For many, the Christmas holiday season would be incomplete without the resounding drum roll and trumpet fanfare that opens Bach's "Oratorium auf die Heilige Weynacht" ("Oratorio for the holy Christmas"). Ever since it was first performed by the Thomaskantor between Christmas Day in 1734 and Epiphany 1735 in Leipzig's two main churches of St. Thomas and St. Nikolai, Bach's six part musical masterpiece has become a cornerstone of the city's identity and musical heritage. The performance presented here, led by Bach's 17th successor Gotthold Schwarz together with the Thomanerchor and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, features a lineup of renowned soloists, enabling one to experience the festive grandeur of what many consider the epitome of Christmas music in it's original setting. "Gotthold Schwarz transforms this into a Christmas Oratorio that is far more than a sum of it's parts... his musical rhetoric avoids cheap gimmicks and vain showmanship." (Peter Korfmacher, LVZ)

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)

Founded in Tel-Aviv in 1964, the Batsheva Dance Company was headed from 1990 to 2018 by Ohad Naharin, an incredible dancer with a musical training, and a true passion for movement. Through his "Gaga" technique, a choreographic vocabulary that explores the sensations and the availability of the bodies, he made his mark on the dance world and offered the company it's finest hours. In 2015, Tomer Heymann's documentary "Mr. Gaga" paid tribute to the Naharin phenomenon, it's influence on the contemporary dance scene and in pop culture. The collection 'The Art of Ohad Naharin' is a showcase of Naharin's aesthetics and demanding technique: after a first volume featuring Naharin's Virus and Last Work, two of the most emblematic works in the company's current repertoire, this new release presents Sadeh21, created in 2011 in collaboration with the dancers, and interpreted by the 'junior' branch of Batsheva - The Young Ensemble. Transmission is a fundamental element of Naharin's philosophy. It is not surprising that Batsheva - The Young Ensemble was created the same year that the choreographer took over the Israeli company, on the contrary, it shows the choreographer's desire to nurture young dancers and help them develop their creative process, but also to deepen his own choreographic language by getting an outside look on his own work. This is what happens with Sadeh21: upon seeing it danced by the Young Ensemble, Naharin even said it felt like seeing it for the first time. This 'choreographic odyssee', this 'epic-dance expedition', with it's strong contrasting effects and it's bare simplicity, presents the essence of movement, stripped of all tricks or devices, and thus underscores the extraordinary emotional powers of dance. Rejuvenated by a new generation of interprets from all over the world, the choreography becomes incandescent and resembles an explosion of sensuality, radiant, dangerous and exciting.

Star conductor Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden present a brand new recording of all four symphonies of Robert Schumann, who lived in Dresden from 1844 to 1850 and wrote his second symphony there. His symphonies are considered masterpieces amongst German romantic symphonic works. This cycle, which was recorded live at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, receiving great critical acclaim, is a new milestone in Schumann interpretation. "The Staatskapelle's sumptuous playing is hard to fault..." (The Guardian) A bonus on this release is "Discovering Schumann," which features Christian Thielemann talking about Schumann�s Symphonies and his interpretations.

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Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes was among the many musicians who travelled to Italy to master the language and the rules of operatic works. He studied in Milan and succeeded in having a few operas staged at Italian venues, before returning to Brazil where he was hailed as the most famous living national composer. Gomes felt compelled to commit his work to the country’s anti-slave cause, which was still legal practice then. Lo schiavo was therefore conceived as a politically engaged work. However, the issue was rather volatile and the composer had to change the contemporary time setting to a more distant one. In Brazil the opera was a triumph, but elsewhere it failed to gain popularity and soon fell into oblivion. This recording of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari’s production documents the opera’s first performance in modern times and reveals Gomes’ flamboyant richness of melodic creativity, his sound grasp of construction, and a technical mastery of the theatrical mechanisms that are always of the highest level. “The most popular title of the entire Brazilian repertoire. The most represented and, perhaps, the most loved one.” (John Neschling, conductor)

