The Places - Northern Italy has been variously ruled, over the centuries. South Tyrol, seen here, retains much of it's Austrian past, with some regions predominantly German-speaking and others Italian. Scenes are shown of Brixen (Bressanone), with it's Cathedral and Bishop's Palace, and various historic castles, including Castel Tirolo. The Music - Music for the tour is by Mozart, with two Piano Concertos, one written in Salzburg in 1777 for a visiting French pianist and the other composed during the last year of Mozart's life, at the end of a decade spent in independence in Vienna.

Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

The Places:

The tour starts in Uzbekistan, of which there are later glimpses. There is a visit to the historic Russian town of Suzdal and scenes from St Petersburg as well as from Ukraine. It would be impossible to avoid the Russian winter, which appears in various guises, providing entertainment for some and for others a seemingly enchanted snow-bound landscape.

The Music:

The music for the tour is taken from Russian composers who were, by and large, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of their country. This is reflected in Lyadov's arrangement of a series folk-songs and his translation of Russian legend into music. Other composers represented are Ippolitov-Ivanov, Kabalevsky and Anton Rubinstein, with two well known excerpts from unfinished operas by Mussorgsky.

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

AUSTRIA
The Places
The journey takes us from the vineyards of Grinzing, to the spa of Baden and to Gumpoldskirchen, famous for its wine. Scenes from the Salzkammergut lead to Steyr, Styria and Upper Austria.

The Music
Unlike other great classical composers who worked in Vienna—Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven—Franz Schubert was born there and spent much of his short life in the city. At the same time he took pleasure in the Austrian countryside, reflected in his Trout Quintet, written for friends in Steyr whom he had met during a summer holiday.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 51 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

ROME: A Musical Tour of the City’s Past and Present

The Places
Scenes are shown of the glory that was Rome in monuments of the great Empire that ruled Europe and the Near East in its heyday. There are also glimpses of St Peter’s and of the modern city.

The Music
The music here included is all associated in one way or another with Rome and its traditions. It ranges from the overture to Mozart’s Roman opera La clemenza di Tito to Wagner’s Tannhäuser, whose hero seeks pardon for his sins in the Eternal City, from Puccini’s opera Tosca, set in Rome dominated by a corrupt chief of police, to Berlioz’s evocation of the city in the age of Benvenuto Cellini, his Roman Carnival Overture.

The Places
Scenes from London include major sights, from Big Ben to Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, with glimpses of St Paul’s Cathedral, Piccadilly and memorials to Wellington and Queen Victoria. From Oxford comes a panorama of the city, and visits to Christ Church and to Blenheim Palace.

The Music
The music here included ranges from Byrd to Elgar, by way of Handel, with excerpts from Haydn’s London Symphony, Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory, Verdi’s Macbeth and Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The Places - Vienna was already an ancient Celtic town called Vindobona when around 15 BC the Romans fortified it with a military camp. The town prospered and grew, undergoing considerable further development under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who died there in AD 180. In later times Vienna assumed the greatest importance as the capital of the Habsburg Empire and as a bulwark defending Western Europe from invasion from the East, although it failed to repel Napoleon, who occupied the city twice in the first decade of the 19th century. The Music; the eldest son of Johann Strauss I, the younger Johann Strauss was born in 1825, the year in which his father established his popular dance orchestra. The father intended other professions for his sons, but in 1844, two years after his father had abandoned his wife in favor of his mistress, the younger Strauss set up his own orchestra, an enterprise in which he later compelled his younger brothers, Joseph and Eduard, to share. In 1863 Strauss was appointed Imperial Music Director for the balls held at court, a position he held until 1871, when he was succeeded by his brother Eduard. He then began writing a series of operettas, including in 1874 the best known of all, Die Fledermaus. He died in 1899 after a busy and successful career, having composed some five hundred pieces of music; Waltzes, Polkas, Marches, Quadrilles and Stage works.

