Also available on Blu-ray

A MusicWeb International Recording of the Month

Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) is a three act opera Singspiel by W. A. Mozart. With libretto by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner, the plot follows the attempt of Belmonte and his servant Pedrillo to rescue his Konstanze from the seraglio of Pasha Selim. This production comes from the Glyndebourne Chorus, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenmnent conducted by Robin Ticciati. Director David McVicar has strived in this production to give an original-period version of the opera. The costuming from Vicki Mortimer and the sets add to the dazzling performance. “Mesmerising, sensitive, at times troublingly erotic, the whole thing forces us to rethink a remarkable work. Outstanding.” (The Guardian)

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REVIEW:

Like most opera lovers I have my favourite composers and operas. High on my list are Verdi and Mozart works, the latter's Le nozze di Figaro, one of the greatest operatic stage works in many peoples opinion, and Verdi’s Don Carlo feature at the top of my list. However, in the case of both named composers there is other of their works that I love dearly which do not feature so regularly in recordings, or live in the theatre. In the Mozart oeuvre Die Entführung aus dem Serail, a title often shortened to Il Seraglio, the harem in translation, features highly. After some years of relative neglect, perhaps out of mistaken political correctness relating to the impact of Muslim fundamentalism, this work has returned to favour. It is defined as a singspiel, a work of musical numbers interspersed by spoken dialogue. Perhaps to get away from the traditional and any other sensitivities, this renaissance has led to some rather quirky productions including one set on The Orient Express; yes, a train for a harem, any gimmick is possible for some directors and designers. I could not imagine how it could work and it didn’t (see review). Similarly, Opera North treated the work as slapstick (see review). I go back to the early 1980s when Glyndebourne produced elegant sets by William Dudley alongside a touring cast that brought the best out of Mozart’s creation and whilst not shirking a coloured harem guard, Osmin, complete with curled toe shoes and fez. That production, and elegant sets, were caught on film at the main Glyndebourne Festival and is available on DVD in 4:3 aspect (review). I found much to commend in a later production from Florence in 2002 by Eike Gramss with sets by Christoph Wagenknech and costumes by Catherine Voeffray. Issued in 2011 in now standard 16:9 screen aspect it impressed me to the extent that I gave it the imprimateur of a DVD of the month (review). Its timing of 136 minutes gives a clue to limitations that include severe slashing of much of the spoken dialogue. I had experience of a full dialogue version in a BluRay of Christof Loy’s minimalist production filmed in the Gran Teatre de Liceu in July 2011. However, I did not like the modern dress and minimalist set (review). Aware of this limitation, when I heard that David McVicar, a favourite director of mine, was to direct a new production at Glyndebourne in 2015, with the dialogue complete, I was more than a little interested to the extent I recently bought a copy of the DVD and which I review here.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail was a groundbreaking work for Mozart. As an appendix, I recount the circumstances of the work’s creation and how it was a watershed in his compositional life. Meanwhile, let me state quite clearly that this performance and staging, complete with all the spoken dialogue, is the best I have seen and heard of this work in a long life of opera going. McVicar and his designer update the work as far as Mozart’s time, thus allowing a traditionalist staging and which is particularly opulent and apt. The characters are all in appropriate costume and the sets represent what we might expect of a seraglio and not far from that to be seen today in Granada, Spain, and built during the Ottoman Empire.

One of the consequences of the inclusion of all the spoken dialogue is the importance of Franck Saurel, the actor who speaks the role of Pasha Selim. He does so with his vocal nuance and body language matching his acting, an altogether outstanding portrayal and indicating something as to why there are times when Sally Matthews’ Konstanze’s response to him is equivocal in respect of his sexual impact on her. However, she maintains her dignity and faithfulness to her lover, singing and acting outstandingly in all respects. She excels in the long recit and aria Traurigheit ward mir zum Lose and Martern aller Arten of Act I and shows her doughty character vocally in the second act in particular. As her suitor, who braves the pasha’s domain in pursuit of her, Edgaras Montvidas acts the somewhat starchy character well whilst not quite matching her in ideal vocal mellifluousness. The other two Europeans captured and working in the Pashas palace benefit from two excellent portrayals and performances from Mari Eriksmoen as Blonde, Konstanze’s maid, and the superb acting of Brenden Gunnell as her would be lover. The manner of his acting, particularly when seeking to spike Osmin’s ardour for Blonde, are quite magnificent. Then there is Osmin himself. Very often the role is somewhat marred by slapstick. Here, Tobias Kehrer creates a funny, but fearful character, such as Mozart must have had in mind for the role. The phrases roll off his tongue as he relishes the vocal and acted demands made on him.

To conclude my enthusiasm and pleasure at this issue, I find the conducting by the flying fingers of conductor Robin Ticciati, and his period band forces, to be ideal accompanists throughout, as well as bringing an appropriate verve and vitality to the proceedings.