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Darcey Bussell and Roberto Bolle star in Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia, restored to the splendor of its elegant, opulent three-act form and featuring the choreographer’s darkly comic characterizations. By contrast La fille mal gardée, starring Marianela Nuñez and Carlos Acosta, has been treasured as one of Ashton’s happiest creations – his artistic tribute to nature and his beloved Suffolk countryside. The Tales of Beatrix Potter bring the famous stories of the English writer and illustrator to life in a warm and witty work for all ages. Swept up in the ballet’s childlike exuberance, the entire cast delivers outstanding portrayals of such colorful figures as Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mr Jeremy Fisher, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and the irrepressible Peter Rabbit.

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After the great success that Il Trovatore received in Paris, Verdi was proposed to compose a French version of the opera to suit the tastes of the local public. The original work, based on the Spanish play El trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez, had a libretto by Cammarano, which was translated into French by Émilien Pacini . Le Trouvère was first staged in Brussels in 1856 and premiered at the Paris Opera in 1857. In this new version the composer added some music in act 3 for the gypsie ballet scene, extended the finale of act 4 and made several other revisions. The plot is highly dramatic and captivating: Verdi portrays strong characters who deal with war, obsession and revenge. To use director Robert Wilson’s words “this is a family tragedy, and in many ways, it is a very contemporary story.” Wilson’s approach to the opera aims at preserving its emotional strength by using a very essential décor, whose main element is light: “As a director, when I design the stage and lighting, I think about if what I see can help me hear better. Le Trouvère requires a tremendous amount of concentration, so the set I designed is abstract in order to create a space for the music in the Farnese. I have designed an environment in concrete, creating a juxtaposition to the theatre’s ornate interior. […] Light in my work functions as part of the architectural whole. It is an element which helps us hear and see. Without light there is no space. To light a world that Verdi has described as so dark, one needs light to make the space darker.” In the set’s background the director also uses some photos by American photographer Robert Rosenkranz. This production was staged in the splendid Teatro Farnese of Parma, which was built in 1628 and belongs to the Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta, one of the oldest museums in Italy. Extra content: Interview with the curator of the Museum subtitled in all languages.

More than 200 years after it's premiere at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Martin Helmchen have congenially mastered the artistic challenge of Beethoven's gemstone. Under Herbert Blomstedt's sensitive direction, the soloists unite chamber musical intimacy together with virtuoso sophistication - and prove once again that the Triple Concerto is an unduly underestimated, much too rarely programmed masterpiece. With the composer's 5th Symphony, Blomstedt succeeds in achieving an entirely new perspective of this work. In his Sixth Symphony, the "Pastoral", Ludwig van Beethoven conveys his musical message in such a way that let's the listener literally "see" images of beautiful nature, tempestuous storms, and shepherds singing in the fields, whereas in his Seventh Symphony, Beethoven let's the music speak for itself. The performances of these works by the Gewandhausorchester give the uplifting feeling that the intentions of both composer and performers are united in serving the musical message. The humanist and musician Herbert Blomstedt embodies this truth in a unique way, creating an atmosphere where the wonders of music all become true. Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony and the musical city of Leipzig are closely intertwined with each other: Felix Mendelssohn, Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester, made the work an indispensable part of the concert hall repertoire and Arthur Nikisch, one of his successors, established in 1918 the worldwide tradition of performing this groundbreaking and pioneering work at the end of the year. Herbert Blomstedt once again conducted Beethoven's Ninth in Leipzig for the 2016 New Year celebrations. With his former orchestra, of which he has been Conductor Laureate since 2005 and with whom he enjoys a close friendship, he achieves a gripping interpretation of this monumental work.

