Described as 'the great Verdian bass' (Le Figaro) and a 'Mefistofele who stood out over all the others' (Der Neue Merker), Carlo Colombara brings some of the most famous bass roles to life in this wide-ranging programme. Emotions range from the pride of Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, through the terrors of Verdi's Attila, to the tender recollections of Rachmaninov's Aleko. Mephistopheles strides powerfully through both Gounod and Boito's operas, and Rossini's comic wit contrasts with the darkness of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.

In 1986 he won the prize for the best Italian singer in the G. B. Viotti Competition and the following year he won the As.Li.Co competition before making his début at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome in Ernani. His subsequent career has brought appearances in the most important theatres of the world, in Tokyo, London, Berlin, Vienna, Milan, New York, Zurich, Barcelona, where he now lives, Verona and elsewhere.

Featuring:
Carlo Colombara, bass
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana • Gyorgy G. Rath
Bulgarian National Symphony Orchestra • Vladimir Ghiaurov
Prague Tchaikovsky Orchestra • Fabrizio Milani
Oscar Martos Hidalgo, director

This tour starts with the ancient walled city of Pingyao, with visits to the Qu and Wang courtyard houses and the Shuanglin Temple. There are views of Mount Wutai, as well as the Hanging Monastery at the foot of Mount Heng.

Directed by Adriano.

Start in the old town of Kashgar, where the tomb of Abakh Khoja contrasts with the busy city life of Urumqi. From strange rock formations in the countryside, to the alpine scenery of Kanas Lake and the fertile vineyards of Grape Valley.

Also available on Blu-ray

With its narrative of buccaneering bravado, exotic opulence, romance and traitorous intrigue, Le Corsaire is one of the most impressive narrative ballets of the 19th century, and it remains one of Adolphe Adam’s best-known works. Director of the Wiener Staatsballett, Manuel Legris, has choreographed a new version that draws on the rich performance traditions of Russia and France, and carefully combines spirited action, Adam’s delightful music, choreography, scenery and costumes into an elegant and impressive production which brings to life the colourful events that surround the leading couple of Conrad and Médora.

Jules Massenet's fairy-tale opera Cendrillon ('Cinderella') was an immediate success at it's premiere in 1899 at the Op�ra-Comique in Paris. Massenet, then at the height of his powers, creates a magical sound-world full of wit, enchantment and perfumed elegance to match librettist Henri Cain's coming-of-age adaptation of this classic fairy tale. The colorful fantasy world created by the acclaimed stage director Barbrara Mundel and set designer Olga Motta features the British-Swiss soprano, Kim-Lillian Strebel, in her critically acclaimed title role. Kim-Lillian Strebel has received critical acclaim following a number of high profile debuts. She has acquired an extensive repertoire to include several high-profile roles. She recently made her US concert debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

The journey starts in the Austrian region of Muhlviertel, shows the Lippizaner horses of Piber in Styria and the storks and vineyards of Rust by the Neusiedlersee. The music of the tour consists of two of Beethoven's best known sonatas for violin and piano, the Spring Sonata and the Kreutzer Sonata.

The All-Star Orchestra gives you a front row seat to the world's greatest music, performed by top players chosen from over 30 great American orchestras. The programs feature complete performances of popular masterpieces and world premieres of new works by leading American composers. Filmed in High-Definition with 19 cameras during a once-a-year 'summit' in New York's historic Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center, the All-Star Orchestra celebrates the symphonic experience in the 21st century. Program #7 Music's Emotional Impact This program delves into Tchaikovsky's dramatic personal life, his brief marriage, and his intense correspondence with his patroness Nadezhda von Meck whom he never met, and to whom he dedicated his 4th Symphony. The dramatic brass fanfares that for Tchaikovsky symbolized Fate find a modern echo in David Stock's Blast! Program #8 Mahler: Love, Sorrow and Transcendence Mahler's turbulent passions are expressed through his music. His settings of poems by Friedrich Rueckert explore themes of love, nature, and otherworldliness. Mahler was haunted throughout his life by the premonition of his own death. The first movement of his 2nd Symphony, which Mahler called 'Totenfeier' ('Funerary Rites'), draws stark contrasts between the composer's premonition of doom, and his vision of life. Modern reflections on these themes can be found in 'Adieu' by Bernard Rands and 'Of Paradise and Light' by Augusta Read Thomas.

