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The 2017 edition of the Reate Festival of Italy staged two operas composed by Nino Rota (1911-1979). Mostly known for his cinema soundtracks, Rota was able to merge the great Italian operatic tradition of Rossini, Puccini and Verdi into a contemporary musical language. I due timidi is drawn from a text of Italian writer Suso Cecchi d’Amico and the libretto of La notte di un nevrastenico was written by Riccardo Bacchelli. An all-star cast is featured here, including Giorgio Celenza, Sabrina Cortese, Daniele Adriani, Antonio Sapio, Chiara Osella, and Carlo Feola, among others. The Reate Festival Orchestra, led by Gabriele Bonolis, accompanies the soloists perfectly. This release is the world premiere recording of these works, and has been filmed in high-definition. Subtitled are available in Italian, English, German, French, Japanese, and Korean.

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REVIEW:

I due timidi is a gorgeous piece. Rota doesn't quite muster Puccini’s final layer of harmonic interest and novel orchestration but he rivals his senior for melodic generosity and is brilliant with vocal characterisation and linguistic clarity.

The performances are simply staged with a touch of commedia dell’arte and allowed to blossom in all the right ways by the conductor Gabriele Bonolis. There’s some ragged orchestral work but lovely singing that indulges Rota’s irresistible legatos. Daniele Adriani stands out as the male lover Raimondo in I due and as the Commendatore in La notte. His is not a classic Italian tenor sound, rather something with more grain but still adequate smoothness and notable presence.

– Gramophone

What if Vivaldi’s famous Quattro Stagioni, performed in Paris in 1728, had been preceded by those of Guido, the star violinist of the Parisian orchestras of Louis XIV’s maturity? Here, at last, are these two works reunited: to the well-known virtuosity of Vivaldi’s work, of extraordinary impact, Guido’s Seasons oppose a mixture of Italian features and a thousand facets worthy of the French Court, with an infectious ardor! A mysterious Neapolitan who arrived in Paris around 1702 as Music Master to Philippe d’Orléans, Guido was close to the financier Crozat, who in 1716 commissioned Watteau to produce four paintings on the theme of the Seasons: he set them to music around 1717 with his Quattro Stagioni dell’anno. So, Vivaldi or Guido, who inspired the other? For this exciting confrontation, the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal is enriched with wind instruments, and suddenly a thousand colors appear: the song of birds, the hurdy-gurdy of peasant dances, the shepherd’s flute, and the hunting horns! Conducted by the virtuoso Andrés Gabetta, here is all the music of Vivaldi and more: Eight Seasons!

Castrati were the first "stars" in the history of music. They often held the title role (and in Rome all the female roles in the operas), creating on the stage a real competition of virtuosity and emotion between the singers, with the audience as the referee with it's demands for an encore. What if three of the best singers of our time were also part of this Competition of Virtuosity? Here come Valer Sabadus (Arad, 1986), Filippo Mineccia (Florence, 1981), Samuel Mari�o (Caracas, 1993). Virtuoso arias, love duets and combative trios made the castrati triumph. Up to each and everyone to decide who is their winner!

Moscow, 1917. The wind of the Bolshevik Revolution blows away the old Russian society and brings along a new order. Lenin decides to nationalize the great private art collections, one of which belongs to the formidable collectors, brothers Mikhail and lvan Morozov. For more than two decades, these two Muscovite patrons, textile billionaires, acquired an astonishing collection of paintings, masterpieces by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, Serou and Vroubel. This film tells the story of these two flamboyant characters, bath major figures in the modern art scene, and follows the destiny of their fabulous collections

I Shardana is set in a free Sardinia, an island where rigorous rules are in force and it's people do not tolerate invasions or spiritual contamination, a time when - as Ennio Porrino (b. 1910) specifies in the score - shepherds were warriors and judges, "when man did not believe in one God but in the power of the stars, and worshipped the dead and the waters".The opera's first drafts date from 1934-35, but the work only debuted years later, on 21st March 1959, at the San Carlo theatre in Naples, with it's final title of I Shardana and Porrino himself conducting. The composer would die suddenly a few months later.

