Belarbi’s La Reine Morte is presented here in a live recording from the Theatre du Capitole, January 2015. This ballet was originally created in 2011 for the Ballet du Capitole. It is based on Montherlant’s play of the same title. The orchestra national du Capitole de Toulouse, conducted by Koen Kessels performs the score beautifully.

Ailish Tynan has made a specialty of French song. The melodies of Gabriel Faure lie at the heart of his romantic but elusive style, and this selection ranges from the composer's youthful embrace of Italian style to late and quietly innovative settings of Verlaine in which simplicity and profundity of expression go hand in hand. Presenting the major singers of today and the stars of tomorrow, the Rosenblatt Recitals are London's only world-class season of opera recitals. 'People often say that the golden age of singing is dead. The Rosenblatt Recital Series is devoted to proving that bel canto - literally 'beautiful singing' in it's broadest sense - is very much alive!'

Royal Ballet Principals Federico Bonelli, Laura Morera and Steven McRae dance the lead roles in Liam Scarlett's new ballet, based on the world's most famous work of horror fiction, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This ambitious theatrical collaboration brings the novel to life with spectacular period sets and costumes by John Macfarlane and a newly commissioned score by Lowell Liebermann. Scarlett's choreography draws out the emotional power of this classic story. Passionate encounters between Victor, Elizabeth and the Creature express their torment, regret, anger, yearning and love.

Opus Arte celebrates Wagner's bicentenary with his third opera Rienzi. Within the timeless and elegant minimalism of Jorge Lavelli's production, Torsten Kerl brings ringing authority to the title role, supported by the experienced Wagnerian Pinchas Steinberg conducting the Capitole Orchestra. Extra features include 'Thoughts on Rienzi' and a cast gallery.

Marius Petipa’s exotic ballet, set in legendary India, is a story of love, death and vengeful judgement. Natalia Makarova’s sumptuous recreation of Petipa’s choreography, with atmospheric sets by Pier Luigi Samaritini and beautiful costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend, stars Tamara Rojo as the Bayadère (temple dancer) Nikiya, Carlos Acosta as Solor, and Marianela Nuñez as Gamzatti whose alluring presence challenges Solor’s love for Nikiya. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true surround sound.

‘There wasn’t a single physical gesture that didn’t mean something, that didn’t speak of love trying and failing to blossom.’ -- The Daily Telegraph

Solar: Carlos Acosta
Gamzatti: Marianela Nuñez
Nikiya: Tamara Rojo
The High Brahmin: Gary Avis
Rajah: Christopher Saunders
Magdaveya: Kenta Kura
Solor’s Friend: Valeri Hristov

The Royal Ballet
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Conductor: Valeriy Ovsyanikov
Choreographer: Natalia Makarova

Recorded live from the Royal Opera House, January 2009

Extra features:
Tamara Rojo on dancing La Bayadère
Leanne Cope and Francesca Filpi on the corps de ballet
Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta rehearse with Alexander Agadzhanov
Natalia Makarova on choreographing La Bayadère

Duration: 01:55:00
Regions: All Regions

Mozart specialist Colin Davis directs an exceptional recording of this witty, sophisticated, compact, comic opera. The superlative cast, including a stellar Kiri Te Kanawa, and the excellent orchestra respond to Davis's finely polished account of the score, deftly balancing the humanity, irony, pain and humour of Da Ponte's complex battle of the sexes.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players, and not compatible with standard DVD players.
This is also available on standard DVD. Opus Arte 996



WARNING: Contains nudity and scenes of violence.

R E V I E W S:

I’ll be coming back to this again and again.



R. STRAUSS Salome & • Philippe Jordan, cond; Nadja Michael ( Salome ); Thomas Moser ( Herod ); Michaela Schuster ( Herodias ); Michael Volle ( Jokanaan ); Joseph Kaiser ( Narraboth ); Royal Op House O • OPUS ARTE 7069 (Blu-ray: 169:00) Live: London 2/21/2008


& Documentary: David McVicar: A Work in Process


For a complete discussion of this performance, I refer readers to my review of the standard DVD release in Fanfare 32:4. To sum up, David McVicar’s provocative and controversial production of Salome uses Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film Salò as its primary reference point. The principal action takes place in the downstairs basement, bathroom, and servant’s quarters. Jokanaan’s cistern is below the basement and Herod and the elite party upstairs. The production is highlighted by an absolutely riveting portrayal of Salome by Nadja Michael and McVicar’s strikingly original take on the “Dance of the Seven Veils” in which Salome and Herod move through a series of seven rooms presumably depicting the state of Salome’s mind including references to child abuse. Michael never lapses into stock operatic acting. She virtually inhabits the part as she slithers around the stage with unprecedented physicality. Michael’s relatively small voice is stretched to its limit, especially in the crucial final scene, but she never produces any really squally sounds and the fact that she is vocally teetering on the edge further amplifies the almost unbearable tension.


