Set in the artistic but impoverished milieu of early 19th-century Paris, the tragic love of the poet Rodolfo and seamstress Mimì is one of the most affecting in all opera. La Bohème’s arias are also some of the most intensely passionate Puccini ever wrote, making it is one of the best-loved of all his works. In what Opera News called a ‘thorough rethinking and brilliant re-creation’ this exceptional Oslo production, strongly cast and conducted, and staged by internationally acclaimed director Stefan Herheim, explores the work as never before to create what The New York Times called an ‘ultimately haunting’ experience.

Review

The impressive cast includes Diego Torre as Rodolfo and the luscious-voiced Marita Sølberg, acting and singing beautifully as Mimi…This is a bold, innovative and thought-provoking production that challenges more conventional interpretations of Puccini’s best-loved opera.

--New Classics

Launched by its prologue Das Rheingold (8660374-75), Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) - one of the supreme works in the history of music - continues with Die Walküre. Part II of the tetralogy centres on the young lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde, whose relationship angers Ficka, goddess of marriage, and on the disobedience of the Valkyrie Brünnhilde who is sent to carry out Fricka’s wishes. Performed by an all-star international cast, the work features thrilling set-pieces such as Wotan’s Farewell and the Ride of the Valkyries.

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

Also available on standard DVD
Verdi’s Stiffelio is a tense moral drama in which a Protestant minister learns of his wife’s betrayal and is torn between a thirst for revenge and his religious duty of forgiveness. These themes of adultery and divorce were social taboos in 1850, and Stiffelio was met with such censorship and disapproval that it was soon withdrawn. Today we can appreciate both the title character’s significance as the first true Verdi tenor, and the many wonderful moments in this ‘most unjustly neglected of Verdi’s operas’. This unique and dynamic production from Parma was acclaimed for taking us to “a whole new theatrical world” (Huffington Post), and as “nothing short of a coup” (bachtrack.com).

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

Also available on standard DVD
Commissioned in 1846, Macbeth offered Verdi the opportunity to make a qualitative leap in his career and its premiere was triumphantly received by audiences. Yet the libretto had proved problematic and many Italian critics did not share the composer’s reverence for Shakespeare. Verdi surmounted all concerns with an opera that valued brevity but also preserved the play’s most important elements. The formidable final concertato stands as one of his greatest achievements thus far, his pacing and detailing of the opera as a whole far surpassing his previous works. This production preserves the preferred 1865 revision of the work, sung in Italian and retaining the original 1847 finale.

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

Also available on standard CD

This unique programme is the first time that all the ballet music from Verdi’s operas has been brought together in a singe recording. Although The Four Seasons from I vespri siciliani (The Sicilian Vespers) and the ballet scenes from Aida and Otello have survived, substantial pieces from Il trovatore and Don Carlo are more often cut, while the ballet from Jérusalem is all but unknown. José Serebrier’s recordings with the Bournemouth Symphony have resulted in some great successes with unusual repertoire. This release will be of interest both to opera enthusiasts and to those eager to explore Verdi’s neglected and relatively small body of concert music.

R E V I E W:



VERDI Complete Ballet Music from the Operas • José Serebrier, cond; Bournemouth SO • NAXOS 8.57218-19 (2 CDs: 115:22); NAXOS NBD0027 (Blu-ray audio: 115:22)


This pair of discs includes ballet music from Otello, Macbeth, Jérusalem, Don Carlo, Aida, Il trovatore , and I vespri Siciliani —much of it music we don’t get to hear in performances of these operas. The most direct competition for this set is the four-disc Chandos series featuring all of this music plus all the preludes and overtures, with the BBC Philharmonic under Edward Downes. If you have those discs, this would probably be a needless duplication. But comparing the performances demonstrates Serebrier to be the more interpretively interesting conductor. Downes’s performances are more than competent, and he does hold one’s interest throughout what is not always first-rate music. I reviewed the Downes recordings as they were released, in Fanfare 20:5, 21:6, and 23:5.


Serebrier, however, brings to the music a greater variety of color, more rhythmic energy, and a wider range of ideas about phrasing. The vitality of his rhythm is perhaps the most significant difference, and it can be heard everywhere, in slow or fast music. The extra lilt he brings, for example, to the waltz right after the introduction of the Don Carlo ballet brings a smile to the listener.


