Classical Music

The winner of Gramophone's 2021 Voice & Ensemble Award!

Hear the album that set a new standard for Verdi baritones, with excerpts from La forza del destino, Don Carlo, Ernani, Falstaff, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Macbeth, Nabucco, Otello, Rigoletto, and Un Ballo in maschera.

"Ludovic Tézier has arguably been the leading Verdi baritone on the global stage for the best part of a decade now. As such, the Frenchman’s first solo album is less a calling card of a singer setting out on a career than a consolidation, a demonstration of mature artistry. As anyone familiar with Tézier in the theatre or from his few forays on disc...will know, his is a true Verdi voice. It’s big, generously phrased and both forceful and grand, with a broad colouristic range running from knotty torment to aristocratic elegance...

"The album benefits greatly from programming that puts an emphasis on substantial extracts, several featuring roles that Tézier has made his own...with idiomatic support from Frédéric Chaslin and the Bologna orchestra, and engineering that captures the voice handsomely, this is surely the finest Verdi recital – from any voice type – to have appeared for several years, if not a decade." -Gramophone

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Classical Music

With the "Messa da Requiem“, Christian Spuck brought one of Verdi’s key works to the stage. In a large-scale co-production by the Ballett and Oper Zurich, the German choreographer and director ventured to portray an unusual interpretation of Verdi’s funeral mass in his scenic choreographic production. 36 dancers, the choir and supplementary choir of the Opernhaus Zurich as well as four highly acclaimed soloists joined together under the direction of Fabio Luisi for 13 wide ranging scenes dedicated to one of the most fundamental themes of humanity. Christian Spuck does not seek a mere religious interpretation of the liturgical text. Instead, he is interested in focusing on people who, in their vulnerability and helplessness, are in the search for comfort. In poetic tableaux he deals with basic human emotions and focuses on the feelings of fear, rage, pain, sadness and the search for redemption.

Classical Music

Verdi’s third opera was created at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1842, in the epicentre of the “Risorgimento” and the capital of Italian nationalism, at a time where the supporters of Italian independence from Austrian occupation were starting to make their voices heard. The “Chorus of the Hebrew slaves,” a pivotal point in the third act where the Jews, exiled from Babylon by Nabuchodonosor, mourn their country, “so beautiful and lost,” immediately resonated with the Italian nationalists and has ever since been a symbol of Italian national identity. French director Arnaud Bernard goes as far as to center the entire opera during the popular uprisings of 1848 and in the insides of the Milanese opera house. A clever way to emphasize on the legends that have been building around Verdi’s operas and the role they played in the political process of uniting the Italian peninsula. Soprano Susanna Branchini steals the stage as Nabuchodonosor’s daughter Abigaille, while Israeli-born conductor Daniel Oren conducts with great panache this “lyrical epic” that holds such a special place in the heart of all Italians. As a film director, Ingmar Bergman was also a choreographer. His “invisible hand” is constantly directing the actor in a slow dance around the room. The renowned and innovative Swedish choreographers Alexander Ekman, Pär Isberg, Pontus Lidberg and Joakim Stephenson, with principal dancers Jenny Nilson, Nathalie Nordquist, Oscar Salomonsson and Nadja Sellrup from the Royal Swedish Ballet, interpret Ingmar Bergman through four unique dance performances reflecting on human relations and intense feelings. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Bergman’s birth, this movie is not only a tribute to the Swedish cineaste’s unique aesthetics, but also a way to deepen his search of the ineffable, his reflection on the visual poetry of movement, and on the emotional powers of silent contemplation. The movie won the Special Mention award at Golden Prague International Film Festival 2017 for exceptional artistic achievement.

Looking back on the Verdi year of 2013, BR-Klassik has now supplemented its discography with the live recording of a concert highlight of October 2013. + With the Messa da Requiem, the conductor Mariss Jansons is now represented on the BR-Klassik label with Verdi's choral-symphonic legacy. + Together with international soloists Krassimira Stoyanova, Marina Prudenskaya, Saimir Pirgu, Orlin Anastassov and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Chorus of the Bayerischer Rundfunk is also a fundamental element of the Requiem, and its tonal versatility received special praise from the press. + Giuseppi Verdi’s Requiem, as dramatic a work as are any of his immortal operas and reproached in its day in some quarters as more theatrical than spiritual, was completed in 1874 shortly after the death of the great Italian author and patriot Alessandro Mazzoni, for whom it was performed on the first anniversary of his death.

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Classical Music

This selection includes a commentary on and analysis of this work, written by Thomson Smillie and performed by David Timson.

Opera Explained: Verdi - Aida

Opera Explained: VERDI - Falstaff (Smillie)

SONG OF JOY:DIE SCHÖNSTEN CHÖR

Classical Music

Classical Music

This selection includes an explanatory commentary of this opera, written
by Thomson Smillie and narrated by David Timson.

Falstaff: Stefano Posda, Ruggero Raimondi, Luca Salsi, Virginia Tola, Sabina Puertolas, Cinzia de Mola, Liliana Mattei, and Tiberius Simu star in this production of the Verdi opera with Paolo Arrivabeni conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the Opera.

NABUCCO

VERDI: Macbeth (Original version, Florence 1847)

ERNANI

Starring Antonio de Gobbi, Alberto Gazale, Francesco Demuro.

Verdi: Giovanna d'Arco

Verdi: Falstaff (Live)

Verdi: La forza del destino (Recorded Live 1954)