Classical Music

Classical Music

Magnificently conducted by Krips, with a cast that could hardly be better, headed by Rysanek's impassioned, soaring Mlada and Spiess's virile, heroic yet sensitive Dalibor.

Dalibor is magnificently conducted by Krips who, with the VPO on best form, catches the full lyricism of Smetana's freedom-seeking opera. His cast could hardly be better, headed by Rysanek's impassioned, soaring Mlada and Spiess's virile, heroic yet sensitive Dalibor (oh, how we could do with a tenor of this thrilling calibre today!). Spiess surpasses even the legendary Blachut in the role. Imagine my chagrin then when the edition used heinously omits the hero's Act 3 song of freedom, one of the great passages in the work. Rysanek's younger sister Lotte, sounding uncannily like Leonie, makes much of little as Jitka. Waechter is splendid as the tortured king. The performance is in German, but no matter: this is an exciting set, in spite of the cuts.

-- Gramophone [2/1999]

Richard Wagner 
DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN
(Highlights)

Wotan / Der Wanderer – Juha Uusitalo
Loge – John Daszak
Alberich – Franz-Josef Kapellmann
Fasolt / Hunding – Matti Salminen
Fafner – Stephen Milling
Fricka – Anna Larsson
Erda / Schwertleite – Christa Mayer
Siegmund – Peter Seiffert
Sieglinde – Petra-Maria Schnitzer
Brünnhilde – Jennifer Wilson
Siegfried – Lance Ryan
Mime – Gerhard Siegel
Waltraute / Erda – Catherine Wyn-Rogers

Valencia Regional Government Choir (Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana) Valencian Community Orchestra (Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana) Zubin Mehta, conductor

La Fura del Baus, staging
Carlus Padrissa, stage director

Recorded live from the Palau de les Arts "Reina Sofia", Valencia, Spain, 2007-2009.

Special budget-priced DVD
100 minutes of the most stunning visual and musical highlights of this production by La Fura dels Baus, including two new documentaries about Franc Aleu and Carlus Padrissa.

Bonus:
- Portraits of Carlus Pardissa and Franc Aleu

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: DTS 5.1 (highlights) / PCM Stereo (bonus)
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: German, French, English, Spanish (highlights) / English (bonus)
Running time: 100 mins (highlights) + 30 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:

It might seem I am about to trash this issue but I am actually very impressed by the Valencia Ring so do please read on.

The DVD menu and title sequence is accompanied by music, which is to be deplored. Please can we have silence in these places on concert and opera videos. No one wants to hear the same truncated chunks over and over again whilst trying to work through the labyrinth to get DTS5.1 instead of stereo and subtitles in the right language. The sound is only in PCM stereo anyway on this section just to add to the confusion. The transitions between sections are handled by simple fade-outs; disruptive if you know the music well but what else can one do in The Ring? The length of pauses is variable from almost nothing to several seconds. Though the extracts are in dramatic order there is no indication of where you are in the operas nor is there any hint that one has changed opera, just randomly timed fades in and out. The worst example is the end of Act 1 of The Valkyrie which stops barely a couple of seconds before a chunk of Act 2. I suspect the tea-boy was in charge of post production. I am relieved to say all is well apart from these technical blots and since the music and production are so entertaining, and the sound and picture is so good, one can forgive Unitel these flaws. Do keep the booklet to hand whilst viewing and don't even bother with this DVD if you don't have another complete recording in your collection because you will get hopelessly lost without a plot summary.

Most opera productions are characterised by their appearance rather than by the performance. It is almost impossible to ignore what you are seeing and it often clashes with what you are hearing. To my knowledge only Bruckner managed to get through The Ring without noticing that there were costumes and scenery involved! The Valencia production is no different. It is dominated by huge video projections throughout and the DVD production often takes advantage of these to add its own layers of image for dramatic effect. Stage lighting is extremely dramatic which enhances the startling images still more. If you like to see people standing and singing against a plain background à la Bayreuth 1960s then you will hate it because this one really grasps the technical challenge and goes with it. The singing is of uniformly high quality and the conducting of Zubin Mehta is fine so long as you do not expect Solti's fierce drive. The orchestra are excellent and even get a scene for themselves in the prelude to Act 3 of Siegfried. Since you will only buy this to check if it is to be love or hate so far as you are concerned before either ignoring it forever, or ordering the entire cycle on Blu-ray, these are some of the delights in store.

