Bajazet was a work of Vivaldi's late maturity, a dramatic tale that recounts the capture of the Turkish sultan Bajazet by the all-conquering Tartar, Tamerlane. It is a pasticcio, a well-established form, in which Vivaldi incorporated arias by some of the greatest young composers of his time - Johann Adolf Hasse, Geminiano Giacomelli and Riccardo Broschi, brother to the famous castrato Farinelli - to form a generous buffet of musical fireworks. Still, Vivaldi's recitatives, choruses and arias form the backbone of the opera, and constitute the majority of the music, producing a work of kaleidoscopic invention.
This opera, which had fallen into oblivion, was revived in 1973 in the Dutch city of Zaanstad (the Saardam of the libretto) and staged at Bergamo's Teatro Sociale as part of the Donizetti Festival in a new critical edition made for the Donizetti Foundation by Alberto Sonzogni. In the plot, the Tsar Peter the Great works incognito as a carpenter at the shipyard of Sardaam to acquire technical knowledge to carry back home. On the podium, the knowledgeable Roberto Rizzi Brignoli leads the orchestra of the Donizetti Opera, assisted by the internationally renowned cinema director Davide Ferrario. In the cast, Andrea Concetti (a successful artist who has sung throughout the world) is joined by singers who are emerging in the belcanto repertoire, such as Giorgio Caoduro, Juan Francisco Gatell, Irina Dubrovskaya and Aya Wakizono.
This comic opera tells the story of Geronimo, a wealthy citizen of Bologna, who is trying to arrange aristocratic marriages for his two daughters, Carolina and Elisetta. What he doesn’t know is that his youngest daughter Carolina is already secretly married to Paolino, his young secretary. Through a series of humorous situations the young couple confess their marriage and all ends well. Giovanni Antonini conducts the Wallonie Royal Opera Orchestra for this performance of Cimarosa's two-act comic opera 'Il Matrimonio Segreto' ('The Clandestine Wedding'), recorded live at Liege in February 2008. Soloists include Cinzia Forte, Priscille Laplace and Damiana Pinti. Directed by Stefano Mazzonis Di Pralafera. Starring Cinzia Forte, Alberto Rinaldi, Damiana Pinti. Language: Italian Subtitles: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish
Alessandro Scarlatti's Il trionfo dell'onore (The Triumph of Honour) - his only comic opera - was first performed in Naples in 1718. With it's distinctive recitatives and expressive arias, and a cast including four pairs of lovers, it can be considered one of the forerunners of opera buffa. The central character is the unrepentant seducer Riccardo Albenori, a Don Giovanni-like figure though without the villainous aura. In this opera, Scarlatti ensures not only perceptive psychology but a rich variety of arias, duets and quartets that generate the work's pathos as well as it's humour and eroticism.
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore, based on the eponymous play by Spanish playwright Antonio García Gutiérrez, takes us to 15th c. northern Spain to witness the tragic destiny of those under the control of Azucena, who is seeking to avenge the death of his mother. + The first percussion notes are solemn, setting the tone for Verdi’s masterpiece, whose main themes include abandonment, passion, power, love for one’s parents and vengeance. + This production marked the debut of Russian stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov at La Monnaie and the first Verdi interpretation by Marc Minkowski.
Niccolo Jommelli was an innovative superstar among composers in his day, and is now recognized as a precursor of the new Viennese Classical taste in music. With it's intense story of love, life and death, Il Vologeso sets one of the most powerful libretti written for the European opera stage. This critically acclaimed production is considered to be it's first staged performance for over two centuries, and the highly successful opera directors Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito have revived a Baroque gem with their exciting, present-day staging.
Joyce DiDonato: In War and Peace - Harmony Through Music (DVD) Recorded live in June 2017 at the magnificent Liceu Theatre in Barcelona, this DVD is the companion to Joyce DiDonato's award-winning album In War and Peace: Harmony through Music. Seeking answers to the existential question "In the midst of chaos, how do you find peace?", it makes a compelling piece of music theatre as DiDonato journeys through arias by Handel, Purcell, Monteverdi, Leo and Jommelli with Il Pomo d'Oro and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev. On stage, In War and Peace: Harmony through Music makes a compelling piece of music theatre. In Barcelona, as on the European and North American tours she made in late 2016, DiDonato was joined by the baroque orchestra Il Pomo d'Oro and it's principal conductor Maxim Emelyanychev. May and June 2018 bring further performances in Portugal, France, Germany, Turkey and Hungary. Includes Bonuses: Joyce DiDonato presents "In War & Peace" project. Joyce DiDonato in Athens with el Sistema Greece directed by Josh Allott. Video Clip Lascia ch'io pianga directed by James Darrah
Richard Strauss described his two-act opera 'Intermezzo' as a 'bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes'. The soprano role of Christine with her shimmering cantilenas represents Strauss's wife Pauline, while the successful Court Conductor Robert Storch is Richard Strauss's alter ego in a reality drama that was avant-garde for it's time. This acclaimed production from director Tobias Kratzer brings 'Intermezzo' into the present day, highlighting Strauss's own clever switches between reality and fiction with stunning visual effects and a superbly characterful cast.