– MusicWeb International (Robert J. Farr)

Hamlet has the world at his feet. Young, wealthy and living a hedonistic life studying abroad. Then word reaches him that his father is dead. Returning home he finds his world is utterly changed, his certainties smashed and his home a foreign land. Struggling to understand his place in a new world order he faces a stark choice. Submit, or rage against the injustice of his new reality. Simon Godwin directs Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet in Shakespeare’s searing tragedy. As relevant today as when it was written, Hamlet confronts each of us with the mirror of our own morality in an imperfect world. “…an utterly engaging performance by Paapa Essiedu.” (The Times) “This is a landmark production; Paapa Essiedu is the first black actor to play Hamlet for the RSC in its 55-year history. He is charismatic, capricious and compelling: an impulsive, arresting presence at the heart of a production that reframes the dilemmas in the play by setting it in an unnamed African state.” (The Financial Times)

Classical Music

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

Also available on standard DVD



This ravishing production from Covent Garden, recorded in May, 2015, certainly takes its cues from Freud... The score is a stunner, alternately sensual and sumptuous, with dissonant eruptions. It can sometimes overwhelm with its exotic, anointed quality, which makes it seem obvious, but it is certainly one of a kind. It requires, of course, a cast willing to learn Polish, and for that alone we should praise this production – it sometimes sounds as if it has no vowels. I suspect it would not have come to be were it not for Polish-born Mariusz Kwiecien, a remarkable singing actor in foreign languages and now even more remarkable in the comfort of his own. Roger is a veritable garden of uncertainties and hungers, and Kwiecien’s acting and singing give us each doubt, each fear, each unresolved bit of passion. His voice is in wonderful shape as well–a highly placed, bright baritone.


There are subtitles in English, French, German, Japanese, and Korean and bonus features including explanations by Pappano and Holten – as well as a blow-by-blow documentary. King Roger is not an oddity or a rarity–it’s a major part of the operatic canon and this is an ideal way to get to know it.

--ClassicsToday.com

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

Also available on standard DVD

Don Giovanni, Mozart’s sublime tragic comedy, offers boundless scope for directors. Kasper Holten shifts the emphasis from Don Giovanni’s sex life into a darker place, showing Giovanni’s womanizing as an attempt to stave off his own mortality. Each woman he seduces represents a life he could have had. Though it is a dark piece, Holten handles it all with a light touch. Led by conductor Nicola Luisotti, the superb cast features Mariusz Kwiecien as Don Giovanni, Alex Esposito and French soprano Véronique Gens. ‘‘…a cast that can’t be bettered today…demands to be seen.’’ Seen and Heard Int’l

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
DON GIOVANNI
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Don Giovanni - Mariusz Kwiecie?
Leporello - Alex Esposito
Donna Anna - Malin Byström
Commendatore - Alexander Tsymbalyuk
Don Ottavio - Antonio Poli
Donna Elvira - Véronique Gens
Zerlina - Elizabeth Watts
Masetto - Dawid Kimberg
Donna Elvira’s Maid - Josephine Arden

Royal Opera Chorus
(chorus master: Renato Balsadonna)
Royal Opera House Orchestra
Nicola Luisotti, conductor

Kasper Holten, stage director
Es Devlin, set designer
Anja Vang Kragh, costume designer
Bruno Poet, lighting designer
Signe Fabricius, choreographer

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, February 2014

Bonus:
- Introductions: Don Giovanni’s Women
- Director’s Commentary

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2. 0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 187 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray)

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.

Federico Moreno Torroba - LUISA FERNANDA

Vidal Hernando - Plácido Domingo
Luisa Fernanda - Nancy Herrera
Javier Moreno - José Bros
Duchess Carolina - Mariola Cantarero
Mariana - Raquel Pierotti
Aníbal - Javier Ferrer
Rosita - Sabina Puértolas
Don Florito Fernández - José Antonio Ferrer
Don Luís Nogales - Federico Gallar
Bizco Porras - David Rubiera

Chorus & Orchestra of the Teatro Real
(Madrid Symphony Orchestra & Chorus)
Jesús López Cobos, Conductor

Emilio Sagi, Stage Director

Recorded live at the Teatro Real, Madrid in July 2006

Bonus Material:
Interviews with Plácido Domingo, Emilio Sagi and Jesús López Cobos / Illustrated Synopsis / Cast Gallery

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound format: DTS Surround / LPCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (All Regions)
Menu Language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian
Running time: 105 minutes
No. of DVDs: 1

* Plácido Domingo heads an internationally renowned cast in Emilio Sagi's stylish new production for Madrid's Teatro Real of Moreno Torroba's enduring Zarzuela, whose story itself is set in the Spanish capital. Filmed using High Definition cameras and recorded in true surround sound. Jesus Lopez Cobos conducts the Chorus & Orchestra of the Teatro Real.