L. ROSSI Cleopatra • David Crescenzi, cond; Dimitra Theodossiou ( Cleopatra ); Alessandro Liberatore ( Marco Antonio ); Sebastian Catana ( Diomede ); Paolo Pecchioli ( Ottavio Cesare ); Marchigiana PO/Ch • NAXOS 2.110279 (114:56) Live: Macerata 2008


The article on Lauro Rossi (1812–85) in Grove I was written by the late Julian Budden, who was regarded, rightly, as an expert on Verdi. But as Budden considered all other Italian opera composers during the latter half of the 19th century as engaged in frustrated attempts to escape conventionality, so he does Rossi. “As a creative artist,” we’re told, he “belonged to that generation of minor composers who achieved a certain individuality within the post Rossinian tradition, but whose talent was unable to survive the tradition’s collapse.” There are several matters to dispute here: the casual proscription of the life effort of an entire generation of Italian musicians; an evolutionary theory of music that sees traditions in decline based on the rise of a single composer, a century or more after the fact; and of course, the dismissal of Rossi as a minor talent. One great composer doesn’t render all their good contemporaries less worthy of notice. When Bongiovanni released an admittedly subpar but exciting performance of the comic Il domino nero (2328/29) in 2003, it was apparent that Rossi rated neither this dismissal, nor that the style he wrote in had “collapsed.”


Cleopatra is something else again. It was composed almost three decades after Il domino nero , in 1876, and owes far less to Donizetti than it does to Meyerbeer, Auber—and occasionally, mid-period Verdi. Rossi as the Milan Conservatory’s director had developed over the decades a reputation for open-minded acceptance of stylistic innovation, and despite what Budden writes, it’s apparent he was also capable of moving musically with the times in his own work. This isn’t to say that Cleopatra is a major find. Leaving aside obvious but unfair comparisons with Aida , Rossi’s opera sometimes fails to find enough musical tension, or to match its brilliant orchestral palette with content that is similarly inspired. Nor does the literary merit of his libretto sustain investigation. But the work’s best pages—the act III final ensemble, Cleopatra’s heartfelt act II aria—lack nothing for focus or drama. It has effective part-writing throughout, and attractive thematic material. Cleopatra was worth the revival, even in a production that only intermittently supports the work.


The production problems are in part a matter of money, as you’d expect. The costumes give every impression of being Norma hand-me-downs, with a lot of black robes and no Egyptian cultural motifs in sight. Similarly, Cleopatra ’s sets are a few platforms and a long set of stark stairs. If this were truly historical, we’d have to conclude the New Dynasty got its architecture and fashions courtesy of Walter Gropius. Pier Luigi Pizzi is responsible for both, and for the stage blocking, which is usually competent—save for the act I banquet scene that startlingly poses its chorus indolently about the stage while the music proclaims festive, energetic activity.


Two of the three main performances rise above all this. Dimitra Theodossiou sings with an intensity that recalls Gencer. Her voice is dark, and with more than a hint of a beat under pressure, but intonation is accurate, and her control allows for every intended effect to succeed, with the exception of a few attempts at floated tones that remain earthbound. Sebastian Catana’s dark, mellifluous baritone is notable for scoring its dramatic points without leaving the musical line. Among the principals, only Alessandro Liberatore disappoints, with a small lyric tenor that has clearly been pushed throughout its range for volume, resulting in the “blown” sound that often hits singers much later in their careers. David Crescenzi doesn’t lead from the pit; he follows, though competently. In all fairness, he isn’t assisted by the sound engineering, which recesses the orchestra. Rossi makes much of instrumental detail, and it’s admittedly difficult to hear well at times.


Nor does the camerawork help. It suffers from the fidgets—an unwillingness to hold a shot for more than two or three seconds—and an excessive use of close-ups, turning the visuals for many ensembles into a confused mess. The curious thing is that the video director uses diagonal shots of a given singer across the stage for artistic effect, but never once considers employing this to bring multiple cast members who are singing together into a coherent image.


