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.
Wagner's rarely performed early comic opera, based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, enjoys its Spanish debut in a new production by director Kasper HOlten. The lively score boasts clear Italian, French and Weberian influences that pre-date the composer's mature voice, yet the music continually delights with the unmistakable emergence of Wagner's precocious genius. His adaptation of the Bard's play reflects the rebellious modd of a Revolutionary Germany, vindicating sensual love and attacking the fanatical repression of sexuality by a puritanical and hypocritical authority. Ivor Bolton conducts a vibrant cast featuring English baritone and Cardiff Singer of the World Lieder Prize-winner Christoph Maltman, Turkish-Viennese tenor and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Ilker Arcayurek and Germany's htotest Wagnerian leading lady, Manuela Uhl.
This unique collection celebrates the pas de deux: the ‘steps for two’ or partner dances so central to ballets both modern and classical. It brings together 16 exceptional pas de deux from The Royal Ballet’s unequalled repertory, in outstanding performances by Company dancers past and present. Representing The Royal Ballet’s heritage works and recent creations, as well as 19th-century classics, Pas de Deux demonstrates the choreographic diversity, technical brilliance, show-stopping spectacle and artistry for which The Royal Ballet is acclaimed around the world. Included in this collection are Frederick Ashton’s Voices of Spring and pas de deux from his La Fille mal gardée; from Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, Concerto, Elite Syncopations, Manon and Mayerling; from Wayne McGregor’s Limen; from Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale; and from the 19th-century classics Giselle, Don Quixote, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. All captured in high definition and recorded in true surround sound.
Christopher Wheeldon's acclaimed new Cinderella for the Dutch National Ballet is an imaginative interpretation of a much-loved classic. Inspired by the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Wheeldon gives the characters renewed depth and complexity, complementing Prokofiev's celebrated and colorful score. With sets and costumes by the renowned designer Julian Crouch, supported by stunning stage effects, this world premiere production is a truly magical experience, bringing an age-old fairy tale into the 21st century.
Gala Performances - Recorded Live at the Royal Opera House,
Opus Arte
DVD
$26.99Jan 27, 2017
Two spectacular gala concerts from the stage of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, are brought together here in their unforgettable glory. In the 1993 Winter Gala, world-leading singers (including Placido Domingo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Kiri Te Kanawa) and dancers (including Darcey Bussell, Lesley Collier, and Irek Mukhamedov) celebrate the music of Tchaikovsky, in highlights from such opera and ballet favourites as The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty. In the famously glittering 1996 gala concert, Domingo is joined by a cast of opera stars including Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna and Susan Graham. Asher Fisch conducts this programme of great opera arias by composers including Bizet, Massenet, Gounod, Mozart and Donizetti.
Award winning director Damiano Michieletto has brought together these two short operas, both of which are set in a poverty-stricken Southern Italy village in the early 1980s where the Mafia has a stranglehold. Music Director of the Royal Opera, Antonio Pappano, conducts this star studded cast which includes charming Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, vivacious Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio, and exhilarating Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko. These two works are prime examples of verismo opera- a genre of opera which focuses on the everyday struggles of the common man rather than on mythical or historical legends. Extra features included in this set are Introduction to Cavalleria Rusticana, Introduction to Pagliacc, an interview with Antonio Pappano on the music, and a cast gallery.
A Musical Journey - Italy: A Musical Tour of Tuscany, Umbria
Naxos AudioVisual
DVD
$13.99Feb 28, 2012
Our tour of Italy starts in the countryside near Orvieto, moves to the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, then to Montalcino and it's ancient abbey. We see the Tuscan landscape around Montepulciano, glimpse Siena, and finally see something of the historic building.
Karol Szymanowski's tragic masterpiece, Król Roger (King Roger) powerfully presents the dilemmas of culture versus nature and man versus beast as told through the stormy life of King Roger. Antonio Pappano conducts Szymanowksi's score whose opulence contrasts achingly with the darkening skies of this morality tale in Kasper Holten's first production since becoming director of the Royal Opera House. With inspired performances led by the fine Mariusz Kwiecien, who has made the title role a signature one in his career along with Georgia Jarman in her Royal Opera debut as Roger's loving queen Roxana. Sung in Polish with English, French, German, Japanese and Korean subtitles, this production is further distinguished by marking the return of this opera to the London stage after a 40 year absence along with it's innovative stage, lighting and video design that further enhances this tale.
The 'sheer visual sophistication' of Annabel Arden's Barbiere serves 'a triumphant celebration of Rossini's musical genius', featuring de Niese's 'powerfully sung' Rosina, Burger's 'gale-force' Figaro and Stayton's 'pure and mellifluous' Almaviva - a leading trio 'musically and dramatically beyond compare' (The Independet - 5 stars). Contributing to the 'ensemble precision', the rest of the cast includes a 'scene-stealing' Berta in Kelly, a 'suavely unctuous' Basilio from Stamboglis and Corbelli's Bartolo, 'an object lesson in comic understatement' (The Guardian). With Enrique Mazzola at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 'the score bubbles along on a Puckish current of merry mischief' (The Telegraph
This unique collection celebrates the pas de deux: the ‘steps for two’ or partner dances so central to ballets both modern and classical. It brings together 16 exceptional pas de deux from The Royal Ballet’s unequalled repertory, in outstanding performances by Company dancers past and present. Representing The Royal Ballet’s heritage works and recent creations, as well as 19th-century classics, Pas de Deux demonstrates the choreographic diversity, technical brilliance, show-stopping spectacle and artistry for which The Royal Ballet is acclaimed around the world. Included in this collection are Frederick Ashton’s Voices of Spring and pas de deux from his La Fille mal gardée; from Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, Concerto, Elite Syncopations, Manon and Mayerling; from Wayne McGregor’s Limen; from Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale; and from the 19th-century classics Giselle, Don Quixote, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. All captured in high definition and recorded in true surround sound.