Loge has a great little motor scooter with which to run rings around the rest of the cast literally as well as figuratively. The costumes are complicated and often look very heavy which makes the little cranes used on and off through the cycle to carry characters around the stage very understandable. Act 1 of The Valkyrie has a wonderfully effective and very subtle tree which bears careful study. This creation looms over a decidedly stone-age looking Sieglinde and a very tough Siegmund. These two Walsungs look highly dangerous to me and must have posed a serious problem for Hunding. Since we don't see him at all in these extracts we have no idea how he handles them. The Ride of the Valkyries looks fantastic and is well performed against huge and effective video backdrops. Lots of work for the cranes here! The ring of fire which Wotan places around Brunnhilde is a proper inferno as is the fire for Siegfried's forge which looks positively dangerous. Siegfried by the way can sing well but is a patchy actor as seen here. The forge is animated by many stage hands so that Notung appears to be a product of a busy factory rather than one superman. So much for Siegfried facing down Wotan's plans single-handed but since the helpers look like the Nibelung slaves in The Rhinegold it can be seen as logical. I wasn't so taken by Fafner who looks more like an articulated ventilation duct than anything supernatural but some productions even leave him out, such are the challenges of staging this part. Bayreuth once had the entire stage start to writhe, an effect of such impact that all others pall. The prelude to Act 3 of Siegfried has a massive back-projection of snow-covered mountains and eventually of the whole Earth from which Erda emerges in a moment of highly consequent majesty. Siegfried travels down the Rhine on a river of plastic drinks bottles which is utterly bizarre but does actually work - just believe me! The closing scene also manages to be consequent and we see Brunnhilde, on a crane, returning the Ring to the Rhine maidens before disappearing into the conflagration. The producers use lots of gymnasts in this and other scenes to great dramatic effect and the end here is close to awe-inspiring.

The 100 minutes of opera on the DVD is joined by 30 minutes of supporting documentary material. After some preliminary tele-visual nonsense one film describes the way the directorial team worked up their ideas to fulfil Wagner's intentions and sometimes his explicit instructions - now there's a novel idea - to do what the composer says. Others take note! The other film is about the important lighting design. Both are worth one's time.

A superb marketing tool for the entire cycle available on DVD and on Blu-ray. This performance and production is a great success overall and this DVD needs watching just once before you go out and buy the whole thing.

-- Dave Billinge, MusicWeb International

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)

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

Also available on standard DVD

Giuseppe Verdi
IL TROVATORE
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Il conte di Luna – Claudio Sgura
Leonora – Teresa Romano
Azucena – Mzia Nioradze
Manrico – Marcelo Álvarez
Ferrando – Deyan Vatchkov
Ines – Cristina Giannelli
Ruiz – Roberto Jachini Virgili
Un vecchio zingaro – Enrico Rinaldo
Un messo – Seung Hwa Paek

Parma Teatro Regio Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Martino Faggiani)
Yuri Temirkanov, conductor

Lorenzo Mariani, stage director
William Orlandi, set and costume designer
Christian Pinaud, lighting designer

Recorded live at the Teatro Regio di Parma, 5 and 9 October 2010

Bonus:
- Introduction to Il Trovatore

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Running time: 140 mins (opera) + 10 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 50)

Giuseppe Verdi
AIDA

Il Re – Kevin Short
Amneris – Iano Tamar
Aida – Tatiana Serjan
Radamès – Rubens Pelizzari
Ramfis – Tigran Martirossian
Amonasro – Iain Paterson
Un messaggero – Ronald Samm
Una sacerdotessa – Elisabetta Martorana

Camerata Silesia
Polish Radio Choir, Krakow
Bregenz Festival Chorus
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Carlo Rizzi, conductor

Graham Vick, stage director
Paul Brown, stage and costume designer
Ron Howell, choreography
Wolfgang Göbbel, lighting designer

Recorded live from the Bregenz Festival, 22 and 24 July 2009.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
Running time: 135 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

R E V I E W:

At Bregenz one can expect spectacular productions – or at least conspicuous ones. I am talking about Opera on Lake Bodensee which takes place in July and August each year. It’s part of the Bregenz festival which provides a lavish offer of opera, theatre and concerts. The outdoor stage surrounded by water invites gigantic sets and the long distance to the grandstand on the shore requires amplifying equipment. I have seen some productions on DVD and also some stills. They are generally provocative, putting the characters in settings as far away from the original as can be imagined. Il trovatore a few years ago took place in an industrial landscape, possibly on an oil platform. This Aida goes even further. The water here isn’t ocean deep but allows the actors to wade, to swim, to fall in or splash, even to be drowned. During the prelude two lifeless bodies hanging on a wire attached to an enormous building crane, are slowly transported before the eyes of horrified onlookers until they are lowered down into a barge off the stage. In Trovatore fire was central to the proceedings; in Aida water has the same importance, the Nile being the life-blood of the Egyptians. There is a water ballet in the triumphal scene. The tomb episode takes place on a ship drifting among the waves. During the final duet the ship rises from the water and sails into the sky, leaving Amneris alone at the waters’ edge. A real amphibious opera.