I would be remiss if I didn’t note the negative aspects of this production. Despite these, I do recommend the purchase of Cleopatra to all fans of 19th-century Italian opera. If it lacks the sustained invention of Gomes and the dramatic innovations of Mercadante, it still has enough vitality to sustain a revival, and enough power to triumph despite that production’s limitations.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal


Dates tell you an awful lot when it comes to opera. Take Lauro Rossi for example. Born two years after Verdi, he died two years before the premiere of the great Italian master’s Otello. His Cleopatra, based on an Egyptian theme, was premiered four and a half years after Verdi’s Aida, also based on an Egyptian theme. Although Rossi seems not to merit even a mention in Michael and Joyce Kennedy’s Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (Fifth Edition, 2007), he was no operatic or composer ingénue. On the contrary, he was among those chosen by Verdi to compose a section of the proposed Messe per Rossini - in his case the Agnus Dei. It is also true that his name does not feature, along with seven others of the twelve chosen by Verdi for that composition, in the esoteric list of operatic composers found in the Opera Rara catalogue. This is perhaps forgivable as even the vastly experienced Pier Luigi Pizzi, director of this production, claimed not to have heard of him until this production! He should have done more home-work. I have a performance of Rossi’s comic opera Il Domino Nero recorded live with the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, the same as here, on 28 September 2001. Nor should Pizzi have been surprised given the name of the theatre where this performance of Cleopatra took place, rather than in the open-air arena normally the venue of the large-scale opera performances of the Sferisterio Festival (See reviews of Maria Stuarda, Macbeth and Norma from the 2007 Festival). Meanwhile, we should be grateful that Pizzi’s efforts at fund-raising saved the Festival, albeit with some changes of programme after the withdrawal of state funding; perhaps shadows of things to come nearer home in the UK.

Fortunately the essay in the accompanying leaflet is highly informative. Rossi premiered a shared composition at the San Carlo, Naples, in 1830 after which his compositions came thick and fast . On Donizetti’s recommendation he was offered an appointment at the Teatro Valle in Rome. His tenth opera was premiered at La Scala in 1834 indicating that Rossi composed at a similar pace to Donizetti and Rossini, as was necessary to earn a living in an era when the diva was paid more than the composer. After the failure of a commission for the great diva Maria Malibran in Naples in 1834, Rossi took his talents to North and South America where he was music director and organizer of several opera companies. After a return to Europe Rossi was not short of work, composing both comic and tragic operas. His comic opera Il Domino Nero, presented in Milan in 1849, was a great success. But when the security of an academic post was offered in Milan in 1850 he took it and his pace of composition lessened. Even so six of his works were a success during this period. He moved to Naples Music Conservatory in 1870, working there until 1878 during which time he wrote his penultimate work Cleopatra, and after which he retired to the musical town of Cremona.

Premiered at the Teatro Regio, Turin, on 5 March 1876, Rossi’s Cleopatra caught the public’s imagination. Whether or not Verdi’s Aïda premiered five years earlier influenced his composition, or its reception , is conjectural. Whilst the musical style lacks the bravura of Verdi’s creation it is composed with the dramatic situations well supported by the music, be that in aria, duet or ensemble. Despite the well-known nature of the love of Anthony, Antonio here, and the eponymous heroine, Rossi’s Cleopatra requires a clear and easily comprehensible production. In this respect none does that better than the vastly experienced Pier Luigi Pizzi, especially as - his norm these days - he also designs the sets and costumes. The costumes of the Roman contingent are very much in period with bare knees and togas for the men and long decorous red dresses for the women; the colour differentiating them from the white of the Egyptians. Cleopatra herself is dressed wholly in a black, somewhat voluminous dress. Her admirer, Diomede is also dressed in all black but with an ornament. The single set is very much standard Pizzi mainly comprising wide-stepped stairs with the odd black flat surface downstage where the eponymous heroine has some of her dramatic moments in clear focus.

