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World Premiere Recording.

Pergolesi’s first opera “La Salustia” is filled with emotions and dramatic elements. It portrays the battle of two women, their struggle for power and justice. Further, it is the story of failing deceitful plots and mistrust.

Salustia is the strong empress, wife of the Roman emperor Alessandro, whose mother-in-law Giulia would rather see dead than accept as ruler. Strangely however, it is Salustia who saves Giulia from her own death more than once. She fights not only for her own justice – ruling together with her love Alessandro – but also for justice amongst all the other battling parties. At the end she is rewarded for her moral strength. The drama around the unbreakable Salustia takes its course in the setting of ancient Rome. Young French director Juliette Deschamps, known for various opera productions in Jesi, made the old story come alive on a stage that suggests an ancient palace with large windows, later on the coliseum. The cast features well-loved Pergolesi interpreters such as Serena Malfi, Laura Polverelli or Vittorio Prato. The Accademia Barocca de I Musici Italiani, well-known for productions in historic performance practice, are led by Corrado Rovaris. This is a world premiere recording of one of the very few Salustia-productions that exist worldwide.

In Mozart’s anniversary year, Nikolaus Harnoncourt presented his interpretation of La Finta Giardiniera, a long-forgotten wonderfully tragicomic opera by the young Mozart. Almost a quarter of a century ago Harnoncourt had released his reading of the rediscovered work on CD, but in this version from the Zurich Opera House, the great Mozart magician conducted a staged production for the first time, making the premiere an event in itself.

The Zurich Opera House gathered a star studded cast for this production: Italian soprano Eva Mei sings the Countess Violante while Spanisch soprano Isabel Rey is her opponent Arminda. Liliana Nikiteanu as Cavaliere Ramiro, Rudolf Schasching as Il Podestà Don Anchise and Christoph Strehl as Il Contino Belfiore make this production an overwhelming experience. Tobias Moretti, a popular Austrian actor with a musical background presented his second opera staging, to high praise from audience and critics alike. He sees this opera about mistaken identities and true love within a hierarchical order as a play on societal conditions at the onset of the enlightenment. This interpretation is supported by the simple and effective stage and costume design by the team Glittenberg/Martin/Dornhauser.

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, IT, ES

Running Time: 187 mins

Blu-ray Disc: 50 GB (Dual Layer)

FSK: 0

World Premiere Recording!

The 2010 Jesi production is conscious of the complexity of Flaminio for all its seeming simplicity and cleverly exploits the suggestive milieu of the Teatro Valeria Moriconi, in particular its shape and relatively small scale. Without any attempt at realism, (the main action takes place “in a villa on the outskirts of the city of Naples, complete with hunting lodge, etc.”, but just a handful of props to symbolise the bucolic atmosphere), the production concentrates on establishing a kind of meta-theatrical relationship to this repertoire work which sets out to highlight the interweaving and overlayering of truth and fiction, passion and irony, tragedy and comedy. The orchestra sits behind a broad wooden platform and suspended netting decorated with leaves; every so often scenes about the characters’ private lives open up on various levels (these serve to expand the audience perspective both horizontally and vertically), as if the plot were following the inner development of these living characters. The theatrical narrative unravels – through a brilliant succession of dramatic and light-hearted moments – to its predictable happy ending.

The result takes us a step closer towards finally rediscovering such masterpieces of the Neapolitan school of the 18th century: in addition to being highly serious, ingenious and fabulous entertainment in its own right, Il Flaminio is substantive proof of the key role Naples played in developing the genre for European audiences.

PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.1 (Blu-ray)

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD

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

Running Time: 183 mins

FSK: 0

World Premiere Recording

“What a pleasure to listen to Demetrio e Polibio”, wrote major Italian daily La Stampa after the premiere of Rossini‘s very first opera at the 2010 Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, attributing it „an undeniable fascination“. The work was given its first performance in Rome in 1812. It is still unclear whether Rossini was 14 or 18 when he wrote it; what is beyond doubt, however, is the anticipation of great things to come.

The libretto is a far-fetched tale of feuding kings, mistaken identities, disguises and cruel fates typical of the late 18th-century opera seria. Young stage director Davide Livermore, heading a production of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino, turns the libretto into a ghost story, setting the action behind the stage of an opera house, when everyone has left and all that remains are the spirits of an opera that yearns for the breath of life – much like the practically forgotten Demetrio e Polibio itself.

