This performance of Rigoletto features possibly the most famous tenor of all time, Luciano Pavarotti. This three act opera by Giuseppe Verdi was premiered in Venice on March 11, 1851. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave, and is based on Victor Hugo’s play Le roi s’amuse. Alongside Pavarotti is a world-class cast, including Kostas Paskalis in the title role, Renata Scotta as Gilda andRosa Laghezza as Maddalena.

In 1874 Tchaikovsky composed an opera, Vakula the Smith, that like many of his operatic works, failed with the public. Years later in 1885, Tchaikovsky resurrected the work, refashioned it, and renamed it Cherevichki, which translates as The Little Shoes. The plot still centers around Vakula, who is in love with the beautiful Oksana, who has him so wrapped around her little finger that she drives him to thoughts of suicide with her indifferent posturing. Oksana informs Vakula he can again win her love only by securing the slippers worn by the Czarina herself, a task Vakula accomplishes with the aid of the captured and subdued devil. Vakula returns triumphant, and Oksana, true to form, declines the slippers, stating that Vakula's love is treasure enough for her. (Gee, thanks a lot, babe!) Yes, of course there are more characters and subplots involved, but you get the gist of the story.

For this tale Tchaikovsky provided his characteristic melodic, passionate, dramatic music, including quite a few tuneful arias. Actually, a lot of it sounds like Swan Lake, and while there may not be passages of haunting despair of the type found in Eugene Onegin (with its Pathétique pre-echoes), there are plenty of emotionally intense moments, especially from Vakula, sung with tremendous feeling by Valerij Popov. Ekaterina Morosova combines the sweet and the tart with a beautiful voice to bring the facile Oksana to life, while her father, Cub, gets a warmly gruff portrayal by Vladimir Ognovenko.

As in Onegin, Act 3 features a seemingly obligatory extended solo for bass, the character in this case being His Serene Highness, sung in a dull but appropriately ceremonial manner by Grigory Osipov. Gennady Rozhdestvensky again proves his long-held Tchaikovsky credentials, reveling in the score's balletic passages and dramatic climaxes, all the while getting the Orchestra of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari to sound like Russian orchestras of old. The live recording balances the voices (including the excellent chorus) and orchestra very well, bringing the drama right into the theater. The included applause reveals a strangely tepid audience response after each act, except at the very end.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

Magnificently conducted by Krips, with a cast that could hardly be better, headed by Rysanek's impassioned, soaring Mlada and Spiess's virile, heroic yet sensitive Dalibor.

Dalibor is magnificently conducted by Krips who, with the VPO on best form, catches the full lyricism of Smetana's freedom-seeking opera. His cast could hardly be better, headed by Rysanek's impassioned, soaring Mlada and Spiess's virile, heroic yet sensitive Dalibor (oh, how we could do with a tenor of this thrilling calibre today!). Spiess surpasses even the legendary Blachut in the role. Imagine my chagrin then when the edition used heinously omits the hero's Act 3 song of freedom, one of the great passages in the work. Rysanek's younger sister Lotte, sounding uncannily like Leonie, makes much of little as Jitka. Waechter is splendid as the tortured king. The performance is in German, but no matter: this is an exciting set, in spite of the cuts.

-- Gramophone [2/1999]

Note: This Blu-ray Disc is playable only on Blu-ray Disc players, and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Giuseppe Verdi
IL TROVATORE
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Il conte di Luna – Claudio Sgura
Leonora – Teresa Romano
Azucena – Mzia Nioradze
Manrico – Marcelo Álvarez
Ferrando – Deyan Vatchkov
Ines – Cristina Giannelli
Ruiz – Roberto Jachini Virgili
Un vecchio zingaro – Enrico Rinaldo
Un messo – Seung Hwa Paek

Parma Teatro Regio Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Martino Faggiani)
Yuri Temirkanov, conductor

Lorenzo Mariani, stage director
William Orlandi, set and costume designer
Christian Pinaud, lighting designer

Recorded live at the Teatro Regio di Parma, 5 and 9 October 2010

Bonus:
- Introduction to Il Trovatore

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Running time: 140 mins (opera) + 10 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 50)

Giuseppe Verdi
AIDA

Il Re – Kevin Short
Amneris – Iano Tamar
Aida – Tatiana Serjan
Radamès – Rubens Pelizzari
Ramfis – Tigran Martirossian
Amonasro – Iain Paterson
Un messaggero – Ronald Samm
Una sacerdotessa – Elisabetta Martorana

Camerata Silesia
Polish Radio Choir, Krakow
Bregenz Festival Chorus
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Carlo Rizzi, conductor

Graham Vick, stage director
Paul Brown, stage and costume designer
Ron Howell, choreography
Wolfgang Göbbel, lighting designer

