Zurich Opera House Chorus & Orchestra

Ariadne auf Naxos is one of the many beautifully crafted operas created by Richard Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. In this compelling production – directed by Claus Guth – Christoph von Dohnányi leads a particularly strong cast of singer-actors in a thrilling interpretation of the work. Ariadne is sung by the American soprano Emily Magee, who has received worldwide praise for her performances in works by both Wagner and Strauss. The German-born Italian tenor Roberto Saccà, who is now regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of his generation, takes the part of Bacchus.

Exploring the essence of the piece, Claus Guth and his designer Christian Schmidt worked with the binary opposites that are posited on every level of the work and that seem to be so clear-cut: on the one hand, there is the reality of the prologue and, on the other, the artificiality of the opera. An entertaining and intelligently crafted production of one of the key operas exploring the intertextuality that occurs between “real life” and what today would be called “virtual reality”.

Sound Formats: PCM Stereo, DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Resolution: 1080i FULL HD

Subtitle Languages: DE (Original Language), GB, FR, ES, IT

Running Time: 127 mins

Blu-ray Disc: 50 GB (Dual Layer)

FSK: 0

Set Design by Rolf Glittenberg

A staging of Claude Debussy’s only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, recorded live at the Zurich Opera House. The opera’s premiere in Paris in 1902 brought the new century to the stage. It came quietly, introducing a new female figure that provided the visual artists of l’art nouveau with a fascinating alternative to such femmes fatales as Oscar Wilde’s Lulu and Frank Wedekind’s Salome.

Debussy (1862-1918) adapted a dreamlike libretto by the Belgian playwright and poet, Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) and in the music retained the symbolic quality of the mysterious, almost static fairytale. Conductor Franz Welser-Möst and director Sven-Eric Bechtolf have become one of the leading partnerships in contemporary music theatre. The characters are impressively enacted by Rodney Gilfrey and Isabel Rey in the title roles.

Occasionally placed in wheelchairs that hint at emotional as well as physical inadequacies and frequently doubled by puppets, Debussy’s protagonists are kept at a distance in their subconscious dream world. Franz Welser-Möst conducts a performance that is clear, well structured, unsentimental and attuned to the alertness and pioneering spirit of a score that even today has lost none of its radiance. The designer Rolf Glittenberg set the work in a remote operatic universe that is both greyish white and ice cold.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0, dts-HD Master Audio 7.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Format: DVD 5 + DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: FR (Original Language), GB, DE, IT, ES

Running Time: 161 mins

FSK: 0

Region Code: 0

Worldwide available, excluding Japan

Tenor superstar Jonas Kaufmann leads the cast in the first-ever DVD release of the beautiful fairytale opera from the composer of Hänsel und Gretel.

The German tenor is “the fairytale prince of most opera-goers’ dreams – young, reckless, beautiful” (Financial Times), and Isabel Rey is the Goosegirl star in the acclaimed Zurich production of Humperdinck’s magical opera

Königskinder – a story of love tested beyond endurance – premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1910. Humperdinck’s setting of the modern fairytale saw him further develop the musical language of his much-loved Hänsel und Gretel. Königskinder is enjoying a revival in popularity with productions planned in several major European houses

Tenor superstar Jonas Kaufmann leads the cast in the first-ever DVD release of the beautiful fairytale opera from the composer of Hänsel und Gretel.

The German tenor is “the fairytale prince of most opera-goers’ dreams – young, reckless, beautiful” (Financial Times), and Isabel Rey is the Goosegirl star in the acclaimed Zurich production of Humperdinck’s magical opera

Königskinder – a story of love tested beyond endurance – premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1910. Humperdinck’s setting of the modern fairytale saw him further develop the musical language of his much-loved Hänsel und Gretel. Königskinder is enjoying a revival in popularity with productions planned in several major European houses

Complete Opera Recording

+ Exclusive Bonus Feature:

More than 130 minutes of highlights from 45 critically acclaimed opera, ballet & documentary productions on Blu-ray Disc!

