FALLA La vida breve • Lorin Maazel, cond; Cristina Gallardo-Domâs (Salud); Jorge de León (Paco); María Luisa Corbacho (Grandmother); Felipe Bou (Uncle Sarvaor); Sandra Ferrández (Flamenco Singer); Ode la Generalitat Valenciana • C MAJOR 710708 (DVD: 81:00) Live: Valencia Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia 4/17/2010

La vida breve is a gift to stage directors and design teams. Its deliberate ambiguities—where is the action taking place; is it all meant to be considered as occurring in reality; what do you do when so much of the music is orchestral only, even in sections that feature short vocal moments?—allow considerable leeway to interpretation, more so than in most operas. And stage directors typically enjoy having that kind of control over a production. In this 2010 production, everything is tied to the young Gypsy girl, Salud. The men working the forge and the girl selling baskets are never seen, but Salud hears them, walking around a nearly empty stage with a starkly towering, mottled red backdrop. It is in effect Salud’s head, and heart. It is only when the characters directly interact with her that we know we have moved back into something resembling a realistic frame.

Stage director and set designer Giancarlo del Monaco (and yes, in case you were wondering, it is Mario’s son) is consistently clever in integrating Salud everywhere in the opera. The interlude between acts is presented as a duet danced before Salud between two figures in wealthy wedding finery: Our heroine’s intuition, or fears, at work, as she believes Paco is being unfaithful. The chorus then enters while she watches, followed by Paco and his fiancée, all of it done slowly as in a dream; a fire blazes behind a life-sized cross, in front of which a woman stands, arms extended as though crucified. She moves away from the cross, turning into a singer who in folk tradition praises the soon-to-be married couple. All of this is ambiguous, and more is to follow. The singer has a gritty, guttural voice, unattractive but compelling: Perhaps to celebrate passion at its most dangerous and impersonal—or is her voice just being perceived this way by Salud, still viewing events as though in a vision?

With so much emphasis on Salud’s internal dialog, I suspect something more final than the written ending conclusion to La vida breve—willing herself to death as a supreme insult to her former lover who has publicly denied any affair—was felt necessary at the opera’s conclusion. In del Monaco’s staging she feigns severe hurt, and as Paco approaches, reaches out her hand to grasp his, forcing her concealed dagger into it. She then thrusts herself upon the weapon, and dies. This production foregoes props, aside from chairs. The costumes are period-effective without attracting undo attention, mainly underscoring the class and wealth differences that drive Paco away from Salud with white lace against black linen.

It would take a fine singer and actress to make this conception of La vida breve work, one who was expected to be on stage the entire time, moving and reacting when she wasn’t the center of attention. Cristina Gallardo-Domâs is fortunately up to the task. The Chilean soprano’s dark chest register and soaring, lyrical top encompass the vocal requirements, and she is a strong enough actor to remain expressively in character the rest of the time for this emotionally draining role. Jorge de León acts well, too, but his bright lyric tenor is tight with pressure, and he has a regular wobble when singing above piano. María Luisa Corbacho also shows a loosening of vibrato, but that’s not unexpected as the grandmother, while Felipe Bou brings firmness of tone to his small part. Lorin Maazel plays to the score’s color, rhythmic bite, and acute dissonances. His firm tempos and solid grasp of the drama are welcome.

The camerawork is first-rate, both varying distances, and holding shots for as long as they’re important. There are no DVD extras, unless you consider trailers for other operatic DVDs (including a very strange-looking Theodora) as useful content. Subtitles are in Spanish, English, French, and German, with PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 as the sound options. The video format is 16:9. The booklet contains good cut listings and some brief, useful history on the opera, but reproduces a short synopsis that doesn’t reflect the changes (such as the ending) in the current production. This would still be a viable recommendation had the production been less considered, and the performers less able. After all, where else are you going to turn? But as good as this is, I have no hesitation in recommending it heartily.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

Rarely has an orchestra enchanted and thrilled its audience as did the National Children’s Orchestra of Venezuela at the Salzburg Festival! This astonishing group, founded in 2010 by Jose Antonio Abreu as part of El Sistema, is conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at its international debut.

