Showcasing outstanding productions from the stage of the Royal Opera House An Evening with the Royal Opera brings together a collection of arias and choruses from some of the world's favorite operas. Enjoy performances including the Barber of Seville Carmen Rigoletto Le nozze di Figaro Don Giovanni Die Zauberflote and Falstaff sung by artists including Renee Fleming Joseph Calleja Jonas Kaufmann Erwin Schrott Teodor Illincai Hibla Gerzmava Miah Persson Jose Cura Ailish Tynan and Bryn Terfel.

Antonio Pappano, Music Director of The Royal Opera, conducts Rossini's epic final masterpiece of French grand opera with an all-star cast that includes Gerald Finely in the title role, alongside John Osborn, Malin Bystrom and Sofia Fomina. The story of the legendary Swiss patrio Guillaume Tell, determined to free Switzerland from Austrian rule, is told through magnificent arias, ensembles and choruses, atmospheric musical evocations of the Swiss landscape, particularly in the famous overture, and dramatic episodes of great emotional power.

Karol Szymanowski's tragic masterpiece, Kr�l Roger (King Roger) powerfully presents the dilemmas of culture versus nature and man versus beast as told through the stormy life of King Roger. Antonio Pappano conducts Szymanowksi's score whose opulence contrasts achingly with the darkening skies of this morality tale in Kasper Holten's first production since becoming director of the Royal Opera House. With inspired performances led by the fine Mariusz Kwiecien, who has made the title role a signature one in his career along with Georgia Jarman in her Royal Opera debut as Roger's loving queen Roxana. Sung in Polish with English, French, German, Japanese and Korean subtitles, this production is further distinguished by marking the return of this opera to the London stage after a 40 year absence along with it's innovative stage, lighting and video design that further enhances this tale.

Illicit love, suspicion, deception and supernatural portents of doom lead to a shocking drama at a masked ball in 1790s Sweden. The incomparable Placido Domingo stars as the dashing King Gustavus III, whose reforms have inspired talk of assassination among the conservative nobility. Katia Ricciarelli is Gustavus's beloved Amelia, married to his closest friend, Anckarstrom, sung by Piero Cappuccilli. Claudio Abbado conducts the distinguished cast, supported by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera house and Royal Opera Chorus, in Otto Schenk's classic production of this Verdi favorite for The Royal Opera. This recording, with English subtitles, is preserved in it's original Standard Definition and 4:3 picture format.

Skin-tight rubber and lacrosse sticks bring contemporary chic to this timeless fantasy of warriors and witches in Robert Carsen's fun-filled transformation of Handel's first London triumph. Conducting from the keyboard just as Handel himself did, Ottavio Dantone leads a youthful cast of today's luminaries in the dramatic art of Baroque opera, the 'affecting' Sonia Prina, the 'unadorned intensity' of Anett Fritsch and 'fire-breathing flair' (The Observer) of Brenda Rae.

This 32-disc box set collection brings together 12 classic live Royal Opera performances – Tosca, Otello, Cosi fan Tutte, Madama Butterfly, Meistersinger, Don Giovanni and half a dozen more - spanning a period of over forty years, from 1955-97. The set includes many of the world’s greatest operatic performers of the era: Jon Vickers, Joan Sutherland, Janet Baker, Victoria de los Angeles, Cesare Siepi, Sena Jurinac, Boris Christoff, Tito Gobbi, Kiri Te Kanawa, Zinka Milanov and Franco Corelli, amongst others.

