With the "Méditation", Jules Massenet probably wrote one of the most famous melodies of our time. It originates from his Comédie-lyrique "Thaïs", which – unlike Massenet's operas "Werther" or "Manon" – never made it into the international opera repertoire. Presumably because the two main roles of Thaïs and Athanaël demand something almost superhuman from the singers. In the new production by Peter Konwitschny at the Theater an der Wien, the American soprano Nicole Chevalier is one of the most exciting singers currently on stage in the title role. At her side, the young Austrian bass-baritone Josef Wagner celebrates his house debut. This is a fascinating and musically excellent performance of a timeless classic of the opera repertoire. “Gigantically well told (...) Grandiose!” (Der Kurier) // “An acoustic delight” (Der Standard)

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Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana, world heritage site and one of the world’s most beautiful concert halls, hosted Gustavo Dudamel and the Münchner Philharmoniker with an unforgettable performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “The Resurrection.“ The composer emphasizes life and death in all its terrible and stunning splendor in this overwhelming opus: “There is nothing except the complete substance of my whole life”, he remarked on his all-embracing oeuvre. Gustavo Dudamel, who said it was “a privilege to conduct this work in this unique venue,“ and his ensemble were celebrated with more than then minutes of applause. American mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford and Israeli soprano Chen Reiss as well as the seemingly weightless choirs of Orfeó Català and Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música Catalana perform “a mark-shattering finale with goosebumps” (Münchner Merkur). “The dynamic range is enormous. But most fascinating are the moments of absolute silence, in which you can feel how the dramaturgy of the evening comes together: An audience holds its breath” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). “Really an event … a phantastic conjunction of stars … a memorable interpretation“. (El Periódico)

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“He was out to create something ‘unheard-of’,” observed conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt beforehand. And true to form: What the conductor had to offer as he commenced his Mozart/Da Ponte cycle in the Theater an der Wien was something we “had never before heard like this” (Kurier). Nikolaus Harnoncourt, “master” of period performance practice, realized a project that had long been one of his dearest wishes: for the first time, he and his “original-sound orchestra” Concentus Musicus and his personal choice of singers were presenting the complete Mozart/Da Ponte cycle and harvesting the fruits of his Mozart research – an “enthusiastically acclaimed cycle!” (news.at). PART I - Le nozze di Figaro + Documentary: Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Between Obsession and Perfection (Le nozze di Figaro)

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Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana, world heritage site and one of the world’s most beautiful concert halls, hosted Gustavo Dudamel and the Münchner Philharmoniker with an unforgettable performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “The Resurrection.“ The composer emphasizes life and death in all its terrible and stunning splendor in this overwhelming opus: “There is nothing except the complete substance of my whole life”, he remarked on his all-embracing oeuvre. Gustavo Dudamel, who said it was “a privilege to conduct this work in this unique venue,“ and his ensemble were celebrated with more than then minutes of applause. American mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford and Israeli soprano Chen Reiss as well as the seemingly weightless choirs of Orfeó Català and Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música Catalana perform “a mark-shattering finale with goosebumps” (Münchner Merkur). “The dynamic range is enormous. But most fascinating are the moments of absolute silence, in which you can feel how the dramaturgy of the evening comes together: An audience holds its breath” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). “Really an event … a phantastic conjunction of stars … a memorable interpretation“. (El Periódico)

It is the centerpiece of the Salzburg Festival and an incontrovertible institution: For it’s 100th anniversary, the Salzburg Festival offered an opulent interpretation of Jedermann (Everyman) by Hofmannsthal. "Tobias Moretti plays with great commitment, Caroline Peters gives a brilliant performance" (Salzburger Nachrichten). On 22 August 1920, the first Salzburg Festival opened with Jedermann in a production by Festival founder Max Reinhardt against the breathtaking backdrop of the baroque Salzburg Cathedral. Since then, no other piece has more closely been connected with the 100-year history of the Festival than this play about the transience of the world, fame and money.

At Salzburg Festival, Cecilia Bartoli shines as Ariodante with her dazzling coloratura in a highly acclaimed new production by the German director Christoph Loy, who is known for his clever psychological stagings. Loy turns Handel's splendid baroque opera into an exciting and differentiated reflection on gender roles. A high-class ensemble, first and foremost a brilliant Cecilia Bartoli in the trouser role of the knight Ariodante who effortlessly switches between cheerful and lamenting virtuoso singing makes the production a true triumph. At her side perform audience favorite Rolando Villazón as Lurcano and young American soprano Kathryn Lewek, praised by critics as a “true discovery“ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). Gianluca Capuano at the podium of the Musiciens du Prince – Monaco “provides for elegance, richness of color and a sensitive, stirring realization of the ingenious score.“ (Kurier). “Cecilia Bartoli is a league of her own!" (Der Standard). "The singing was sensational" (LA Times)