Blu-ray technology greatly enhances the dramatic effect of McVicar’s production with its striking silvery grays, blues, blacks, and almost three-dimensional images. When Herod and his buddies come down to the basement in their formal attire the contrast is telling, but it is nothing compared to the gruesome final scene where Salome’s pure white dress is drenched in Jokanaan’s blood. The close-ups of Michael’s facial expressions are stunning. Conductor Philippe Jordan emphasizes exotic orchestral color over brute force. The high-resolution surround sound is critically important when it comes to Strauss’s raging orchestra, but Michael’s voice is rarely overwhelmed. In short, the technical aspects of this Blu-ray make it far preferable to the standard DVD version. But there is another complicating factor. Luc Bondy’s more traditional La Scala production featuring an equally charismatic Michael in better voice is also available on a standard DVD ( Fanfare 32:5) with a brutally forceful orchestral performance conducted by Daniel Harding that (dare I say) actually rivals Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in their legendary Decca recording with Birgit Nilsson’s vocally incomparable Salome. Michael fans as well as Straussians who want the technical perfection of Blu-ray but are not convinced by McVicar’s ideas will understandably want both of her performances. Regardless, no operaphile should miss the experience of Michael acting the role of Salome.


FANFARE: Arthur Lintgen


One of the most hotly anticipated, controversial and downright exciting opera productions of this year arrives quickly onto DVD. David McVicar, one of the most in-demand opera directors at work today, produces a visceral, exciting realisation of Strauss’s lurid masterpiece. It has lots to recommend it, though it won’t be to everyone’s taste.

McVicar has moved from an enfant terrible of the operatic world to being one of its safest pairs of hands. He has a reputation for being meticulous in his attention to detail, and he begins and ends with an intimate knowledge of the score. This translates into a close relationship with his collaborators: singers, designers, choreographers et al, something illustrated in a hugely enjoyable South Bank Show Documentary included here as a DVD extra. McVicar is interested in every aspect of a production: design, acting and music, and his recent work in this country has been revelatory, such as the Glyndebourne Giulio Cesare, the Covent Garden Faust and ENO’s Clemenza di Tito. One of the things that marks him out as remarkable is the way in which he builds his productions around certain visual themes, and it is instructive that his main reference point here is not Biblical Palestine, but Pasolini’s 1975 film Salò, based on the Marquis de Sade, which charts the descent into degeneracy of a group of oligarchs in fascist Italy. McVicar’s main focus in this production, then, is the depravity that runs through Salome’s story. Yes, the sensuousness and allure so evident in Strauss’s music are there, but they share the stage with - and are often eclipsed by - the sheer horror of the action.

With the opening gurgle on the clarinet the curtain draws back very slowly, like a suggestive striptease. In the very top part of the stage we can just make out Herod entertaining his guests at a riotous banquet. The main action takes place below stairs, however, in a large chamber, halfway between a communal bathroom and a slaughterhouse. It would be difficult to imagine a more inappropriate venue for Herod to move his dinner party into, which renders it all the more shocking when he does so. References to sex and death hit the viewer immediately. Two naked women (whores?) languish around the stage, but the most disquieting thing is that no-one pays the slightest bit of attention to them, presumably because it is so commonplace. Servants swab down the floors, perhaps to remove the evidence of some earlier debauchery, while the carcass of an animal swings in the background. The scene is lit with the naked light-bulbs of the torture chamber. This gritty, unsettling room is the prison in which not only the characters but we as viewers are confined for the next 100 minutes, and the claustrophobia adds to the our sense of growing horror as the opera builds to its climax.

The below stairs staff, mostly dressed as fascist-era soldiers, seem cold and disinterested in their surroundings, which makes the young Narraboth, sensuously sung by Joseph Kaiser, stand out all the more as he strains round the banister for a glimpse of the princess. Herodias’ page, who is just as obsessed with him, echoes his body language in trying to get his attention. Salome, in contrast to the prevailing darkness in the chamber, wears a glittering white evening dress with jewels. Nadja Michael is a marvellous actress here: far from being a sex-obsessed harpy, she begins the evening as a bored girl who throws chairs around like a petulant child. It is only after being exposed to the dark force of nature in Jokanaan that she becomes sexual and full of desire. Her singing is superb. She is entirely girlish at the start, developing a powerful edge to her voice only when necessary, such as in her cursing of Jokanaan’s body and hair. In fact the moments when she is not singing are almost as exciting as her big scenes: she gazes into the cistern, transfixed by its murky gloom, with a morbid fascination.