There are fine, comprehensive notes to accompany the disc, and Naxos’s recorded sound is well balanced and clear, if a bit closer-in than the Chandos. While not all of this music is at Verdi’s most inspired level, none of it is unworthy of our attention. Second-rate Verdi is still better than most composers’ gems! Serebrier’s colorful, charming, and highly committed performances, and the Bournemouth Symphony’s excellent playing, make this a highly recommendable disc.


FANFARE: Henry Fogel

VENICE: A Musical Tour of the City’s Past and Present

The Places
Venice is one of the most famous of all cities, its buildings reflecting its former commercial importance and wealth. Its canals and its position at the head of the Adriatic have given it a unique character that has continued to attract visitors.

The Music
The music here included is either associated directly with Venice or familiar there in the heyday of the Serenissima. It includes music by the Venetian composers Vivaldi and Marcello, and by Domenico Scarlatti, Neapolitan by birth, who was sent to study there by his father.

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

Joseph Haydn
Complete works for Solo Keyboard

Tom Beghin, keyboard

* The First Naxos Blu-Ray- a recording of the complete works of Joseph Haydn for solo keyboard in nine virtual reconstructions of the rooms in which these pieces would have been originally performed, using seven specially-crafted historical keyboards.
* A trail-blazing project of four Blu-Ray discs featuring 14.5 hours of music with an added “picture in picture” option, plus a three-hour documentary on the “making of” the recordings, directed by award-winning director and screen-writer Robert J. Litz.
* A fully interactive experience, this epic set offers users the opportunity to “direct” their own performance of a short Andante for Musical Clock; by selecting from a choice of rooms and instruments users can freely navigate 63 possible combinations to experiment with sound and acoustics as if wandering the 18th century halls themselves.

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM 2.0 / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Dutch, French, German, Japanese
Running time: 18 hours
No. of Discs: 4 (BD 50) N

THE FULL MONTEVERDI • Robert Hollingworth, cond; I Fagiolini • NAXOS 2.110224 (DVD: 60:00 Text and Translation)


MONTEVERDI Madrigals, Book 4


Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of Madrigals, published in 1603, is a setting of 19 poems by Arlotti, Gotti, Guarini, Moro, Rinuccini, Tasso, and Anonymous. Their only unity is the theme of separation, or the parting of lovers. While that is not much of a plot, an additional difficulty in creating a scenario out of these texts is the madrigal form, five voices singing polyphony. Moreover, due to the varying tessitura from one to the next, a set of madrigals usually uses a group of six voices. John La Bouchardière, an opera director who knew this Fourth Book since childhood (doubtless from the Raymond Leppard cassette), realized that six couples sitting in a restaurant might be sharing, separately but simultaneously, the experience of parting. He matched the six singers of I Fagiolini to six actors and created a theatrical presentation that was given almost 90 times from 2004 to 2006. The set for the performance venue was a restaurant, the six couples sitting at tables among the audience. A minimal performance provided only six tables, one couple at each. When it came time to film the performance, the soundtrack was first recorded, then the drama was videotaped. For video, the scene of the performance was not restricted to the restaurant. Flashbacks to scenes in the homes of the six couples and other locations were inserted. The singing partners among the six couples, assisted by the paired actors carrying out the thankless task of responding to the drama silently, actually sang along to the playback for verisimilitude. What began in the restaurant with six couples dissolving their relationships concluded strikingly back at the same location with six lonely individuals sitting at separate scattered tables.


