A world-famous court composer during his lifetime, Agostino Steffani (1654-1728) exercised a significant influence on the likes of Handel, J.S. Bach and Telemann, his music nevertheless falling into neglect after his death. Thanks to conductor and Baroque specialist Thomas Hengelbrock, Steffani's musically rich and emotionally intense fifth opera Niobe, regina di Tebe, revived in 2008, is heard here in The Royal Opera's acclaimed 2010 production. With a 'delectable' and 'seductive' performance from Veronique Gens as the proud queen punished for defying the gods, supported by male soprano Jacek Laszczkowski, who 'thrills with his astonishing power at the top of the voice... [giving] an exciting approximation of what the castrato could do' (Independent), this recording ushers Steffani's forgotten masterpiece to the wider public. Lukas Hemleb's production is tasteful and elegant, and graced with some imaginative coups de theatre. Thomas Henegelbrock conducts the expert Balthazar Neumann Ensemble, and there is first-class singing from a cast of period stylists... (The Daily Telegraph)

Tchaikovsky’s unforgettable score combines with the magical choreography inspired by Lev Ivanov in an atmosphere of fantasy and the supernatural. Hoffmann’s Christmas story unfolds with breathtaking splendour and beauty in the most festive and enduring of all ballets. The Royal Ballet, whose Director, Sir Anthony Dowell, plays Drosselmeyer, is joined by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

Anthony Dowell, Alina Cojocaru, Ivan Putrov, Miyako Yoshida, Jonathan Cope The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Evgenii Svetlanov

FORMAT: NTSC; REGION 1 | PICTURE FORMAT: 16:9 | APPROX RUN TIME: 133 MINS | SOUND: DOLBY SURROUND / LPCM STEREO

Extra features include
• The Transformation Revealed Behind-the-scenes secrets of the spectacular Christmas tree scene
• Producer Sir Peter Wright on the production and Sir Anthony Dowell on the role of Herr Drosselmeyer
• Fixed wide shots of the Snowflakes and Transformation scenes

R E V I E W S:

‘...gorgeously staged Nutcracker.’ -- The Guardian

‘…fabulously entertaining. …a deliciously mysterious Herr Drosselmeyer played by Dowell. I plan on returning to this ‘Nutcracker’ many,many times.’ -- The San Francisco Chronicle

‘Peter Wright’s traditional production of The Nutcracker is lovely Christmas stuff, with lots of tutus and tiaras.’ -- The Mail on Sunday

‘Now you don’t have to leave the comfort of your armchair to enjoy one of the most magical productions of recent years whenever you wish – in pin-sharp widescreen with CD-quality Dolby Digital surround sound. …Needless to say, the dancers are top class, the costumes exquisite, the music delightful and the sets as sumptuous as a wedding cake. Enjoy the best that ballet has to offer from the best seat in the house – your own.’ -- HMV Choice

Classical Music

The world premiere of John Tavernier's Fall and Resurrection, filmed in London's St. Paul's Cathedral. This performance was dedicated to and performed in the presence of Charles, Prince of Wales.

Orfeo, first performed in 1607, is considered the first opera in history. The Grand Theatre of Liceu, Barcelona, hosts the spectacular period performance directed by Jordi Savall, recorded in 2002, with Furio Zanasi, Montserrat Figueras, Sara Mingardo, Gloria Banditelli, Antonio Abete, Daniele Carnovich, Fulvio Bettini, Gerd Türk, Francesc Garrigosa and Carlos Mena. Savall directs La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations.

Extra features include:
* Production designer Gilbert Deflo at the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, where the opera was first performed, on the backgrounds of this stunning production.

Includes English subtitles.

DETAILS:

Sound: DTS Surround; LPCM Stereo
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic
Subtitles: EN

Also available on Blu-ray

One of the most vibrant, colourful and eye-catching productions staged at London’s Royal Opera House who offered it as the 2009 Christmas presentation. Starting out life as Vakula the Smith, whatever its title, Tchaikovsky’s opera was based on Gogol’s story, Christmas Eve, its lighthearted fairytale aimed at creating an evening of delightful fantasy. The plot is complicated and requires a large cast, but taken down to its bare bones, it tells the story of Vakula, whose mother is courted by many men including the Devil, she too being something of a witch. He falls for the young village wench, Oxana, a rather highly-strung filly who says he will have to get the Empresses shoes before she will marry him. With the help of the Devil, who carries him on his back to St. Petersburg, he does successfully obtain a pair of the Empresses shoes. Victorious he returns only to find a contrite Oxana who has missed him greatly, and wants him as her husband with or without the Empresses shoes. Though it was heavily revised by Tchaikovsky to create Cherevichki (The Tsarina’s Slippers), he thought very highly of the finished product, but it has never found a place in the international opera repertoire. With a largely Russian cast, the Royal Opera House turned it into a visual spectacular, presenting one big scene after another, with big ballet scenes and a massive extravaganza at the Empresses palace. The cast is superb throughout, with Vsevolod Grivnov a heroic heldontenor as Vakula; Olga Guryakova a charming and typical Russian soprano as Oxana; Larissa Diadkova is a fulsome Solokha in voice and stature, but it is the big voice of Vladimir Matorin as Chub that almost steals the show. Maybe the chorus is just a little tentative at times, particularly at the return of Vakula, but with the range of magnificent costumes they still make a visual delight. A joint BBC/Royal Opera House product, the whole presentation is superb, the costume’s colours so thrillingly brought to your screen.