Recorded live from the Bregenz Festival, 22 and 24 July 2009.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
Running time: 135 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

R E V I E W:

At Bregenz one can expect spectacular productions – or at least conspicuous ones. I am talking about Opera on Lake Bodensee which takes place in July and August each year. It’s part of the Bregenz festival which provides a lavish offer of opera, theatre and concerts. The outdoor stage surrounded by water invites gigantic sets and the long distance to the grandstand on the shore requires amplifying equipment. I have seen some productions on DVD and also some stills. They are generally provocative, putting the characters in settings as far away from the original as can be imagined. Il trovatore a few years ago took place in an industrial landscape, possibly on an oil platform. This Aida goes even further. The water here isn’t ocean deep but allows the actors to wade, to swim, to fall in or splash, even to be drowned. During the prelude two lifeless bodies hanging on a wire attached to an enormous building crane, are slowly transported before the eyes of horrified onlookers until they are lowered down into a barge off the stage. In Trovatore fire was central to the proceedings; in Aida water has the same importance, the Nile being the life-blood of the Egyptians. There is a water ballet in the triumphal scene. The tomb episode takes place on a ship drifting among the waves. During the final duet the ship rises from the water and sails into the sky, leaving Amneris alone at the waters’ edge. A real amphibious opera.

Dominating the stage picture are two monstrously big, blue feet. Why are they there? Whatever the reason they appear to function as the firm foundation around which the action rotates, whether it be Aida, the slave girl, scrubbing the floor, Amneris in black dotted evening gown airing her human ‘dogs’ or high priests and soldiers invading the stage. There are activities aplenty with numerous extras just being there, costumes are a mix of modern and ancient. All this business tends to suffocate the central conflicts and it is typical of the performance that it is in the Nile scene – act III – that the action grabs the viewer by the throat; this is the first scene with no external distractions. In a way this is dramaturgically sensitive, since the first two acts primarily deal with festivities, while the core of the drama is the triangle Aida – Amonasro – Radames. This is an oversimplification of the plot. There are many strands in the libretto and Amneris – though basically an evil character but one who loves – is the hub around which everything rotates. In this performance it also becomes obvious why Verdi initially contemplated naming the opera Amneris.

Iano Tamar, the Georgian soprano who was also a great Leonora in Il Trovatore, is the star; her somewhat darkish timbre contrasting well with Tatiana Serjan’s girlish Aida. Tamar has authority and a thrilling lirico-spinto voice. In the first scene in act IV she is truly great. Serjan at first seems too lyrical for Aida, having a fluttery soubrette voice but it sits well with her youthful looks. Her Ritorna vincitor is however sung with intensity and in the third and fourth acts she grows in stature, no doubt inspired by Scottish baritone Iain Paterson’s powerful Amonasro. He is an unusually dangerous Ethiopian king. Rubens Pelizzari is a rather pale Radamès in the first two acts but like his Aida he grows and in the Nile duet he finds a glow that has eluded him before. O terra addio, though sung in a strange setting, is delivered with lyrical beauty and warmth by both artists. Tigran Martirossian is an acceptable Ramfis but Kevin Short’s King is terribly wobbly.

As so often with these Bregenz productions one ends up in two minds. They’re innovative for sure, and this Aida is no exception. One can marvel at ideas that suddenly illuminate the proceedings but just as often one thinks: ‘What’s the point of this?’ Carlo Rizzi keeps things together and draws splendid playing from the Wiener Symphoniker. The choral forces have no easy task to walk all those stairs and balance on wet slippery stones while keeping an eye on the conductor but they manage it well. Sound and pictures are good. Readers have to decide from my descriptions whether this is a DVD worth spending money on, but Iano Tamar’s glorious Amneris should definitely be seen and heard.

-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

A classic work of its genre and historical period, Artaserse was premièred in Venice in 1730 by the most famous singers of the day: Farinelli in the role of Arbace, Cuzzoni as Mandane and the castrato Nicolino as Artabano. It was a success for Hasse, who would, in 1740 and 1760, repropose the same work in two different versions. Our CD features the Venetian version, in world première. The cast is extraordinary, with the countertenor Franco Fagioli giving a great performance of the role that was Farinelli's. Fagioli easily goes up and down the extension of more than three octaves, maintaining a uniform timbre and remarkable power and resonance. Also stunning, is the aria "Pallido sole" sung by Sonia Prina.

In the first half of the 1700s, the aria with concertante trumpet was one of the ingredients that the public of the numerous Venetian theatres appreciated the most. + This is the first recording that makes available virtually all these still rather little-known vocal and instrumental works with trumpet that encompass Antonio Vivaldi’s entire career, works not only very interesting works from a musical point of view but also brilliantly written. + The oldest ones date from his Mantua period (1718-1720), the most recent ones belonging to the last phase of his operatic career (1732-1737).