Lohengrin is staged by the enfant terrible Hans Neuenfels, and offers a thought-provoking production of brilliant visual clarity. The performance with Klaus Florian Vogt in the title role is staggering and impressive. There is beauty and purity in his voice, but in this role in particular, one truly senses something other-worldly, which fits superlatively both with the work and the production. Conductor Andris Nelsons brings out the best in the festival chorus and orchestra. It is a Lohengrin one does not easily forget and puts Bayreuth back in the vanguard of Wagner interpretation. "Great Wagner performances such as this give the sensation of looking down at the world from a sadly omniscient height... Vogt...gave a dreamlike performance... Dasch... was sweetly impassioned throughout. Petra Lang was a properly searing Ortrud... Andris Nelsons... conducted with blazing intensity." (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) ‘‘A magic moment of music theatre.’’ (Handelsblatt) ‘‘Bayreuth's incomparable chorus really deserves a medal for its performance here.’’ (International Record Review) ‘‘All six solo singers are musically excellent and dramatically persuasive, with Petra Lang's excoriating Ortrud and George Zeppenfeld's grave yet warm-toned King Henry particularly memorable...’’ (Gramophone)

Acclaimed dancer-choreographer Akram Khan 'speaks tremendously of tremendous things' (Financial Times) and this new Giselle reimagines the classic narrative ballet for the 21st Century. Giselle had become a former garment factory migrant worker, Albrecht, a member of the wealthy factory-owning class. An abandoned 'ghost factory' haunted by the memory of female migrant workers, many of them victims of industrial accidents, replaces the traditional glade of Act II. There, Giselle's desire to break the cycle of violence will lead her to reconciliation with Albrecht and his release from the retributive justice of the Wilis. "Giselle has been transformed for the ENB by Akram Khan into the ballet event of the year. Staggeringly beautiful and utterly devastating, it is an electrifying triumph which any dance or theatre fan must not miss." (The Daily Express)

Also available on Blu-ray

From The Royal Ballet’s classical origins in the works of Petipa, to the home-grown choreographers who put British Ballet on the world stage, this mixed programme highlights the versatility of the Company. Petipa’s Raymonda Act III is Russian classical ballet summarized in one act, full of sparkle and precise technique, while Ashton’s Enigma Variations is quintessentially British in every way – from its score by Elgar and period designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman, to Ashton’s signature style, the essence of British ballet. Concerto, MacMillan’s fusion of classical technique with a contemporary mind, completes a programme that shows the breadth of the Company’s heritage. “The Royal Ballet is at the top of its game in a new triple bill of MacMillan, Ashton, and a pinch of Petipa…” (The Guardian) “O’Sullivan dances with a sunbeam brightness and zest to match her tangerine-colored costume… The ‘Nimrod’ variation is a memorable evocation of mature friendship; catching at the shifting currents of conversation and companionship with a finespun physicality… Princely Vadim Muntagirov follows suit with pantherine leaps and there’s strong support from the soloists and fluffy-hatted corps.”

Two spectacular gala concerts from the stage of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, are brought together here in their unforgettable glory. In the 1993 Winter Gala, world-leading singers (including Placido Domingo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Kiri Te Kanawa) and dancers (including Darcey Bussell, Lesley Collier, and Irek Mukhamedov) celebrate the music of Tchaikovsky, in highlights from such opera and ballet favourites as The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty. In the famously glittering 1996 gala concert, Domingo is joined by a cast of opera stars including Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna and Susan Graham. Asher Fisch conducts this programme of great opera arias by composers including Bizet, Massenet, Gounod, Mozart and Donizetti.

A bold reinvention of a 19th-century classic. Kader Belarbi's fresh scenario and choreography give this colourful yet ultimately tragic story renewed clarity and simplicity. David Coleman conducts a score based on Adolphe Adam's original work, but enhanced with music by composers from Massenet to Sibelius, as well as new compositions and orchestrations by Coleman himself. This is a version for the modern age....'simply magnificent: A miracle in two acts.' - Le Figaro.

Jan Philipp Gloger’s controversial Bayreuth production of Die Fliegende Holländer was greeted with huge acclaim. He translates the Dutchman’s tale of travail and redemption to a future where part-human/part-cyborgs grind out an existence in a world completely subservient to business and commerce. The production stars Samuel Youn, Ricarda Merbeth, and Franz-Josef Selig, and is conducted by Christian Thielemann. ‘‘…Mr. Youn…sings with dignity touched with anguish.’’ - The New York Times

Also available on Blu-ray

Leading director Richard Jones staged his witty, darkly comic realization of Gianni Schicchi for The Royal Opera in 2007. The production was revived in 2012 and here he completes the trio with two new productions of Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica. Antonio Pappano conducts an acclaimed cast including Eva-Maria Westbroek, Ermonela Jaho, Lucio Gallo, Elena Zilio and rising star Francesco Demuro. These three one-act works were broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and went to cinemas world-wide in February 2012.