I do not know which came first, the signing of Dimitra Theodossiou or the choice of opera. They certainly go well together. The work requires a big dramatic-voiced Cleopatra who can throw her voice and whole being into the portrayal. The downside of Dimitra Theodossiou in any repertoire of this type is an intrusive vibrato at dramatic climaxes. I would not wish to overstate this, as the impact is less than it might be. Her vocal contribution is significantly superior to that of her colleagues, most notably in Cleopatra’s act two-aria sequence starting with Lieto in raggio (Chs.9-11) as bereft in her palace Cleopatra yearns for Antonio. As her advisor and would-be suitor Diomede, Sebastian Catana, more bass than baritone, is among the best of a variable supporting cast (Chs.4, 5,12,13). The tenor Antonio, Alessandro Liberatore, is musical but lacks the required heft and clear ping to his voice (Chs.24-26). As Ottavio Cesare, who wishes Antonio to marry his sister in order that he can wage a successful war in the east, Paolo Pecchioli’s bass has more cover than clarity and the role loses some dramatic impact as a consequence (Chs.9, 28); one senses a good voice trying to escape. With her strong contraltoish tones Tiziana Carraro, as Cesare’s sister Ottavia, has too much dramatic impact than the role really calls for (Chs.16-18). David Crescenzi, the chorus master, conducts the performance. He stepped in at the very last minute and as a consequence the extant overture was not performed. Like the chorus he prepared, his achievement in Rossi’s little known opera is considerable.

The music itself falls somewhere between that of the Italian bel canto and the verismo composers. You will look in vain for the fibre and character of Verdi’s Aida, let alone of Otello. Nonetheless it is melodic and contains several dramatic confrontations and some notable scenes, including the thrilling ensemble that closes Act 3.

The DVD direction shows a little of the intimate theatre. During the opera itself not much is seen of the whole of the stage, the director focusing on close-ups or mid-shots. The sound and picture quality are good.

-- Robert J Farr, MusicWeb International

The journey starts in the Austrian region of Muhlviertel, shows the Lippizaner horses of Piber in Styria and the storks and vineyards of Rust by the Neusiedlersee. The music of the tour consists of two of Beethoven's best known sonatas for violin and piano, the Spring Sonata and the Kreutzer Sonata.

FRANCE

The Places
The places visited include Arles, with its Roman arena, the mill made famous by Alphonse Daudet in his Lettres de mon moulin and the celebrations of the guardians of the Camargue, with its wild horses. Accompanying the Zoological Fantasy of Saint Saëns are scenes from zoos, the nature reserve at Sigean, near Narbonne, and the Swiss children’s zoo at Rapperswil.

The Music
The music is taken from the orchestral suites derived by Georges Bizet from his music for Alphonse Daudet’s melodrama L’Arlésienne (The Girl from Arles), the story of the vain love and suicide of a young relative of the Provençal poet Mistral. Camille Saint-Saëns composed his Carnival of the Animals to entertain his friends. The procession of animals ranges from lions to fish, pianists, critics and fossils.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 60 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

MUSICAL JOURNEY: CZECH REPUBLIC
A Musical Visit to Prague and Lednice castle

The Places
The churches and palaces of Prague are seen, with the great River Vltava (the Moldau), which flows through the city, the outline of city buildings reflected in its waters. The Strahov Monastery and the Villa Bertramka are practical examples of Mozart’s contact with Prague. On a visit to the monastery he improvised on the organ, and at the Villa Bertramka he and his wife Constanze were guests of the Czech composer Dušek. There is also a visit to Southern Moravia and Lednice, with its Neo-Gothic castle, its folly, a slender minaret, in its English gardens, with its trees and artificial lakes.