Milan's La Scala theatre as told by the protagonists of it's golden years. Enzo Biagi was one of Italy's most famous and beloved journalists. His fondness for the prestigious Milanese venue led to the programs Dynamic are now presenting on DVD, made in 1981/82. Documenting the La Scala productions of those years, Biagi entered the theatre during the rehearsals and interviewed the protagonists (conductors, singers and directors), not only the figures of those days but also the great stars of the past. A series originally produced on 16 mm film, now restored and offered to the public at large. Among the interesting and exciting content on offer on Vol. 2 are interviews with Riccardo Muti and Giorgio Strehler; a talk full of reminiscences with Giulietta Simionato; footage of Renata Tebaldi; and Mr. Biagi meets one of the great stars of La Scala's ballet dancers, Luciana Savignano.

More than 200 years after it's premiere at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Martin Helmchen have congenially mastered the artistic challenge of Beethoven's gemstone. Under Herbert Blomstedt's sensitive direction, the soloists unite chamber musical intimacy together with virtuoso sophistication - and prove once again that the Triple Concerto is an unduly underestimated, much too rarely programmed masterpiece. With the composer's 5th Symphony, Blomstedt succeeds in achieving an entirely new perspective of this work. In his Sixth Symphony, the "Pastoral", Ludwig van Beethoven conveys his musical message in such a way that let's the listener literally "see" images of beautiful nature, tempestuous storms, and shepherds singing in the fields, whereas in his Seventh Symphony, Beethoven let's the music speak for itself. The performances of these works by the Gewandhausorchester give the uplifting feeling that the intentions of both composer and performers are united in serving the musical message. The humanist and musician Herbert Blomstedt embodies this truth in a unique way, creating an atmosphere where the wonders of music all become true. Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony and the musical city of Leipzig are closely intertwined with each other: Felix Mendelssohn, Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester, made the work an indispensable part of the concert hall repertoire and Arthur Nikisch, one of his successors, established in 1918 the worldwide tradition of performing this groundbreaking and pioneering work at the end of the year. Herbert Blomstedt once again conducted Beethoven's Ninth in Leipzig for the 2016 New Year celebrations. With his former orchestra, of which he has been Conductor Laureate since 2005 and with whom he enjoys a close friendship, he achieves a gripping interpretation of this monumental work.

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This outstanding live recording is the first ever collaboration between director Luc Bondy, conductor William Christie, and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. This recording was taken in December of 2004 at the Opera National de Paris. Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie, does a beautiful job of performing the score by G. F. Handel.

Picture Format: 16:9
Sound Formats: PCM Stereo, 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish
Region Code: 0 (Worldwide)

KLASSIKER DES THEATERS

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Giacomo Puccini wrote what was supposed to be his last opera at a time where, riddled with disease and old age as he was, he felt like his own turmoil was reflected in the outside world: itself staggering, unsteady, overwhelmed and smashed by the chaos of European diplomacy. In spite of these obstacles, he persevered and worked until the very end of his life on this opera that he left unfinished but that proved to be a “way out” for him in many ways. Drawn from an ancient Persian epic from the 13th century, Turandot was indeed an excuse to escape into a new dramatic universe, one made of unexpected sounds and symbols. Here, in a world removed both geographically and chronologically from his own reality, he gave into the seductive powers of exoticism and eroticism, just as his own heroin Princess Turandot abandons herself to the mysteries of love and forgiveness. After twenty years of absence, Puccini’s Turandot was revived on the stage of the Teatro Real in a new production by American stage director Robert Wilson. One of the most important theatre and visual artist of our times, the director who gave life to Philip Glass’s Einstein of the Beach and who reinvented Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande hadn’t worked on a Puccini opera in twenty-five years, since his ground-breaking Madama Butterfly commissioned by the Paris Opera in 1993. This new encounter between his powerful visual universe and Puccini’s evocative music was bound to be an outstanding event. Carried out by a brilliant cast of singers, dominated by Irene Theorin as Turandot, Gregory Kunde as Calaf and Yolanda Auyanet as Liù, this magnificent production is conducted by the Teatro Real’s associate musical director Nicola Luisotti - and has been met with universal acclaim.

