The composer's great-granddaughter was keen to stage Cord Garben's abridged version of the cycle at the Teatro Colin in Buenos Aires, but in the event things turned out rather differently. The present documentary provides a thrilling and visually memorable account of the long journey taken by this version from it's inception to the first night.

The tale of a quick witted fox and her escape from confinement for a life in the forest that is by turns joyful and violent, The Cunning Little Vixen is an unsentimental parable of death and rebirth that lives through the instinctive and immediate world of nature, animal and human, which Janacek loved so much. Melly Stil's production for Glyndebourne find the "delicate balance between whimsy and mysticism" (Daily Telegraph) at the heart of the opera, which Vladimir Jurowski conducts "with lustrous style: you can hear the birds in the score, feel the sunshine and thrill to the starlit night sky in the final scene." (Opera Today)

Melly Still, stage director

Recorded live at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, June 2012

Bonus:
- Creating Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen

• 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: 119 mins
• No. of DVDs: 1
  

REVIEW:

The leading roles in this performance are sung by Lucy Crowe as the vixen (whose name is Sharp Ears), Sergei Leiferkus as the forester who tries to domesticate her, and Emma Bell as the fox that Sharp Ears meets after escaping back to her forest, marries (at a ceremony conducted by a grasshopper), and bears more children than she can count (only eight of which we see on stage). It is also important to observe that costume designer Dinah Collin chose to capture animals by a combination of suggestion and connotation. Both vixen and fox are identified primarily by their tails (which is also how we in the audience learn of Sharp Ears’ ultimate fate); but the rest of the costume tends to portray them as Gypsies, which is to say characters not quite at home in their own land.

The instrumental side of the score is provided by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, Music Director at Glyndebourne and Principal Conductor of the LPO. He conducts with a keen sense of how Janáček tends to direct the flow of his music through the modulation of energy levels. While Jurowski is Russian, he also seems to have informed himself of the extent to which Janáček evokes Czech folk idioms, allowing the score to establish its unique position between symphonic music and indigenous source material.

Most importantly, however, this is an opera that takes a fairy-tale-like narrative and serves it up as a visual and auditory feast; and this Glyndebourne production delivers exquisitely on both visual and auditory levels.

-- SF Examiner

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

Also available on standard DVD

Benjamin Britten
PETER GRIMES

Peter Grimes – John Graham Hall
Boy – Francesco Malvuccio
Ellen Orford – Susan Gritton
Captain Balstrode – Christopher Purves
Auntie – Felicity Palmer
First Niece – Ida Falk Winland
Second Niece – Simona Mihai
Bob Boles – Peter Hoare
Swallow – Daniel Okulitch
Mrs. Sedley – Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Rev. Horace Adams – Christopher Gillett
Ned Keene – George von Bergen

Milan La Scala Chorus and Orchestra
Robin Ticciati, conductor

Richard Jones, stage director

Recorded live at the Teatro alla Scala, June 2012

Bonus:
- Interviews with cast and crew

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: 168 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray)

-----

REVIEW:

Robin Ticciati brings transparency and detail to the score, director Richard Jones focuses on Grimes the outsider and the entire cast gives a magnificent performance.

– Gramophone

Conducted by Grammy award-winning Paavo Jaarvi, the Orchestre de Paris exquisitely performs three magnificent pieces of music.

Conducted by Grammy award-winning Paavo Jaarvi, the Orchestre de Paris exquisitely performs three magnificent pieces of music.

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

Also available on standard DVD

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese
Booklet: English, German, French
No. of Discs: 1
Run time: 190 minutes
Disc Format: Blu-ray 50
Picture: 16:9, HD
Audio: PCM Stereo, PCM 5.1
Bonus Material: Introduction to La forza del destino
Subtitles Bonus: Italian, English
Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Melly Still's production for Glyndebourne finds the "delicate balance between whimsy and mysticism" (Daily Telegraph) at the heart of the opera, which Vladimir Jurowski conducts "with lustrous style: you can hear the birds in the score, feel the sunshine and thrill to the starlit night sky in the final scene" (Opera Today).