The Music
Mozart had happy memories of Prague. When, during the last ten years of his life, circumstances in Vienna proved increasingly difficult, he was always welcome in the Bohemian capital. It was for Prague that he wrote his opera Don Giovanni in 1787 and for Prague that he wrote one of his last operas, La clemenza di Tito, commissioned for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia, and for his unappreciative wife, who described the work as 'porchería tedesca', German porkery. Prague continues to honour Mozart in various festivals, concerts and memorabilia.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 54 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

PARIS AND BURGUNDY



 


The Places
This musical tour of France starts in Paris with scenes that reflect the modenisation of the city in the 19th century under Baron Haussmann. From Paris the tour passes to Burgundy, with its vineyards, to Provence, with its Fête des Gardiens in Arles and Roman aqueduct, thence to the Loire, with its great castles and country-houses. The tour ends with a visit to Brittany and Normandy, the northern coasts and the great monastery of Mont Saint-Michel.


 


The Music
Music for the tour is taken from Fryderyk Chopin's two piano concertos. The son of a French émigré and a Polish mother, Chopin left his native Warsaw in 1830, settling in the following year in Paris, where he lived until his death in 1849. His piano concertos were written and first performed in Warsaw in 1830, and seemed a necessary part of his stock-in-trade for a planned career as a virtuoso. In the event Chopin found a more congenial role in Paris as a performer in private society salons and as a fashionable teacher.


 


Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 78 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The musical tour starts in the Bernese Alps, which offer some of the finest scenery in Switzerland, with glaciers and snow-covered expanses, waterfalls, mountain lakes, and the towering Matterhorn. The Nymphenburg Palace and Park, in Munich, present a contrast, in their baroque elegance. The tour ends with glimpses of the Chiemsee, the largest of the Bavarian lakes, with it's three wooded islands, on one of which Wagner's patron, King Ludwig II, built his folly, the Schloss Herrenchiemsee. Music for the tour is taken from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, one of the best known of all romantic concertos. This is followed by his 'Souvenir d'un lieu Cher,' three pieces originally for violin and piano, but here orchestrated by the composer Glazunov.

BAVARIA

The Places
The Road of Romance, in South Bavaria, leads through the countryside to the great castle of Weikersheim, former residence of the Counts and Princes Hohenlohe. Further exploration of Bavaria and the Bavarian Forest leads to Prunn Castle on its rocky eminence, and finally to Würzburg on the River Main and the Marienberg Fortress.

The Music
Max Bruch, a native of Cologne, enjoyed a career that took him, as a conductor, to Liverpool, Coblenz, Breslau and Bonn, before his final years in Berlin. His first Violin Concerto remains among his most popular works. Carl Maria von Weber led an even more varied life that took him to musical centres in Germany and Austria. He was a pioneer of German romantic opera, and three opera overtures are chosen here. Der Freischütz (The Marksman) evokes the spirit of the German forest, while Euryanthe explores more exotic territory, as does Oberon, Weber's final opera, written for London in 1826, the last year of his life.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 53 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (US and Canada)

Gioachino Rossini was summoned to Paris in 1824 to breathe new life into its opera culture, and one of his most exciting innovations in this period was the creation of an entirely new genre of opera comedy. The risqué tale of Le Comte Ory had its origins in vaudeville theatre and is based on the story of a villainous Count who attempts the seduction of Countess Adele as she awaits the return of her husband from the Crusades. ‘Le Comte Ory’ is the last of Rossini’s comic operas, making full use of the libretto’s farcical disguises and humor in one of his most colorfully orchestrated scores. This production, staged by Linda Mallik, features the Malmo Opera Orchestra and Chorus with world renowned soloists Leonardo Ferrando as Count Ory and Erika Miklosa as Countess Adele. Linda Mallik made her directorial debut in 2012 and received unanimous praise in the Swedish and international press, making her one of the most sought-after opera directors in Sweden. She has also staged ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ at NorrlandsOperan, ‘M/S Aurora’ at the Berwaldhallen, ‘Faust’ and ‘Mayday Payday’ at Folkoperan in Stockholm, among others.