She seems vulnerable rather than icy after her encounter with John, clearly distressed by his curse on her, but still fixated. Equally, during the squabble of the Jewish factions, staged excitingly and comically, she merely gazes out at the audience, clearly milling over her new obsession with Jokanaan. Her hypnotic stage presence is one of the great strengths of this DVD.

Michael Volle’s Jokanaan also exerts a powerful charisma too. He emerges from the cistern as a victim of torture, blinking after the darkness of solitary confinement, yet the presence he exerts is so palpable as to stop Narraboth in his tracks as he goes to strike him. He sounds fantastically resonant as his voice echoes from the cistern, and he is really hair-raising at the top and middle of his range during his long scene with Salome. He is weaker at the bottom, however, and some of his lower notes can turn into growls. Tellingly, most of the servants avert their eyes during Salome’s attempt to seduce John, a clear indication of how depraved their encounter is as not even these desensitised regulars can bear to look at it.

One of the production’s strengths is the way McVicar picks up on the eroticism of death, so apparent in Wilde’s text. Salome barely notices Narraboth until after his suicide - to which no-one pays the blindest bit of attention - when she become fascinated with his corpse. Intriguingly, the same is true for Herod whose first action upon noticing the body is to caress it with his hand and gaze on it longingly. The sexual free-for-all in Herod’s house is also apparent in the all too sensuous way in which he caresses his favourite (male) servant. As Herod, Thomas Moser fits into McVicar’s vision a little awkwardly. His acting is decidedly of a lower level than the others, though it picks up during the Dance of the Seven Veils. Moser’s voice is also a bit thin compared to the others, understandable, perhaps, in such a demanding role, but disappointing against the high standards elsewhere. Michaela Schuster sounds good as Herodias, but her acting too is rather tame. Her relationship with Herod does not carry the venomous loathing suggested in the text, and she seems bored rather than vicious, though perhaps that is McVicar’s point.

The most striking and controversial element of McVicar’s vision is the Dance of the Seven Veils. This is a private dance for Herod, not the party guests, and as it begins the scene melts away and we are taken on a psychological journey rather than a display of choreography. McVicar’s idea is to take us through seven rooms, each one representing an aspect of Salome’s emotional state, each one taking us deeper into her interior self and suggesting that Herod has been, in McVicar’s words, a "specifically unhealthy influence" on her. We start seeing Herod "grooming" her with children’s toys, enticing her to sit on his knee, and touching her suggestively. Through each room the closeness of their contact increases and their dance intensifies, until the final room where she desperately splashes herself with water in an attempt to clean herself from the dirt of her stepfather’s abuse. Not everyone will approve, but I found this an inventive, challenging and deeply unsettling interpretation of the dance. Here the power to shock goes far deeper than a mere striptease.

The final scene shows us both the most and least successful aspects of the production. Visually speaking this is the peak to which the whole performance has been leading. On Herod’s order the executioner, who has been prowling the stage all evening long, just in case anyone needs to be killed, is stripped of his coat and descends naked into the cistern carrying only his huge blade. He then emerges covered in blood, holding the head which has blood oozing from its severed neck. Salome, by now wearing only a plain white night-dress, rubs herself against him and grabs the head; the blood slowly spreads to all over her night-dress and face, representing a steady descent into the utmost depravity as she sings her bizarre song of lust. The colour, imagery and movement of this scene are genuinely stunning and they make for a jaw-dropping tableau which fits Strauss’s music perfectly. Michael’s acting is superb here, and she makes us believe that Salome has fulfilled not just her desire but her life: hypnotised by her own passion, death is the only natural response after such consummation. It is in her singing, however, that this scene falls down. The exertions of the long evening have taken their toll and there is a distinct feeling that she has run out of steam by the time we get to this most demanding, climactic moment. Too many notes go flat and her sense of vocal line begins to fragment, a real pity considering her achievements earlier in the evening. That said, the eroticism of the kiss itself is spellbinding and I can forgive the vocal imperfections in the face of the way she so fully inhabits the character.