Dominating the stage picture are two monstrously big, blue feet. Why are they there? Whatever the reason they appear to function as the firm foundation around which the action rotates, whether it be Aida, the slave girl, scrubbing the floor, Amneris in black dotted evening gown airing her human ‘dogs’ or high priests and soldiers invading the stage. There are activities aplenty with numerous extras just being there, costumes are a mix of modern and ancient. All this business tends to suffocate the central conflicts and it is typical of the performance that it is in the Nile scene – act III – that the action grabs the viewer by the throat; this is the first scene with no external distractions. In a way this is dramaturgically sensitive, since the first two acts primarily deal with festivities, while the core of the drama is the triangle Aida – Amonasro – Radames. This is an oversimplification of the plot. There are many strands in the libretto and Amneris – though basically an evil character but one who loves – is the hub around which everything rotates. In this performance it also becomes obvious why Verdi initially contemplated naming the opera Amneris.

Iano Tamar, the Georgian soprano who was also a great Leonora in Il Trovatore, is the star; her somewhat darkish timbre contrasting well with Tatiana Serjan’s girlish Aida. Tamar has authority and a thrilling lirico-spinto voice. In the first scene in act IV she is truly great. Serjan at first seems too lyrical for Aida, having a fluttery soubrette voice but it sits well with her youthful looks. Her Ritorna vincitor is however sung with intensity and in the third and fourth acts she grows in stature, no doubt inspired by Scottish baritone Iain Paterson’s powerful Amonasro. He is an unusually dangerous Ethiopian king. Rubens Pelizzari is a rather pale Radamès in the first two acts but like his Aida he grows and in the Nile duet he finds a glow that has eluded him before. O terra addio, though sung in a strange setting, is delivered with lyrical beauty and warmth by both artists. Tigran Martirossian is an acceptable Ramfis but Kevin Short’s King is terribly wobbly.

As so often with these Bregenz productions one ends up in two minds. They’re innovative for sure, and this Aida is no exception. One can marvel at ideas that suddenly illuminate the proceedings but just as often one thinks: ‘What’s the point of this?’ Carlo Rizzi keeps things together and draws splendid playing from the Wiener Symphoniker. The choral forces have no easy task to walk all those stairs and balance on wet slippery stones while keeping an eye on the conductor but they manage it well. Sound and pictures are good. Readers have to decide from my descriptions whether this is a DVD worth spending money on, but Iano Tamar’s glorious Amneris should definitely be seen and heard.

-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

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 CD 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.

In the first half of the 1700s, the aria with concertante trumpet was one of the ingredients that the public of the numerous Venetian theatres appreciated the most. + This is the first recording that makes available virtually all these still rather little-known vocal and instrumental works with trumpet that encompass Antonio Vivaldi’s entire career, works not only very interesting works from a musical point of view but also brilliantly written. + The oldest ones date from his Mantua period (1718-1720), the most recent ones belonging to the last phase of his operatic career (1732-1737).

Richard Wagner 
DIE WALKÜRE

Siegmund – Peter Seiffert
Hunding – Matti Salminen
Wotan – Juha Uusitalo
Sieglinde – Petra-Maria Schnitzer
Brünnhilde – Jennifer Wilson
Fricka – Anna Larsson
Gerhilde – Bernadette Flaitz
Ortlinde – Helen Huse Ralston
Waltraute – Pilar Vázquez
Schwertleite – Christa Mayer
Helmwige – Eugenia Bethencourt
Siegrune – Heike Grötzinger
Grimgerde – Manuela Bress
Rossweisse – Hannah Ester Minutillo

Valencian Community Orchestra (Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana)
Zubin Mehta, conductor

La Fura del Baus, staging
Carlus Padrissa, stage director

Recorded live from the Palau de les Arts "Reina Sofia", Valencia, Spain, 2008.