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

Also available on standard DVD

“He was out to create something ‘unheard-of’,” observed conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt beforehand. And true to form: What the conductor had to offer as he commenced his Mozart/Da Ponte cycle in the Theater an der Wien was something we “had never before heard like this” (Kurier). Nikolaus Harnoncourt, “master” of period performance practice, realized a project that had long been one of his dearest wishes: for the first time, he and his “original-sound orchestra” Concentus Musicus and his personal choice of singers were presenting the complete Mozart/Da Ponte cycle and harvesting the fruits of his Mozart research – an “enthusiastically acclaimed cycle!” (news.at). PART I - Le nozze di Figaro + Documentary: Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Between Obsession and Perfection (Le nozze di Figaro)

At Salzburg Festival, Cecilia Bartoli shines as Ariodante with her dazzling coloratura in a highly acclaimed new production by the German director Christoph Loy, who is known for his clever psychological stagings. Loy turns Handel's splendid baroque opera into an exciting and differentiated reflection on gender roles. A high-class ensemble, first and foremost a brilliant Cecilia Bartoli in the trouser role of the knight Ariodante who effortlessly switches between cheerful and lamenting virtuoso singing makes the production a true triumph. At her side perform audience favorite Rolando Villazón as Lurcano and young American soprano Kathryn Lewek, praised by critics as a “true discovery“ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). Gianluca Capuano at the podium of the Musiciens du Prince – Monaco “provides for elegance, richness of color and a sensitive, stirring realization of the ingenious score.“ (Kurier). “Cecilia Bartoli is a league of her own!" (Der Standard). "The singing was sensational" (LA Times)

Known as a creator of astonishing images, stage director and visual artist Robert Wilson delivers a magnificent production of Mozart’s adaption of Handel’s Messias. Mozart was commissioned by Gottfried van Swieten to modernize the score fifty years after Handel’s popular composition (1742), mainly by arranging the wind parts and partially re-composing them. With Marc Minkowski a conductor has been engaged who understands perfectly how to combine baroque style with the tonal possibilities of an orchestra of the classical period like the Musiciens du Louvre. The excellent soloist quartet with Elena Tsallagova, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Richard Croft and José Coca Loza merges perfectly into Wilson’s enormous flood of images. “A complete artwork”, praises Opernglas; “stunningly beautiful” (BR Klassik); “A stellar moment for the music” (orf.at); “Timelessly beautiful” Süddeutsche Zeitung

Known as a creator of astonishing images, stage director and visual artist Robert Wilson delivers a magnificent production of Mozart’s adaption of Handel’s Messias. Mozart was commissioned by Gottfried van Swieten to modernize the score fifty years after Handel’s popular composition (1742), mainly by arranging the wind parts and partially re-composing them. With Marc Minkowski a conductor has been engaged who understands perfectly how to combine baroque style with the tonal possibilities of an orchestra of the classical period like the Musiciens du Louvre. The excellent soloist quartet with Elena Tsallagova, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Richard Croft and José Coca Loza merges perfectly into Wilson’s enormous flood of images. “A complete artwork”, praises Opernglas; “stunningly beautiful” (BR Klassik); “A stellar moment for the music” (orf.at); “Timelessly beautiful” Süddeutsche Zeitung

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John Cranko’s mastery of the art of the pas de deux finds its climax in Onegin, one of the most successful full length ballets of the 20th century. Set to sweeping music by Tchaikovsky, it tells Alexander Pushkin’s tragic love story of the world-weary aristocrat Onegin and the naïve country girl Tatiana in a superbly nuanced way. Featuring world stars Friedemann Vogel and Alicia Amatriain, this production is a must for all lovers of dramatic – and romantic – ballets. With Onegin, John Cranko secured his place in the pantheon of great 20th century choreographers. He created the three act work for the Stuttgart Ballet – of which he was Director – in 1965 and revised the ballet two years later. Over the last 50 years, the ballet has entered the repertoire of almost every leading ballet company in the world, including the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet in London, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Ballet of the Teatro alla Scala and the American Ballet Theatre. Friedemann Vogel and Alicia Amatriain – the leading couple of the Stuttgart Ballet who have been showered with international prizes and accolades demonstrate here why they are deemed the elite of the dance world. But it is legendary Marcia Haydee who creates the night’s special magic: Once Cranko chose her to be the very first Tatiana, now she guest stars as nurse; the close bonds between Haydee and the ensemble are palpable throughout and it is a truly touching moment when the original Tatiana meets the current one.“Onegin is the perfect Ballet” (Marcia Haydée) “Onegin is so good, that it can easily hold its own against any Broadway show!” (Newsday)

