Die Walküre is the second part of Der Ring des Nibelungen and has remained the most popular of the tetralogy of operas. Prominent are the lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde who incur the anger of Fricka, goddess of marriage, and whose long duet in the superbly sustained Act I is one of the work’s glories. The spectacular Ride of the Valkyries, the spellbinding music of Wotan’s Farewell and the Magic Fire that closes the opera are other highlights of this critically acclaimed production from Sofia National Opera. Sofia National Opera, founded in 1890, is the oldest and most prestigious Bulgarian opera theatre. Drawing upon the tradition of West European and Russian ballet theatre, its founders, singers and producers have established the ensemble method of a permanent troupe of soloists, orchestral musicians, ballet dancers, set design artists and producers. They produce up to 10 premières of classical and modern opera and ballet over a 10-month season.

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Wagner sourced material for his national legend Der Ring des Nibelungen in medieval German and Scandinavian sagas, though much was his own invention. Das Rheingold is the prologue to this tetralogy of music dramas. It introduces the principal events in this visionary work, the theft by the Nibelung dwarf Alberich of the ring made from Rhine gold, and its seizure by Wotan, ruler of the Gods. This production was recorded in 2010 at the Sofia Opera and Ballet theatre as the first title of the complete Wagner cycle that we will be releasing entirely in separate titles. The theatre’s managing director Plamen Kartaloff succeeded in creating an amazing “Sofia Ring” with local cast and crew, chiseling each detail with care: from singers’s vocal training to set design, lights and costumes, thus delivering a most modern and captivating rendition which was acclaimed by international press.

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

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This opera was recorded at the 2019 Festival Verdi in a new coproduction from Teatro Regio di Parma and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. I due Foscari, a tragedia lirica in three acts based on a work by Lord Byron, was premiered in 1844. It proved quite popular for the next fifty years, thanks in part to its brevity and ease of staging; in fact it’s Verdi's shortest opera. The composer also revised the libretto by the rather inexperienced Francesco Maria Piave. From the musical point of view, this work is characterized by extreme simplicity of form and by the use of distinctive themes for each character, reminiscent of the Leitmotiv technique. The simple plot describes the mortal hatred between a Venetian gentleman, Jacopo Loredano, and two members of the Foscari family - the Doge Francesco and his son Jacopo - whom Loredano holds responsible for the deaths of his father and uncle. The effectiveness of this recording stems from both the cast of singers (notably Vladimir Stoyanov in the role of Francesco Foscari) and the orchestra under Paolo Arrivabeni's direction Paolo Arrivabeni is a highly experienced, international conductor who specializes in this repertoire.

The soaring, optimistic opening of Brahms' String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111 is one of the great moments in chamber music: the upper strings shimmer, enriched with the addition of a second viola, while the cello delivers its leaping melody. The work is equal to his Op. 88 string quintet: it has an even more intimate and abstract character, with rich and complex writing within the concise form that also characterizes its twin work. The Quintet in F major, Op. 88 was completed in the spring of 1882 at Bad Ischl, a place particularly favored by Brahms. Unusually, the composer immediately declared himself very pleased with the work, to the point that he wrote, after the customary private performance, to the publisher Simrock: ‘I can assure you that up to today I have never listened to a better work written by me.’ Cast in three concise movements, the Quintet in F major is an extraordinary work, warmly communicative, and undoubtedly one of the Hamburg composer's best chamber works. The two String Quintets Op. 88 and Op. 111 are particularly noteworthy and should be counted among Brahms’s chamber music masterpieces, even though they are rarely performed in concert because of the peculiar scoring for 2 violins, 2 violas and cello. Since there are no regular ensembles with this make-up, they are usually performed by an established string quartet to which a second viola is added.

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This production is new staging of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Il Tabarro is one of the three one-act operas that compose Giacomo Puccini’s Il Trittico. Michele is married to young Giorgetta and shares with her a life full of hardships on a barge over the river Seine. She is in love with Luigi, a young longshoreman hired by her husband during the loading of the barge. When Michele overhears his wife giving a rendezvous to Luigi by night, he waits for the man and attacks him, forces him to admit he is his wife's lover and finally strangles him. Then he hides the body under his cloak, (il tabarro) and when Giorgetta, in mortal fear, comes on deck and asks Michele if he does not wish her to come and rest near him under his cloak, her wronged husband throws it open and Giorgetta discovers in horror her dead lover’s body rolling at her feet. The element of Didier Gold’s Houppelande that most attracted Puccini was the opportunity to represent, in music, a river, which is what acts as a backdrop in this plot and determines its pace. The importance of this atmosphere is enormous, because it is linked to the mise en scene more tightly than usual. The action entirely takes place on a barge over the Seine in Paris, which is placed in the centre of the scene. The music describing the river uses a cyclic repetition of ostinato patterns, representing the monotonous flowing of the water, as inexorable as destiny and as regular as the flow of time. The pulse of the river cyclically marks, in the first part of Tabarro, the life of this world of vanquished: longshoremen and boatmen. But even when it disappears, the musical identity between drama and location does not cease to exist.