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This new Pelléas et Mélisande from the Opernhaus Zürich should be remembered as one of Dmitri Tcherniakov's most innovative production. Forget about the fountains, the caverns, the forest, the castles and the towers : here, the density of Maurice Maeterlinck’s and Claude Debussy’s symbolism becomes the starting point of an analytical journey into the human mind : it is now the psychoanalyst, ‘‘doctor’’ Golaud, who has to uncover the secrets of Melisande, an unfortunate and traumatized creature he brings home, and whose silence and puzzling attitude eventually bring him on the verge of insanity. But this production is also the occasion for a reunion between Dmitri Tcherniakov and French conductor Alain Altinoglu, after the tremendous success of the Tchaikovsky diptych Iolanta / The Nutcracker - arguably one of the most successful titles of the Bel Air Classiques catalogue. Their artistic complicity is intact : the precise, analytical but also nuanced and poetic baton of Altinoglu proves to be the best possible response to Tcherniakov’s subtle exploration of the human psychology. Corinne Winters, as Melisande, Jacques Imbrailo, as Pelléas, and especially Kyle Ketelsen, as Golaud, embody with an incandescent realism these characters plagued by a form of evil and violence that we will never quite understand.

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Rossini’s comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville was based on Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s French play Le Barbier de Séville and is the ultimate opera buffa. The score is a compendium of the composer’s wittiest and most brilliant writing, and includes the famous entrance aria Largo al factotum and a raft of superbly dynamic ensembles. This vibrant and youthful production features Florian Sempey, one of the world’s best Figaros, the ‘Rossini tenor’ Michele Angelini, vivacious and critically admired Catherine Trottmann, and the award-winning team of acclaimed director Laurent Pelly and conductor Jérémie Rhorer who directs his spirited period ensemble Le Cercle de l’Harmonie.

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REVIEW:

The cast are in modern dress but the interaction of characters is so forceful as to sweep away any lurking objections. Add to this some very fine singing, particularly from Michele Angelini’s glorious high tenor as Almaviva, and there is a great deal here to admire and enjoy.

– Lark Reviews

This was the first of two recordings by Ernest Ansermet of pell�as et m�lisande, a work he conducted several times on stage. This recording was made in April 1952 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere. Many performed it with Ansermet, who himself conducted the work nine times with his Suisse Romande orchestra. The booklet includes a track-by-track synopsis, an overview of the recording by Juan Pons, as well as a probing essay on Debussy's's opera by Ansermet himself which was printed with the first LP issue of this recording.

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The plot of Gounod’s opera La Nonne sanglante (‘The Bleeding Nun’) is drawn from Matthew Lewis’s once famous 1796 novel The Monk. The subject is a Gothic melodrama featuring warring families, two lovers, and the vengeful spectre of the Nun, to which Gounod responds with music that fuses Romanticism with the supernatural on the grandest scale. This ground-breaking production features memorable set pieces enhanced by the stark drama of the stage setting and brilliant cinematic lighting effects. This production was staged by David Bobee and the video director was Francois Roussillon. The recording took place in June 2018 at the Opera Comique in Paris, France.

Le Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts that marked Giacomo Puccini's debut in the world of opera. It was first staged at Teatro dal Verme in Milan in 1884. Librettist Ferdinando Fontana based the story on the ancient legend of the Willis, fantastic creatures representing the souls of young women who were the victims of love. Anna and Roberto are engaged, but during a trip the man is seduced by a woman and his fianc�e dies of heartbreak. Roberto, who is by then abandoned and left penniless, is haunted by remorse and attacked by the revengeful fairies and Anna's ghost. All the elements of the more mature Puccini are already recognizable: the characters of Anna and Roberto anticipate the "love victim" and the "man without qualities" archetypes of his later operas, whereas some of the composer's touches of harmony and aria structure foresee his future success. This rare work was chosen to open the 2018-2019 season of Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the performance received very good reviews. "Le Villi is an opera full of excellent music, where Puccini's future grandeur is already recognizable. This production mingles essentiality, intelligence and youth" (Gbopera. It) "Conductor Marco Angius delivers a fierce and passionate performance and under his baton the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is able to convey all the various shades of the score. " (Gbopera. It)

Rusalka is one of the most beautiful Czech operatic works; extremely atmospheric, with an original fairy-tale libretto. It is characterized by the subtlety of the means of musical expression (especially the masterful instrumentation), perfection of the formal structure, as well as the nobility and originality of the melodic invention. Fascinated by the beauty of Antonin Dvorak's work, the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz succeeded with a serious challenge - they conventionally integrated an entirely classical opera performance in a revitalized space of a modern city center, with it's difficult history, stretched out - what the replica of the Old Town Theatre Bridge suggests - between the two reluctant worlds, like the fairy-tale love of the title nymph and prince. The result is this breathtaking performance.