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None other than Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz has been engaged for the stage direction of the new production of Fidelio from the Theater an der Wien. There, at one of the oldest opera houses in Vienna, L.v. Beethoven was what one would call today a composer-in-residence. And he was this in two respects: here he lived for two years in an apartment in the wing of the building. And it was here that he premiered many of his most famous orchestral works, symphonies and his only opera: Fidelio. In his third opera production Waltz brilliantly stages the second version of the opera in the breathtaking set designed by the German-American architectural practice Barkow Leibinger. The abstract staircase landscape in the form of a double helix, symbolizing prison, extends space into the back theatre and is infinitely changeable in the cinematic lighting concept of Hollywood regular Henry Braham. Manfred Honeck at the rostrum of the dynamic Wiener Symphoniker leads a superb and versatile cast of “vocally oustanding“ (Der Standard) singers: Nicole Chevalier bewitches vocally and dramatically on her stage debut as Leonore, Eric Cutler gives Florestan a powerful voice. Christof Fischesser, Gábor Bretz, Mélissa Petit complete the strong ensemble. But the production, which was sold out months before, never saw its stage premiere, as the Theater an der Wien sadly had to shut down due to the Covid 19 pandemic a few days before. Thanks to an incredible effort by all participants, the opera house was converted into a film studio at short notice so that Christoph Waltz’s “convincing production” (Die Zeit) of Beethoven‘s flaming musical plea for freedom and humanity could be preserved for posterity. “An ingenious, enigmatic direction” (Münchner Merkur)

Renata is obsessed with the love for the “fiery angel”. Ruprecht, in love with Renata, wants to free her from the madness, but all his efforts are in vain. She goes to the monastery, but here too she is being haunted by the image of the fiery angel. The Inquisition accuses Renata of witchcraft and sentences her to death.

Prokofiev's Fiery Angel is one of the outstanding operas of the 20th century. With her production, stage director Andrea Breth moves the action from 16th century Germany to the sterile environment of a modern psychiatric ward. The atmosphere of this prison-like place is somber.

“Musically gripping, scenically intense” -Wiener Zeitung

"A scenic sensation” -Kurier

“Aušrine Stundyte succeeds in her singing balancing act, between eruptive power and vulnerability” -Die Presse

“Claus Guth, who had already staged the Messiah at the Theater an der Wien in 2009, is exactly the right person to present the oratorio Saul, which dates from this period of upheaval in 1739...This could not go wrong with this highly sensitive director, who always listens precisely to the music. That it would work out so well in such a brilliant way, however, is one of the surprises that make you happy. In Vienna, where Handel is still one of the exotics of music history, there was breathtaking music theatre at its best." -Neue Musikzeitung

“Handel vividly, today, as a mirror of the metamorphoses of power.” -Kurier

“Florian Boesch as Saul is a vocal and acting elemental force, simply an ideal cast.” -Kurier

At Theater an der Wien Stanislaw Moniuszko’s Polish national opera Halka is performed by a superb cast including Corinne Winters (“devotedly”) , Piotr Beczala (“vocally outstanding”) and Tomasz Konieczny (“his acting is piercing”) (Der Standard). With libretto by young Polish poet Wlodzimierz Wolski, the opera is widely considered to be one of Moniuszko’s greatest operas, and in fact was described by noted musicologist Carl Dalhaus as “The Polish national opera.” The Polish leading team, above all stage director Mariusz Trelinski, puts the plot into a supercooled crime aesthetic. The ORF Radio Symphonie-Orchester Wien under the baton of Lukasz Borowicz plays with perceptible delight. “A gripping opera evening” (Wiener Zeitung).

REVIEW:

Luxury casting here outrivals previously recorded versions. With her bright, sumptuous soprano, Winters makes a powerful Halka, less obvious victim, more troubled woman struggling at the bottom of the social heap. Her acting skills are on full display as she takes us on one woman’s harrowing journey. Konieczny’s gritty baritone is perfect for Janusz, a love rat, but a guilty one from the start where he finds himself haunted by a vision of Halka’s bloated corpse. Jontek is usually played as a bit of a sympathetic best friend but here Beczala creates a far more interesting and conflicted character seething with thwarted passion and class resentment. His glorious tenor with ringing top notes is perfectly suited to what is some of the opera’s finest music, including the hit aria The Fir Trees Sigh on Mountain Peaks.

Moniusko specialist Łukasz Borowicz paces it all splendidly with fine playing by the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester and sturdy singing from the Arnold Schoenberg Chor. Tiziano Mancini’s video edit helps with both mood and dramatic pace making this good-looking video as fine a way as any to become acquainted with Poland’s national opera. 

-- Limelight