The second half of the program features the White Hands Choir, founded in 1995 in an effort to integrate people with disabilities into society more fully through music. The unusual ensemble is divided into two groups: children with movement, visual and cognitive disorders form the actual chorus. Their singing is transformed by the other group, children with impaired hearing, mute or D/deaf-mute children, into an expressive choreography of flowing hand movements, their hands clad in white or colored gloves. The program features Latin-American folk songs and Piazzolla arrangements as well as choral works by Mozart and Rutter.

Ein Deutsche's Requiem, Brahm's majestic masterpiece, in a definitive performance: Christian Thielemann and the Munchner Philharmoniker are a synonym for excellence in the German late-Romantic repertoire.

Also available on Blu-ray

A distinguished cast in a strong production.

The remarkable history of this opera includes the infamous fisticuffs at the very first orchestral rehearsal. The original director overlooked the simmering animosity between his leading ladies. Maria Stuarda calls her rival queen, Elizabetta, a ‘vile bastard’ and such was the ferocity of delivery by Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis, as Maria, that Anna del Serre as Elizabetta, responded with fists and hair-pulling. De Begnis hit back with such force that Anna del Serre departed the theatre. Meanwhile, the plot came to the ears of the King who banned it: too close to home for comfort with his wife descended from Maria Stuarda.
 
It almost disappeared off the operatic radar until performed after Donizetti’s death. Then it languished for a century or so until a 1958 revival: but its real renaissance came twenty years after that. “The discovery of the autograph in a Swedish collection in 1987 has made possible the preparation of an authentic edition” (A. Holden, ed. The New Penguin Opera Guide, 2001 p.235). Since when, it has taken its regular rightful place in the repertoire.
 
The apocryphal confrontation of the two queens is played here with dramatic intensity. Sonia Ganassi (Elizabetta) portrays the hatred and contempt for Maria Stuarda with towering vocal passion. Fiorenza Cedolins (Maria) responds initially with supplication followed by vocal and facial fireworks of which she is such a remarkable exponent.
 
The one-set-fits-all scenes is a stage-filling labyrinth as shown on the DVD cover above. It is not a maze: the characters are not in a puzzle but in roles where their actions are circumscribed by their offices of state. Although the opera’s events are from 1587, this production is timeless in set and costumes. Together with direction and lighting, all by Denis Krief, they provide complementary forces that leave the audience free to concentrate on voices and plot.
 
The performance by Ganassi is a tour de force. She manifests remarkable vocal strength throughout her vocal range. She misses not a word, with diction, dynamics and colouring second to none. It seems invidious to select any specific aria but Quella vita a me funesta (tr. 22), when about to sign the death warrant, exhibits all that is glorious about her vocal and acting strengths. From her entrance aria, with middle-note-hitting, leaps and vocal contrasts to her dismissal of her rival queen, she exhibits her consummate stage presence.
 
No less forceful is Cedolins as Maria Stuarda. A natural spitfire who can leap around her upper tessitura with agility at forte but who can rein back to piano to send a melting note across stage, pit and auditorium. Although not as strong in her chest voice, she remains totally note and line focused. Her runs and trills are an aural joy. From her wistful O nube! (tr. 12) through vocal fireworks of vitriol to her moving acceptance of fate in Quando di luce rosea (tr. 27), Cedolins displays strong colouring and dynamics.
 
José Bros (Leicester) brings to the role his distinctive timbre with smouldering passion and dramatic intensity. His diction many would do well to emulate - no need on this DVD though - as well as his strongly coloured and stage encompassing sound. He is the master of the smooth legato. This is a mature Leicester, not dashing around the stage, but relying on vocal gravitas to project his character.
 
Together Ganassi and Bros have the power, tone, dynamic variation and breath control to complement each other. She leads and her courtier follows. Now she deludes herself in imagining his love for her but is then persuaded to meet her rival from Scotland.
 
Thus it is also with the Maria Stuarda of Cedolins. Bros is the mature courtier/lover endeavouring to keep her alive by persuading her to throw herself on English regal mercy: a serious error of judgement over-looking that royal all-consuming hatred of her rival from Scotland. The Bros/Cedolins duet Da tutti abbandonata (tr. 15) has everything: dynamics in spades, each soaring above the other in turn, vocal colouring and, as expected facial acting by Cedolins shown well in camera close-ups.
 
