Susan Gritton, Sylvie Brunet, Soile Isokoski, Susanne Resmark, Helene Guilmette, Bernard Richter, and Alain Vernhes star in this Bayreuth production of the Poulenc opera conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov.

Roberto Alagna (tenor), Serena Gamberoni (soprano) & Marc Barrard (baritone)
Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra, Giampaolo Bisanti
Libretto Pierre-Louis Moline
Subtitles: French, English, German, Spanish, Italian
Length: 104 minutes - Bonus: Backstage & Interviews
Colour 16/9 - PCM STEREO, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1

Theatrical and musical adaptation in one prologue and three acts by David Alagna
Filmed in High Definition at the Bologna Opera, January 2008
THE PERFORMANCE: Roberto Alagna as Orpheus in his brother David's new version of Gluck’s masterpiece. A major event recorded in Bologna.

Opting for the French-language version of Orpheus, David Alagna was faced with the task of achieving an appropriately subtle adaptation. In a plot transposed to the present day, Eurydice dies in a car accident on the day of her wedding and Orpheus's quest for his beloved is a dream beginning and ending at the cemetery. No happy ending in this interpretation, but a new approach to characterisation:Amore, sung by a baritone, becomes a funeral parlour employee and Orpheus' guide. Orpheus, of course, loses his loved one forever by turning to look back. World famous tenor Roberto Alagna throws himself body and soul into this production. His incredible vitality, flawless timbre and diction make him a great Orpheus. His partner, young Italian soprano Serena Gamberoni, is simply stunning as Eurydice, while French baritone Marc Barrard is suitably terrifying as the guide to the Underworld. The orchestra is conducted by Giampaolo Bisanti, who masterfully brings out all Gluck's poetry, romantic melancholy and depth.
A co-production with the Montpellier Opera.

Also available on Blu-ray

Leocadia Begbick - Jane Henschel
Fatty "the Bookkeeper" - Donald Kaasch
Trinity Moses - Willard White
Jenny Smith - Measha Brueggergosman
Jim Maclntyre - Michael König
O’Brien/Higgins - John Easterlin
Bank-Account Bill - Otto Katzameier
Alaska-Wolf Joe - Steven Humes

Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado
Stage Direction : Alex Ollé, Carlus Padrissa – La Fura dels Baus

A hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus at the Teatro Real de Madrid.

Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialisation of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. In twenty scenes the authors tell the story of a city lost in the middle of a desert and run by three thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling and violence rule supreme.

The production by Alex Ollé and Carlus Padrissa, both of La Fura dels Baus, combines enormous inventiveness, joy and energy with awe-inspiring ferocity.

Perfect casting brings together a group of singers – Measha Brueggergosman, Michael König, Jane Henschel and Willard White – who are also marvellous actors.

The Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus are directed by young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, who actually began his career at the Teatro Real. In November 2010, he received the “El Ojo Crítico” prize, awarded annually to Spain’s most outstanding artists in the classical music field.

Director: Andy Sommer
Length: 138 min - Image: 16/9 NTSC
Audio: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: French / English / German / Spanish
Zones: All Zones - 1 disc

Three magnificent vocal leads, one chamber orchestra, a sole setup, during one night, the audience witness the fate and destiny of the touching Strindberg's heroine.

Filmed in high definition at the Grand Theatre de Geneve, 10/2008.

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

Svetlana Zakharova, Sergei Filin, Gennady Yanin, Maria Aleksandrova (dancers)

Soloists of the Bolshoï Ballet & Orchestra of the Bolshoï Theatre, Alexander Sotnikov

Choreographer: Pierre Lacotte after Marius Petipa.