R E V I E W S

"The production at the Teatro Real in Madrid was a top-of-the- range version… Vidal is a peach of a role for Domingo: his voice easily commands its baritone range and he dominates the action, convincingly heroic in voice and figure and still able to project a greying virility in the style of Sean Connery. Nancy Herrara as Luisa and Jose Bros as Javier gave fine support." -- The Independent

"Luisa Fernanda is a fantastic addition to Opus Arte’s already very impressive catalog of classical releases. Aside from the small lighting issue, which I addressed in my technical analysis, this is just about a perfect disc. I am definitely looking forward to more Spanish music being released on Blu-ray. I hope Manuel de Falla isn’t too far behind. Very Highly Recommended." -- Dr Svet Atanasov, Blu-ray.com [April 2009]

"Luisa Fernanda deserves to be better known and appreciated. Hopefully this excellent BD performance will help foster that appreciation. Beautifully played and sung, and with a striking physical production, this is zarzuela at its finest. Highly recommended." -- Jeffrey Kauffman, DVD Talk [June 2009]

R E V I E W:



VERDI La Traviata • Antonio Pappano, cond; Renée Fleming ( Violetta ); Joseph Calleja ( Alfredo ); Thomas Hampson ( Germont ); Royal Op House Ch & O • OPUS ARTE OA 1040 D (DVD); OA BD7076 D (Blu-ray: 154:00) Live: Covent Garden 6/27 & 30/2009


Back in Fanfare 34:1 I reviewed the recent DVD of La traviata with Angela Gheorghiu, Ramón Vargas, Roberto Frontali, and Lorin Maazel at La Scala. To summarize that briefly, my verdict was: excellent staging, superlative Gheorghiu, good Vargas and Maazel, hapless Frontali and comprimario singers. I also provided an extensive overview of other versions of the opera on DVD; all are flawed, but the best alternatives are the 1968 film version on VAI with Anna Moffo, Franco Bonisolli, Gino Bechi, and Giuseppe Patané; a 1972 Tokyo staging starring Renata Scotto, José Carreras, Sesto Bruscantini, and Nino Verchi, also on VAI; and the 2006 Los Angeles Opera production on Decca with Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazón, Renato Bruson, and James Conlon. Opus Arte now brings us a new version with Renée Fleming, and while it too is not without its flaws, it joins the aforementioned entries in the top rank of La traviata performances on video.


At the risk of seeming like a gaggle of geese nibbling this DVD to death, I will state up front that this version of the opera is carried by a few great strengths over multiple secondary weaknesses. The strengths are easy to state: All the principal roles are securely sung, a top-notch conductor is on the podium, and the staging is sensible. In particular, Joseph Calleja is one of the greatest Alfredos ever to record the role. While not ideally handsome and dashing in physical appearance, he has the ringing tenor voice, secure technique, heartbreaking plangency of timbre, and interpretive imagination for the ideal Alfredo. Every time he opens his mouth, you simply don’t want him to close it again. He is also an effective actor whose facial expressions, postures, and gestures harmonize with his singing.


After Calleja, however, the “yes, but” element of this review enters in for everyone and everything else, beginning with the Violetta of Renée Fleming. Doubtless she is a very good Violetta, and superior to many rivals, but I do not think she is a truly great one. Compared to her Los Angeles performance from three years earlier, her interpretation is considerably deeper but her vocal technique (particularly in “Sempre libera”) is more labored and the sound less creamy. Thankfully, she does far less of the distracting grimacing and bizarre grinning than before, though sometimes it still intrudes (someone needs to tell her to rehearse in front of a mirror). However, my greater concern is that her acting is too calculated and external to the character rather than indwelling it; she expends too much energy portraying, rather than being, Violetta. The gestures and movements all seem too self-conscious; instead of just picking up a champagne bottle, or flitting a handkerchief, or sitting down in a chair, one can almost see her thinking, “Now I’m supposed to pick up the champagne bottle,” “Now I should flit my handkerchief,” “Now I should sit down in this chair.” Again, I would prefer to emphasize the real improvement in her characterization in just three years, but this dimension is present and it does matter.


Next there is the Germont of Thomas Hampson. The good news is that he is in steady and secure voice here—not always the case recently—which is more than can be said for much of his painfully superannuated competition. The less than ideal news is that, in order to keep the voice steady, he constantly forces it so that every syllable is pushed out at a forte with a hard, unyielding tone that limits him to a single mode of expression, one of preemptive sternness. His acting and facial gestures are similarly limited and wooden; when Violetta pleads for his fatherly embrace he remains stock-still and ignores her, and displays equal unconcern for his son at “Di Provenza il mar.” In an unintentionally comic sartorial aspect, the light green piping on his brown suit unavoidably conjures up a chocolate sundae with mint drizzle icing, while his stiff posture and lumbering gait in an over-padded full-length fur coat keep bringing to mind actor Fred Gwynne (aka Herman Munster). Again, I don’t want these smaller details to override the fact that Hampson’s Germont trumps that of many lesser singers, but again they are present and do matter.


