This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

It is also available on standard CD.

The flourishing genre of the comic opera had its roots in eighteenth-century Italian opera buffa, whose irrepressible brio was soon taken up outside the country’s borders. In France it produced opéra comique and operetta, and in German-speaking countries Spieloper and Viennese operetta. Some of the world’s most popular comic opera overtures, filled with gorgeous tunes, brilliant orchestration and race-to-the-finish endings, are presented here. They include staples of the concert repertoire such as Hérold’s dramatic Zampa, the textual delicacy of Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna and the vivid colour of Lortzing’s Zar und Zimmermann.

MUSICAL JOURNEY (A) - ITALY: A Musical Tour of South Tyrol (NTSC)

ITALY


The Places
South Tyrol, in Northern Italy, has had a varied history, for many years as part of Austrian territory. The region remains largely German-speaking, although both German and Italian are used. Looming over the territory are the mountains, the Dolomites, with their strange shapes, and the Alps, while the valleys provide fertile ground for the production of wine.

The Music Music for the tour is taken from four Concerti grossi by Handel. Born in Halle in 1685, Handel had his first musical employment there and then in Hamburg, before moving in 1706 to Italy, where he remained until 1710, when he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover. He travelled almost at once to London, where he had been engaged to compose an Italian opera, and from 1712 until his death in 1759 settled in England, winning fame first as a composer of Italian opera and then as the creator of English oratorio.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 56 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

VERDI Attila • Andrea Battistoni, cond; Giovanni Battista Parodi (Attila); Sebastian Catana (Ezio); Susanna Branchini (Odabella); Roberto De Biasio (Foresto); Cristiano Cremonini (Uldino); Zyian Atfeh (Leone); Teatro Regio di Parma O & Ch • C MAJOR 721608 (DVD); 721704 (Blu-ray) (118:00 + 10:00) Live: Busseto 10/2010

A life of looting and pillaging may hold certain attractions, but after ravaging the countryside for long enough most of the inhabitants are driven off and there is no one left to grow new crops and raise new livestock. In the days of yore invading armies lived off the land, be they Romans, or Macedonians, or Huns and Visigoths, and without supplies for men and horses they could not sustain themselves. Such were the conditions in most of Northern Italy when the opera Attila opens. Attila and his barbaric tribes had already sacked and razed the substantial northern city of Aquileia in 452 A.D. and driven many of its surviving inhabitants into the nearby marshes (thereby creating the conditions for the founding of Venice). The victorious Hun leader then turned his sights on the much richer plum of a not yet totally defenseless Rome, as in the opera, and held parlays with several Roman envoys seeking desperately to broker peace, including Leo I, Bishop of Rome. In Verdi’s opera Attila’s forces are then turned upon in a sneak attack of Roman legions in consort with a group of surviving fighters from Aquileia. Attila himself is slain by the warrior Princess Odabella (also from Aquileia) whom he is about to wed, in revenge for the slaying of her own father. In actuality, the wily old Hun leader recognized there was simply not enough food available in the surrounding countryside to sustain an attack on Rome and took his forces safely back home to Germany. He died a year later, reportedly from overeating or overdrinking at a wedding feast. The city of Rome wasn’t spared for long, it was sacked and burned by other Germanic tribes just two years later.

One of the problems with this early Verdi opera is there is no one to like. The so-called good guys are all busy plotting with each other and doing underhanded things. Odabella makes nice to Attila in order to further her lust for revenge and actually prevents him from being poisoned at a celebration in his camp so she can do the dirty deed herself. Her boyfriend Foresto, leader of the remaining Aquileia forces, spends most of the three acts moaning about Odabella’s unfaithfulness (not true). He plots with the Roman general Ezio to set upon Attila’s forces even though their own men have been granted safe passage by the Huns. Ezio, with the only opposing professional soldiers in the area, first tries to cut a political deal with Attila to divvy up the territory, and with that rejected, schemes with Foresto to first poison Attila and then betray his honorable truce. So, who do we root for, Attila, the scourge of God on earth? Poor Hun, everyone’s out to get him. The opera itself hangs precariously off the edge of the standard repertoire, trotted out now and then because it has such a juicy role for a star basso. This particular production is a part of the “Tutto Verdi” project sponsored by the Regio di Parma Foundation in conjunction with C Major to perform all of Verdi’s operas and record them on Blu-ray disc.