For the first time in Blu-ray, Bel Air Classiques present Petipa’s extravaganza, The Pharaoh’s Daughter, in the stunning production by Pierre Lacotte. This Russian ballet enjoys a special place in history. Premiered in 1862, this grand spectacle, which lasted four hours and featured a cast of 400, was Petipa’s first truly successful ballet and secured his future in St Petersburg, where he went on to become the most influential choreographer of the 19th century. Until recently, The Pharaoh’s Daughter was also one of Petipa’s lost ballets; it hadn’t been performed since 1928. In 2000 the French choreographer Pierre Lacotte premièred a restored version at the Bolshoi Theatre, after much research into the original, resulting in a shorter although still sumptuous extravaganza. Ballet scenarios don't come much sillier than The Pharaoh's Daughter, which turns on the story of British Egyptologist Lord Wilson who, after a reckless hit of opium, dreams himself back to the time of the pharaohs. Wilson falls in love with Aspicia, the ballet's titular heroine, and when she throws herself into the Nile to avoid being married off to the King of Nubia, Wilson is left to face death by snakebite. Tragedy is averted by the Nile's underwater king who restores Aspicia to Wilson's arms.

"Whatever doubts are raised by Lacotte's choreography, his designs are deliriously extravagant - and with these, at least, we're guaranteed a taste of the blockbusting opulence that enthralled St Petersburg and Moscow 140 years ago." -- Judith Mackrell, The Guardian

Also available on Blu-ray

Ten years after his death, the Paris Opera Ballet payed homage to the American choreographer who considered the Paris Opera as his second home after New York City Ballet. The three pieces performed here illustrate not only the diversity of the choreographer's repertoire and sources of inspiration, but also his love of music and his all-embracing attitude to the performing arts. Jerome Robbins brought new energy to classical dance, introducing 20th century urban rhythms, confirming its status as a modern entertainment form and instilling it with the interrogations of contemporary theatre. En Sol, set to Maurice Ravel's Concerto en sol, follows no particular narrative line or dramatic effect. Echoing the music's jazzy invitations and light-heartedly copying Broadway style, this is a light and joyous piece for two soloists and an ensemble. It provided Jerome Robbins with an opportunity to reveal the relaxed, fluid feel so emblematic of his style.

In the Night and The Concert are two tributes to Frederic Chopin, each in a different register. Seeking to free the composer from the commonplaces that have often belittled his music, Robbins transforms Les Nocturnes into In the Night, a long and poetic pas de deux built like a metaphor of love in all its states. The Concert joins the ranks of the few comic ballets in the history of dance. Taking as its point of departure images inspired by some of Chopin’s more fancifully entitled scores, Jerome Robbins' piano recital is a comic plea for the cause of human vulnerability.

The fact that, at the very same period, he was contributing to the renewal of the musical by bringing a tragic side to his West Side Story, only underlines his insatiable thirst for originality and his immense talent for freely combining genres and styles. Lastly, Benjamin Millepied, who made his dance debut with Robbins in New York, dedicates his second creation for the Paris Opera Ballet, Triade, to the choreographer. "Dance is composed of human relations", Robbins used to say. A worthy heir to his master, Benjamin Millepied matches this credo through a fruitful dialogue with composer Nico Muhly.

R E V I E W:



TRIBUTE TO JEROME ROBBINS • Marie-Agnès Gillot, Florian Magnenet, Laëtitia Pujol, Audric Bezard, Marc Moreau, Clairmarie Osta, Dorothee Gilbert (dancers) • BEL AIR 070 (DVD: 111:00) Live: Paris 9/2008


The Paris Opera Ballet staged these four works in 2008 to honor the 90th anniversary of Jerome Robbins’s birth (he had died 10 years earlier). Robbins had always led a dual existence, one as the most innovative of choreographers for what became known as the American “show” dance style, and also as one of the more innovative choreographers of ballet. He did the former to make money, the latter for his own pleasure, yet they always influenced one another, and in the end Robbins himself influenced such people as Jacques d’Amboise, Lester Horton, and Twyla Tharp. Perhaps the best example of Robbins’s cross-styled choreography here is En Sol, essentially a summertime beach fantasy set to the music of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. Moves that one immediately recognizes as part of our show music lexicon go side by side with traditional ballet moves, postures, and jetées. It’s been thought that Robbins first began to mix his dance metaphors, so to speak, during his stint as a 20-year-old in an artists’ work camp (Tamiment) led by Max Liebman, where he worked with the up-and-coming comedians Danny Kaye and Imogene Coca, though he also came under the wing of Mikhail Fokine about the same time and in 1940 was accepted into the corps de ballet of the newly formed Ballet Theatre.