This collection of piano works is a journey through the music that represents the years spanning the end of the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s. It is a varied itinerary, marked by that typically Parisian ésprit nouveau that captured the most diverse influences: popular music, jazz, exoticism, quotes from popular tradition, songs, circus exhibitions. At that time in fact the divide between cultured and light music came down as new forms of entertainment blossomed, different from those proposed by the great institutions. Cradles of this change were the artistic cabarets, the cafés-concerts, the music halls, the tabarins, but also bistrots, taverns, bookshops, and all the places where intellectuals and artists met. This release offers an historical playlist imbued with the mood of that time, alternating the energy and joie de vivre with more melancholic moods. For the centrality of his figure and the originality of his works, the fruit of a constant process of renewal, Erik Satie is present here with six works which represent several stages in his amazing creative parabola. Dario Müller has performed in concert for important institutions and has collaborated with Dynamic since 1984.

A successful musician in the early 19th century, Giovanni Simone Mayr composed the opera Medea in Corinto in 1813, the same year it premiered at the San Carlo theatre in Naples. The two act tragedy with libretto by Felice Romani was Mayr’s most popular theatrical work. The story is that of the Greek myth of Medea. “Michael Spyres, in the role of Jason, confirms to be one of the finest belcanto performers of the moment, endowed with a nimble voice and pure and solid high notes.” (Dynamic)

Mauro D’Alay was a virtuoso violinist and composer from Parma who acquired great fame and fortune throughout Europe. A contemporary of Vivaldi who praised his musical skills, D’Alay held official positions as a musician, first in Parma’s Cathedral and then at the Spanish court of King Philip V, whose wife Elisabetta Farnese gifted D’Alay the famous ‘San Lorenzo’ Stradivarius in 1718, which he kept until his death. Now largely forgotten, this ambitious and dynamic composer wrote sonatas, cantatas and concertos. This album features the 12 Violin Concertos, Op. 1 published in 1725 – composed in the Parmesan style, but with Venetian influences – and presented here in a world première recording. Parma born violinist Luca Fanfoni recorded these concertos adhering to the instrumentation indicated in the score: principal violin, first violin, second violin, viola, cello and organ. Ensemble Reale Concerto (which counts among its members Fanfoni’s wife and children) recorded this album during lockdown in 2020.

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.

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

Video Format: NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Audio Format: PCM 2.0
Sung In: Italian
Subtitles: Italian, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Region Code: 0 (All Regions)
Duration: 189 min.

George Frideric Handel was one of those rare composers who excelled in works sacred and secular, instrumental and operatic, leaving us extraordinary masterpieces in every field of music. Already renowned in Italy, Handel made himself known in London with Rinaldo in 1711, which was such a success that he decided to remain in England for good. It is still regarded as one of his greatest operas. Set during the Crusades, Rinaldo is a lavish spectacle that tells a story of love, magic, struggles for power and ultimate reconciliation. Pier Luigi Pizzi's acclaimed production brings us into a 'dreamlike, unreal... world of spells and incantations'. (Epoca). This production by Pier Luigi Pizzi, conceived in 1985 for Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, has traveled since to some twenty major opera houses worldwide. Discounting practical cuts and a few displacements of musical numbers, it's durable attraction lies in the gorgeous costumes and scenery, a stylish paragon of Hyperbaroque eschewing both literalism and cheap provocation. It is performed at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, which was the first theatre to reopen after lockdown. The set design and direction perfectly respond to the current safety measures.

REVIEWS:
Fanfare (5-6/98, p.254) - "...dependable playing, fine engineering, and a bourgeois choice of repertoire. Although mildly amusing, this is not an important release."

The orchestral suite is a genre that was mostly popular during the first half of the 18th century. Johan Friedrich Fasch is noted as being one of the more prolific German composers of orchestral suites. The overtures of the orchestral suites recorded here have all the traditional elements of the French overture. With it's light-hearted and lively developments, Fasch's music is both entertaining and brilliant.

The concept behind Fake Bach is to record a recital dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach that focuses on piano transcriptions that are ‘daring’ and ‘scandalous’, providing a unique perspective on Bach’s music. Encouraged by Franz Liszt and reflecting the progressive Bach Renaissance of the 1800s, these transcriptions date from 1850 to the First World War. The pianist-composer-virtuosos on this album researched the essence of Bach’s genius and ended up expressing mostly themselves and their own personalities, dissolving the space between interpreter and their ‘object of love’ composer.

Revived after 171 years in oblivion, the staging of Rosmonda d’Inghilterra at Bergamo’s Teatro Donizetti proved fascinating for the Italian public. From the excellent cast of singers, Jessica Pratt and Eva Mei gave standout performances. The opera revolves around a tale of love and intrigue surrounding the main protagonists- the famous Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, her husband Henry II of England, and the fair Rosamund de Clifford. Rosmonda is the quintessential innocent, unaware that the man she loves is the King of England and that she has unwittingly become a rival to the much-feared Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor, having already had her first marriage annulled for reasons of consanguinity, is unwilling to se her second marriage also fail. Only the faithful page Arturo, secretly in love with Rosmonda, knows that the Queen is aware of her husband’s betrayal; but he too is embroiled in this game of deceit hoping that he will end up winning the girl. The emotional and dramatic development is very effective. There is not a page in this score without some example of brilliant writing, a captivating theme, a moving passage. It all goes to prove how deeply original Donizetti was and how much there is still to be discovered about this underappreciated composer.