Giacomo Puccini IL TRITTICO

Il Tabarro
Michele – Lucio Gallo
Giorgetta – Eva-Maria Westbroek
Luigi – Aleksandrs Antonenko
Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica – Ermonela Jaho
La zia principessa – Anna Larsson
La badessa – Irina Mishura

Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi – Lucio Gallo
Lauretta – Ekaterina Siurina
Rinuccio – Francesco Demuro

Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra
Antonio Pappano, conductor

Richard Jones, stage director

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, September 2011

Bonus
- Introductions by Antonio Pappano
- Behind the Scenes

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish
Running time: 180 mins (operas) + 20 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 3

R E V I E W:

Puccini’s Trittico is a bit of an odd-one out among his works, dating from that rather tricky period of his career that also featured Rondine and Fanciulla. This triptych is performed even less frequently than those works because it requires three sets, casts and visions. Before this production of September 2011, Covent Garden hadn’t performed it since 1965. That they did so now was due to two factors. Firstly, Richard Jones had already produced Gianni Schicchi for them so some of the work was already done. Secondly, however, the idea of a cycle appealed to the Royal Opera management in the season of the Olympics so they performed the whole set as part of Covent Garden’s contribution to the Cultural Olympiad. There is little to link the three operas in Jones’ vision and you might find some touches of his staging somewhat irritating, but the musical values are so strong that you’ll still find yourself coming back to this Trittico again and again.
 
I was lucky enough to see this production as a birthday treat to myself. On the night it was Tabarro that made the biggest impression on me, and watching it again on disc I still found it thrilling. It is the closest Puccini got to writing a psychodrama, and in this performance its power to stun is turned up to eleven. Jones’ production was inspired by the austere woodcuts of Frans Masereel and his black-and-white set forms a grave backdrop for this family tragedy. Michele’s barge sits moored in a seedy part of Paris, grey and ominous with the lights of a strip joint dimly visible. Almost the only colour is provided by Giorgetta’s dress, cheap and dowdy, a sign of this character’s love of life which has been all but squeezed out of her by her cramped existence with Michele. The three lead characters are all in some way trapped, and the three principals here are outstanding. Lucio Gallo sings Michele with lyrical beauty, achieving wonderful sympathy in the duet where he fails to spark Giorgetta’s affection, but then turning to dangerous malice as he tries to imagine the identity of her lover. He evokes sympathy for this sometimes one-dimensional character while consistently reminding us that this is a man whose prime is past and who can no longer satisfy his wife. Her smouldering sensuality is brilliantly captured by Eva-Maria Westbroek, who seems constantly to strain against the bounds of the world in which she is constrained. The beauty of her voice is matched by the exhilarating tenor of Aleksanders Antonenko, making an outstanding house debut as Luigi. His (slightly bizarre) scena where he rails against the oppression of the workers comes off very successfully because of the brilliant power of his voice, and he and Westbroek strike sparks off each other in their duets. The exuberance of their description of city life is impossible to contain, and their duets where they make plans to elope are hair-raising. Anchoring everything, however, is the expert direction of Pappano in the pit. This whole set proves him to be a Puccini interpreter of the highest order, and it is in Tabarro that he does this most successfully. It’s a commonplace that Puccini constructs the work like a steadily tightening screw, but Pappano shows that this view is too simple: instead he brings out the ebb and flow of the piece. After all, there is a whole array of cameos on hand, and often the tension is broken by local colour or by off-stage lovers. Pappano not only builds up the tension - the final scene is wonderfully taut - but he also builds in natural climaxes, such as in Luigi and Giorgetta’s description of Belville or of hope, cruelly snatched away, expressed in the married couple’s duet as Michele holds out the hope of rekindling their love. By the way, just after that sequence listen to the power of the swirling strings as Michele imagines plunging into the abyss with his wife’s lover, showcasing the fact that the orchestra buy into Pappano’s vision completely. It’s worth acquiring the set for this disc alone as it shows Puccini and all the performers at their considerable best.
 