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This is L.A. Opera's latest production of Giuseppe Verdi's ''Macbeth'' featuring Placido Domingo in the title role alongside the Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk as Lady Macbeth. The opera is staged by Darko Tresnjak, who won a Tony Award for his direction of the Broadway music ''A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.'' ''Placido Domingo commands the stage and the music he sings...He was genuinely impressive.'' (Los Angeles Times) ''When I was a young tenor, I loved playing romantic or heroic leading roles. When I began to add baritone parts to my repertoire six years ago, I was particularly interested in playing fathers, as I could draw from my own experience as a family man. Macbeth is a completely different kind of role for me. He is a murderer, but I think that he is also something of a victim, drawn into his crimes by the witches and by Lady Macbeth.'' (Placido Domingo)

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Pietro Antonio Cesti was one of the most outstanding champions of 17th-century Venetian opera, and La Dori was both his greatest success and a major influence on the genre in the expressiveness of its arias and duets. The story is set in Babylon on the shores of the Euphrates, and is a convoluted and richly tragicomedic tale of lost lovers, disguises and mistaken identities filled with larger-than-life and colourfully costumed characters. This revival of a forgotten masterpiece was acclaimed as ‘a production of the highest level in every aspect’ (musicaculturaonline.it).

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Reviews:

Amfortas is sung and acted with the greatest distinction by Gerald Finley. Denoke is always striking as Kundry but doesn't have quite a large enough voice for the demanding role. The minor roles are well taken. And the orchestra covers itself with glory, tirelessly magnificent for all 270 minutes.

– BBC Music Magazine

This is a well-thought-through production whose ideas don’t fight against the music. In musical terms, too, this is a simply excellent performance. Gurnemanz is a role that René Pape might have been born to sing. Finley is similarly balm to the ears as Amfortas. Denoke seizes every dramatic opportunity which the role gives her.

– MusicWeb International

Richard Wagner
PARSIFAL

Parsifal - Simon O’Neill
Gurnemanz - René Pape
Kundry / Voice from Above - Angela Denoke
Amfortas - Gerald Finley
Klingsor - Willard White
Titurel - Robert Lloyd

Royal Opera Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Renato Balsadonna)
Antonio Pappano, conductor

Stephen Langridge, stage director
Alison Chitty, set and costume designer
Paul Pyant, lighting designer
Dan O’Neill, choreographer

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, February 2014

Bonus:
- Interviews with Antonio Pappano and Simon O’Neill
- Cast gallery

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 270 mins (opera) + 25 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 2 (Blu-ray)

Verdi's masterpiece "Simon Boccanegra" is presented in a "clear and levelheaded" (The New York Times) staging by Andreas Kriegenburg from the Salzburg Festival. The tragedy of the corsair who becomes Doge of Genoa and is poisoned shortly after having found his lost daughter is conducted by Valery Gergiev, "makes for gorgeously beautiful tone colours" (Der Kurier). The excellent cast includes Luca Salsi ("Italy's finest baritone today", Financial Times) in the title role, Ren� Pape ("in sumptuous voice", Financial Times) as his contrahent Fiesco, as well as Marina Rebeka and Charles Castronovo as the loving couple Amelia and Adorno who "together create islands of bliss in duet and action." (Neue Z�rcher Zeitung). Valery Gergiev provides for an excellent musical realization, the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor perform superbly: "The Wiener Philharmoniker seemed to have virtually conspired with the conductor and the work, shining into every hidden sound angle, playing out all their sovereignty and opera experience" (S�ddeutsche Zeitung).

Classical Music

This release presents a rarely performed masterpiece: Gioachino Rossini's Mos� in Egitto at the Bregenz Festival staged by Lotte de Beer, who retrieves this hidden gem of opera literature for a spectacular staging. de Beer, one of the most sought-after stage directors of her generation (International Opera Newcomer Award 2015) teams up with the Dutch theatre collective Hotel Modern to tell the story of the Biblical Exodus. Their unique production concept for Mos� in Egitto revolves around the ingenuity of Hotel Modern. The theatre group conjures up it's own reality by using live animations to portray the mass scenes and the parallel narratives of the people and the slaves. Miniature cameras, thousands of puppets, models of villages and cities and a spectacular aquarium installation present the biblical tale of plagues and the parting of the Red Sea on the Bregenz stage - "a stroke of genius" (Der Standard).