The level of dancing seen in this film is magnificent. Judging by ballet videos I’ve seen over the past 20 years, what was considered spectacular in 1990 was considered the par for star dancers in 2000, and considered average for members of the corps in 2010. Nearly every ballet company on video, with the exception of the La Scala ballet of Italy, has come so far up in quality that it’s astounding, and Paris seems to be the best of all. I attribute this in part to the groundbreaking work that Rudolf Nureyev did with the company in the mid-to-late 1980s, raising up not only the technical level of dancers but, more importantly, the overall expectation of what the corps could do and a perennial drive to always become better. That, combined with the exceptionally high level of dance training nowadays, has led to most dance companies being able to pull off things that would have been considered extraordinarily difficult a generation ago.


As mentioned, En Sol grabs the eye as much for the mixing of dance metaphors as it does for the way the moves are executed. Male dancers, especially, do leaps that angle the legs in a way that shouts Broadway rather than Fokine or Ashton (although Ashton himself was not entirely immune to Robbins’s work; some of his later ballets incorporate a little of the American’s style). The choreography still looks fresh because it was conceived as timeless, and if the men do many moves that remind one of show dance, the women are far more balletic, being on pointe a great deal of the time and looking as if they should be in tutus even when they’re just in bathing suits. I’m sure there was a time when this choreography was not merely controversial, but annoying to balletomanes, but we are so far past that point that we now simply see it as great 20th-century dance. Regardless of the venue he was working in, Robbins always filled space well, and that is no exception here. In a sense, the star of this ballet is the corps, although danseuse étoile Marie-Agnès Gillot is cast in one of the lead roles.


The second ballet in this set, Triade, is not actually Robbins’s work, but choreography by Benjamin Millepied, who worked closely with the American from the age of 16. The music is also newly minted, a pretty modern score composed by Nico Muhly, and it’s as interesting as the choreography. Millepied describes it as On the Town- influenced, although here we have two male and two female dancers—at least, in the beginning. Toward the end, a third couple suddenly comes out of the wings and joins them on stage. Like Robbins’s own work, Millepied’s ballet is just a generalized dance, showing four people who simply interact out of pure emotion; it “doesn’t tell a story and hardly ever makes a point; it’s just an excuse for talking about human relationships and feelings.” But Millepied pushes the balletic envelope here even further than Robbins did. His dancers swoop and dive on stage, crossing each other to create fascinating patterns despite the minimal number involved. Further, the use of an almost black, night-like set works to his advantage. At one point one of the male dancers, wearing dark slacks, dances with only a pale spotlight on him. The effect is that we focus on his face, hands, and arms, the only flesh-colored items in the spotlight, which create their own unique pattern. The introduction of a third couple in the last stage of the work adds to the ability to fill space, even if it confuses the story somewhat. At one point, a female dancer “sits” on pointe, held only by the arm of her male partner, a gravity-defying stunt. At another, there is an arabesque that appears to be even more incredible than many yoga-inspired positions: A female dancer leans backward on the floor, her knees bent and her body held in a perfect rectangle by just one arm, similarly bent underneath her, leaning on that one elbow. One is reminded how much of modern dance, from the time of the Ballets Russes to the present, is influenced by and incorporates geometric designs. The stars of this production are Gillot, Laëtitia Pujol, Audric Bezard, and Marc Moreau.