Captured at the BBC's Glasgow Studios in 1987 for their Music in Camera series, Ashkenazy demonstrates his versatility and musical skill through the extreme contrasts of the Impromptus, the lyrical, song-like grace and virtuosic flair of the Wanderer Fantasy, and the elegant yet exciting rendition of Schumann's innovative Piano Sonata No.1.

World premiere on Blu-ray! Beatrice di Tenda is a tragic opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini. In Beatrice very diverse elements coexist: there are music patterns already experimented in Norma and used here to their utmost potential, side by side with new ways and techniques, which would be treasured by Verdi.

The Italian and international press were unanimous in their praise for Peter Grimes at La Scala, which revived the tradition of Britten's operas on the lyric stages of Italy. A strong British cast was marshaled by the baton of Robin Ticciati, who has already won golden opinions for his opera conducting.

Christian Thielemann writes: “I see Die Meistersinger as the pivot and central point of Wagner’s entire oeuvre. On the one hand it is a reaction to Tristan; on the other, he had found himself in a blind alley with Siegfried, and together those two works showed him the way out of it. The fascinating thing about Die Meistersinger is that you can find everything in it. Hero and anti-hero, comedy and tragedy, upperclass and lower-class lovers, burlesque and reflection, the old and the new, in short a whole world. The magic words summing it up for me are ‘atmosphere’ and ‘poetry’. How can I, as a conductor, make the music glitter in its exaggerations and parodies, and at the same time lend it authority? Conversely, how can I make its emotionalism sound not false but genuine, emphasizing the deeply felt popular note in the music? Wagner is fundamentally asking his interpreters to square the circle, which is what makes Die Meistersinger such a difficult work to perform. Perhaps it can succeed only by osmosis, if we open ourselves up entirely to all its moods, colours and aromas, inhaling them so deeply that they naturally emerge from us again at the right moment.”

The rare biblical opera 'David and Jonathas' is like 'Médée', one of the major works of the French Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The opera has been in the repertoire of Les Arts Florissants since 1988 and was first presented in a stage production by William Christie at the Aix-en-Provence Festival 2012. This DVD release is a special event for all Baroque music lovers.

Written a year after the death of Lully, this lyric tragedy allows Charpentier to develop beyond the religious dimension, a story of male friendship and forbidden love between David and Jonathas. An excellent cast gathered around William Christie and Les Arts Florissants brings young singers to the title roles: Pascal Charbonneau, a tenor and a former student of the European Academy of Music, sings David. The role of Jonathas is given to a woman: soprano Ana Quintans.

The staging by Andreas Homoki (Director of the Zurich Opera since summer 2012) focuses on the psychological aspect of this forbidden love story, giving a moving reading of the drama.

Direction: Andreas Homoki
Scenography: Paul Zoller
Costumes: Gideon Davey
Lighting: Franck Evin

R E V I E W:

Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s lack of official affiliation with the French court’s rather formal musical establishment under Jean-Baptiste Lully had two effects, as I noted in my other review this issue. First, he was free to do other things, and since Lully was not especially interested in sacred music, Charpentier was pretty much left on his own to develop music in the church, which he did in a grand style. As a sideline, he was also freed from the inevitable debate that arose between adherents of the French and Italian styles, for having been trained in Italy, he felt free to dip in and out of both with some alacrity. Second, as someone not under Lully’s sway, his desire to compose for the stage was rather curtailed, since the tragédie lyrique was not something he was able to compose officially. Not until 1693 did his only work in this genre, Medée, come to the stage, notably a number of years after Lully’s death and the implosion of his musical dynasty. In the meantime, he dabbled in the form with a series of Jesuit works for the Collège de Louis-le-Grand, of which David et Jonathas from 1688 was the most “operatic” (though of course he was able to get a number of pastorals and ballets performed at the Opéra). Consisting of the usual five acts and prologue, he altered the form somewhat, interspersing the Divertissement at the beginning and end of each act instead of placing it all in a bunch at the end. Otherwise, the flow of the work pretty much follows that of the normal secular works composed by Lully and others.