Solokha – Larissa Diadkova
The Devil – Maxim Mikhailov
Chub – Vladimir Matorin
Panas – John Upperton
Oxana – Olga Guryakova
Vakula – Vsevolod Grivnov
Pan Golova – Alexander Vassiliev
The Schoolmaster – Viacheslav Voynarovskiy
Odark – Olga Sabadoch
Wood Goblin – Changhan Lim
Echo – Andrew Macnair
His Highness – Sergey Leiferkus
Master of Ceremonies – Jeremy White

The Royal Ballet Royal Opera House Orchestra
Alexander Polianichko, conductor

Francesca Zambello, stage director
Alastair Marriott, choreography

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, November 2009.

Bonus: - Introducing Cherevichki by Francesca Zambello
- Cast and Characters
- Staging Gogol's world

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish
Running time: 154 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

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.

Tristan: Robert Dean Smith
Marke: Robert Holl
Isolde: Iréne Theorin
Kurwenal: Jukka Rasilainen
Melot: Ralf Lukas
Brangäne: Michelle Breedt
Junger Seemann: Clemens Bieber
Ein Hirt: Arnold Bezuyen
Ein Steuermann: Martin Snell
Bayreuther Festspiele Chorus/Eberhard Friedrich
Bayreuther Festspiele Orchestra/Peter Schneider
Stage Director: Christoph Marthaler
rec. live, Bayreuth Festival, 9 August 2009.
Special Features: include ‘Kinder, macht was Neues!’ The making of Tristan und Isolde.
Video Tracks: 16:9
Audio Tracks: 5.1 DTS Surround, PCM Stereo
Subtitle Tracks: English, French, German, Spanish
OPUS ARTE OA 1033 D [3DVDs: 292:00]

As I reported last year this performance of Tristan und Isolde was chosen for only the second live relay from the ‘Green Hill’ following Die Meistersinger in 2008. Katharina Wagner who now controls Bayreuth alongside her half-sister Eva Wagner-Pasquier, wishes to open up the Festival to a much wider audience. So again the Bayreuth Festival joined forces with the city of Bayreuth and a leading German engineering company, Siemens, to present the Siemens Festival Night. This allowed several thousand people the opportunity of a free event at the Bayreuth Festplatz. In addition, the opera, like last year’s, was available on the Internet.

As I look back on what I wrote last August as the reviewer of this performance I was in no danger (in mid-January) of bright sun shining on my TV screen and creating the problems I had initially with the outdoor showing. I had reported on Christoph Marthaler’s 2005 anti-romantic staging of Tristan und Isolde from the theatre in 2008 and most of what I wrote both then and again last year stands without much significant alteration. The Prelude introduces us to the circles of light that are the light bulbs and the recurring imagery for the ocean liner in which the ‘action’ is set. Katharina Wagner has called Marthaler ‘a master when it comes to staging boredom, standstill and desperation’ though whether this is damning him with faint praise I cannot tell. In his metaphysical interpretation there is little eye contact — or any contact for that matter — between the characters. It must not be forgotten that Katharina had little — if anything — to do with this production as, at the time it was planned, the Festival was solidly in the hands of her father, Wolfgang, and late mother, Gudrun.

As revived here by Anna Sophie-Mahler little does happen in this Tristan und Isolde but Michael Beyer’s direction for TV puts our attention directly onto the faces of the singers and the truth they showed holds the viewer’s attention. In the opera house you are distanced from the facial expression of the singers but here we can focus on crucial small moments to mostly good effect. Iréne Theorin as Isolde is revealed to be quite a stunning actress and her best moment remains near the end of Act I when she is quite deranged at ‘Nun lass uns Sühne trinken!’ Here having drunk the ‘wrong’ potion she is beginning to feel the effect of passion and not her death; she very subtlety undoes her top button and then takes her pulse. Robert Dean Smith, as Tristan, also benefits from the close-ups particularly in his Act III ravings. As before, the other highlights include Michelle Breedt’s concerned Brangäne trying to snatch back the Todestrank from Isolde in Act I, King Marke’s pain at being deceived being etched so clearly on Robert Holl’s craggy features and the passing of the knife that fatally wounds Tristan from Marke on to Melot then Tristan and back to Melot and finally returned into Marke’s hands. Then significantly there is Tristan staring straight at Kurwenal (Jukka Rasilainen) convincing me that his coming back to life in Act III is all in his faithful retainer’s mind. Much of this might be missed if – as a member of the theatre audience – you were looking elsewhere.