Bonus feature:
- The making of Die Walküre

Picture format: 1080i Full HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (opera) / Dolby Digital 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: German, French, English, Spanish (opera) / English (bonus)
Booklet notes: German, French, English
Running time: 245 mins (opera) + 27 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 50)

Composed for Venice in 1837, just a year-and-a-half after the fantastic success of Lucia di Lammermoor, Pia de' Tolomei "pleased altogether", in the composer's words. He revised it a couple of times thereafter and it was shown at various theaters as distant as Malta until 1855, after which it disappeared. It takes place in 13th-century Siena: Pia is married to Nello; his cousin Ghino loves her but she refuses his advances. Ghino angrily accuses Pia of adultery with an unknown man, who turns out to be Pia's brother, Rodrigo, and Nello imprisons her. Ghino eventually feels remorse and confesses his deception, but not soon enough to save Pia from being poisoned by Nello.

One of the formal weaknesses of the opera is that Rodrigo is a mezzo-soprano role, and that type of travesty never quite works; but even elsewhere, the fact that Pia is so passive, added to generally formulaic writing, keeps the opera from being a winner. Still, there are some fine Donizettian tunes and scenes, and it's worth hearing.

This live performance finds a remarkably committed cast struggling uphill against Donizetti's lack of true inspiration, but the singers turn out a satisfying experience in the end. The star is Patrizia Ciofi as Pia. She delivers a specific, focused reading, beautifully sung and filled with as much textual and tonal nuance as the score allows. Her voice has gained body in the middle and the top still gleams. Ghino is sung by tenor Dario Schmunck, and he exhibits a fine, ringing tenor and good Donizettian style; his opening aria and cabaletta and the second half of his duet with Nello are exciting, vigorous parts of the score, and he tears into them well. Baritone Andrew Schroeder has a nice snarl as Nello, but aside from the cabaletta to his duet with Ghino he has pretty ordinary music. Rodrigo is given similarly uninteresting music, and Laura Polverelli sings it well enough. The chorus sings with as much involvement as the cast, which is saying a great deal, and the orchestra plays with verve under Paolo Arrivabeni. Recommended for Donizetti completists.

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

Italian/English libretto included.

"The Metamorphoses of Dionysus", Mikis Theodorakis’s first opera, from 1985 — it was followed in 1990 by "Medea", in 1993 by "Elektra", in 1996 by "Antigone", and in 2001 by "Lysistrata" — is based on a free variation and an individual reading of Greek history. It is at once a parable of the excesses and suggestive effects of power, but also of the relationship between art and politics. It centers around the suicide of the civil servant and poet Kostas Karyotakis, whose poems Theodorakis set for the opera. The libretto, by Theodorakis himself, incorporates various texts by Karyotakis and two fragments from the poem "The Good People" by Kostas Varnalis (1884–1974). The opera begins and ends with the suicide of the poet Kostas Karyotakis, whose poems are presented as arias in the opera, running through the entire work. They are framed with texts by Theodorakis, producing a collage of verses of poetry and his own texts, of melodic and grotesque passages, that becomes the opera’s essential structuring feature: the contrast between the arias, the set “tragic” poems by Karyotakis, and the musical farces, the music to Theodorakis’s “sarcastic” texts.

VERDI: Lombardi alla prima crociata (I)

Classical Music

Classical Music

Verdi: Il Corsaro

Rossini: Turco in Italia (Il)

PAISIELLO: Giuochi d'Agrigento (I) [Opera]

ROSSINI: Cambiale di matrimonio (La)

VERDI Un giorno di regno • Donato Renzetti, cond; Guido Loconsolo (Belfiore); Anna Caterina Antonacci (Marchesa del Poggio); Ivan Magri (Edoardo); Alessandra Marianelli (Giulietta); Andrea Porta (Baron Kelbar); Paolo Bordogna (La Rocca); Teatro Regio di Parma O & Ch • C MAJOR 720304 (Blu-ray); 720206 (1 DVD: 119:00 opera, 10:00 bonus) Live: Parma 2010