For their 88th year the prestigious Arena di Verona Festival paid tribute to internationally acclaimed Italian stage director Franco Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli delivers an opulent staging of the fairy-tale story of the Chinese Princess Turandot, who will only marry a prince capable of solving her riddles. Russian soprano Maria Guleghina gives a brilliant rendition of Turandot. Salvatore Licitra's trump card is his imposingly radiant tenor voice of which he remains in sovereign control even in the role's much-feared highest register. The soprano Tamar Iveri is a beautiful and sensitive Li�. Romeo et Juliette had not been performed at the Arena since 1977. The new production was entrusted to Italian director Francesco Micheli, who opted for a personal, highly original version: 'An arena within the Arena, like a blood-red Elizabethan theatre. A senescent world that will not let it's own children live.' Juliette is sung by Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze, returning to one of her early roles at the Salzburg Festival. Stefano Secco, often heard at the Opera Bastille in Paris and other international venues, is Romeo. Artur Rucinski interprets Mercutio, Romeo's friend and the rival of Jean-Francois Borras's Tybalt. The page Stephano is sung by soprano Ketevan Kemoklidze. Aida To celebrate the bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi's birth, La Fura dels Baus opens the 'Centenario Festival 2013' of the Arena di Verona. Carlus Padrissa and Alex Olle sign a brilliant new version of Aida. Aida is the most popular opera at the Verona Festival, the only one performed every year, 17000 spectators enjoy the show every evening. This new production is designed by La Fura dels Baus. They transform the arena into a huge desert, creating mechanical animals and manufacture a solar power plant. They use their experience in leading large-scale shows and opera to create the Aida of the XXIst century splendidly conducted by a young talented conductor : Omer Meir Wellber.

Among Puccini's great operas, Madama Butterfly is the one that had reference recordings relatively later. Among them, the first to represent the most modern and innovative side of the composer was this stereo recording from 1957 edited by Richard Moore for the American RCA. It is indisputable that the fundamental interpretative approach was that of a great non-Italian conductor such as Erich Leinsdorf, who would later record all of Puccini's most important operas. Leinsdorf's interpretative modernity was magnificently assisted by the participation of a lyric soprano like Anna Moffo and an impeccable tenor like Cesare Valletti. After many years, and also thanks to the splendid quality of the recording, the production of Butterfly remains among those of absolute reference.

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Alfredo Casella was one of the ‘Generation of the eighties’ who sought to shake Italian music from its longstanding operatic heritage and the dominance of Puccini. La donna serpente was Casella’s only full-scale opera, its fantastic plot based on Carlo Gozzi’s renowned fairy tale that perpetually alternates between tragedy and comedy, expressed in neo-Classical music that skillfully portrays the sinister and ethereal world of the fairies as well as the intense emotions of the human realm. This production was acclaimed for Arturo Cirillo’s dreamlike setting and Gianandrea Noseda’s pin-point conducting: ‘What energy, what precision! … he delivers the complexity of this score with a disconcerting ease.’ (resmusica.com)

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REVIEW:

In the leading role of Miranda, Carmela Remigio is one of today’s leading Italian sopranos in high demand in the world’s leading opera houses. Totally committed in an exacting role, she is partnered by the Sardinian tenor, Piero Pretti, who is often called upon to go into that upper stratosphere, the conclusion in a duet of sheer exultation. To bring the comedy to life, the Italian trio of Francesco Marsiglia, Marco Filippo Romano and Roberto de Candia are superb both vocally and characterisation.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

With his Te Deum (1677), Lully produced a singularly important work, which was to impose an "official" genre which lasted a century: a chef-d’oeuvre of musical architecture, the imposing forces require trumpets and timpani and was the religious work the most often performed at that time. Another substantial work the Missa Salisburgensis by Biber is of an exceptional ostentation. The music, is written for fifty-three different voices, which have to be divided up in the space into two choirs. The impressive forces of trumpets and percussion, indicate the solemnity of the ceremony and thereby resonate splendidly, responding to the angelic choirs like divine acclamations, in order to build a musical monument which would be talked about for eternity.