Mirco Palazzi is a quite excellent Talbot - not revealing himself late as a priest in this production, but a priest from the start. His superb bass-deep colouring and ringing tone brings this role much more to the fore. He is the perfect foil for the tenor of Bros and the soprano of Cedolins. This is a convincing priest and confidant.
 
Marco Caria is the unenviable and possibly unloved Cecil, persuading one queen to execute another. A hint of strain at forte, nevertheless very persuasive and acting well with Ganassi in that restless death warrant signature scene. As the conveyor of the warrant he relaxes into the hypocrisy of sadness that Caria carries well with evenness of tone and perfect diction.
 
Pervin Chakar sings the small but important role of Anna. Small, with little opportunity to shine solo, but important, in her contribution to the ensembles. Chakar has a ringing soprano that can be heard clearly in the excellently delivered and balanced ensembles.
 
Maestro Carminati has other productions of this opera to his credit. Here there is a sporadic lack of co-ordination of his forces: occasionally with timing but more frequently allowing the orchestra to equal and not complement the events on stage. The chorus were not on their best form: no perception of involvement in the unfolding plot and, without the subtitles, difficult to follow.
 
The camera-work is unhurried, from full stage to close-up. Plenty of time to appreciate Krief’s use of colours, from Ganassi’s yellow costume of jealousy to Cedolins bold red jacket and skirt - the scarlet woman or perhaps foretelling her bloody end. In this production, she meets her end in a white strapless evening dress and drape: virgin innocence possibly, but the opposite of the original stage direction for black.
 
The lighting, with some equally effective colours, makes a significant but welcome contribution. The labyrinth uprights and/or tops are suffused with dramatic varying colours, matching scene and mood. This set, with its straight lines, provides the perfect tool for shot amalgamation showing figures in close proximity on screen when in reality they are apart on the stage. And the superimposing of the head and shoulders of Cedolins on a shot of the whole stage in the final scene is a striking reminder of her overarching presence. Such camera-work is the more effective for its sparing use.
 
Taken overall this is an excellent DVD. But if you prefer a production in sixteenth century costumes, with equally strong queens - Mariella Devia and Anna Caterina Antonacci - and a dashing young Leicester - Franceso Meli - then try Arthaus Musik 101361. Torches for atmospheric illumination appear against a background of prison bars various, ramps and platforms to give different perspectives. There’s heightened tension in the last scene with the block and executioner on-stage and the chorus closer to their beloved, doomed, queen. Whereas orchestra and chorus are much tauter, for me, the other soloists are not so strong and the ensembles did not balance as well.
 
So, two seriously good DVDs with personal preference for queens, supporting roles, and setting being the deciding factors. Difficult: but on balance I prefer the DVD of this review with its thought-provoking aspects, overall vocal balances and because the production is so different, not detracting from, but complementing, plot and sound.
 

 
-- Robert McKechnie, MusicWeb International 

BERNSTEIN CONDUCTS DEBUSSY

Claude Debussy: Images, Prélude à l'apres-midi d'un faune, La Mer

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Recorded live from the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, 1989.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 86 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

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DEBUSSY Images pour orchestre. Prélude à l’près-midi d’un faune. La Mer • Leonard Bernstein, cond; Santa Cecila Natl Academy O • UNITEL 701608 (DVD: 86: 00)


Although Debussy did not figure largely in Bernstein’s repertoire, the conductor had an innate affinity for the composer’s music. We are therefore fortunate to have this concert, from scarcely a year before Bernstein’s death, preserving his interpretations of this repertoire in digital sound. Bernstein’s older Columbia recordings with the New York Philharmonic from 1960–63 are also still in print, although to duplicate this particular program one must acquire two different CDs (one from Sony, the other an ArkivMusic reissue). Those performances, however, are completely superseded by the present ones, both sonically and interpretively. In his later years Bernstein became decidedly self-indulgent, and his performances sometimes assumed bloated dimensions, as in the famous (or notorious) 1989 Christmas Day Berlin performance of the Beethoven Ninth. (I was blessed to attend that concert in person, being resident in East Berlin for my doctoral dissertation research at the time. As an interpretation it verged on the preposterous, but I still wouldn’t have missed it for all the world.) Here, however, he is in top form, eliciting performances with superb clarity of line, pellucid orchestral color and instrumental balance, and moderate tempi that are convincingly right at every point. Debussy is not the first thing I, as someone partial to Romantic German and Slavic orchestral repertoire, think to take off the shelf for personal listening pleasure, but Bernstein leaves me marveling at the sheer genius of these masterworks, providing a joy of rediscovery.