The star of this opera is the orchestra, and the Covent Garden forces play at the peak of their form. What’s more, the sound engineering and the balance mean that we can hear everything in Strauss’s astonishing orchestration. For an example, try the spiky moment when Salome curses John’s hair as being "like a crown of thorns" and the prickly harps play some discordant top notes by way of illustration: we hear these perfectly rather than their being subsumed into the orchestral fabric. Philippe Jordan’s is a hard-driven view of the score. He keeps his foot on the pedal through the most exciting moments, such as the Dance, and perhaps misses a little of the subtlety in this marvellous score. He does spotlight detail well, though. Top marks, too, to the video director who always places our eyes where our ears tell them that they want to be, with appropriate uses of close-up as well as the bigger picture.

In spite of its flaws I found this Salome compelling, exciting and visceral. As a film it probably takes a back seat to Götz Friedrich’s 1974 version with Teresa Stratas and Karl Böhm, though the comparison is a bit unfair as Friedrich’s version was conceived as a film rather than a stage production. Nor is it entirely satisfying as sound: Solti’s classic performance for Decca with Nilsson, Waechter and Stolze (an astonishing Herod) contains more consistent performances, as does Sinopoli’s more recent version, most notable for a disarmingly girlish Cheryl Studer. If you want a current version in digital sound, however, this DVD has a lot to offer. Even if the vocal performances aren’t all they could be, the consistency and originality of McVicar’s vision make this an unforgettable experience, if only for the sheer, raw power of what you see. I keep using the word "visceral", and that’s exactly what this is: it blows apart your preconceptions of the work and puts them together in a profoundly disconcerting way. Unnerving as it is, this is a DVD I’ll be coming back to again and again.

-- Simon Thompson, MusicWeb International Reviewing DVD version

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Salome: Nadja Michael
Herodias: Michaela Schuster
Herod: Thomas Moser
Narraboth: Joseph Kaiser
Jokanaan: Michael Volle
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor: Philippe Jordan
Stage Director: David McVicar

Bonus material:
Synopsis
Cast gallery
David McVicar: A work in process – a full ITV documentary on David McVicar and his work on Salome, with unique interviews and extensive backstage footage (itv Productions)
Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in March 2008.

Duration: 169 mins
Regions: All Regions
Picture Format: 1080i High Definition / 16:9
Sound Type: 2.0 PCM & 5.0 DTS Master Audio
Subtitles: English/French/German/Spanish/Italian

Robert Dean Smith and Irene Theorin star in the Bayreuth production of the Wagner opera conducted by Peter Schneider.

The quintessential Romantic ballet, Giselle has remained a cornerstone of the classical repertory since its premiere in 1841. Peter Wright's landmark production for The Royal Ballet does full justice to the work's emotional and atmospheric power, with John Macfarlane's designs beautifully capturing the contrast between the human and supernatural worlds. Giselle is one of the most challenging and demanding roles in the repertory and has always been a showcase for exceptional ballerinas. With Marianela Nunez's "absolute mastery" of the choreography, she and her Albrecht, Vadim Muntagirov, are "technically thrilling" (Guardian).

Award winning director Damiano Michieletto has brought together these two short operas, both of which are set in a poverty-stricken Southern Italy village in the early 1980s where the Mafia has a stranglehold. Music Director of the Royal Opera, Antonio Pappano, conducts this star studded cast which includes charming Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, vivacious Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio, and exhilarating Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko. These two works are prime examples of verismo opera- a genre of opera which focuses on the everyday struggles of the common man rather than on mythical or historical legends. Extra features included in this set are Introduction to Cavalleria Rusticana, Introduction to Pagliacc, an interview with Antonio Pappano on the music, and a cast gallery.

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

Also available on standard DVD

Royal Opera productions present three of Giacomo Puccini’s greatest operas. John Copley’s iconic La bohème brings the Paris of the 1830s to life in vivid detail; Jonathan Kent’s atmospheric and naturalistic Tosca evokes the turbulence of Rome in 1800; and Andrei Serban’s visually stunning Turandot is a glorious tribute to Puccini’s last and grandest creation. Featuring a host of international opera stars, this collection is brimming with the drama and sumptuous music that have made Puccini one of the world’s most popular opera composers. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound. ‘‘Lise Lindstrom is pretty much the ideal Ice Princess.’’ (BBC Music Magazine - Turandot) ‘‘Andris Nelsons conducts a well-paced performance.’’ (Gramophone - La bohème)

PUCCINI
(3-blu-ray disc set)
LA BOHÈME

Rodolfo - Teodor Ilincai
Mimì - Hibla Gerzmava
Marcello - Gabriele Viviani
Musetta - Inna Dukach
Colline - Kostas Smoriginas
Schaunard - Jacques Imbrailo
Benoît - Jeremy White
Alcindoro - Donald Maxwell

Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Renato Balsadonna)
Andris Nelsons, conductor

John Copley, stage director

TOSCA

Floria Tosca - Angela Gheorghiu
Mario Cavaradossi - Jonas Kaufmann
Baron Scarpia - Bryn Terfel
Cesare Angelotti - Lukas Jakobski
Sacristan - Jeremy White
Spoletta - Hubert Francis
Sciarrone - Zhengzhong Zhou
Shepherd Boy - William Payne
Gaoler - John Morrissey

Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Renato Balsadonna)
Antonio Pappano, conductor
Jonathan Kent, stage director

TURANDOT

Princess Turandot - Lise Lindstrom
The Unknown Prince / Calaf - Marco Berti
Liù - Eri Nakamura
Timur - Raymond Aceto
Ping - Dionysios Sourbis
Pang - David Butt Philip
Pong - Doug Jones
Emperor Altoum - Alasdair Elliott
Mandarin - Michel de Souza

Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Renato Balsadonna)
Henrik Nánási, conductor

Andrei Serban, stage director

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, December 2009 (La Bohème), 2013 (Tosca) and September 2013 (Turandot)

Bonus:
- Interviews with John Copley and Andris Nelsons (La Bohème)
- Cast gallery (La Bohème and Turandot)
- Introductions presented by Antonio Pappano (Tosca and Turandot)
- Documentary: Behind the Masks (Turandot)

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format:LPCM 2.0 / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian (La Bohème) / + Japanese (Tosca) / + Korean (Turandot)
Running time: 6 hrs 6 mins (opera) + 20 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 3

Simon Keenlyside, Kyle Ketelson, Eric Hallvarson, Marina Poplavaskaya, Joyce DiDonato, Ramon Vargas, Miah Persson, and Robert Glendow star in this Royal Opera production of the Mozart opera conducted by Charles Mackerras on 2 discs.

Also available on Blu-ray

Melanie Diener, Roberto Sacca, Kresimir Strazanac, Lucio Gallo, Alfred Mugg, Sandra Trattnigg, and Christoph Strehl star in this Zurich Opera production of the Beethoven opera conducted by Bernard Haitink.

MINKUS Don Quixote & • Martin Yates, cond; Marianela Nuñez (Kitri); Carlos Acosta (Basilio); Christopher Saunders (Don Quixote); Philip Mosley (Sancho Panza); Ryoichi Hirano (Espada); Laura Morera (Mercedes); Bennet Gartside (Gamache); Gary Avis (Lorenzo); Christina Arestis (Dulcinea); Royal Op House O • OPUS ARTE 7143 (Blu-ray: 137.00) Live: London 10/2013

& Interviews: Cast and Crew; Introductions to acts II and III

Ludwig Minkus’s Don Quixote has held a place in the repertoire since its premiere at the Bolshoi Theater in 1869. The music is charming and well orchestrated, but persistently a little bland. There are plenty of melodies, but none of them are particularly distinctive. This is certainly not Tchaikovsky or Prokofiev. The poor boy meets rich girl love story interwoven with the fantastic adventures of Don Quixote has attracted the biggest names in ballet over the years, with Marius Petipa’s original classical production being followed by Rudolph Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and George Balanchine. Now, it is Carlos Acosta’s turn. His choreography is based on Petipa, but he has modernized it with his trademark physicality, and some new unclassical sounds (clapping, vocal exclamations) from the corps de ballet on stage.

Ultimately, the success of Don Quixote depends on the two principals. Acosta and Marianela Nuñez are the ideal pair to light a fire in this production. Acosta’s charisma is well known, and Nuñez matches him step for step with her amazing leaps and twirls, and the two have remarkable stage chemistry. They really do sizzle as much as that is possible in a classical ballet. The best is saved for last with their exquisite and joyful final pas de deux. In fact, the whole supporting cast and corps de ballet seem to have been inspired by Acosta. Everyone appears to be having a grand good time, and this is clearly projected to the audience.

The sets are magnificent and the colorful costumes are dazzling on Blu-ray. Martin Yates’s arrangement and orchestration of the Minkus score matches the bright visuals, and his conducting is surprisingly dynamic. The music comes to life as I have never heard it do before, especially in the excellent surround sound. I have not seen any of the older versions of Don Quixote, but it is hard to imagine any of them matching this one, musically or technically. If you are a ballet fan, don’t hesitate to enjoy this sumptuous visual feast.

FANFARE: Arthur Lintgen