Insofar as the plot goes, this seems to have been a gloss on a play by Etienne Chamillart, performed at the same time, which fleshes out the story of the friendship of David and Jonathan. In a prologue, the seer (here called somewhat ironically La Pythonesse instead of the Witch of Endor) foretells Saul’s defeat through the shade of the prophet Samuel. Act One opens with the Philistines, here seemingly dressed in a motley sartorial concoction of djelabas, working clothes with suspenders, and bright red fezzes, cheering on David (sung here by high tenor Paul Charbonneau), while their King, Achis (sung with a resonant bass by Frédéric Caton, dressed like a Grand Mufti), decides to negotiate a truce with Saul (sung in an equally expressive and resonant bass by Neal Davies, dressed in a weskit and working-class pants). This annoys the general of the Philistine army, Joabel (sung in a lighter tenor by Kre?imir ?picer, who is somehow dressed in a strange turban and has a stringy long goatee), who then plots to destroy David. In the meantime, David meets with his friend Jonathas (sung in a pants role by soprano Ana Quintans, who sports a strange intellectual look replete with dark-rimmed glasses). In the Third Act, Saul’s jealousy explodes, and when Achis won’t execute David and Jonathas also refuses, he prepares to abrogate the truce with the Philistines. Jonathas is gravely wounded in the battle that follows, and although filled with remorse, Saul still attempts to kill David, even though mortally wounded himself. When Jonathas dies in David’s arms, David is overcome with despair, and even the proclamation by Achis that David is now the King of Israel fails to cheer him up.

As far as plots for operas go, this one is probably a step up from the usual opera seria or French classical plot of the time, for it contains a great deal of pathos and character development. If there is a moral to the story, it seems rather dispersed among the various turns of the plot. The music is set in a through-composed manner, with recitative and aria flowing easily in and out of each other, and Charpentier’s choice of limiting the dances to the beginnings and ends of each act allows for the plot to develop more smoothly.

Insofar as the music goes, the singing is first-rate and, as expected, William Christie’s venerable Arts Florissants ensemble is virtually flawless in their execution of Charpentier’s rich score. If this was a disc, I would purchase it in an instant. I found it every bit as good if not better than his release back in 1998 on Harmonia Mundi (which was re-released just this past year), and I like it much better than the old Erato recording with Opera Lyon. Unfortunately, it is not, and the reason is the staging. The set is a movable wooden box, with basically a large wood picnic table and chairs for props. The walls are movable, including an awkward moment in the final triumphal chorus scene at the end where the chorus is crowded together as the walls hem them in, looking very much at one moment like the interior of a cattle car. The costumes are also bizarre. The Israelites look very much like refugees from some sort of Russian steppe, sometimes with Hasidic hats, while the Philistines are a mismatched bunch of pseudo-Turkish peasants, looking for all the world like they desperately need both shaves and baths. The principals are not immune to this sartorial faux pas, for Jonathas looks like a bit of a nerd and David a working-class bloke straight from a factory. Even their “friendship” is supposed to heighten the homoerotic story, but Quintans doesn’t really act like a guy, just someone who has cross-dressed. Finally, Neal Davies has been directed to play Saul mostly on his knees, grimacing ferociously into the camera. Even the Pythoness and her hoard of priestesses look like they stepped right out of a rural diner in their checked gingham dresses. Of course, this has nothing to do with Charpentier or his dramatic music, or even the terrific musicality of the vocalists. But for visuals, this is yet another bizarre attempt to “update” the setting by doing something artistically unfathomable. Too bad; the artistry of the performers deserves better.