The rest can be summarized more briefly. One always expects fine Verdi conducting when Antonio Pappano is in the pit, and so it proves here; but this time he seems a bit too deferential to his singers and the performance lacks the extra frisson found in his very best interpretations, and I actually find myself preferring Maazel overall despite his occasional eccentricities. The comprimario singers are uniformly excellent to a rare degree—every one of them could easily be singing a principal role in a major opera instead—and the deft stage direction makes their momentary interactions contribute far more to the cogency of the plot that I have ever experienced before. The recorded sound and film quality are quite good, with the quality of the Blu-ray disc only marginally superior to that of the regular DVD; the camerawork is sensible if not exceptional; the costumes are of the period and (Hampson’s suit and coat excepted) attractive and elegant; the ballet sequence at Flora’s party is nicely staged.


My one other major reservation concerns the production’s sets, which are quite pedestrian. Act I is set in a round room with brown wood paneling and a single large window with blinds in the back, with a small round settee and semicircular padded backless benches around it—no banquet table, chandelier, or anything else to indicate either elegance or the intended significance of Violetta in the round. While not the awful Willy Decker sofa and clock, it’s a major disappointment. The villa interior for act II, scene 1 is painted a drab eggshell blue and has no furniture other than a long work table and a few chairs. Several paintings—whether waiting to be hung or sold is not clear—are stacked on the floor to one side, and several little squares painted with stripes—color swatches, perhaps?—rest in a row on the wall molding halfway off the floor. It’s not very attractive, and simply leaves one baffled regarding the desired effect. By contrast, Flora’s party in act II scene 2 is appropriately elegant, marred only by garish red stage lighting, a huge modern dome light fixture hanging from the ceiling like an oversized cafeteria heat lamp hovering over sandwiches. Act III has an appropriately simple setting of a bare room outfitted with a bed, a dresser, and a couple of chairs, but again is marred by two enormous windows with blinds, against which inexplicably tall shadows (up to 30 feet) of carnival revelers are cast after Violetta finishes “Addio del passato.” Compared to the high-class La Scala staging for Gheorghiu, this is an impoverished country cousin.


So, once again, we still await the ideal La traviata . In the best of all possible worlds, I would be able to take the La Scala production, replace its wretched comprimario singers with their Covent Garden counterparts, swap out Vargas for Calleja, and replace Frontali with almost any other baritone from another DVD. (Leonard Warren, where are you when we need you?) Barring such a pleasing impossibility, however, this production is as good as any other and better than most, and is recommended accordingly.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

Presented here are all of Wagner's mature operas from seven leading European opera houses recorded during the last decade. Featuring many acclaimed Wagner singers of our age these productions exult in the force of Ezra Pound's dictum 'Great art is news that stays news'. The directors Harry Kupfer Nikolaus Lehnhoff David McVicar and others heed Wagner's own persuasive plea 'Children make it new' in staging's employing modern technology within grand designs that face up to the breadth of Wagner's dramatic genius and the social and political implications.

Carl Tanner, Iano Tamar, Zeljko Lucic, and Marianne Cornetti star in this Bregenzer Festspiele production of the Verdi opera on 2 DVDs with Thomas Rosner conducting the Vienna Symphony, Moscow Chamber Choir, and Bregenzer Festspielchor.

Also available on Blu-ray

Madame Larina – Olga Savova
Tatjana – Krassimira Stoyanova
Olga – Elena Maximova
Filipjevna – Nina Romanova
Jevgeni Onjegin – Bo Skovhus
Vladimir Ljenski – Andrey Dunaev
Vorst Gremin – Mikhail Petrenko
Petrovitsj – Peter Arink
Zaretski – Roger Smeets
Monsieur Triquet – Guy de Mey
Zapevalo – Richard Prada

Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Mariss Jansons, conductor

Stefan Herheim, stage director

Recorded live at De Nederlandse Opera, June 2011

Bonus:
- Cast gallery
- 30-Minute Documentary Film

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
Running time: 151 mins (opera) + 30 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Also available on Blu-ray



MOZART MOZART Die Zauberflöte • Roland Böer, cond; Saimir Pirgu (Tamino); Genia Kühmeier (Pamina); Alex Esposito (Papageno); Albina Shagimuratova (Queen of the Night); Günther Groissböck (Sarastro); Ailish Tynan (Papagena); Peter Bronder (Monostatos); La Scala O & Ch • OPUS ARTE OA 1066 D (DVD: 172:00); OA BD7099 D (Blu-ray: 172:00) Live: Milan 3–4/2011