Next comes Robbins’s In the Night, one of his purely classic, romantic ballets, set to Chopin nocturnes. Both the costumes and the choreography are more traditional here, with only occasional touches of the show dance style for which Robbins became famous. This could quite easily be the work of Ashton as much as Robbins. Again, the choreography is sparse, centered on six solo dancers who work in pairs; again, it is extremely difficult and challenging dance, requiring each of those six dancers to be an étoile. Even so, the choreography is quietly difficult, most of the technique requiring slow and careful interaction, grace, and delicacy of movement. As a result, the viewer is drawn in to the details of the dance. It lacks the flamboyance and sheer joie de vivre of classic Robbins, yet is much more classical. The dancers are all principals of the company, Clairemarie Osta, Benjamin Pech, Agnes Letestu, Stéphane Buillon, Delphine Moussin and Nicolas le Riche (whom I’ve seen before in other works, and he is outstanding).


The finale of this marvelous evening is one of the very few really comic ballets ever staged, The Concert. When Robbins first presented this back in the 1950s, it was alternately reviled or misunderstood, sometimes by the same people. The liner notes say that it was, to some extent, influenced by the silent film series The Perils of Pauline, but from a late 20th-century perspective, you could really only view those films as unintentional comedy, not melodrama. Moreover, Robbins himself admitted that he tried to make the humor in The Concert as much like cartoons or comic books as possible. There is a very strong feeling of early Mad magazine in this ballet, which begins with an extraordinarily fussy pianist, fiddling with the height of her piano bench and the touch of the keyboard before she even begins playing. (I must interject here that I actually saw a real pianist, in concert, do exactly this kind of fussing around before playing, back in the 1970s.) As she plays Chopin, the members of the audience arrive on stage, one by one, carrying pale blue folding chairs which they quietly unfold and sit on. There is the Male Aesthete, there for the artistic “meaning” of it all; two women who sit behind him, comically crossing their legs in exaggerated ballet style, who immediately open their handbags to fish out hard candy to suck on; the Female Aesthete, so Devoted to Art that she has to sit right by the piano, one elbow in the cabinet of the instrument, soaking it all in like a sponge; the Art (Ms.) Androgyne in her horn-rimmed glasses and wide male-styled stride, who sits right behind the Female Aesthete; and the “odd couple” consisting of the woman who wants to be there and the husband who couldn’t care less. The latter is so bored by it all that he pulls out a newspaper and starts reading. (Since this is France, of course the paper is Le Figaro! )


But confusion is right around the corner. An usher arrives, checking people’s tickets, and discovering that most of the audience is in the wrong seats. A highly amusing round of musical chairs ensues, including one moment when Ms. Androgyne pulls the chair right out from under the rear of the Female Aesthete, who is so wrapped up in the piano that she never notices, but continues to sit in midair, her feet on pointe! The menfolk then carry the womenfolk (now dressed in tutus) on stage, where they engage in an “improvised” ballet of their own. Of course, some of them are purposely out of step, the worst being Ms. Androgyne (still in her horn-rimmed glasses as well as a tutu), who keeps ending her turns on the outside of the group, facing the wrong way. Eventually they pull each other together in a semblance of unity to take their final bow, though one dancer in the right rear still has her arms curved the wrong way for even that!


More comedy ensues, particularly from the Married Couple. There’s one bit where the wife is sitting, watching the pianist, while the husband sneaks up behind her with a knife, but it does no damage—it’s only a rubber prop. He pushes on it, assures himself that it’s soft rubber, then pokes himself in the stomach with it, only to have it penetrate him as he limps offstage. In another bit the husband, still with a cigar in his mouth, cavorts about the stage in a goofy-looking butterfly costume, appearing for all the world like Groucho Marx in a ballet. He is, of course, joined by the Female Aesthete, with whom he does a romantic dance until the Wife suddenly returns and breaks it up. This sort of thing goes on until the end, and it is obvious that Robbins was having great fun with this piece.