The opera house and stage in Busseto are both very small. Stage Director Pierfrancesco Maestrini must find creative ways to use the small space to advantage. He generally does very well, foregoing heavy stage scenery for a few light props and appropriate videos on the rear backdrop that set the scene then freeze-frame as the action begins on stage. It helps that there are only four principal singers who can be grouped in tight tableaus, but things get a bit crowded when the chorus of Huns or refugees from Aquileia are called upon. Attila descends from on high on a platform surrounded by skulls in the Prologue and departs dead on the same platform to end act III. Costumes are a bit campy, perhaps fantasy Hun: animal skull headpieces, fierce face paint, and plenty of robes and animal skins. The Roman soldiers appear vaguely military, but not like Roman soldiers from the classic movies of the ’50s and ’60s, Ben Hur, Cleopatra, etc. Odabella, ostensibly a warrior, looks rather sexy in her outfit but she couldn’t possibly have been fighting in it. The Huns and Visigoths seem a pretty tame bunch for pillagers and rapists. Performances are a mixed bag here. Giovanni Batista Parodi provides a good bass voice and much fine singing in the lead role, but lacks the stage presence, gravitas, and acting skills to really bring off the critical role of Attila. Soprano Susanna Branchini brings a big voice into the small house and frankly, everything she sings sounds double forte. She also has trouble modulating in her top range, approaching shriek level to hit some of the notes. She sings much better in lower registers and she handles the young Verdi’s ornamentation quite competently. The Foresto of Italian tenor Roberto De Biasio and the Ezio of baritone Sebastian Catana are both very well sung and prove to be highlights of this set. It is hard to believe the Teatro Regio Orchestra from Parma can stuff enough bodies in that small orchestra pit to produce such a full sound, but they somehow manage to do it quite well under the leadership of conductor Andrea Battistoni. The smallish chorus sounds good too.

Competing sets of this opera on video include a 1985 production from the Arena di Verona which I have not seen and a 1991 live production from La Scala in Milan that I have. The La Scala set features Samuel Ramey in the lead role when he was still singing well and the Odabella of Cheryl Studer in the midst of her very few peak seasons. Both are superior in their roles to the two on this C Major disc, Ramey bringing a major stage presence and gravity to the role of Attila that makes you really believe he is a grade-A scourge. The two Busseto singers get the nod over Giorgio Zancanaro as Ezio and Kaludi Kaludov as Foresto at La Scala, but the larger house in Milan has one of Italy’s finest orchestras and choruses. Sets and costumes are quite traditional at La Scala as well. The Blu-ray hi-def video and audio is a definite plus for this C Major production, but I would give the slight edge overall to La Scala, just for Ramey’s menacing presence and fine acting. This C Major set also provides a quite fine portrayal of Verdi’s opera and you won’t go wrong with either choice. Recommended.

FANFARE: Bill White   

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 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, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz. The programs feature complete performances of popular masterpieces and world premieres of new works by leading American composers. Filmed in High-Definition with multiple cameras in and around the orchestra, the All-Star Orchestra celebrates the symphonic experience in the 21st c. Gershwin’s immortal Rhapsody in Blue is featured in the rarely heard original jazz-band version from the 1924 New York premiere. This iconic work is complemented by Aaron Copland’s 1925 jazz-age classic “Music for the Theatre.” Robert Beaser’s “Ground O” offers a contemporary musical perspective of New York after the attacks of 9/11. (Program 9: Visions of New York) This exotic orchestral showpiece is based on fantastical tales that - according to tradition - were told by the ingenious wife of a cruel Sultan so as to prolong her life for 1001 nights. Concertmaster David Kim conveys the voice of the wily heroine Scheherazade in virtuosic violin solos. (Program 10: 1001 Arabian Nights – The Legend of Scheherazade)

THE ALL-STAR ORCHESTRA
Programs 9 & 10

Program 9: Visions of New York

George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Aaron Copland: Music for the Theatre Suite
Robert Beaser: Ground “O”