Misha Didyk, Emily Magee, Lado Ataneli, Ludovic Tezier, Elena Zaremba, Ewa Podles, Mikhail Vekua, Fransisco Vas, and Claudia Schneider star in this Gran Teatre del Liceu production of the Tchaikovsky opera conducted by Michael Boder.

Virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glennie collaborates with RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran to create a satirical futuristic vision of a world resounding with the rhythm of battle, a form of incidental music suited to this Shakespearean rarity.

“Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery: nothing else holds fashion.” Love, rivalry and war are a-plenty in this new production. Troilus and Cressida swear they will always be true to one another. But in the seventh year of the siege of Troy their innocence is tested, and exposed to the savage corrupting influence of war, with tragic consequences. “Sweeping and confident production of Shakespeare’s rarely performed tragedy.” (The Standard)

REVIEWS:

Adjoa Andoh memorably brings out the manipulative monstrosity behind Ulysses’s beguiling rhetoric, literally loading the dice when it comes to the choice of a Greek champion to fight Hector. Oliver Ford Davies is a classic Pandarus, brimming over with senile prurience so that even a line such as “I’ll go get a fire” gains a lurking suggestiveness. The central lovers are also well played, with Amber James’s spryly intelligent Cressida provoked beyond endurance by the naive insistence of Gavin Fowler’s Troilus on her fidelity.

-- The Guardian

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Abandoned by her lover Anatol, Vanessa retreats from the world, waiting and hoping with only her mother and her niece Erika for company. But when, 20 years later, Anatol’s handsome young son arrives unexpectedly, he shatters the calm of this shuttered household of women. Past and present love collides, and the aftershocks threaten to destroy them all. Samuel Barber’s Pulitzer Prize-winning first opera boasts one of the 20th century’s most beautiful scores. Poised constantly on the edge of song, Vanessa unfolds in generous swathes of melody, rich in filmic strings and soaring brass, with echoes of Puccini, Berg and Strauss. It climaxes in a final quintet of Mozartean poignancy – one of the great ensembles of the contemporary repertoire.

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REVIEW:

Warner’s handsome and perceptive staging of Barber’s Vanessa has probably done more to silence the work’s naysayers than any in recent memory. Thanks to Warner’s perception and motivation this excellent cast really deliver. Shadowy, opulent, effulgent – Barber’s Vanessa is the opera that bridges Hollywood and the Broadway stage.

– Gramophone

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Abandoned by her lover Anatol, Vanessa retreats from the world, waiting and hoping with only her mother and her niece Erika for company. But when, 20 years later, Anatol’s handsome young son arrives unexpectedly, he shatters the calm of this shuttered household of women. Past and present love collides, and the aftershocks threaten to destroy them all. Samuel Barber’s Pulitzer Prize-winning first opera boasts one of the 20th century’s most beautiful scores. Poised constantly on the edge of song, Vanessa unfolds in generous swathes of melody, rich in filmic strings and soaring brass, with echoes of Puccini, Berg and Strauss. It climaxes in a final quintet of Mozartean poignancy – one of the great ensembles of the contemporary repertoire.

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REVIEW:

Warner’s handsome and perceptive staging of Barber’s Vanessa has probably done more to silence the work’s naysayers than any in recent memory. Thanks to Warner’s perception and motivation this excellent cast really deliver. Shadowy, opulent, effulgent – Barber’s Vanessa is the opera that bridges Hollywood and the Broadway stage.