+ Arthaus Musik Blu-ray Catalogue

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 7.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Resolution: 1080i FULL HD

Subtitle Languages: IT (Original Language), GB, DE, FR, ES, Korean

Running Time: 128 mins + 130 mins (bonus)

Blu-ray Disc: 50 GB (Dual Layer)

FSK: 0

Set Design by GILLES AILLAUD

Il Ritorno d‘Ulisse in Patria is based closely on the fi nal books of Homer‘s Odyssey and is hailed as the key work marking the threshold between the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Together with producer Klaus Michael Grüber, Nikolaus Harnoncourt strikes a new balance between musical polish and distillation of the essence of dramatic action. „It is a kind of ‘théâtre pauvre’, which works with a few carefully chosen and powerful symbols“, was how the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reviewed the production. The main action takes place on little more than an angled revolving stage in front of a whitewashed wall which hints at the landscape of a Greek island. The sets have an apt simplicity, eschewing fussy detail and spectacular effects. The colours are cool, predominantly white, blue and black, transporting us to a modern day. Harnoncourt’s musical drive has become „a touch gentler“, wrote the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel. „Not that Harnoncourt is now leaving things to chance or to the discretion of his exquisite musicians. But the way he communicates – his entire rostrum manner – seems to have become more relaxed, calmer, rounder, and both he and the listener are amply rewarded by the sound which results.“

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitles: IT (Original Language), DE, GB, FR, ES, JP. KOR

Running Time: 155 mins

FSK: 0

Production/Direction - Matthias Hartmann

Stage Design - Volker Hintermeier

Costumes - Su Bühler

Video Design - Sven Ortel

Lighting - Jürgen Hoffmann

Choreography - Teresa Rotemberg

Dramaturgy - Michael Richard Küster

The Zurich Opera House has recorded more productions for DVD than any other opera house in the world. During the last twelve years, conductor Franz Welser-Möst has conducted more than fifty premieres with the Zurich Opera. They perform regularly together in London, Paris, Tokyo and other major international cities.

Welser-Möst has enjoyed a long and very fruitful relationship with the Zurich Opera. From 1995 - 2002, he was Chief Conductor of the House, was Principal Conductor from 2002 - 2005 and was then appointed General Musikdirektor.

In June 2007, Welser-Möst was appointed General Musikdirektor designate of the Staatsoper, Vienna, a position he will assume in the 2010/11 season. Prior to that, he undertakes a new production of “The Ring” in Vienna, which started in the 2007/8 season. He is also Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra.

This production of Tiefland marks the return of an opera to Zurich which has been one of the most successful works on European stages in the first half of the 20th century.

The opera’s composer Eugen d’Albert was a cosmopolitan by nature and as a musician. Born in Scotland in 1864 to a Scottish mother and a father of German/French/Italian descent, he grew up in London. He felt close to the German culture, lived in Italy for a while and eventually gained Swiss citizenship.

His ‘multicultural’ life is reflected in his works which comprise a wealth of different musical styles and are an indication that d’Albert was on a lifelong journey and search: the search for a possibility of opera after Wagner. He admitted that he wanted and needed to free himself from Wagner’s “engrossing claws”. This is clearly audible in Tiefland but the opera makes it equally evident that he didn’t completely succeed in avoiding the Wagnerian influence

Tiefland is the only work by d’Albert which has stayed in the opera repertoire continuously. The plot is heavily inspired by the Catalan play Terra baixa by Àngel Guimerà. Tiefland is seen today as the only German contribution to the genre of verismo.

In its re-worked 2-act form (originally the work consisted of three acts), Tiefland was one of the most frequently performed operas between 1905 and 1945. The fact that – apart from Wagner – Tiefland was one of Adolf Hitler’s favourite operas (which is said to have also motivated Leni Riefenstahl’s film version of the work) has greatly contributed to the controversial status of the opera today.