Titus has returned from a brutal 10-year war having lost 21 sons in battle. Betrayed by his nation, and with his family in pieces, a series of bloody events follows as he and Tamora, Queen of the Goths, begin a violent cycle of revenge. Rape, cannibalism, mutilation and murder are the gruesome tools in Shakespeare's bloodiest play. "The title role could not currently be better cast. David Troughton is a fine deadpan comic yet one who always ensures there's a shadow lowering across the joke, and is also first-rate at the serious, even somber material. Blanche McIntyre's production appears at first to be simply modish in setting the play amid contemporary-flavored upheavals, but this pays off increasingly as she gets both humorous and serious mileage out of the conventions and nuances of public political rhetoric, with figures behind a lectern delivering pieces to camera." (The Financial Times) "A sharp, confident and imaginative modern-dress reading. Bloody good." (Evening Standard) "A terrific cast give a masterclass in power and paranoia in this tremendous modern-day revival of Shakespeare's tale of revenge." (The Guardian)

Le nozze in villa (‘The Wedding in the Villa’) tells the story of Sabina and the young Claudio. They are in love, but this match goes against the will of her father, who wants her to marry the Schoolmaster Trifoglio. Misunderstandings and tensions between city emancipation and provincial narrow-mindedness are resolved, and romance ultimately triumphs thanks to the alliance of ‘gracefulness, faith and youth’. This early and virtually unknown opera buffa by Donizetti is full of Rossini-influenced lyrical inventiveness and beautiful arias. Specially restored for the 2019 Bergamo Festival, this revival brings out all of the opera’s ‘sparkling spirit and melodiousness’ (bachtrack.com).

Acclaimed across the globe for the beauty of his voice and the emotional power of his performances, Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez, famous for his bel canto repertoire by Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini, shows in this concert another fascinating side to his vocal personality. The concert program includes many of the most popular Mozart arias – all of them magnificently performed by the Orchestra La Scintilla, an ensemble with outstanding reputation for their historical performance practice, led by Riccardo Minasi. This all-Mozart recital takes place at the Cuvilliés Theatre of Munich, one of the most beautiful Bavarian Rococo theatres. “Beautiful lyrical and elegant, Flórez shows all the emotions that Mozart captured in his scores – and the tenor's multi-colored spectrum of expression is impressive.” (Musik Heute)

One of the composer's most beguiling scores, La Favorite is Gaetano Donizetti's La favorita in it's original French form; a tale of love and war that represents a glorious mix of Italian bel canto and 19th c. grand opera. Vincent Boussard's arresting Toulouse production does full justice to this newly renewed masterpiece. Three international principals take on the work's demanding roles: Chinese tenor Yijie Shi is a 'revelation' (La Depeche) as Fernand, the rich-toned, authoritative French baritone Ludovic Tezier as King Alphonse XI and lauded American mezzo Kate Aldrich - 'the Carmen of this generation' (San Francisco Sentinel) - plumbing the emotional depths of Leonor's music. Conductor and bel canto specialist Antonello Allemandi adds to the passionate proceedings onstage. Maestro Allemandi demonstrated full authority over the stage for the musically complex scenes, and in the arias and duets demonstrated his confidence in the singers by establishing ample tempos to support their soaring vocal lines... (Opera Today)

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Le nozze in villa (‘The Wedding in the Villa’) tells the story of Sabina and the young Claudio. They are in love, but this match goes against the will of her father, who wants her to marry the Schoolmaster Trifoglio. Misunderstandings and tensions between city emancipation and provincial narrow-mindedness are resolved, and romance ultimately triumphs thanks to the alliance of ‘gracefulness, faith and youth’. This early and virtually unknown opera buffa by Donizetti is full of Rossini-influenced lyrical inventiveness and beautiful arias. Specially restored for the 2019 Bergamo Festival, this revival brings out all of the opera’s ‘sparkling spirit and melodiousness’ (bachtrack.com).

