Bertrand de Billy

With Joyce DiDonato as Cinderella capturing all hearts – not just Prince Charming’s – Massenet’s enchanting, sophisticated retelling of the classic fairytale makes its debut at Covent Garden in a charming and witty production by Laurent Pelly.

The Cinderella story seen through the eyes of the belle époque, Massenet’s Cendrillon was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1899 and its gorgeous score embraces pathos, pastiche, broad humour, subtle eroticism and sheer magic.

Neglected for much of the 20th century, this entrancing and often surprising opera has found a firmer place in the repertoire over the past 30 years. In Summer 2011 its debut at London’s Royal Opera House was built around mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato, who first took on the title role at the Santa Fe festival in 2006; there, as at Covent Garden, the staging was by French director Laurent Pelly, celebrated for his production of Donizetti’s La Fille du regiment with Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez (Virgin Classics DVD 5099951900298).

The décor is inspired by a venerable volume of Charles Perrault’s fairy tales bound in red morocco leather, and the dominant colours are white, black and crimson, though mauve is chosen for the body-hugging gown worn by the voluptuous, capricious Fairy Godmother of Eglise Gutierrez as she scales spellbinding coloratura heights.

Joyce DiDonato,“singing the title-role with all the gleaming tone, pellucid projection and smiling warmth for which she is justly celebrated” (Daily Telegraph), brings a touching simplicity and honesty to her portrayal of the downtrodden daughter. The New York Times found her performance “thoroughly enchanting. She won sympathy for the girl’s plight at once, and her exquisite articulation of the repeated phrase “Vous êtes mon Prince Charmant” in the first love duet — surely the opera’s most ravishing moments — was flawless.” Her Prince, whose fin de siècle world-weariness evaporates when he meets his true love, is sung en travesti by another mezzo, Alice Coote, described by the Financial Times as “the most perfectly elegant Prince Charming ... she sings with glorious fullness and confidence”.

The only principal role sung by a man is Cendrillon’s good-hearted, but ineffectual father, Pandolfe, portrayed here by bass-baritone Jean-Philippe Lafont, a mainstay of the opera scene in France, but here making his Covent Garden debut. His gentle character hardly stands a chance against his armour-plated wife, the formidable Madame de la Haltière, here embodied in flamboyant vocal and physical style by Polish contralto Ewa Podles: her cavernous lower notes shake the Royal Opera’s foundations, while her opulently padded derrière sweeps all before (and behind) it.

A star-studded benefit concert to celebrate Ioan Holender’s farewell after 19 years as the director of one of the world’s leading and most famous opera houses. The highly acclaimed cast was headed by brilliant singers such as Diana Damrau, Natalie Dessay, Angelika Kirchschlager, Waltraud Meier, Anna Netrebko, Pjotr Beczala, Plácido Domingo, Thomas Hampson, Leo Nucci, Thomas Quasthoff, Ramon Vargas and many others. No fewer than twelve conductors including Marco Armiliato, Bertrand de Billy, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano and Franz Welser-Möst led the way through a program lasting over four hours at the fully-packed Wiener Staastoper.

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese

Claus Guth - staging

Wild animals live in the woods. Robbers hide there. Mystery is at home there. And, when the woods are on the stage of Salzburg’s Haus für Mozart, a notorious ladies’ man and his unsavoury accomplice can also find shelter there. For here, in the dense forest planted by director Claus Guth, is the home of the rugged macho Don Giovanni, who, assisted by Leporello, lures the ladies with the heady scent of danger. In Guth’s almost cinematic Salzburg Festival production, every character in Mozart’s most realistic opera seems to carry a back-story of thwarted love and frustration. Everyone appears to be seeking either salvation or damnation in the woods – a compelling concept that removes the opera from its traditional pseudo-Seville squares and palaces.

And when Don Giovanni is played by Christopher Maltman, it’s no wonder that Donna Anna (Annette Dasch), Donna Elvira (Dorothea Röschmann) and even Zerlina (Ekaterina Siurina) are ready to throw themselves at his feet. With a physique as striking as his full-bodied baritone voice, Maltman embodies Don Giovanni as an almost reluctant seducer, a man fated to bring misery to women and, ultimately, to himself. Next to Maltman, it is Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott who rivets the audience in this production: Schrott’s Leporello is an event in his own right, the event of the Salzburg Don Giovanni (Die Welt).

Under Bertrand de Billy, the Wiener Philharmoniker play with refreshing verve and spirit.

Picture format BD: 1080i Full HD - 16:9

Sounds formats BD: PCM 2.0, PCM 5.1

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Subtitles: Italiano, English, Deutsch, Français, Español, 日本語

Running time: 177 mins

Audience: all

Features two of opera’s biggest superstars, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón, in the roles they have performed to live audiences all over the world.

Comprehensive and successful commercial run in cinemas, screening in all major towns and cities across the UK and Ireland, and opening in London’s Barbican Centre and Apollo West End to outstanding figures.

Exclusive DVD bonus features, including in-depth interviews with stars Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón and director Robert Dornhelm, behind-the-scenes of La Bohème, limited edition collector’s booklet and more.

“Succulently dramatic… a tribute to the stars’ power” The Times

“breathtakingly dramatic and emotional… full to the brim with some of the best vocal talents of today” Opera Now

“beautifully sung all round” Philip French, The Observer

“the world’s finest soprano-tenor team… Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón don’t only sing with beauty and power; they can also act” The Evening Standard