Naturally, the audience falls out laughing at this, and there is a tremendous roar of applause at the end. Somehow, I can’t help but feel that Robbins’s own spirit was there that night. You almost hoped he would come out from the wings and take a bow; he certainly deserved it!


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Musicians and critics realized soon after it's 1829 Paris Op�ra premiere that Rossini's Guillaume Tell was a far-reaching masterpiece. And yet some of the features that made it so unique have militated against it entering the standard repertory. The 1992 critical edition made a "complete" Guillaume Tell, even an ur-Tell possible, but still not many companies have performed the work without substantial cuts. The first complete DVD release of the work's original version finds the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, celebrating it's 25th anniversary, performing Tell for the first time in it's entirety.

Directed by Ching-Lien Wu, Don Kent, Jean-Marie Blanchard. Starring Romaric Braun, Patrizia Ciofi, Evelino Pido.

Susan Gritton, Sylvie Brunet, Soile Isokoski, Susanne Resmark, Helene Guilmette, Bernard Richter, and Alain Vernhes star in this Bayreuth production of the Poulenc opera conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov.

Video Format: DVD 9
Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Subtitles: Italian, English
Running Time: 153 Minutes
Region Code: 0
Sound Format: Stereo PCM

Directed by Stefano Mazzonis Di Pralafera. Starring Priscille Laplace, Filippo Adami, Alberto Rinaldi. Actors: Anna Maria Panzarella, Priscille Laplace, Filippo Adami, Alberto Rinaldi, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Directors: Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera, Fabrice Levillain, Writers: Baldassare Galuppi, Giovanni Bertati. customer review - "I loved every minute of this opera. I don't know what Galuppi had access to in order to write such perfection. For me it was as if the entire opera was a continuous brain orgasm. Better than drugs really. (Speaking metaphorically - of course). Packed with good humor and interest."

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.

Originally released in 2009. Directed by Laura Borello, Gregorio Zurla. Starring Veronique Mercier, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Gian Luca Pasolini. Artist: G. Bottesini, Title: Ero & Leandro, Genre: Classical & Opera, Music Video & Concerts, Sub-Genre: Classical - Classical Composers, Musicvideo - Music Video (Concert / Performance), Release Date: 1 January 2011, Starring: Veronique Mercier, Gian Luca Pasolini, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Directed By: Gregorio Zurla, Laura Borello customer review: "Ero and Leandro" is a tragic opera, composed by Giovanni Bottesini, premiered in Italy in1879 and staged an amazing 29 times before vanishing from the repertoire. It features three excellent singers: Veronique Mercier as Ero, tenor Gian Luca Pasolini as Leandro, and basso Roberto Scandiuzzi as the cruel tyrant Ariofarne. The Coro Claudio Monteverdi and the Orchestra Filarmonica del Piemonte provide a superb musical context for these three singers, whose arias are the sort of grand be canto that Verdi fans adore. In fact, Bottesini and Verdi were well acquainted; Bottesini conducted the premiere of Verdi's Aida, and the libretto for Ero & Leandro was written by another opera composer, Arrigo Boito."

AMILCARE PONCHIELLI: Andrea Gruber; Marco Berti; Alberto Mastromarino; Carlo Colombara; Ildiko Komlosi; Elisabetta Fiorillo; Roberto Bolle, Letizia Giuliani, primi ballerini; Orchestra, Chorus and Corps de ballet of"Arena di Verona"/Donato Renzetti; Live recording: June 17, 2005 AMILCARE PONCHIELLI: La GiocondaNTSC All Region; Doby Digital 5.1, DTS; PCM Stereo 2.0; Color; 16:9; 162 minsSubtitled in Italian, English, French, German & Japanese.

GIOACCHINO ROSSINI: Marianna Pizzolato; Marco Vinco; Maxim Mironov; Bruno De Simone;Barbara Bargnesi; Jose Maria Lo Monaco; Alex Esposito; Prague Chamber Choir/Lubomir Malt; Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna/Donato Renzetti; David Fo, director, set and costume designer; L GIOACCHINO ROSSINI: Italiana in Algeri, Dramma giocoso in two acts.NTSC All Region; LPCM 2.0; Dolby Digital 5.1; Color; 16/9; 150 mins; Subtitled in Italian, English, German & French.