Never mind the title, which is no more than a clever play on a recent stage musical, though it does suggest stripping bare the emotions as madrigals do. This is a remarkable way of realizing a book of madrigals that was never conceived to be heard this way. It’s highly successful, whether you watch with the English subtitles on or off. Not a word is spoken, for apart from ambient sound there is nothing to be heard but the singing, interrupted only by the briefest of pauses. The emotional expression on all the faces is convincing, an aspect that could easily have spoiled the effect. Repeated viewing will certainly reveal overlooked details, as the viewer becomes familiar with the dozen personalities that pop up in succession with some rapidity. Remember, six amorous breakups are unfolding simultaneously, the emotions and meanings of the madrigals applying equally to all of them. The production was made jointly for five national television systems and Naxos, and it has been broadcast since last autumn. This is a remarkably original conception, carried out with astonishing success. I have never realized the meaning of a set of madrigals as clearly as I did here.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber
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Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: Dolby Digital Stereo / Surround / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English
Running time: 60 mins

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3 ‘Song of the Night’ creates a potent atmosphere of Persian mysticism in its rich blend of voices and exotic orchestration. His Symphony No. 4 is largely extrovert in character and has a prominent rôle for piano. Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 can be found on NBD0021. The CD release of Symphony No. 3 was Gramophone Editor’s Choice and given 5 STARS by ClassicFM (8.570721), and Symphony No. 4 an ‘unbeatable’ 10/10 from ClassicsToday.com ( 8.570722); the complete cycle acclaimed as ‘revelatory’ (ClassicalCDReview.com).

Reviews of the CD versions of these recordings

"Antoni Wit almost always can be relied on to deliver very thoughtful, beautifully musical, even inspired results, and there's no question that he conducts these works extremely well. The performances of both symphonies have a confidence and warmth about them that bespeaks a thorough understanding of Szymanowski's richly textured idiom. The Song of the Night (a.k.a. Symphony No. 3) has many of the same qualities that made Wit's Mahler Eighth so special: terrific choral singing, a bigness of conception that never precludes physical excitement, and very natural balances between vocal and instrumental forces."
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

"As previous issues in this series have shown, when Antoni Wit and his forces are in top form in the music of Szymanowski, they're pretty much unbeatable...The performance of the Symphonie Concertante, one of Szymanowski's greatest works, is superb. Pianist Jan Krzysztof Broja plays the solo part beautifully. He's got the chops for the big moments in the outer movements, but it's his delicacy at the start of the central andante that's most memorable. Wit, typically, directs the orchestra with remarkable clarity as well as power. The finale in particular never has sounded less "clogged" texturally, while the very natural engineering always leaves plenty of room for the sound to expand and fill the hall at those ecstatic climaxes that are such a hallmark of this composer. A splendid release!"
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

Although Szymanowski later dubbed his Symphony No. 1 a “contrapuntal-harmonic-orchestral monster” and disavowed the influence of Wagner, Reger and Richard Strauss, it is an astonishingly powerful work by a composer only in his mid-20s and still enthralls listeners a century after its première. The unusually structured Symphony No. 2 is a work of great impact and invention, with many passionate and varied contrasts in its use of solo instruments, in particular the violin. On their CD release, these thrilling interpretations of Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 1 earned 5 STARS from BBC Music Magazine, while the Symphony No. 2 gained Gramophone Editor’s Choice and 5 STARS for these “deliriously sensual scores” from Classic FM.

"When Antoni Wit and his forces are in top form in the music of Szymanowski, they're pretty much unbeatable. Szymanowski repudiated his First Symphony on stylistic grounds (too Wagnerian), and it certainly does not represent the direction he ultimately took. But it's still great fun: a big, bold, scant 20 minutes of colorful scoring and exuberant musical ideas."
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

"The performance of No 2 in two movements, an opening Allegro followed by an extended set of variations, is equally persuasive. [T]he first movement is passionate and thrustful and the variations bring some fascinating contrasts, ending with a powerful fugue. Antoni Wit's performance could not be more idiomatic, with players totally inside the music. An outstanding issue."
-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone

Since its international début in 1991, The University of Texas Wind Ensemble has built a reputation for innovative programming. They perform three highly virtuosic and expressive works conceived to give the listener a surround sound experience in the concert hall, recreated on this recording in stunning 5.1. Steven Bryant’s Concerto for Wind Ensemble places three groups of players around the audience while Joel Puckett’s Shadow of Sirius envelops the audience with a spatial arrangement of flutists. In the second movement of John Mackey’s Kingfishers Catch Fire antiphonal trumpets are staged behind the audience to conjure up this magnificent bird flying triumphantly into the sunlight.

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.