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

Also available on standard DVD

Rossini’s comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville was based on Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s French play Le Barbier de Séville and is the ultimate opera buffa. The score is a compendium of the composer’s wittiest and most brilliant writing, and includes the famous entrance aria Largo al factotum and a raft of superbly dynamic ensembles. This vibrant and youthful production features Florian Sempey, one of the world’s best Figaros, the ‘Rossini tenor’ Michele Angelini, vivacious and critically admired Catherine Trottmann, and the award-winning team of acclaimed director Laurent Pelly and conductor Jérémie Rhorer who directs his spirited period ensemble Le Cercle de l’Harmonie.

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REVIEW:

The cast are in modern dress but the interaction of characters is so forceful as to sweep away any lurking objections. Add to this some very fine singing, particularly from Michele Angelini’s glorious high tenor as Almaviva, and there is a great deal here to admire and enjoy.

– Lark Reviews

Rued Langgaard's remarkable opera 'Antikrist' confronts the decline and fall of Western civilisation, critiquing modern lifestyles and ways of thinking, which resonates with our times more than ever before. Never performed in the composer's lifetime, 'Antikrist' blends Romantic and contemporary styles to create a score that is both seductive and opulent, while the lack of a conventional plot creates space for an ironic and sarcastic expos� of contemporary civilisation's weaknesses. This spectacular Deutsche Oper Berlin production was acclaimed in 'The New York Times' as a 'riotously colourful, boldly stylised staging [in] a near-breathless swirl'.

Rued Langgaard's remarkable opera 'Antikrist' confronts the decline and fall of Western civilisation, critiquing modern lifestyles and ways of thinking, which resonates with our times more than ever before. Never performed in the composer's lifetime, 'Antikrist' blends Romantic and contemporary styles to create a score that is both seductive and opulent, while the lack of a conventional plot creates space for an ironic and sarcastic expos� of contemporary civilisation's weaknesses. This spectacular Deutsche Oper Berlin production was acclaimed in 'The New York Times' as a 'riotously colourful, boldly stylised staging [in] a near-breathless swirl'.

Götterdämmerung ('Twilight of the Gods') is the final opera of Wagner’s epic tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ('The Ring of the Nibelung') in which his visionary masterpiece reaches its cataclysmic conclusion. Betrayal and death, murder and remorse, lie at the opera’s heart, in a work that draws together every plot element in writing of blazing intensity. As the ring is restored to the Rhinemaidens, the age of the gods ends, with the opera offering the certainty of destruction but the consolation of renewal. Staged by the award-winning director Stefan Herheim, this innovative new production from Deutsche Oper Berlin features a leading international cast conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. The release includes "Making Of" documentary featuring interviews with Stefan Herheim and Sir Donald Runnicles, and behind the scenes footage.

Wagner’s "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (‘The Ring of the Nibelung’) comprises four operas of which "Die Walküre" (‘The Valkyrie’) is the second, famous for its spectacular set-pieces such as the "Ride of the Valkyries" and Wotan’s "Farewell." The plot focuses on the lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde and on the disobedience of the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, who defies the edict of Fricka, the goddess of marriage, to punish them. With "Die Walküre" Wagner achieved a perfect synthesis of poetry and music. Sir Donald Runnicles conducts an internationally acclaimed cast in this innovative new production by Norwegian director Stefan Herheim.

Nielsen's "Maskarade" is regarded as Denmark's national opera. It combines folk-song character, Mozartean elegance and virtuoso surprises to create what conductor Titus Engel describes as 'musical comedy that's both witty and of the highest calibre'. Based on an 18th-century play by Ludvig Holberg, the story revolves around Leander and Leonora who meet at a masquerade ball, swear undying love, and then have to deal with the complicated consequences of their situation, all accompanied by Nielsen's irresistibly sparkling score. This acclaimed contemporary staging from Oper Frankfurt is sung in a new German translation and directed by Tobias Kratzer.

Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt ('None but the lonely heart'), probably the best known of Tchaikovsky's songs, lends it's name to an intimate theatrical evening in which Christof Loy has combined songs or 'romances' and instrumental music to create a chamber opera of striking beauty and intensity. Tchaikovsky's songs cover a stylistic diversity unsurpassed by other Russian composers, often setting enigmatic texts in which the unsaid and unsayable create expressive tensions and encapsulate true human emotions. Given a sumptuous period setting, these qualities create a unique drama in which suppressed love is confronted with longed for moments of passion, and sadness over broken relationships leads to withdrawal and loneliness