There are of course many performances of these works available on CD; most readers will already have their favorites, so I will not assay a broader discussion that in any case would exceed the bounds of this review. Regarding performances on DVD, this is the only complete performance of Images available. (For whatever reason, Bernstein altered the order of its three movements and placed Iberia in third position.) The Naxos issue with Alexander Rahbari and the Belgian Radio Symphony, which also has the Prélude and La Mer , omits Iberia in favor of the Nocturnes ; those are solid performances but not in the same class as these. The only other DVD to feature both the Prélude and La Mer is with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic, reviewed negatively by Christopher Abbot in Fanfare 26:2 and positively by Colin Clarke in 32:3. I do not intend to enter the lists of the debates between champions and detractors of the German and American maestros; suffice it to say that in these works I prefer Bernstein’s clarity and sense of motion to Karajan’s lushness and perfumed languor. His DVD has more interesting camerawork to boot, with better lighting and more varied and better close-ups of the instrumentalists. The sound quality is excellent, the recordings having been made for commercial issue at the time. For those with more slender wallets, or who are uninterested in the visual aspects of an orchestral concert, these same performances were issued on CD by DG and are still in print as an ArkivMusic reissue. Strongly recommended.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

Also available on Blu-ray

Christian Thielemann and the Dresden Staatskapelle are continuing their long-term Bruckner cycle with the Ninth Symphony, a work on which the composer was occupied when he died. Three movements were completed but the final movement remained unfinished. The Ninth constitutes a summation of all the composer’s earlier symphonies. Star conductor Christian Thielemann once again shows his talent for the German Romantic repertoire with a highly acclaimed interpretation of Bruckner´s popular Symphony

Running Time: 66 mins
Picture: 16:9
Sound: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo
Booklet: English, German, French
Available: Worldwide

Also available on Blu-ray

Bruckner’s Eighth is one of the most powerful works in music and the symphony that Bruckner himself regarded as his “opus summum”. This recording by the acknowledged Bruckner master Christian Thielemann and “his” orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, marks the beginning of a cycle of the Austrian composer’s complete symphonies that is to be produced over the course of several years – a living monument of musical architecture! Thielemann’s Bruckner “is so mighty, and with such a depth of sound … that one would have to be hard-hearted not to be touched by this heartfelt music” (Der Tagesspiegel).

Anton Bruckner
SYMPHONY NO. 8

Staatskapelle Dresden
Christian Thielemann, conductor

Recorded live from the Semperoper Dresden, 2012

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 88 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Also available on Blu-ray

Since taking up his post as principal conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle in 2012, Christian Thielemann has launched each new concert season with a Bruckner symphony. In autumn 2015 he choose for the opening concert at Dresden’s historic Semperoper the Sixth, and for the Sächsische Zeitung this performance marked “another Bruckner triumph for Dresden”. Thielemann once more “conjured up the most magical of sonorities” and “the orchestra played magnificently under him“. (Der Neue Merker) Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony is an interesting work among the composer’s other repertoire, as it doesn’t bear his typical compositional style, which surprised both audiences and critics when it premiered. Robert Simpson wrote of the work: “Its themes are exceptionally beautiful, its harmony has moments of both boldness and subtlety, its instrumentation is the most imaginative that he had yet achieved, and it possesses a mastery of classical form that might even have impressed Brahms.”