Schubert wrote his first theatrical work when he was fourteen and his hopes of success in the genre, never truly realised, were long lasting. He wrote concert overtures and music for Singspiele (Song-plays), in some of which he was guided by his teacher, Salieri. The music for the melodrama Die Zauberharfe (The Magic Harp) is better known as the Overture to Rosamunde, but evidence of his captivating vitality, tunefulness and theatricality is everywhere to be heard.

Reviews of the original CD versions.

You may feel drawn to this disc out of a sense of duty. You know that you ought to know more of Schubert’s overtures than the so-called “Rosamunde” or the Overtures in the Italian Style. So you put this disc on – and are immediately transported with a sense of sheer delight. What is more, this continues throughout the disc as one engaging work follows another. At the end you pour yourself another cup of Earl Grey and start again. Well, at least that was my experience.

You may know all of these early works already and have scores or good recordings of them, in which case none of this will come as a surprise. For those who do not, let me explain that the nine overtures on this disc are all relatively early works written for a variety of purposes. Some are for operas or plays, some are concert works, and the last was probably written for a Cantata in honour of the Chief Inspector of Elementary Schools, a man also in charge of the fund for teachers’ widows. Despite that it is a very engaging piece. The notes by Keith Anderson helpfully explain the origins of each Overture, but I doubt whether you would be able to distinguish which is which without those notes. They are however unfailingly attractive, most with slow introductions followed by sonata-form movements. If you enjoy Schubert’s first three Symphonies, you will certainly enjoy these pieces which are very much in a similar vein and with similar virtues, especially in respect of the very characteristic scoring. Over and over again the listener will find themselves delighted by a turn of phrase, an unexpected harmony or deft orchestration.

Although clearly this is essentially down to the composer, much of the pleasure of the disc is also due to the bright but affectionate performances by the Prague Sinfonia, an expanded version of the Prague Chamber Orchestra. Christian Benda comes from a very distinguished family of Czech musicians and directs performances that are just right for these pieces, avoiding on the one hand blandness and on the other excessive point making. The recording quality is clear and full.

You will have gathered by now that I have had considerable pleasure from this disc. Completeness can be a mixed blessing, but on this occasion I am very glad that Naxos have decided to do this in respect of a category as unexpected as Schubert’s Overtures.

-- John Sheppard, MusicWeb International

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As this second volume of overtures shows, there really is quite a bit of little-known Schubert orchestral music. Perhaps the biggest discovery for many listeners will be the turbulent Overture in E minor, but there are more than a few substantial pieces here. The two Overtures in the Italian Style are delightful, and so true to their models, and all of the music here is very well played and recorded. Benda and the Prague Sinfonia deliver a particularly vivacious account of the Rosamunde Overture, just the opposite of the thick and heavy "German" approach that we so often hear, while Fierabras also has plenty of energy. The sonics capture the players very naturally, with nicely present woodwinds and excellent balances between brass and strings. No qualms here: Go for it.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Franz Schubert
ALFONSO UND ESTRELLA
Opera in 3 Acts

Mauregato – Olaf Bär
Estrella – Luba Orgonasova
Adolfo – Alfred Muff
Froila – Thomas Hampson
Alfonso – Endrik Wottrich

Arnold Schoenberg Choir
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor
Jürgen Flimm, stage director
Erich Wonder, set design
Florence von Gerkan, costumes

Filmed at the Theater an der Wien during performances in Wiener Festwochen, May 1997.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: Dolby Digital 2.0 / Dolby Surround 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German
Running time: 140 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

It is also available on standard CD.

Gioachino Rossini
IL TURCO IN ITALIA

Selim – Marco Vinco
Fiorilla – Alessandra Marianelli
Geronio – Andrea Concetti
Narciso – Filippo Adami
Prosdocimo – Bruno Taddia
Zaida – Elena Belfiore
Albazar – Daniele Zanfardino

Prague Chamber Chior
Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento
Antonello Allemandi, conductor
Guido De Monticelli, stage director

Filmed at the Teatro Rossini, Pesaro, Italy, 18 August 2007.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: Dolby Digital 2.0 / Dolby Surround 5.0 / DTS 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 165 mins
No. of DVDs: 1