In many ways the project began with Gianni Schicchi: Jones’ production first appeared in 2007 paired, somewhat quirkily, with Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole. True, the casting in this revival isn’t as strong as it is in the other operas. Gallo does have a comic gift but is prone to over-egging the pudding at times, and his voice, while lyrical, doesn’t suit humour quite as well. The young lovers sing their arias capably enough, but Demuro’s tenor is brittle, particularly at the top, while Siurina’s pitching isn’t always accurate. However, this is an ensemble opera if ever there was one, and the cast of relatives is fantastic, blending as a wonderfully convincing whole. They are led by Elena Zilio as a palpably avaricious Zita, while poor Gwynne Howell is brow-beaten and trampled as Simone, even if he is supposed to be the eldest! Marie McLaughlin is a vampish Ciesca, and the other men seem to radiate the grimy patina of cigarette smoke in their sleazy venality. Jones’ production moves quickly and milks the laughs so that it is more colourful and more comical than Glyndebourne’s 2004 production, also available on Opus Arte DVD. Pappano’s conducting talents are made for this score, bringing it to fizzing, bustling life in every bar. 

With two such energetic outer operas, it’s not surprising that the central panel of the triptych should be something altogether more restrained, contemplative and, in consequence, more neglected. Suor Angelica has never had the popularity of its companions, but this performance deserves to win it many friends. As a piece of sentiment it’s unsurpassed, particularly if you’re prepared to yield yourself up to it. There are moments of the interaction between the nuns that I found strangely moving. The composer’s sister was a nun and apparently he played the piece to the sisters at her convent, an experience they must have found very affecting. Jones’ setting for this convent is also a children’s hospital, a nice touch which underlines Angelica’s love of her own child. The set is shot through with an antiseptic shade of green. The nuns’ wimples are frilly to the extent of being a little over-indulgent. However, Jones botches the ending by removing any element of the supernatural: we hear the off-stage chorus to the virgin but Angelica dies in hysteria surrounded by the other nuns. She gets to embrace one of the patients but this is no substitute for her own son. I couldn’t help but feel that the end of the opera was a little nasty; anachronistically out of keeping with the beauty of Puccini’s music. The title role in this production was originally meant for Anja Harteros, but after her withdrawal it was taken by Ermonela Jaho, who had herself first come to fame as a replacement Violetta when Anna Netrebko had to cry off. She is outstanding as the tortured nun, atoning in the convent for the sin of bearing a child outside wedlock. She acts the role with an element of distraction, as if her mind is always on other things, but she pulls out the dramatic big guns for the key scene with the Princess. In fact, she seems almost to lose self-possession when she confronts her aunt about the son that was taken from her. Even as she takes her final curtain call she is clearly still deeply affected by the experience of singing the role. The voice is lyrical and beautiful, with a slight touch of steel where necessary. She is heartbreaking when she learns of her son’s death, both in action and in voice. Senza mamma is most touching, sung with utmost security and lyricism and unafraid of a genuine pianissimo which is used to beautiful effect. Anna Larsson cuts an icy figure as the princess, acting with the detachment of an unwilling outsider and singing with frosty malevolence as she reminds her niece of the stain she has brought on the family honour. The orchestra underpins the whole thing expertly, Puccini’s half-lit instrumentation coming to life with beauty and control - listen, for example to the muted strings when the nuns discuss the sister who has passed away in the intervening year. Again Pappano’s direction plays the piece for every ounce of sentiment and beauty that it can give.
 
Altogether, then, this Trittico is a wonderful addition to the discography, surpassed only by Pappano’s audio recording for EMI. Through all the changing scenes, moods and singers, it is the conductor who consistently comes to the fore as the star of the show. With performances as distinguished as this one, it’s small wonder that he got that knighthood! The packaging is also very attractive: each opera gets its own disc in its own case, all packaged together in a slipcase that also contains a booklet made up to look like a Royal Opera House programme. Each opera also has a 5-minute introductory film featuring a commentary from Pappano and a brief interview with some members of the cast.
 