Program 10: 1001 Arabian Nights – The Legend of Scheherazade

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Lola Astanova, piano
David Kim, violin
The All-Star Orchestra
Gerard Schwarz, conductor

Recorded live from the Great Hall, Purchase College Performing Arts Center, New York, 26–27 August 2014

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Language: English
Running time: 114 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

MUSICAL JOURNEY - ITALY: A Musical Tour of the Southern Tyrol

The Places
The Southern Tyrol was in earlier times part of the Habsburg Empire, governed from Vienna, and ceded to Italy in 1919. The region remains largely German-speaking and enjoys a considerable degree of autonomy. Of particular interest are the rock-formations of the Dolomites and the many castles and fortified houses of the province. The tour shows two historic buildings, Scholss Velthurns and Schloss Runkelstein.

The Music Music for thebr> tour is by Mozart, born in Salzburg in 1756. With his father, Leopold Mozart, Vice-Kapellmeister in Salzburg, he made three notable visits to Italy, and on various occasions broke his journey at Bozen (Bolzano) and visited Brixen (Bressanone). The music heard here is the Posthorn Serenade, written in Salzburg in 1779, and the Notturno, another serenade, written there in the winter of 1776–77.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 59 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

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 #5 Relationships in Music Robert Schumann's wife Clara was herself a gifted pianist and composer. She became a lifelong friend and source of inspiration for Schumann's protégé Johannes Brahms. This program will explore the turbulent musical and emotional relationships between these three, and the masterpieces that they produced. Program #6 the Living Art Form This program explores the creation of new concertos and the artistic process. Outstanding young soloists and leading American composers are featured in performance and in interviews.

The tour visits the Tin Soldier Museum at Kulmbach, the National Army Museum, the Wellington Memorial, and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and the Bavarian Army Museum at Ingolstadt, with it's relics of the Thirty Years War and of conflicts with the Ottoma Empire. The tour brings Beethoven's musical celebration of Wellington's victorious campaign in Spain, Liszt's Battle of the Huns and a Georgian war march by Ippolitov-Ivanov. The tour ends with two military works by Rimsky-Korsakov, King Dodon on the Battlefield, from his last opera, The Golden Cockerel, and the Massacre at Kerzhenets from The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh.

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

Also available on standard DVD

Stravinsky in Hollywood, a film by Michael Capalbo, tells the story of an "old school" European artist knocking heads with the brash New World. The documentary uses a combination of existing archival footage (some never before seen), interviews with Stravinsky and his assistant Robert Craft, and premieres several big studio film scenes of the 40s with music Stravinsky wrote for them.

Rarely has a production of Verdi's "Otello" taken place in such a prestigious location, the courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice. Directed by Francesco Micheli, this special outdoor "event production" of the Gran Teatro La Fenice supports the claim that "Venice is asserting itself more than ever on a global scale as one of the great capitals of music" (GB Opera).

Giuseppe Verdi
OTELLO

Otello - Gregory Kunde
Desdemona - Carmela Remigio
Jago - Lucio Gallo
Emilia - Elisabetta Martorana
Cassio - Francesco Marsiglia
Roderigo - Antonello Ceron
Lodovico - Mattia Denti
Montano - Matteo Ferrara
Un Araldo - Antonio Casagrande

Teatro la Fenice Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Claudio Marino Moretti)
Myung-Whun Chung, conductor

Francesco Micheli, stage director
Edoardo Sanchi, set designer
Silvia Aymonino, costume designer
Fabio Barettin, lighting designer
Recorded from the Palazzo Ducale di Venezia, 2013

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 149 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Drawing on the adventures of Byron’s Childe Harold and the composer’s own Italian experiences as a Prix de Rome winner, Harold en Italie was intended for the great violinist Paganini who, having initially rejected the work, later repented, giving it his highest praise. + The brilliant concert overtures Benvenuto Cellini and Le carnaval romain are among Berlioz’s most popular works. + Quickly taken up by several celebrated violinists of the time, the elegant Rêverie et Caprice is his only work for solo violin and orchestra. + Leonard Slatkin’s Lyon recording of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (8.572886) has been acclaimed as “quite simply one of the best on disc” by MusicWeb International.