This very Masonic opera pits the forces of Light—love, honesty, trust, reason, enthusiasm—against those of Darkness—lust, hatred, deception, fear, despair. William Kentridge in an interview included on this disc speaks of envisioning the original Masons in specific and the Enlightenment in general as part of a movement that brought “benign” colonialism to Africa, Asia, etc. He states that Die Zauberflöte is far less a matter of black-and-white sides when understood in this fashion, but instead of shades of gray. Fortunately, only some of this historically suspect interpretation actually finds its way into his production and set design. The result has its quirks, and some things definitely don’t work, but by and large it’s wildly creative and fun.


Multimedia has seldom been used so extensively in opera, so stylishly, or to such advantage. Kentridge essentially riffs on the idea of backlit projections as physical location, metaphor, and commentary, employing imagery drawn from turn-of-the-19th-century material. So when Tamino walks to a part of the stage, the words Tempel der Vernugt (Temple of Reason) are superimposed via projection; then he stands still, and the transparent gate of the stone edifice seems to pass over him. The second gate advances from the other side to silhouette itself on the first, a visual equivalent of the Prince’s compounded confusion. When Papageno’s music is first heard before his entrance, Tamino turns a projector/camera crank that throws on the back curtain a shadow image of a human who morphs briefly into a giant bird, and can pull birds out of thin air: Papageno, in other words, here depicted as something half-magical. Again, when Papageno and Monostatos cower on stage during their meeting, as each sings, the silhouetted image behind him is of the other looming over his huddled figure brandishing a weapon. I can’t praise such moments highly enough, and many others like them.


But I’m not convinced by Kentridge’s dressing up the Priest as an academician before a classroom chalkboard, showing geometric drawings—not when his discussion with Tamino is about love and virtue. Similarly, “In diesen heil’gen Hallen” doesn’t lend itself under any circumstances to backlit abstract geometric lines, equations, and a black-and-white silent film of a pair of pith-helmeted explorers viewing some previously unknown savannah. True, a bad king might speak such words as Schikaneder has written, while pursuing policies more along the lines of Belgium’s morally repulsive Leopold II; but no king could lie so convincingly to such music as Mozart has written. It’s a rule of opera (with very few exceptions) that music defines a character’s emotions, and Sarastro is all about benevolent, equalizing, all-embracing love, not logic and territorial invasion. The fit simply is wrong.


The static pictures that Kentridge often creates with his characters are necessary for the fluid animated line drawings à la Émile Cohl that loom over large portions of the stage. The performers’ acting is generally very good, though the singing is variable. Samir Pirgu offers a distinguished “Dies Bildnis,” but Ailish Tynan begins tremulously, with a few efforts at pitch that fail. Before the end of “Ich Vogelfanger bin ich ja” his voice settles down, revealing a thin but pleasant lyric baritone that turns harsh when pressed. Albina Shagimuratova is a lyric soprano Queen (and excels in this respect) rather than a stratospheric coloratura one, who manages the figurations of “Du wirst sie zu befreyen gehen” with slight uneasiness at the moderate speed Böer sets for her. Peter Bronder wobbles and barks his way through his part, but Genia Kühmeier delivers a beautifully refined “Ach ich fühls.” Günther Groissböck supplies a rock-solid bass and cantabile singing for Sarastro. I do feel his two arias go by too quickly under conductor Roland Böer, and are rendered prosaic as a result. This is as nothing compared to the music in the act I quintet that first introduces us to the Three Boys, however, which suddenly accelerates with a wrenching change of tempo, and rushes to its conclusion—as though people shouldn’t enjoy it. These are only a few of the changes to the score based as we are told on René Jacobs’s interpretation. There are noodling fortepiano chords between concert pieces and secco recitative at various times, such as at the conclusion of Tamino’s aria, and an entirely new section accompanying an overlong shadow play of Monostatos terrorizing Pamina. Since none of these alterations have ever been established as more than Jacobs’s personal preferences, however intelligent the source, it amounts to defining a new tradition every bit as arbitrary and in several instances anachronistic as any 19th-century one.


The camerawork by Patrizia Carmine is excellent, working obviously to second Kentridge’s design. Subtitles are furnished in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian, with audio formats in Dolby Digital and DTS surround, and a visual format of 16:9 anamorphic.