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

Also available on standard DVD

Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden are continuing their internationally acclaimed Bruckner cycle with the Symphony No. 5. For Anton Bruckner, his Fifth Symphony was a glorious confrontation with the music of the past – from a personal, biographical angle, but also as a departure from the composition techniques he preferred up to this point. Not for nothing is this tremendous opus magnum regarded as Bruckner’s “contrapuntal masterpiece”. In this universally lauded performance, Christian Thielemann, already the leading Bruckner interpreter of our times, has once again proven himself to be a “magician of the Bruckner sound”. (Kurier)

Anton Bruckner
SYMPHONY NO. 5
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Dresden Staatskapelle
Christian Thielemann, conductor

Recorded live at the Semperoper, Saxon State Opera, Dresden, 2013

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French
Running time: 89 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)

Also available on Blu-ray

Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden are continuing their internationally acclaimed Bruckner cycle with the Symphony No. 5. For Anton Bruckner, his Fifth Symphony was a glorious confrontation with the music of the past – from a personal, biographical angle, but also as a departure from the composition techniques he preferred up to this point. Not for nothing is this tremendous opus magnum regarded as Bruckner’s “contrapuntal masterpiece”. In this universally lauded performance, Christian Thielemann, already the leading Bruckner interpreter of our times, has once again proven himself to be a “magician of the Bruckner sound”. (Kurier)

Anton Bruckner
SYMPHONY NO. 5


Dresden Staatskapelle
Christian Thielemann, conductor

Recorded live at the Semperoper, Saxon State Opera, Dresden, 2013

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French
Running time: 89 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

One of our day’s most legendary performers, pianist Rudolph Buchbinder has been appearing on stages all over the globe for the last fifty years. Later this year, in celebration of his 70th birthday, he will be honored in numerous concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Suntory hall, and the Berliner Philharmonie. The Kurier newspaper described this performance with rave reviews. “It is not every day that Brahms sounds so perfect as this.” (Kurier) They also praised Buchbinder as a “phenomenal piano virtuoso.” In the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta, Buchbinder performs for this release the First and Second Piano Concertos of Johannes Brahms. These works demand a soloist with a wide range of both interpretal refinement and technical skill, both of which Buchbinder brings to the table. “What Rudolph Buchbinder, the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Zubin Mehta delivered at the Musikverein easily deserves the accolade ‘milestone’.” (Kurier)

Also available on Blu-ray

Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden turn to the symphonic work of Johannes Brahms.

Bonus features include: an extensive 52 minute interview with Christian Thielemann on Brahms’ Symphonies and provides and in-depth look into his interpretation of Brahms.

Recorded live from the Semperoper Dresden (Nos. 2 and 4) and the NHK Hall, Tokyo (Nos. 1 and 3)

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0 / DTS 5.1 Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Language (bonus): German
Subtitles (bonus): English, Korean, Japanese
Running time: 208 mins (symphonies) + 52 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 3

Famous and controversial stage director Calixto Bieito presents this raw and evocative interpretation of Bizet’s classic opera, Carmen.; This live production at the Gran Teatre del Liceu emanates a sensual and convincing ambiance full of imagery.; The vocalists in this production are truly second-to-none, and include Beatrice Uria-Monzon as Carmen, Roberto Alagna as Don Jose, Erwin Schrott as Escamillo, and Marina Poplavskya as Micaela.

Classical Music

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

Also available on standard DVD

BEST OF VERDI ARIAS

Giuseppe Verdi:
La traviata: E strano! … Ah, fors e lui … Sempre libera / De’ miei bollenti spiriti / Di Provenza il mar, il suol
Rigoletto: Questa o quella / Caro nome che il mio cor / La donna e mobile
Don Carlo: Io la vidi e al suo sorriso / O don fatale
Aida: Celeste Aida / Numi, pietà del mio soffrir!
Il trovatore: Stride la vampa! / Ah! sì, ben mio … Di quella pira I vespri siciliani: Mercé, dilette amiche
Un ballo in maschera: Ma se m’è forza perderti
La forza del destino: Pace, pace mio Dio! / O tu che in seno agli angeli
Otello: Piangea cantando nell’erma landa / Ave Maria, piena di grazia / Niun mi tema

featuring
Nino Machaidze, soprano
Daniela Dessì, soprano
Dimitra Theodossiou, soprano
Marcelo Álvarez, tenor
Francesco Meli, tenor
Leo Nucci, baritone

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, English
Running time: 110 mins
No. of Discs: 1