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

Using the new Polish National Chopin Edition, acclaimed pianist Eldar Nebolsin and Poland’s national orchestra conducted by the renowned Polish conductor Antoni Wit, here present fresh interpretations of Chopin’s great works for piano and orchestra. The Second Piano Concerto was written before the first and completed in 1830, the year in which the composer set out for Vienna and then Paris. Chopin’s Variations on Là ci darem la mano, bear witness to his admiration for Mozart, instilled by his earliest teacher, the Bohemian Wojciech ?ywny. The Grande Polonaise brillante in E flat, Op. 22, was written in Vienna, and later augmented with the introductory Andante spianato.

Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

Also available on standard CD

George Gershwin’s Concerto in F was a response to demands for a ‘proper concerto’ after the success of Rhapsody in Blue, avoiding programmatic content while providing a feast of tunes both uplifting and nostalgic. Originally intended as music for a film, his up-beat Rhapsody No 2 describes the bustling Manhattan cityscape while under construction. Sourced from his hit musical Girl Crazy, I Got Rhythm Variations was Gershwin’s last full score. Pianist Orion Weiss is one of the most sought-after soloists and collaborators of his generation of young American musicians.

The Places - the monastery at Ottobeuren was founded in 764 and included buildings from the succeeding centuries, subsequently destroyed by fire. The present buildings date from the beginning of the 18th century, with the church rebuilt under the architect Johann Michael Fischer. It remains a remarkable monument to it's period, and the ornate Abbey Church, with it's frescoes and elaborate rococo decoration is bewildering in it's splendor. The Music - Music accompanying the visit to Ottobeuren consists of choruses from Handel's oratorio Messiah, written in 1741. Of all English oratorios Handel's Messiah has always been the most overwhelmingly popular. It is the least theatrical of all his oratorios and the most purely sacred in it's choice of subject, the Messiah, a compendious version of the coming of Christ, His death and resurrection. The text, by Charles Jennens, drew extensively on the Authorized Version of the Bible, and an additional attraction has always been the large number of choruses included, a larger number than in any other of Handel's oratorios.

Also available on Blu-ray

THIELEMANN CONDUCTS FAUST

Richard Wagner: A Faust Overture

Franz Liszt: A Faust Symphony, S108/R425
Endrik Wottrich, tenor
Dresden State Opera Chorus
Dresden Staatskapelle
Christian Thielemann, conductor

Recorded live from the Semperoper Dresden, 2011.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese
Running time: 90 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:



LISZT A Faust Symphony. WAGNER A Faust Overture • Christian Thielemann, cond; Endrik Wottrich (ten); Dresden St Op Ch; Staatskapelle Dresden • C MAJOR 707708 (DVD: 90:00) Live: Semperoper, Dresden 02/21–22/2011


Now here’s a good release, entering an uncluttered field with repertoire that coincides neatly with an anniversary and that fits its performers like a glove. Where I recently argued that Christian Thielemann just about makes a (flawed) case for himself in the congested world of Beethoven symphonies, his credentials for Wagner and Liszt are far less controversial. A retro knight of big-boned, smoothly contoured orchestral playing, he is here heard to great effect in repertoire that is shamefully underrepresented. I also cannot fault the pairing of a young Wagner’s aborted attempt at a symphony with Liszt’s epic achievement on the same subject. Before Cosima, what linked Wagner and Liszt were their respective attempts to set Goethe’s Faust to music. Wagner intended this, written during his Paris years, to be merely the first movement of a Faust symphony, before Der fliegende Holländer and his Saxony post got in the way. So it remained an overture, and it was Liszt who would carry on some of Wagner’s initial intentions, such as a second movement based on the character of Gretchen. Liszt himself conducted Wagner’s piece in 1852, but despite a final revision in 1855 (the version given here) and a sketch for Gretchen’s theme, Wagner’s “symphony” remains a tantalizing what-if, giving clearance for the older composer to work on his vast set of Faustian character portraits. As Tobias Niederschlag’s admirable notes point out, Lizst’s late addition of tenor and chorus (always a bit of an afterthought in my view) to his tonal portraits can be seen as a nod to Beethoven’s Ninth, a sign of the massive ambition on display.