-- Simon Thompson, MusicWeb International

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

Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Lohengrin (1850)



WAGNER Lohengrin • Kent Nagano, cond; Klaus Florian Vogt ( Lohengrin ); Solveig Kringelborn ( Elsa ); Tom Fox ( Telramund ); Waltraud Meier ( Ortrud ); Hans-Peter König ( Heinrich ); Roman Trekel ( King’s Herald ); EuropaChor Akademie Mainz; Lyon Natl Op Ch; German SO Berlin • OPUS ARTE 7026 (2 Blu-ray Discs: 279:00) Live: Baden-Baden 6/2006


& Documentary: Never Shalt Thou Ask of Me


I enthusiastically welcomed this 2006 performance back in Fanfare 30:5, and my regard for it has only increased since then. The Opus Arte DVD set made my 2007 Want List and I’ve returned with pleasure to stage director Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s view of Lohengrin many times. There’s no point in rehashing a detailed account of the joint Baden-Baden/Lyon/La Scala production—subscribers can go to the Fanfare online Archive—but I will reiterate that the cast is pretty much perfect. Solveig Kringelborn’s soprano is small, sad, and pure when we first meet her in act I; she becomes warmly womanly as she begins her ill-fated wedding night in act III. No one’s better at representing Wagner’s Bad Girls—Venus, Ortrud, and Kundry—than Waltraud Meier, who radiates a Haganesque malevolence at the outset of the second act. Tom Fox portrays a remarkably sympathetic and powerfully sung Telramund; Hans-Peter König is an authoritative yet immensely likable Heinrich. There’s even the luxury of a singer of Roman Trekel’s stature for the not-exactly-critical part of the King’s Herald. Topping off this stellar ensemble is Klaus Florian Vogt: his gleaming (but never steely) and yielding (but firmly supported) tenor is ideal for the title role. Kent Nagano conducts a youthful Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with élan and sensitivity. The chorus is outstanding.


The opera was shot live on high-definition film and, in my Want List entry, I wondered, “dare we hope for an HD DVD or Blu-ray release?” Two years later, here it is. Good as the DVD was, visually, the Blu-ray is an order of magnitude better. Watching the original release, one thought, “this is an awfully good-looking DVD.” Watching the Blu-ray is more like looking through a clean rectangular window into the actual event; the colors are richer and the amount of natural detail is amazing. (Maybe we get a little more detail than is strictly necessary—for instance, the spittle that issues forth from Roman Trekel’s mouth when he commands “Come forward!” in act I.) Sonically, the 5.1 surround program is in better-than-CD quality 48 kHz PCM. Off-stage instruments are convincingly distant and the relationship of the singers to the orchestra is equally realistic. The most complex passages—act I’s pre-sword-fight quintet with chorus, for instance—are exceptionally intelligible. Opus Arte gets the entire opera, plus the 68-minute Reiner E. Moritz documentary Never Shalt Thou Ask of Me onto two Blu-ray Discs, as opposed to three conventional DVDs for the original release. We get the same five subtitle languages, illustrated synopsis, and superfluous “cast gallery” as the DVD set. Should you unwrap a new Blu-ray player this holiday season, Opus Arte’s Lohengrin should be among your very first software acquisitions.


FANFARE: Andrew Quint
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Elsa: Solveig Kringelborn (soprano); Ortrud: Waltraud Meier (mezzo); Lohengrin: Klaus Florian Vogt (tenor); Heinrich der Vogler: Hans-Peter König (baritone); Telramund: Tom Fox (baritone); Herald: Roman Trekel (baritone)
EuropaChorAkademie Mainz
Chorus of the National Opera of Lyon
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Kent Nagano
Nikolaus Lehnhoff (director)
Stephan Braunfels (set design)
rec. Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, June 2006

Picture: 16:9; 1080i
Region code: 0 (all regions)
Sound: PCM 2.0 and 5.1
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian

Classical Music