Perhaps the greatest single characteristic of Franz Schubert's Rosamunde Quartet (1823) is the elusive, longing and perhaps even tragically unconsummated atmosphere that pervades the entire work. Only in the Andante are we really allowed to relax in it's peaceful serenity. The ambiguity in the title of Maja Ratkje's Tale of Lead and Light (2011) reflects the dread which pervaded Oslo in the summer of 2011, and the life-affirming light of Beethoven's opus 59/1 which inspired Maja's work. It is a tribute to Benjamin Britten's inherent "joie de vivre" that optimism and love triumph in his Second String Quartet (1945), composed just after the 2nd World War. The quartet reaches it's emotional climax in the magnificent Chacony, a passacaglia with no less than 21 variations, inspired by Henry Purcell. Britten's 2nd string quartet received it's premiere on the 21st November 1945, 250 years to the day after Henry Purcell's death. Recording Joseph Haydn's Op. 76 No. 5 on our debut CD in 2008 inspired us to include the complete opus, arguably Haydn's greatest string quartet collection, in our repertoire as soon as possible. The heart of the Emperor Quartet, Opus 76/3 is also the most well known movement, Poco adagio. Haydn composed the psalm that he subsequently used as the theme of this movement after a prolonged stay in England. Something of a celebrity, Haydn mingled with the royals, and his admiration for the British national anthem inspired him to compose a tribute to Emperor Francis II. It was later used first as the Austrian and then as the German national anthem. Haydn used a musical cryptogram of the first line of the Anthem, "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" to create the opening theme of the first movement, using the first letters of each word in the German text. G e f d k/c, are the exact musical notes of the main theme in the Allegro. The simplest ideas are often the best!. Hybrid SACD Pure Audio Blu-ray two-disc-box at the price of one ordinary Blu-ray 5.1 SURROUND STEREO produced in DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition 352kHz/24bit) by Lindberg Lyd, Norway The compact disc looks like a normal CD and plays on all standard players and computers.

It is common to date the beginning of the Renaissance to the mid-14th century. From the ashes of the Black Death emerged a society that was fundamentally changed , and to a large extent saw itself as re-born - formed a new. It cannot be a coincidence that this transformation first took place in the very parts of Europe that had been at the centre of the Roman Empire when at it's strongest, in Italy. Florence became the main powerhouse of the new Europe, and from there the Renaissance spread rapidly, bringing an intense cultural flowering to France, England, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. It is in these countries that Nordic Brass Ensemble has assembled the repertoire for "European Tour" - music arranged specially for this ensemble by Hans Petter Stagnes and Stian Aareskjold. Modern brass instruments have a hsitory going back to the Jaissaries, the Ottoman sultan's special military corps. Contact between Renaissance Europe and Islamic culture helped determine how European culture, and in particular it's music, would develop in this period. Nordic Brass Ensemble is made up of musicians from symphony orchestras and wind ensembles in the Nordic countries, and it has always played early music.

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After the great success that Il Trovatore received in Paris, Verdi was proposed to compose a French version of the opera to suit the tastes of the local public. The original work, based on the Spanish play El trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez, had a libretto by Cammarano, which was translated into French by Émilien Pacini . Le Trouvère was first staged in Brussels in 1856 and premiered at the Paris Opera in 1857. In this new version the composer added some music in act 3 for the gypsie ballet scene, extended the finale of act 4 and made several other revisions. The plot is highly dramatic and captivating: Verdi portrays strong characters who deal with war, obsession and revenge. To use director Robert Wilson’s words “this is a family tragedy, and in many ways, it is a very contemporary story.” Wilson’s approach to the opera aims at preserving its emotional strength by using a very essential décor, whose main element is light: “As a director, when I design the stage and lighting, I think about if what I see can help me hear better. Le Trouvère requires a tremendous amount of concentration, so the set I designed is abstract in order to create a space for the music in the Farnese. I have designed an environment in concrete, creating a juxtaposition to the theatre’s ornate interior. […] Light in my work functions as part of the architectural whole. It is an element which helps us hear and see. Without light there is no space. To light a world that Verdi has described as so dark, one needs light to make the space darker.” In the set’s background the director also uses some photos by American photographer Robert Rosenkranz. This production was staged in the splendid Teatro Farnese of Parma, which was built in 1628 and belongs to the Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta, one of the oldest museums in Italy. Extra content: Interview with the curator of the Museum subtitled in all languages.

In his Sixth Symphony, the “Pastoral”, Ludwig van Beethoven conveys his musical message in such a way that lets the listener literally “see” images of beautiful nature, tempestuous storms, and shepherds singing in the fields, whereas in his Seventh Symphony, Beethoven lets the music speak for itself. The performances of these works by the Gewandhausorchester under its conductor laureate Herbert Blomstedt give the uplifting feeling that the intentions of both composer and performers are united in serving the musical message. In the lively, subtly differentiated interpretation of the works, sincere happiness, deep respect, piety, joyful serenity and an affinity to nature as well as passion, vitality and spirit can all be felt. This is what the "authenticity" of making music is all about. The humanist and musician Herbert Blomstedt embodies this truth in a unique way, creating an atmosphere where the wonders of music all become true.