Given its fractious birth, Wagner’s A Faust Overture tends, not surprisingly, to be dismissed as a rather nothingy, juvenile work, but Thielemann and the Dresdeners really do make a fine case for it. Despite the full string textures and grandly played climaxes, Thielemann wisely doesn’t linger or pull things about for effect, as he sometimes does, and the Dresdeners’ dark, burnished sound helps underline the familiar traits of mature Wagner, without preventing it from being an intense, nimble account of a work that deserves to be better known. Yes, there are hangovers of Weber in the tuttis, and obvious foreshadows of the Holländer overture, but also there is a germ of Wagner’s later epic arches of texture and melodic development. The dying chords of Tristan und Isolde , for instance, can surely be heard in the finals bars of this piece.


With those mournful broken woodwind phrases in the “Nostalgia” opening, Wagner must have had Liszt’s symphony at the back of his mind during Tristan’s development. Although grotesque humor doesn’t feature in Wagner’s opera, both pieces share that introverted sense of Weltschmerz that naturally brings out the best from Thielemann. Faust’s feverish obsession is brilliantly conveyed in the frenzied string writing, but Thielemann doesn’t let the symphony as a whole become the empty showpiece that some of Liszt’s vast tapestries can become. The second movement (Gretchen) is, likewise, very well controlled, with the love theme played with sincerity, but no less heartfelt than many more drawn-out versions, and with much exquisite solo playing from the orchestra.


I still have the occasional feeling of extreme control-freakery, as on Thielemann’s recent Beethoven, but here his quirks and homogenized sound fit the repertoire brilliantly, and although as typically plush and molded an experience as I had predicted from this team, this DVD confounds a lot of my prejudices about him. Most surprising is how swift Thielemann is, with the Liszt falling roughly between young (Sony audio) and old (Euroarts DVD) Leonard Bernstein in basic length, and similar in scale to Barenboim’s audio version. Likewise I wouldn’t have predicted how well Thielemann creates a sense of fun on the podium; the ironisch comes out well in the opening of the grotesque Mesphisto episode, spritely in tone, in complete contrast to the opening two sections. I would almost say light and fleet-footed, but after some comparison with 1960s Bernstein, or a terrific YouTube clip of Dmitri Mitropoulos rehearsing the same section, Thielemann cannot yield all of his steeliness. Choral singing is excellent, although I can think of more alluring sounds than the rather pinched, clunky tones of tenor Endrik Wottrich, in rather tense form here. DVD competition is scarce, but Kenneth Riegel on Leonard Bernstein’s 1976 Boston DVD is better. For true vocal allure, if weird German, Plácido Domingo on Barenboim’s Warner CD is the obvious choice.


I do wish concert DVDs would come with the option of having an mp3 of the audio only. I, for one, would love the Wagner overture on my iPod. But C Major’s presentation is still very fine, with good booklet notes and logical DVD menuing. Pity that there are no extras (Thielemann’s Beethoven symphonies on the same label came with a 60-minute discussion of each work), but camerawork is unobtrusive and the sound is very clear and balanced, possibly at times allowing that Dresden acoustic to give quieter moments a rather cold demeanor. Perhaps, because of that last point, I find myself preferring the Bernstein DVD, boisterous and all-embracing despite much slower tempi throughout. But it is not a clear victory, especially considering modern picture, sound, and so fine a Faust Overture performance as a filler. So, yes, unlikely readers who only want one version: Get the Thielemann.


FANFARE: Barnaby Rayfield

Gotterdammerung (Twilight of the Gods) is the epic fourth and final opera of Wagner’s great Ring cycle, with a plot that depicts the fall of heroes, gods, and the entire world. As ever with the Ring, the joys of love are all too fragile and fleeting, and the drama of Gotterdammerung revolves around dark and unsettling reversals of fortune and illusions of hope that synthesize thrilling and powerful grand opera traditions with Wagner’s revolutionary techniques. Containing all of the Ring’s essential elements, Gotterdammerung’s profoundly satisfying sense of inevitability makes it both a towering climax and a unified summation of the Ring’s abundant variety.