But despite this connection, operas by composers such as Puccini, Verdi and of course Wagner were still more commonly performed during Germany’s 3rd Reich period and d’Albert’s cosmopolitan lifestyle and the elements of jazz which he integrated in his 1929 opera Die schwarze Orchidee (The black Orchid) made him a suspicious figure.

After a quiet period following the second world war, the opera slowly found its way back onto the West German and GDR stages and had a real ‘renaissance’ in Germany between 1070 and 1979. This Zurich production spurred another Tiefland revival with several independent productions following suit in Germany.

This Zurich production marks general music director Franz Welser-Möst’s premiere conducting the work. He sees it as very much tied to the era in which it was composed which is his main focus in his own reception of the work.

For Welser-Möst, the works main qualities lie in the colours of the score and its refined instrumentation. Another main incentive for him to bring the opera back to Zurich was the availability of the perfect cast and team.

Artistic director Matthias Hartmann wanted to reflect the opera’s reception history and its status as one of the most performed works during the 1930s in the production. So despite the opera’s “Hochland” only existing virtually in this production (with the help of Sven Ortel’s video design), the costumes and stage setting are otherwise very much set in the 1930s and in stark contrast to the ‘fictional’ elements.

The engagement of baritone Matthias Goerne for the role of Sebastiano in this production was a stroke of luck. The internationally acclaimed lieder-interpreter, who appears only occasionally in handpicked operatic productions, agreed to premiere the role in Zurich.

Other critically acclaimed role debuts in this production include tenor Peter Seiffert as Pedro and Petra Maria Schnitzer as Marta.

Stage Director - Sven-Eric Bechtolf

Stage Design - Rolf Glittenberg

Costume Design - Marianne Glittenberg

Lighting - Jürgen Hoffmann

The Zurich Opera House has recorded more productions for DVD than any other opera house in the world. During the last twelve years, conductor Franz Welser-Möst has conducted more than fifty premieres with the Zurich Opera. They perform regularly together in London, Paris, Tokyo and other major international cities.

Welser-Möst has enjoyed a long and very fruitful relationship with the Zurich Opera. From 1995 - 2002, he was Chief Conductor of the House, was Principal Conductor from 2002 - 2005 and was then appointed General Musikdirektor.

In June 2007, Welser-Möst was appointed General Musikdirektor designate of the Staatsoper, Vienna, a position he will assume in the 2010/11 season. Prior to that, he undertakes a new production of “The Ring” in Vienna, which started in the 2007/8 season. He is also Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Welser-Möst has assembled over the years a close-knit ensemble which is frequently praised for both its vocal and acting abilities. Please see below for press quotes on this production.

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian

Directed by Klaus Michael Grueber / Ellen Hammer, Set Design by Eduardo Arroyo, Costumes by Eva Dessecker & Lighting by Jürgen Hoffmann.

“Procure me the unconditional fulfi lment of my every wish for the rest of my life, let me embrace the world – the East and the South, which call out to me –, let me understand completely man’s actions and extend them in unheard-of ways; give me genius, and give me also his suffering, so that I may be happy like no other.” (Ferruccio Busoni)

Doktor Faust remained a fragment at the time of the composer’s death. Busoni died in 1924, unable to complete what he himself described as his “state masterpiece” – an opera to which he had a deep personal attachment. The missing scenes from the score – the appearance of Helen and Faust’s closing monologue – were completed by his pupil, Philipp Jarnach, whom Busoni had become acquainted with during his period in exile in Zürich. In this form the opera was given its fi rst performance in Dresden in 1925. Then in the 1980s the conductor Anthony Beaumont came across previously undiscovered sketches by Busoni and produced a new version of Doktor Faust, which was premiered in Bologna in 1985. The current recording uses the Jarnach score.

Special Feature: 43 Min Interview with Thomas Hampson and Philippe Jordan

“[Thomas Hampson possesses] all the physical and vocal energy one could wish for…..flourishes and ornaments leap out of his melodic lines….the gestures [are] also natural, his phrasing and pitch sure. Mr. Hampson, as his career justifi ably grows, has preserved an unmannered charm.” (The New York Times)