American Populist [DVD]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/4009929-2753039.jpg?v=1786646320&width=800)
![Dvorak's Prophecy - Film 4 - Aaron Copland: American Populist [DVD]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/747313569854.jpg?v=1786646321&width=800)
![Dvorak's Prophecy - Film 4 - Aaron Copland: American Populist [DVD]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/4009929-2753039.jpg?v=1786646320&width=400)
![The Art of Ohad Naharin / Batsheva Dance Company [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3848910_5f6ba950-7322-4602-bbf9-d0dbd7d9d0cd.jpg?v=1786834607&width=800)
![The Art of Ohad Naharin / Batsheva Dance Company [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/41ijCYwJy5L_66e8ffc9-d447-4c1a-8a3d-4b9c2a7b3207.jpg?v=1786834607&width=800)
![Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie / van Mechelen, Benoit, Pichon, Pygmalion [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/4013075-2754035.jpg?v=1788121739&width=800)
![Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie / van Mechelen, Benoit, Pichon, Pygmalion [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/0402094_hippolyte-et-aricie.jpg?v=1788121739&width=800)
![Molvaer: Ibsen's Hedda Gabler / Norwegian National Ballet [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3919221.jpg?v=1786834490&width=800)
![Molvaer: Ibsen's Hedda Gabler / Norwegian National Ballet [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/413ALUYEJbL_f072b7be-642e-40c3-a239-1bed503a9ab9.jpg?v=1786834490&width=800)
![Molvaer: Ibsen's Hedda Gabler / Norwegian National Ballet [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3919221.jpg?v=1786834490&width=400)
![Donizetti: Belisario / Frizza, Orchestra Donizetti Opera, Coro Donizetti Opera [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/4018082-2764540.jpg?v=1786829323&width=800)
![Donizetti: Belisario / Frizza, Orchestra Donizetti Opera, Coro Donizetti Opera [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/8007144579074.jpg?v=1786829323&width=800)
![Donizetti: Belisario / Frizza, Orchestra Donizetti Opera, Coro Donizetti Opera [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/4018082-2764540.jpg?v=1786829323&width=400)
![Ballets By Christian Spuck / Opernhaus & Ballett Zurich [Blu-Ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3867498-2623800.jpg?v=1786835482&width=800)
![Ballets By Christian Spuck / Opernhaus & Ballett Zurich [Blu-Ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/61etiuoodyl._sl1200.jpg?v=1786835482&width=800)
![Ballets By Christian Spuck / Opernhaus & Ballett Zurich [Blu-Ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3867498-2623800.jpg?v=1786835482&width=400)