For the past several years, Isabelle Faust has been exploring Johann Sebastian Bach's music for the violin. First came her recording of the solo Sonatas and Partitas, which earned widespread acclaim. It was followed by the sonatas for violin and harpsichord, violin concertos and transcriptions, and the Brandenburg Concertos. Each reading was marked by equal freshness, an unfailing sense of rediscovery, precision, and generosity. Isabelle Faust here regales us with a treasure that reveals a thrilling story. A bonus DVD, recorded at the Leipzig Thomaskirche, next to it's most famous Cantor's tomb, completes this monumental tribute.
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
Janáček: Cunning Little Vixen / Crowe, Bell, Leiferkus, Jurowski, LPO
Opus Arte
DVD
$34.99May 28, 2013
The tale of a quick witted fox and her escape from confinement for a life in the forest that is by turns joyful and violent, The Cunning Little Vixen is an unsentimental parable of death and rebirth that lives through the instinctive and immediate world of nature, animal and human, which Janacek loved so much. Melly Stil's production for Glyndebourne find the "delicate balance between whimsy and mysticism" (Daily Telegraph) at the heart of the opera, which Vladimir Jurowski conducts "with lustrous style: you can hear the birds in the score, feel the sunshine and thrill to the starlit night sky in the final scene." (Opera Today)
Melly Still, stage director
Recorded live at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, June 2012
Bonus: - Creating Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen
Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 119 mins
No. of DVDs: 1
REVIEW:
The leading roles in this performance are sung by Lucy Crowe as the vixen (whose name is Sharp Ears), Sergei Leiferkus as the forester who tries to domesticate her, and Emma Bell as the fox that Sharp Ears meets after escaping back to her forest, marries (at a ceremony conducted by a grasshopper), and bears more children than she can count (only eight of which we see on stage). It is also important to observe that costume designer Dinah Collin chose to capture animals by a combination of suggestion and connotation. Both vixen and fox are identified primarily by their tails (which is also how we in the audience learn of Sharp Ears’ ultimate fate); but the rest of the costume tends to portray them as Gypsies, which is to say characters not quite at home in their own land.
The instrumental side of the score is provided by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, Music Director at Glyndebourne and Principal Conductor of the LPO. He conducts with a keen sense of how Janáček tends to direct the flow of his music through the modulation of energy levels. While Jurowski is Russian, he also seems to have informed himself of the extent to which Janáček evokes Czech folk idioms, allowing the score to establish its unique position between symphonic music and indigenous source material.
Most importantly, however, this is an opera that takes a fairy-tale-like narrative and serves it up as a visual and auditory feast; and this Glyndebourne production delivers exquisitely on both visual and auditory levels.
La Scala Ballet’s new, modern-dress staging of the classic Roland Petit ballet on Victor Hugo’s timeless tale of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Two world superstars take the lead roles–Natalia Osipova (Bolshoi Ballet, now Royal Ballet) and Roberto Bolle (La Scala Ballet). Music is by the great film composer, Maurice Jarre, with costumes from international designer, Yves Saint-Laurent. This was a major worldwide live cinema relay from La Scala in spring 2013.
This precursor to Monterey Pop and Woodstock is the granddaddy of all concert films, a chronicle of the 1958 Newport, Rhode Island Jazz Fest where music greats like Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Anita O'Day, Chuck Berry, Mahalia Jackson, George Shearing, Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, and Dinah Washington gave electrifying performances. Songs include "Blue Monk," "Sweet Georgia Brown," "Catch as Catch Can," "Tiger Rag," and more. 84 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English; audio commentary; bonus documentary "Bert Stern: Original Madman" (2011); more.