I have my reservations, and some of them are strong. But for sheer visual exuberance and insight this Zauberflöte trumps the rest. I only wish Kentridge the stage director with an Idea didn’t get in the way of Kentridge the imaginative artist, but there’s so much of the latter that I’m more than willing to forgive the former. Strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal


Sarastro – Günther Groissböck
Tamino – Saimir Pirgu
Queen of the Night – Albina Shagimuratova
Pamina – Genia Kühmeier
Papagena – Ailish Tynan
Papageno – Alex Esposito
Monostatos – Peter Bronder


Milan La Scala Chorus and Orchestra
Roland Böer, conductor

William Kentridge, stage director

Recorded live at La Teatro alla Scala, 20 March 2011

Bonus:
- Overview of The Magic Flute
- Illustrated synopsis

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Running time: 150 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

Inva Mula and Aquiles Macnado star in this Giancarlo del Monaco-directed Teatro Real Madrid production of the Puccini opera with Jesus Lopez Cobos conducting.

Also available on Blu-ray

The diversity of Wayne McGregor’s astonishing talent is demonstrated through Chroma, Infra and Limen, each created for The Royal Ballet, for whom he is resident choreographer. Intimate yet universal, light yet dark, frenetic yet lyrical, McGregor pursues his passion for exploring the inner workings of the human body and mind, his many-layered and beautiful dances providing visual, sensual and kinaesthetic stimulus for the viewer.

"…Wayne McGregor's Infra: sumptuous beauty and shimmering possibility" The Telegraph

Chroma
Federico Bonelli, Ricardo Cervera, Tamara Rojo
Mara GaleazzI, Sarah Lamb, Steven Mcrae, Laura Morera
Ludovic Ondiviela, Eric Underwood, Jonathan Watkins
Edward Watson

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor: Daniel Capps
Music: Joby Talbot , Jack White III

Infra
Leanne Benjamin, Ricardo Cervera, Yuhui Choe
Lauren Cuthbertson, Mara Galeazzi, Melissa Hamilton
Ryoichi Hirano, Paul Kay, Marianela Nuñez, Eric Underwood
Jonathan Watkins, Edward Watson
The Max Richter Quintet
Director: Jonathan Haswell
Music: Max Richter

Limen
Leanne Benjamin, Yuhui Choe, Mara Galeazzi, Melissa Hamilton, Sarah Lamb, Marianela Nuñez Leticia Stock, Akane Takada, Tristan Dyer, Paul Kay Brian Maloney, Steven Mcrae, Ludovic Ondiviela, Eric Underwood, Edward Watson

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Director: Barry Wordsworth
Music: Kaija Saariaho

Recorded live from the Royal Opera House
Infra: 13th & 14th November 2008
Chroma: 10th & 11th June 2010
Limen: 13th & 17th November 2009

Duration: 01:38:00
Regions: All Regions
Picture Format: 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound Type: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS
Subtitles: French/German/Spanish

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

There’s more than a hint of reality TV to this modern production of Shakespeare’s hilarious comedy of suburbia, wives and over-inflated egos directed by Fiona Laird. John Falstaff plans to hustle his way to a comfortable retirement by seducing the wives of two wealthy men. Unknown to him, it’s the women of Windsor who really pull the strings, orchestrating Falstaff’s comeuppance amidst a theatrical smorgasbord of petty rivalries, jealousies and overinflated egos. For a fat Englishman, a Welshman and a Frenchman, the only way is Windsor. “Fiona Laird’s production introduces new elements that chime deliciously with the spirit of Shakespeare’s play… risky, but it all pays off.” (The Financial Times)

The Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy began in 2012 with an all-female production of Julius Caesar led by Dame Harriet Walter. Set in a women’s prison, the production asked the question, ‘Who owns Shakespeare?’ Two further productions followed: Henry IV in 2014 and The Tempest in 2016, all featuring a diverse company of women. The Trilogy enthralled theatre audiences in London and New York and was shared with women and girls in prisons and schools across the UK. The film versions were shot live in a specially built temporary theatre in King’s Cross in 2016, and now offer screen audiences unique access to these ground-breaking productions. Power, betrayal, justice. Shakespeare’s great political drama Julius Caesar could not be more timely as it depicts the catastrophic consequences of a political leader’s extension of his powers beyond the remit of the constitution. What makes a King? What makes a father? The Bard’s monumental history play travels to the heart of family, duty and country in this bold, contemporary production, adapted from Shakespeare’s two plays about King Henry IV, Prince Hal and Falstaff. Set on an isle ‘full of noises’, this magical production of The Tempest sees Harriet Walter take on the role of Prospero in an evocation of the eternal struggle for freedom, morality and justice. ‘A glorious reminder that genuine diversity offers astonishing creative benefits’ (The Guardian) This set includes over 90 minutes of extra documentary features that were not included on the original releases.