Giuseppe Verdi’s second opera, Un giorno di regno, proved to be a real disaster, the opera was pulled from the stage at Milan’s La Scala after only one performance, during which the raucous crowd loudly vented their displeasure, sending the young composer into a paroxysm of despair. Yet conditions were never propitious for the opera’s success. Due to the favorable reception of Verdi’s first opera, Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio, he had been signed to compose three more for the Milan house. The intendent, Bartolomeo Merelli, decided at the last minute he needed a comedy to round out the new season, and Verdi was given a choice of several old discarded and rejected librettos from the house stock. According to Verdi himself, he picked the one he disliked least, an older work by Felice Romani, probably updated and touched up for him by house librettist, Temistocle Solera. Verdi’s métier was never comedy, he did not write another until his last, Falstaff, when he was nearly 80. This particular comedy, an opera buffa, was already old-fashioned for the times, employing secco recitatives (sung passages accompanied only by piano) long out of style. After only recently losing his young son to illness, while he worked on this new opera Verdi’s wife fell sick and died as well. Shocked and in grief, Verdi wanted nothing more to do with composing for comedic situations, but Merelli, desperate for the opera, cited the contract and forced the composer to finish the music in a rush. To top it off, the somewhat temperamental singers employed at La Scala were not committed to the work and one key singer was in bad voice. The result was predictable.

With all the above excuses now offered, my opinion of the work is considerably higher than that of the opening night crowd. They were hoping to see top notch Donizetti and only got average Rossini (still pretty good) with a dash of Verdi mixed in. The opera has some strong musical numbers and could easily be mistaken for an early Rossini piece, in fact it is quite reminiscent of Rossini’s first staged opera, La Cambiale di matrimonio, except that instead of one set of mismatched lovers, here we have two, in the pattern of romantic operetta, along with a pair of quarreling buffo basses. The tenor, Belfiore, is posing as the King of Poland while the real king carries out a delicate mission of state. Belfiore must not reveal his true identity while he is a guest at the castle of Kelbar in France. He is in love with a young widow, the Marchesa del Poggio (mezzo), who is also in attendance at the castle. The Marchesa recognizes Belfiore and gets wounded feelings because he won’t acknowledge her. She has been toying with another man, and in a fit of spite, announces she will marry him. Among the other characters are the junior pair of young lovers, penniless tenor Eduardo and his would-be girlfriend Giulietta, the daughter of castle owner Kelbar. Rounding out the lot are the two basses, Baron Kelbar himself, and La Rocca, the state treasurer, who also has his eye on Giulietta. Belfiore uses his royal powers to help straighten things out, and get everyone matched up properly again. When he is finally able to renounce the throne, the others accept the fait accompli with at least grudging good grace. Sound like Strauss Jr. or Franz Lehar? Verdi could probably have used their help, but he was half a century too early.

It may be a long time before a better case is made for Verdi’s maligned second opera than on this C Major video of a 2010 production from the Teatro Regio in Parma. This is set No. 2 in their Tutto Verdi project to record all of Verdi’s operas on high definition Blu-ray disc, and already one of the highlights of the series. Sets are stylish and traditional, costumes in period and finely appointed. Stage Director Pier Luigi Pizzi to his credit pretty much sticks to the story in this seldom seen work, although there is a quite enjoyable tongue-in-cheek bathing scene for the Marchesa where she gives us an old-fashioned strip tease as she disrobes. Mezzo Anna Caterina Antonacci still has the goods to make it riveting entertainment for we males. (And what is the Marchesa doing taking a bath at the castle when she is not an overnight guest? Who cares, it’s harmless and entertaining.) Antonacci sings quite wonderfully, as usual, and even assays Verdi’s coloratura with confident aplomb. Her creamy mezzo voice is always on pitch and she is one of the best actresses on the stage today. She gives the distinct impression that if Belfiore is lucky enough to end up with her she is going to be a handful. Hot young tenor Guido Loconsolo also brings plenty of vocal talent to the role of Belfiore and he looks great as well. The second set of lovers, tenor Ivan Magri and Italian soprano Alessandra Marianelli, despite a few wayward pitch problems are both more than satisfactory here. The quarreling buffo basses should be more properly termed quarreling buffo baritones, neither Andrea Porta as the baron nor Paolo Bordagna as La Rocca have the strong bottom range for a buffo bass (think Osmin in Mozart’s Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail). Both do however bring a nice comedic flair which suits the story well. The chorus seems curiously muffled in a couple of spots but sings quite well when you can hear them, The Parma house orchestra here under conductor Donato Renzetti, seems quite capable, at least in early Verdi. I will be interested to see how they hold up in the blockbuster operas of middle Verdi and the even more demanding scores like Don Carlos and Aida.

Musical highlights include the cleverly written overture, quite reminiscent of Rossini, the virtuoso tenor aria “Pietoso al lungo pianto,” the mezzo soprano aria “Si mostri a chi l’adora,” and the septet, patterned after the septet in La Cenerentola, but not quite as tuneful or as funny. The staging of the septet here is quite reminiscent of the Cenerentola staging from Houston Grand Opera seen on DVD where everyone sits in chairs and pops up when it is their turn to sing, similar to the old Whack-a-Mole game at the carnival. There is a competing video version of Un giorno di regno being released this month with a strong cast on Hardy Classics which I have not seen, but I would recommend this set even if there were a dozen others out there; I am quite pleased with it.