FANFARE: Bertil van Boer

Also available on Blu-ray



Gustav Mahler
SYMPHONY NO. 4

Christina Landshamer, soprano
Gewandhaus Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Recorded live at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, 26–27 April 2012

Bonus:
- The Welte-Mignon Piano Player Device
- Mahler plays Mahler – Symphony No. 4 in G major: IV. Sehr behaglich
- Riccardo Chailly on interpreting Mahler’s 4th Symphony with the Gewandhaus Orchestra

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Japanese
Running time: 61 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Also available on Blu-ray

Giuseppe Verdi
LA TRAVIATA

Violetta Valéry – Svetla Vassileva
Flora Bervoix – Daniela Pini
Annina – Antonella Trevisan
Alfredo Germont – Massimo Giordano
Giorgio Germont – Vladimir Stoyanov
Gastone – Gianluca Floris
Barone Douphol – Armando Gabba
Marchese d’Obigny – Filippo Polinelli
Dottore Grenvil – Roberto Tagliavini
Giuseppe – Iorio Zennaro
Un domestico di Flora – Roberto Scandura
Un commissionario – Matteo Mazzoli

Parma Teatro Regio Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Martino Faggiani)
Yuri Temirkanov, conductor

Karl-Ernst Herrmann and Ursel Hermann, stage directors
Karl-Ernst Herrmann, set, costume, and lighting designer

Recorded live at the Teatro Regio di Parma, 9, 13, 15 October 2007

Bonus:
- Introduction to La Traviata

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Running time: 133 mins (opera) + 11 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 1

A Musical Journey - Crimea / Russia / Uzbekistan

Classical Music

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

Also available on standard DVD

Sergey Prokofiev
ROMEO AND JULIET
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Romeo – Federico Bonelli
Juliet – Lauren Cuthbertson
Mercutio – Alexander Campbell
Tybalt – Bennet Gartside
Benvolio – Dawid Trzensimiech
Paris – Valeri Hristov
Lord Capulet – Christopher Saunders
Lady Capulet – Christina Arestis
Esclasus – Gary Avis

Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House Orchestra
Barry Wordsworth, conductor

Kenneth MacMillan, choreographer

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, March 2012

Bonus:
- Documentaries on Kenneth MacMillan’s production
- Sharps, Points and Pirouettes – the famous sword fight scene
- Cast gallery

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles (bonus): French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese
Running time: 158 mins (ballet) + 15 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (BD50)

Classical Music

The starting point and destination of Heinz Spoerli's new ballet is the "Magnificat" by Johann Sebastian Bach. From the beginning of the "Allemande mouvement" of the "Partita in A minor for solo flute" through the joy of living of "Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major", this is the the question of faith, which sparked Heinz Spoerli's interest in this piece. Heinz Spoerli intensifies the wealth of expanded emotions here, by inserting the two arias from the cantatas "Wo soll ich fliehen hin" ("Where shall I flee") and "Ich habe genug" ("I have enough"). This is an important aspect for Heinz Spoerli in his discourse with the text of the "Magnificat", in which his deep respect for all religions, or rather every faith, for him is not about the worship of a certain creator-figure, but more about the conditions and prerequisites of this for the expression of a profound devoutness, which also involves rejection, exlusion, uncertainty and separation. Images coming out of the silence and returning back to it, which Heinz Spoerli would like his audience to take with them, images which create individual stories and references. The Orchestra La Scintilla is conducted by Marc Minkoswki.

Choreography: Heinz Spoerli
Set design: Peter Schmidt
Format: NTSC 16:9 HD
Region Code: 0 (All Region)
Recorded: live from the Zurich Opera House February, 2012

Our tour starts with the Baroque Villa Mansi in Lucca, followed by Hadrian's villa at Tivoli. Other sites include the villages of Cinque Terre on the Ligurian coast, Lake Bolsano and Chianti.

The places visited include St Petersburg, Peter the Great's new westward-looking capital, and the traditional capital, Moscow. In Ukraine we see Odessa with the famous Potemkin Steps and something of the surrounding countryside of a region that for long offered holiday resorts to those living in Moscow or St Petersburg.

AUSTRIA
The Places
The journey takes us from the vineyards of Grinzing, to the spa of Baden and to Gumpoldskirchen, famous for its wine. Scenes from the Salzkammergut lead to Steyr, Styria and Upper Austria.