– Gramophone

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Enrico di Borgogna is a melodramma per musica that was premiered in Venice in 1818, marking Donizetti’s stage debut. The plot of this rare opera follows a rather traditional scheme: Enrico wants to defeat the son of the villain who usurped his father’s throne and is about to marry his beloved Elisa. Fortunately, he succeeds in stopping the marriage and regaining his inheritance. This release is a world premiere video recording of the 2018 Donizetti Opera festival performance, which received great reviews for its brilliant staging. Director Silvia Paoli uses a “theatre within the theatre” approach which gives way to moments of sheer humor and amusement: as the curtain opens, the public is brought back to the time of the opera premiere. Played on period instruments by Academia Montis Regalis and conducted by repertoire specialist Alessandro De Marchi, this opera features two prima donnas like Sonia Ganassi and Anna Bonitatibus in the main roles. Extra content: interviews with Conductor Alessandro De Marchi, Sonia Ganassi and Anna Bonitatibus. “This was…a genuinely funny presentation, which had the audience laughing out loud. Everything was treated as a source of fun, from the narrative, and its mix of characters through the theatrical conventions of the time, even poking fun at the singers themselves. It was all staged in a blaze of color, fast-moving action, fabulous costumes and cleverly managed extraneous silliness.” (Operawire) [Anna Bonitatibus] displayed a burnished, deep timbre, sparkling coloratura and wonderful phrasing, confirming her status as the most interesting mezzo of her generation.” (Bachtrack.com) “Sonia Ganassi…has a strong, dynamically versatile and flexible voice which she is able to manage intelligently and with skill. . “(Operawire)

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REVIEW:

A love story with the usual intrigues is at center of the plot of Donizetti’s rediscovered opera Enrico di Borgogna. A lively staging, tight tempi as well as glowing colors from the orchestra, a very good choir and good soloists make this a valuable production.

– Pizzicato

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Giuseppe Saverio Mercadante was a contemporary of Donizetti and Rossini, and his prolific output of operas proved influential in founding dramatic techniques that were taken on by Verdi. Set in the ancient and besieged city of Carthage, Didone abbandonata is the dramatic and tragic tale of ill-starred lovers whose decisions ultimately place an entire populace in peril. A genuine rarity in the theatre, Didone has strong ties to the 18th century but also points towards the bel canto innovations that were to come. This carefully researched and critically acclaimed production presents the work in the sound and playing style of Mercadante’s time.

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The Norwegian National Ballet’s Hedda Gabler is Henrik Ibsen’s drama retold in a way you’ve never seen it before. After the premiere in 2017, both Norwegian and international critics praised director Marit Moum Aune’s dance production, set to music by Nils Petter Molvær. Hedda is furious, on the verge of being consumed with disappointment. After a six-month honeymoon in Europe she has returned home to set up home with her husband, Jørgen – but nothing has turned out the way she intended. And when her former lover Eilert Løvborg enters the picture, she reacts in a way that proves perilous for everyone – including herself. Hedda Gabler is one of world theatre’s most well-known characters – an icon created by Henrik Ibsen. Is she cowardly or brave? Spoilt or stuck? Wicked or desperate? Our greatest actors have always found new ways to interpret this psychologically complex role. Now the talented dancers of the Norwegian National Ballet provide their own interpretation, adding another dimension to the drama. While the original play is an intense chamber play in which a lot is left unsaid, Moum Aune paints with a broad brush. Hedda’s world opens up as we delve deeper into her relationships and background. We get to see major scenes that are only hinted at in Ibsen’s text. The dancers in the eight central roles have all contributed to their own choreography, with each movement crucial in the telling of this intense story. Hedda Gabler is the follow-up to Moum Aune’s first success with Ibsen as dance, in which she directed and choreographed Ibsen’s Ghosts together with Cina Espejord. Both productions are among the Norwegian National Ballet’s greatest successes, and are in high demand around the world. BONUS : Hedda Gabler, The Other Side A 52 min. Documentary behind the scenes of the Norwegian National Opera