Also available on Blu-ray

Napoli, a conernstone of the Royal Danish Ballet, was created in 1842 by choreographer and ballet master, August Bournonville. | This timeless tale is set in Naples and focues on Gennaro, a young fisherman, on his quest to rescue Teresina, his beloved, who has supposedly drowned at sea. | For this production, the Company has chosen to set the scene in the 1950s, taking inspriation from Federico Fellini's early films. | Maja Ravn has created elaborate sets and constumes and Nikolaj Hübbe and Sorella Englund bring striking new choreography to Bournonville's classic routines. | An entirely new musical score has been created for Act II just for this production! | Leading this cast is Alban Lendorf as Gennaro and Alexandra Lo Sardo as Teresina. | Graham Bond conducts this fabulous ballet, recorded live in 2014 at the Royal Danish Ballet, Copenhagen.

August Bournonville
NAPOLI

Gennaro - Alban Lendorf
Teresina - Alexandra Lo Sardo
Golfo - Benjamin Buza
Veronica - Lis Jeppesen
Giovanina - Alba Nadal
Flora - Mette Bødtcher
Peppo - Jean-Lucien Massot
Giacomo - Fernando Mora
Pascarillo - Poul Erik Hesselkilde
Pilgrim - Josephine Berggreen

Royal Danish Ballet
Royal Danish Orchestra (Det Kongelige Kapel)
Graham Bond, conductor

Sorella Englund and Nikolaj Hübbe, choreographers (after August Bournonville)
Maja Ravn, set and costume designer
Mikki Kunttu, lighting designer

Music:
Edvard Helsted
Holger Simon Paulli
Hans Christian Lumbye
Louise Alenius

Recorded live at the Royal Danish Ballet, Copenhagen, February 2014

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 105 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

This trio of unforgettable Royal Opera productions feature some of the most cherished and admired examples of Verdi’s operatic genius. The composer returned to his early masterpiece Macbeth after the great successes Il trovatore and La traviata had propelled him to universal fame, and his 1865 revision – today the most popular version of the work – shares the marks of dramatic and musical innovation that enshrine all three operas as undying classics. Phyllida Lloyd stages Verdi’s setting of the Scottish play, featuring Simon Keenlyside’s athletic, brooding Thane opposite Liudmyla Monastyrska’s imperious Lady. Rivalry blazes between José Cura’s troubadour and Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s Count in an Elijah Moshinsky production with sets by noted film designer Dante Ferretti. Starring as the illfated courtesan Violetta in Richard Eyre’s classic production is Renée Fleming, loved by Joseph Calleja as Alfredo against the wishes of his unyielding father, played by Thomas Hampson. Verdi’s best-loved works brought vividly to life.

Wagner's rarely performed early comic opera, based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, enjoys its Spanish debut in a new production by director Kasper HOlten. The lively score boasts clear Italian, French and Weberian influences that pre-date the composer's mature voice, yet the music continually delights with the unmistakable emergence of Wagner's precocious genius. His adaptation of the Bard's play reflects the rebellious modd of a Revolutionary Germany, vindicating sensual love and attacking the fanatical repression of sexuality by a puritanical and hypocritical authority. Ivor Bolton conducts a vibrant cast featuring English baritone and Cardiff Singer of the World Lieder Prize-winner Christoph Maltman, Turkish-Viennese tenor and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Ilker Arcayurek and Germany's htotest Wagnerian leading lady, Manuela Uhl.

In this celebrated Glyndebourne Festival production, David Hockney’s designs for director John Cox reinterpret the Hogarth etchings that inspired the opera’s libretto, written for Stravinsky by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman. In 2010, this revival under Glyndebourne’s Music Director, Vladimir Jurowski, captured the opera’s neo-classical spirit and its juxtaposition of whimsy, cynicism and compassion, prompting the Financial Times to call it,‘‘as enjoyable a performance of Stravinsky’s opera as any that has come along".

Recorded live at the Glyndebourne Opera House 18–19 December 2010

Bonus:
- Documentary includes an interview with David Hockney
- Introduction to the Rake’s Progress

• Picture format: NTSC 16:9
• Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
• Region code: 0 (worldwide)
• Subtitles: English, French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Korean
• Running time: 140 mins
• No. of DVDs: 1
  

REVIEW:

Nick Shadow speaks directly to the audience in Act 2, which justifies his winking and gurning at them at various points throughout, usually to show what a dupe his master is, and always to delicious comic effect. His costume, and in particular his hairdo, is ridiculous, yet strangely disquieting. Matthew Rose plays the part to the hilt, making clear from his very first scene that Tom is a pushover and that Anne is where the danger lies. He manages adeptly the comic aspects of the role, at least as far as the graveyard scene, when everything changes. It’s possible to imagine a darker voice for Shadow, but I find his assumption totally convincing. Topi Lehtipuu as Tom is very fine too. He captures very well indeed Tom’s love for Anne, which is genuine and will be his salvation, but which he abandons by weakness of will. Miah Persson is adorable as Anne. She brings out beautifully the vulnerability of the character, but crucially she has brilliantly understood the steely determination present in Anne’s music, and acts it out, both physically and vocally, to perfection. The smaller roles are beautifully taken, and the chorus sings and acts splendidly. Time and again I was struck, as never before, by the sheer beauty of the sound of this work, and the orchestra plays magnificently under the inspiring direction of Vladimir Jurowski.