The Music
Unlike other great classical composers who worked in Vienna—Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven—Franz Schubert was born there and spent much of his short life in the city. At the same time he took pleasure in the Austrian countryside, reflected in his Trout Quintet, written for friends in Steyr whom he had met during a summer holiday.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 51 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

A Musical Journey - Norway

The Places
The legendary Norwegian figure Peer Gynt is widely known through Henrik Ibsen’s play that follows Peer’s unscrupulous adventures, a work that enjoys still further fame through the incidental music written for it by Edvard Grieg. Parts of the Norwegian countryside are identified with some of Peer Gynt’s adventures.

The Music
Greig collaborated with the greatest of Norwegian dramatists, Henrik Ibsen, in his music for the play Peer Gynt, from which he drew two orchestral suites. Grieg also worked with Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, providing incidental music for the historical play Sigurd Jorsalfar.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 54 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

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

Ariane et Barbe-bleue makes its premiere on Blu-ray.

Stéphane Denève is universally acclaimed for his interpretation of French repertoire.

This is the twelfth release from the Liceu-Opus Arte partnership.

Dukas's opera Ariane et Barbe-bleue, based on Maeterlinck's symbolist version of the classic tale, sees free spirit Ariane become the sixth wife of the infamous Barbe-bleue, who gives his new bride seven keys to seven doors, but prohibits the use of the last. Ariane discovers an array of glittering jewels behind the first six doors, but a terrifying reality awaits her as she unlocks the seventh.

José van Dam is cast as the villainous Barbe-bleue, while taking on the immensely demanding role of Ariane - who does not leave the stage throughout the entire opera - is American soprano Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet.

-----

Reviews:

Charbonnet copes well with the extreme demands of Ariane, while Patricia Bardon is excellent as the nurse and it is wonderful to have Jose van Dam for Barbe-Bleu's handful of lines. Most of all, Stéphane Denève's pacing and handling of orchestral texture are spot-on.

– BBC Music Magazine

Charbonnet stands up remarkably well to the role's non-stop demands. As her nurse, Patricia Bardon is admirable in a role she has rather made her own on stage and disc. Dukas's opera deserves to be heard.

– Gramophone

Paul Dukas
ARIANE ET BARBE-BLEUE

Barbe-Bleue – José van Dam
Ariane – Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet
Nurse – Patricia Bardon
Sélysette – Gemma Coma-Alabert
Ygraine – Beatriz Jiménez
Mélisande – Elena Copons
Bellangère – Salomé Haller
Alladine – Alba Valldaura

Liceu Grand Theater Chorus and Orchestra
Stéphane Denève, conductor

Claus Guth, stage director

Recorded live at Gran Teatre del Liceu, June and July 2011

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM Stereo 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Japanese
Running time: 120 mins
No. of Disc: 1 (Bl-ray)

Also available on Blu-ray

With Rosario La Spina cast as Calaf, Susan Foster as the icy princess and Hyeseoung Kwon as the loyal slave girl Liù, the singing throughout is superlative. The choreography and direction of Graeme Murphy is visionary, add the set and costume designs of Kristian Fredrikson, and the lighting of John Drummond Montgomery and this production is glorious in its beauty.

Giacomo Puccini
TURANDOT

Turandot – Susan Foster
Calaf – Rosario La Spina
Liù – Hyeseoung Kwon
Timur – Jud Arthur
A Mandarin – Shane Lowrencev
Ping – Andrew Moran
Pong – David Corcoran
Pang – Graeme Macfarlane
Altoum – Benjamin Rasheed

Opera Australia Children’s Chorus
(chorus preparation: Anthony Hunt)
Opera Australia Chorus
(chorus master: Michael Black)
Orchestra Victoria
Andrea Licata, conductor

Graeme Murphy, stage director, choreographer
Kristian Fredrikson, set and costume designer
John Drummond Montgomery, lighting designer

Recorded live at the Arts Centre Melbourne, on 20 and 25 April 2012
Bonus:
- Cast gallery

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Korean
Booklet notes: English, French, German
Running time: 124 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)