The walls of the hold where Tristan is shown ‘lying in state’ look even more mildewed and graffiti-covered in the final Act here on DVD than on the night of the relay. Some moments also still look ridiculous such as Tristan and Kurwenal’s Act I hand gesturing when the latter sings about Lord Morold, though this is not now blown up on a huge 90m² screen.

The sound from my DVD player was reasonably faithful to the live transmission though arguably more vivid than before because of the work of the engineers. The voices sound mostly very even and the orchestra under Peter Schneider’s experience baton seems faultless and perfectly balanced though, as outdoors in August, it still seems a little louder than you would get in the Festspielhaus.

As an extra there is a short backstage self-congratulatory feature entitled ‘Kinder, macht was Neues!’ Sadly this urge by Richard Wagner to future generations to ‘do something new’ has often been taken too literally. Here we get rehearsal footage, comments and a justification for the production by those involved and even a plug for the sponsors, Siemens.

Katharina has stated that she aims to ‘make the Festival accessible to a wide public’ and for ‘a strategy of transparency while setting artistic standards for future interpretations of Wagner and winning new opera fans’. With the long wait for Bayreuth tickets it is now more possible to keep up-to-date with what is going on than ever before. It is no good some critics complaining that things are not what they were at Bayreuth without the Wagnerian, as well as the general opera-loving public, having the evidence to discuss the work going on there. At least the recent two DVD releases, along with the Ring CDs conducted by Thielemann, can only help promote the debate that I am sure Katharina and Eva surely welcome from those distanced from — what the blurb on this Tristan calls — ‘the spiritual home of Wagner’s work’.

This imbues this DVD with an historical importance but it is recommended for so much more — and even though the supporting singers are not the same quality — there are still world-class performances from Iréne Theorin’s committed, radiant Isolde and Robert Dean Smith’s lyrical, inexhaustible Tristan. It is also extremely well conducted by the Bayreuth veteran, Peter Schneider and, together with the two central performances; it is often possible to be transported to a realm far away from the drabness of the stage designs.

— Jim Pritchard, MusicWeb International

Franz Hawlata, Arthur Korn, Michael Volle, Klaus Florian Vogt, Norbert Ernst, Michaela Kaune, and Carola Guber star in this Bayreuth Festival production of the Wagner opera conducted by Sebastian Weigle and directed by Katharina Wagner.

Eva-Maria Westbrook, Lucio Gallo, and Zoran Todorovich star in this de Nederlandse Opera production of the Puccini opera conducted by Carlo Rizzi and directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff.

Classical Music

Thea Sharrock's irresistible new production of Shakespeare's popular romantic comedy stirs wit, sentiment, intrigue and love into a charming confection which challenges the traditional rules of romance. At it's heart, a feisty but feminine Rosalind (Naomi Frederick), in love with the endearingly naive Orlando (Jack Laskey), uses her disguise as Ganymede to counsel him playfully in the art of wooing. Distraction is provided by Dominic Rowan, a remarkably funny Touchstone, and Tim McMullan, whose sonorous tones are perfectly suited to the lugubrious wit of Jaques. Filmed in High Definition and true surround sound.

MY FIRST BALLET COLLECTION

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Valeriy Ovsyanikov, conductor

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Valeriy Ovsyanikov, conductor

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (excerpts)

San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet Orchestra
Martin West, conductor

Ferdinand Hérold: La Fille mal gardée (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Anthony Twiner, conductor

Felix Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream (excerpts)

Pacific Northwest Ballet
BBC Concert Orchestra
Stewart Kershaw, conductor

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Evgneny Svetlanov, conductor

Adolphe Adam: Giselle (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Boris Gruzin, conductor

Leo Delibes: Sylvia (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Graham Bond, conductor

Sergey Prokofiev: Cinderella (excerpts)

Paris National Opera Ballet
Paris National Opera Orchestra
Koen Kessels, conductor

Leo Delibes: Coppélia (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Nicolae Moldaveano, conductor

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Running time: 92 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD9)

Joaquin Achucarro performs with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis. Extras include documentary footage about Achucarro's 50th anniversary of his debut with the London Symphony featuring interviews.

Using water as a musical instrument, this extraordinary piece uses innovative techniques to explore the musicality of the sounds of water. Soloist David Cossin displays remarkable genius as he deftly creates unique, sensuous, organic, and sometimes distinctive accompaniment of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer, reflecting his personal combination of Chinese and Western musical tradition.