FANFARE: Bill White   

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

Also available on standard DVD

Hector Berlioz
LES TROYENS

Énée – Lance Ryan
Chorèbe – Gabriele Viviani
Panthée – Giorgio Giuseppini
Narbal – Stephen Milling
Iopas – Eric Cutler
Ascagne – Oksana Shilova
Cassandre – Elisabete Matos
Didon – Daniele Barcellona
Anna – Zlata Bulycheva

Valencia Regional Government Choir (Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana)
Valencian Community Orchestra (Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana)
Valery Gergiev, conductor

La Fura dels Baus, staging
Carlus Padrissa, stage director
Ronald Olbeter, stage designer
Peter van Praet, lighting designer
Chu Uroz, costume designer

Recorded live from the Palau de les Arts “Reina Sofia”, Valencia, Spain, 2009.

Bonus:
- The making of Les Troyens

Picture format: 1080p High Definition
Sound format: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: French, English, German, Spanish, Chinese, Korean
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 240 mins (opera) + 21 mins (documentary)
No. of Discs: 2

"Ancient myth meets Star Wars, and the eye is constantly engaged with images ranging from space-age technology to details of soccer uniforms." The New York Times

"This is a worthy and compelling, glittering version of a sublime work." International Herald Tribune

Raffaella Angeletti, Nino Batatunashvili, Annuziata Vestri, Massimiliano Pisapia, Enrico Cossuta, and Thomas Morris star in this Sferisterio Opera Festival Macerata production of the Puccini opera conducted by Daniele Callegari and staged by Pier Luigi.

Also available on Blu-ray

Franz Joseph Haydn
IL MONDO DELLA LUNA

First Haydn Il Mondo della Luna (which has blissfull Mozartian spirit) on DVD and Blu-ray! Nikolaus Harnoncourt created an interpretation in which Haydn’s work can become a veritable gem of opera literature. Renowned actor and director Tobias Moretti relates the story as a light-footed, magical fairy tale infused with slapstick, witty details and fantasy costumes.

‘Harnoncourt on top form’ (4 star rating, Financial Times)

‘Haydn's work can become a veritable gem of opera literature.’ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

‘An electrifying birthday gift for – and above all from – Nikolaus Harnoncourt’ (Der Standard)

‘The ensemble of singers acts in a way that is seen much too rarely in the opera: acrobatically, credibly and always wittily.’ (Kurier)

Ecclitico – Bernard Richter
Ernesto – Vivica Genaux
Buonafede – Dietrich Henschel
Clarice – Christina Landshamer
Flaminia – Anja-Nina Bahrmann
Lisetta – Maite Beaumont
Cecco – Markus Schäfer

Concentus Musicus Wien
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor

Tobias Moretti, stage director
Heidi Hackl, costume design
Renate Martin and Andreas Donhause, set design
Olaf Winter, lighting design

Recorded live from the Theater and der Wien, 2009.

Bonus:
- Interviews with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Tobias Moretti

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 167 mins (opera) + 26 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 2 (x1 DVD 9 + x1 DVD 5)

Also available on Blu-ray

Giuseppe Verdi
LA BATTAGLIA DI LEGNANO

Federico Barbarossa – Enrico Giuseppe Iori
Primo console di Milano – Francesco Musinu
Secondo console di Milano – Federico Benetti
Il podestà di Como – Gabriele Sagona
Rolando – Leonardo López Linares
Lida – Dimitra Theodossiou
Arrigo – Andrew Richards
Marcovaldo – Giovanni Guagliardo
Imelda – Sharon Pierfederici
Un araldo – Alessandro De Angelis
Uno scudiero di Arrigo – Nicola Pascoli

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Lirico “Giuseppe Verdi” di Trieste (chorus master: Paolo Vero)
Boris Brott, conductor

Ruggero Cappuccio, stage director
Carlo Savi, set and costume designer (with Mimmo Paladino and Matthew Spender)
Nino Napoletano, lighting designer

Recorded live at the Teatro Lirico “Giuseppe Verdi” di Trieste, 23 and 29 February, 2 March 2012

Bonus:
- Introduction to La battaglia di Legnano

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Running time: 119 mins (opera) + 11 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Classical Music