There are other performances of The Rake’s Progress on DVD, including an earlier incarnation of this same production, finely sung but now superseded technically. Then there is the production from La Monnaie in Brussels, garishly updated to 1950s America. Rapturously received in many quarters, you are likely to love it or hate it. Either way, there is no question, this life-enhancing DVD from Glyndebourne is truly special and not to be missed.

-- MusicWeb International

An Evening with the Royal Ballet brings together a fabulous collection of some of the world's most beloved ballets. This disc showcases the outstanding productions from the stage of the Royal Opera House including Coppelia, Giselle, La fille mal gardee, Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake, Sylvia, The Firebird, The Nutcracker, and The Sleeping Beauty.

Featuring Carlos Acosta, Tamara Rojo, Lauren Cuthbertson, Marianela Nunez, The Royal Ballet.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 95 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

An all-Ashton DVD is a treat, for apart from several full-length ballets we have been lacking examples of the choreographer’s work in shorter pieces. Les Patineurs is a hardy classic, dating from 1937, and makes a wonderful introduction to the work of one of the major choreographers of the 20th century. Meyerbeer’s catchy music inspires Ashton not only in the pas de deux with its fan lifts, but also the male solo, which is as virtuoso as can be. The dancers maintain a skating step throughout, but it is the variety of which Ashton is master that continues to astound us. The dueling girls who try to outdo one another offer further examples of virtuosity, which make us wonder at the qualities of the dancers of 75 years ago. Today, with Stephen McRae as the Blue Boy and Sarah Lamb and Rupert Pennefeather as the Lovers, we can still sense the excitement of balletgoers of an earlier epoch.



Scènes de Ballet is a postwar creation that has never achieved the widespread currency of Patineurs , yet remains a signal piece in Ashton’s oeuvre, much as Symphonic Variations, of which we desperately need documentation. A lead couple is supported by four men and a corps of women, and the choreographer continually astounds us with the patterns he weaves. His response to Stravinsky is perhaps not as direct as that of Balanchine, but then Mr. B never gave us his version of this “dancy” work. It is nonetheless fascinating to watch the Ashtonian sensibility at work, while Miyako Yoshida and Ivan Putrov show off both the music and the choreography. Ashton’s delicate references to such classics as the Rose Adagio from Sleeping Beauty cannot be missed. André Beaurepaire’s sets and costumes are the only things that appear dated in what is otherwise a major contribution to the repertoire of the Royal Ballet.


The divertissements show Ashton’s craftsmanship in the “Awakening” pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty with the ravishing Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope; two excerpts from a wartime ballet created for American Ballet Theatre; Devil’s Holiday , especially the man’s solo eloquently danced by Viacheslav Samodurov; and three pièces d’occasion : a duet to the Méditation from Massenet’s Thaïs (Mara Galeazzi and Thiago Soares), Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan (Tamara Rojo), and the Voices of Spring pas de deux (Leanne Benjamin and Carlos Acosta). The Brahms is the most interesting of the lot as Ashton had seen Duncan when he was a young man, and later created his own work for Lynn Seymour. Rojo is astounding in this re-creation, as she conveys Ashton’s own impressions but also embodies much of what one has read about Duncan in other sources.


FANFARE: Joel Kasow

Also available on Blu-ray

Monteverdi’s seminal first opera tells the dramatic story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses of the descent of Orfeo (Georg Nigl) into the underworld to recover his beloved wife Euridice (Roberta Invernizzi), who has died from a snake bite. In a new production for La Scala, based on a painting by Titian and directed by Robert Wilson, the opera receives a powerful and inspiring performance from a fine cast, the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala and Concerto Italiano under the much-admired Italian early music specialist, Rinaldo Alessandrini.

Claudio Monteverdi
L'ORFEO

Orfeo – Georg Nigl
Euridice / Eco – Roberta Invernizzi
Messaggera / Speranza – Sara Mingardo
Caronte – Luigi De Donato
Proserpina – Raffaella Milanesi
Plutone – Giovanni Battista Parodi
Apollo – Furio Zanasi

Concerto Italiano
Milan La Scala Orchestra
Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor

Robert Wilson, stage director
Jacques Reynaud, costume designer
A J Weissbard, lighting designer
Recorded live at La Teatro alla Scala, 21 and 23 December 2009.
Bonus:
- Cast gallery
- Illustrated Synopsis

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound format: PCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian
Running time: 116 mins
No. of DVDs: 1