JOANA MALLWITZ MOMENTUM A film by Gunter Atteln Joana Mallwitz is a conductor. This profession is still seen by many people as predominantly male. Recognized early on for her exceptional talent, Mallwitz was Europe's youngest general music director before becoming chief conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, one of Germany's leading classical orchestras, in August 2023. Over two years, the film follows her as she embarks on a decisive phase of her international career - with debuts in Munich, Paris, Salzburg, and Amsterdam. At the same time, she and her husband have to reorganize their lives after the birth of their first child. JOANA MALLWITZ - MOMENTUM offers a candid and detailed portrait of the musician. We experience Mallwitz as a perfectionist who works hard, as a music mediator, and an energetic orchestra leader. Despite all her success, we feel the enormous pressure that the conducting profession brings with it, which, like a musical crescendo, steadily increases until her inaugural concert in Berlin. Opening film of FIPADOC Biarritz 2025 DOK. Fest Munchen 2024, Official Selection Krakow Film Festival 2024, DocFilmMusic Competition
A sonic innovator or an expert on chance? This documentary by Oscar-winning director Allan Miller and Emmy-winner Paul Smaczny pays tribute to the most fascinating American avant-garde composer. Shot in America, Germany and Japan, 'Journeys in Sound ' premieres rare archival footage and features associates of.
The first collaboration between John Cage and Scottish traditional music group The Whistlebinkies occured in Edinburgh in 1984. Cage was fascinated by their instrumentation of Lowland pipes, clarsach, fiddle, wooden flute, concertina, drum and voice. This led on to the commissioning of Scottish Circus for the ensemble in 1990, a way of performing traditional Scottish music as individuals of an ensemble together. The September 1990 premiere in Glasgow, in Cage's presence, also included his newly devised version of 4'33" (which lasted 10 minutes!). These recordings showcase Edinburgh's historic Inverleith House as not only the recording venue, but the acoustic of the house as a performer in it's own right. This DVD presents two first recordings of Scottish Circus, demonstrating how no two performances of the piece are the same. Also included are both outdoor and indoor performances of 4'33". Additional features: - Scottish Circus films presented with 5.1 Surround and Dolby Stereo options - Scottish Circus studio version (PCM 24-bit stereo, no video) - John Cage, Scottish Circus and The Whistlebinkies: McGuire and Eydmann in conversation - John Cage in Conversation, Edinburgh 1984 (mono, no video) Includes a 24-page booklet of photos with essays by Eddie McGuire, James Pritchett, Prof. Bjorn Heile and Brian Brandt. Plus interviews with John Cage by Steve Sweeny-Turner and Stuart Eydmann by Neill Martin.
John Wayne's first television special, originally aired as Swing Out, Sweet Land on NBC-TV in 1970, is a patriotic and poignant journey through American history - with music, comedy and many famous friends. As host and narrator, Wayne walks through pivotal moments in America's past. His guests include Jack Benny as a citizen asking George Washington (Lorne Greene) about that dollar he supposedly threw across the Potomac River; Bob Hope and Ann-Margret entertaining the troops at Valley Forge; printer Red Skelton discussing dissent with apprentice Tom Smothers; Lucille Ball as Miss Liberty; and Bing Crosby as Mark Twain, philosophizing with freed slave Frederick Douglass (Roscoe Lee Brown). Also: Dean Martin as inventor Eli Whitney; Michael Landon as Peter Minuit, buying Manhattan Island from an Indian (Bonanza co-star Dan Blocker); brothers Rick and David Nelson fighting on opposite sides in the Civil War; Phyllis Diller as a 19th-century Presidential candidate; Dan Rowan and Dick Martin as the Wright brothers; Celeste Holm and Dennis Weaver as the parents of young Abraham Lincoln; Greg Morris as Crispus Attucks, a Negro who died in the Boston Massacre. Musical highlights include Ribbon of Steel by Johnny Cash, This Is a Great Country by Glen Campbell, Oh, Susannah by Roy Clark, Clementine by Leslie Uggams and God Bless America by the cast. JOHN WAYNE'S TRIBUTE TO AMERICA is a lavish and thoughtful timepiece of 20th-century television entertainment, presenting a parade of legendary stars in a humorous and hopeful celebration.
Grafin Mariza (Countess Maritza) is an operetta in three acts composed by Hungarian composer Emmerich Kalman. The libretto is by Julius Brammer and Alfred Grunwald. It premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on February 28, 1924. This recording is of the famous performance of Grafin Mariza from summer 2018 in Morbisch. The adaptation stars Melanie Holliday as Furstin Bozena Cuddenstein and Vida Mikneviciute in the title role. The Seefestspiele Mörbisch has been attracting visitors to its operettas and musicals since 1957 on the unique stage directly on Lake Neusiedl. The imposing natural backdrop of the Neusiedler See National Park harmoniously blends into the largest open-air opera stage in the world. The Seefestspiele Mörbisch festival provides limitless cultural enjoyment and whisks visitors away into a magical world full of melodies from operettas and musicals, far from the worries of everyday life. From an artistic point of view, the festival is of the highest quality with carefully conceived staged productions with renowned performers and has ensured that it attracts a full crowd each year.