A superb new Otello from the Salzburg Easter Festival: “Cura is a commanding Otello with his richly coloured tenor and both fragile delicacy and fiery ardour” (Südwestpresse). “Röschmann as Desdemona guarantees effortless perfection” (Neue Musikzeitung). “Álvarez as Iago would be hard to surpass” (Abendzeitung). This Salzburg production – featuring “a cast worthy of any festival” (Südwestpresse) – is conducted by Christian Thielemann, who displays a command of Verdian tragedy to match his celebrated sovereignty in Wagner. He and his great Dresden Staatskapelle, a consummate opera ensemble, “achieve wonders” (Die Presse), “generating Italian ‘Musikdrama’ with their incandescence and precise nuances” (Abendzeitung). In his fascinating staging, director Vincent Broussard integrates video with set and lighting design to create an idealized visual context for what he calls Otello’s “conflict of ancient and modern, of 2D and 3D”.
A box set celebrating Leonard Bernstein's upcoming 100th birthday including concerts with the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia as well as the prizewinning Documentary ''Leonard Bernstein - Larger than Life.'' Works by Sibelius, Beethoven, Haydn, Debussy and some of Bernstein's own compositions.
Accompanied by a luxurious team of professionals, consisting of the renowned stage director Peter Stein, his stage designer Ferdinand Wöger and conductor Ádám Fischer, Teatro alla Scala presents with Mozart’s Zauberflöte a production where orchestra, chorus, soloists as well as outfitters all consisted of students of the Academia Teatro alla Scala, the educational institution aimed to train the young talents, founded by the Teatro alla Scala in 2001. The result was more than stunning and an instant success with the audience of the ten sold out performances at La Scala, which is famous for its more than critical loggionisti. According to Die Presse, Fischer “gets the best out of the Academy Orchestra with delicate execution and humane phrasing” while the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praises Fatma Said as ''Pamina'' and Yasmin Özkan as ''Queen of the Night''.
Begun in the year 1900, amidst the art nouveau curlicues of Klmt and the Jugendstil, Schoberg's grand cantata is wrtten in a lush, late-romantic style indebted to Wagner and Mahler and pre-dating his pioneering atonal works. This setting of the medieval Danish legend of Gurre Castle - a love triangle between King Waldemar, his mistress Tove and a jealous Queen - gains an innovative new dimension in this first-ever staging of the work, directed by Pierre Audi. This album marks the first ever collaboration between DNO Artistic Director Pierre Audi and Music Director Marc Albrecht. This production was the first staging of Schonberg's mammoth cantata with gargantuan orchestra, five soloists, speaker and multiple choruses.
Former Music Director Mariss Jansons returns to Amsterdam to conduct Pique Dame at the Dutch National Opera with “his” Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He encounters a noteworthy cast and under his baton the orchestra sounds “brilliant and splendid“ (Der Tagesspiegel). Renowned director Stefan Herheim staged Tchaikovsky’s much-loved opera about a young man who, for the prospect of earthly wealth, gambles away his chance for love and happiness. Herheim, whose stagings are famous for their multi layered levels of interpretation, attempts to reflect on the composer’s hidden love for men. “The Latvian maestro, the intriguingly performing orchestra, the smartly-chosen soloists, and director Stefan Herheim have succeeded in staging an extraordinary production” (Die Presse). “Stefan Herheim makes a great picture show out of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pique Dame’” (NMZ). “A masterpiece” (Der Standard).
REVIEW:
Superimposing the composer’s biography on to arguably his greatest opera works ingeniously. Musically, standards are extremely high, led by Mariss Jansons’s inspired presence in the pit. Aksenova sings a steely Lisa. Diadkova is remarkable as the Countess – singing rather than growling her role.
– Gramophone
DETAILS:
Format: NTSC Language: Russian Subtitles: English, German, French Dubbed: English, French, German, Korean Region: All Regions Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Best-known today as the librettist of Verdi’s final Shakespearean masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff, the multitalented Arrigo Boito was also a fine composer in his own right. Hugely ambitious in scope, and some 20 years in the making, his first (and only completed) opera, Mefistofele, sets out to encompass nothing less than the whole of Goethe’s vast poetic drama Faust (parts I and II), and is considered the very central work of his phase between Verdi and Puccini. Making his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper, director Roland Schwab (a protégé of the legendary Ruth Berghaus) plays devil’s advocate by setting the opera in a nightmarish atmosphere. The exceptional cast features Rene Pape, Joseph Calleja, Kristine Opolais, and Karine Babajanyan. “[Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais’s Margherita] shines with understated Grace Kelly elegance” (Opera Today). “[Conductor Omer Meir Wellber “holds all the musical textures together with admirable control” (BR Klassik).
![Verdi: Otello / Thielemann, Cura, Staatskapelle Dresden [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3599943.jpg?v=1786836396&width=800)
![Verdi: Otello / Thielemann, Cura, Staatskapelle Dresden [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/918OJucTk3L.jpg?v=1786836396&width=800)
![Verdi: Otello / Thielemann, Cura, Staatskapelle Dresden [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3599943.jpg?v=1786836396&width=400)
