Michael Volle

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

Vera Nemirova, staging

Vera Nemirova’s challenging production of Berg’s operatic masterpiece Lulu won critical acclaim when first seen at the Salzburg Festival in 2010, and was successfully repeated in 2011, when the production was filmed for DVD.

Supporting Nemirova’s powerful vision of corruption, decadence and death were the highly praised set designs by the young German artist Daniel Richter.

Musically the production was led with style and assurance by the brilliant young German conductor Marc Albrecht, currently director of the Netherlands Opera. Singing Lulu with allure and passion was the lauded French soprano Patricia Petibon, whose charms gripped an outstanding cast of top European singers.

Lulu is a very rarely performed work, which was also left unfinished by the composer. This performance includes the missing 3rd act, which was completed by Friedrich Cerha, winner of the Salzburg Music Award 2010.

Picture format DVD: 1080i - 16:9

Sound formats DVD: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 2,3,4,5,6,8

Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Runnning time: 173 mins

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

This production of Parsifal was recorded live at the Zurich Opera House in March 2007. It was hailed by the press as one of the finest Wagner performances in recent years, thanks in part to Bernard Haitink’s gripping presence in the pit.

The production by Hans Hollmann is austere in conception; Hans Hoffer’s understated designs using geometric shapes and blocks of colour to emphasise the juxtapositions at the heart of Wagner’s mystical opera – light versus darkness, good versus evil. The effect is beautiful and simple, focussing attention on the music.

The excellent international cast of leading Wagnerian singers is headed by Christopher Ventris in the title role and also features Yvonne Naef as a sensuous Kundry and Matti Salminen who was highly acclaimed by the press for his powerful, touching portrayal of the ageing Gurnemanz.

Additional features: Produced in HD, to be released in NTSC 16:9; audio will be in 5.1 DTS Surround Sound and PCM stereo.

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian

A mysterious childlike woman, a murder by jealousy, an orphan: Debussy’s Pelléas et Méllisande, his only completed opera, is full of magical, cryptical and deeply symbolic moments. With this work Debussy added quite literally a new dimension to the 1893 stage play of the same name by Belgian playwriter and poet, Maurice Maeterlinck, who was to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911. Rodney Gilfry, a leading American opera baritone whos vocal excellence has been repeatedly extolled by many leading music critics, is Pelléas. Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for his “rich, rolling baritone with a superb upper range,” as well as his “vivid stage presence,” Rodney Gilfry has established himself as a most compelling musician on the world’s operatic stages. By his side Isabel Rey, internationally recognised for her exquisite vocal technique and her sensitive acting skills, is Mélisande. Due to her crystal-clear soprano and the winterly stage setting the cold dream-world of the subconscious emerges to the audience. Because of the fabulous soloist and a distinguished cast this opera promises outstanding listening pleasure. Under Franz Welser-Möst’s fabulous conducting this production of the Zurich Opera House is setting musical standards. Welser-Möst is ecxeptionally talented and internationally known as one of the outstanding personalities in the field of classical music. In conjunction with the director Sven-Eric Bechtolf, he has developed into one of the leading teams in contemporary music theater.