PARSIFAL

Federico Sacchi; Patrizia Ciofi; Danilo Formaggia; Nicola Amodio
The Bratislava Chamber Chorus
Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia/Luciano Acocella, conductor
Denis Krief, director

NTSC All Regions
DTS 5.1; PCM Stereo 2.0
Color Picture: 16:9 widescreen
Duration: 136 minutes
Subtitles: Italian, English, French, German, Japanese

WORLD PREMIERE DVD RECORDING

This is the version of I Capuleti e i Montecchi made for La Scala, where it was first staged on 26th December 1830, featuring two female voices in the roles of Romeo and Juliet. This opera is usually performed with a tenor as Romeo, but at La Scala Bellini found a different singing troupe which obliged him to cast not the en travesti warrior of Rossinian manner (like Tancredi, Arsace, Malcolm) but a wholly female Romeo, ardent and authoritative yet at the same time languid, sensual and soft. The choice of this Capuleti at the 2005 Martina Franca Festival was also dictated by the availability of Patrizia Ciofi. This great specialist of romantic belcanto had never been offered the role of Giulietta in Capuleti, a role, which is absolutely ideal for her vocal talents.

NABUCCO

Artists:
Charles Workman, Steve Davislim, tenors; Marco Vinco, bass-baritone; Laura Aikin, Ainhoa Garmendia, sopranos; Michael Maniaci, countertenor; Marisa Martins, Jossie Perez, mezzo-sopranos; Liceu Grand Theatre Orchestra, Harry Bicket, conductor; Thomas MacManus, choreographer; Francisco Negrin, director.

Audio Format: LPCM 2.0 | Region Code: 0 | Format: NTSC, 16:9
Booklet: English, French, Italian, German | Subtitles: English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Catalan
Running Time: 148 minutes
Location: Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona | Recorded: October 7, 2009 Packaging: DVD Keep Case

L’arbore di Diana is a two-act opera buffa by the composer Vincent Martin y Soler with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, first performed in Vienna in 1787. Popular throughout Europe at that time, this comic pastorale includes a plot that centers on an apple tree with apples that mutate in the presence of chaste and wanton individuals in the goddess Diana’s garden, and an unhappy god of Love who schemes to destroy the apple tree. Diana’s Tree is a trove of flowing melodies and a feast for the eyes.

“…immersed in an unreal atmosphere that takes advantage of cutting edge technology and an intelligent use of lighting and sound, …[transposing] the fable and satire..to modern times..with genius, explaining the story without confusing it.” – Pablo Meléndez-Haddad, ABC, October 2009.

“…Francis Negrin’s work has managed to maintain the piece’s narrative and to underline its best comical moments.” – Roger Alier, La Vanguardia, Oct. 2009.

GIOACHINO ROSSINI: Maria Bayo; Daniela Barcellona; Francesco Meli; Carlo Lepore; Prague Chamber Choir; Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia/Renato Palumbo;Jean-Louis Martinoty, director; NTSC All Region; DTS 5.1; PCM Sterio 2.0; Color; 16:9; 183 mins; Subtitled in Italian, English, Fr GIOACHINO ROSSINI: Bianca e Falliero.

IDOMENEO

Starring Fabio Armiliato, Juan Pons, Daniela Dessi.

GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL: Veronique Gens, soprano; Philippe Jaroussky, male alto; Ingrid Perruche, soprano; Nigel Smith, baritone; Thierry Gregoire, male alto; Bernard Deletre, bass; Fabrice Di Falco, male soprano; AlainBuet, bass; La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy/Jean-Claude Mal GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL: Agrippina.

Starring Gian Luca Pasolini, Jos� Maria Lo Monaco, Dimitra Theodossiou.