With the help of little flames that flare up from the singers‘ palms and other "phantasmagorical" tricks, Livermore creates an enchanting atmosphere that is given a perfect musical rendering by conductor Corrado Rovaris (Music Director of the Opera Company of Philadelphia) and the Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini. Each giving outstanding performances are the four stand-out soloists Maria José Moreno, Victoria Zaytseva, Yijie Shi and Mirco Palazzi, „stars … of the highest international order“ (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Once again, the Rossini Opera Festival fulfills its dual goal of performing unknown Rossini works in new, critical editions, and of fostering young singers on their path towards the world‘s great stages.

SPECIAL FEATURE: Making Of Demetrio e Polibio

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD

Format: 25 GB (Single Layer)

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

Running Time: 115 mins + 15 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

Region Code: Worldwide

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, 1080i FULL HD

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

Running Time: 161 mins

FSK: 0

Region Code: Worldwide

Worldwide available, excluding Japan

The Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini, which has been devoting itself to the research and performance of Pergolesi‘s music for years now, had his operas recorded live at the annual Music Festival in Jesi.

Released on this BD are two productions from Jesi of one almost forgotten opera, Il prigionier superbo, and one of Pergolesi’s most popular works, La serva padrona, combined like they were at the original premiere. Il prigionier superbo tells the story of two rival kings and a princess in distress. In order to strengthen his power, Metalce imprisons his rival Sostrate. Further, he tries to obtain Rosmene’s love. Proud like her father Sostrate, she persistently thwarts the tyrant, while on the other hand she forces herself to hate her beloved Viridate. La serva padrona is the short comedy of Serpina and Uberto: the wily maidservant, hell-bent on her willing to become the mistress of the house, thinks up a plan in order to convince her master to marry her.

Both operas were directed by Henning Brockhaus, who placed Il prigionier superbo within a contemporary setting inside a cave and La serva padrona in a circus. The casts both brilliantly show their versatile voices in numerous virtuosic arias accompanied by the Baroque specialists of the Accademia Barocca de I Virtuosi Italiani, conducted by Corrado Rovaris.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.1 (Blu-ray)

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD

50 GB (Dual Layer)

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

Running Time: 177 mins

FSK: 0

2012 brings the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Britten‘s War Requiem, one of the most powerful pacifist statements in music. The first performance took place in 1962 in the newly consecrated Coventry Cathedral, built alongside the ruins of the old cathedral, left as a sombre reminder of the wartime bombings. On 30 May 2012, 50 years to the day, Britten‘s masterpiece returns to the cathedral, performed as at the premiere by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and vocal soloists from three once warring nations.

The anniversary performance is conducted by the CBSO‘s Music Director, Andris Nelsons, featuring the Canadian soprano Erin Wall, English tenor Mark Padmore singing the role written for Peter Pears, and German baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann. Choral forces are provided by the CBSO Chorus and Youth Chorus. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was commissioned to compose a work for the inauguration in 1962 of Coventry’s new cathedral, adjoining the old cathedral that had been bombed and nearly completely destroyed by the German Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II in November 1940. The commission gave Britten complete freedom to choose the type of music to compose. He conceived of setting the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems by the English poet Wilfred Owen, who had been killed in World War I. It has become one of the defining masterpieces of the twentieth century: a devastating meditation on the pity of war that is every bit as relevant today.

"The light-filled building was used to full effect. The CBSO Youth Chorus was positioned at the high altar beneath Graham Sutherland's Christ in Glory tapestry, all golden section and green resurrection...Padmore sang with visionary intensity. Müller-Brachmann maintained an unadorned simplicity of expression." Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, on the live performance

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.1 (Blu-ray)

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD

Audio Languages: Sung in Latin and English

Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES

Running Time: 97 mins

FSK: 0

A Film by ENRIQUE SÁNCHEZ LANSCH

In 2007 the Berlin Philharmonic celebrated its 125th anniversary. It has chosen to mark this anniversary year by highlighting a previously unknown chapter in its history – the years from 1933 to 1945. Financed by the German Reich and answerable directly to the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, the Berlin Philharmonic was not only Germany’s flagship orchestra; it also became an ambassador for the National Socialist regime, particularly on foreign tours. In this new documentary by Enrique Sánchez Lansch (RHYTHM IS IT!) the spotlight is on the orchestra itself – the musicians, the people, their individual destinies. Although its members were much less exposed than their principal conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, they, like him, moved in circles close to the powers that bestowed privilege and thereby encouraged people to shirk individual responsibility. The unique and microcosmic world of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra proves a fascinating subject for examination. First-hand accounts of life in and around the orchestra, delivered by contemporary witnesses still alive today, as well as a wealth of previously unevaluated archive material, provide a highly authentic glimpse into the period under the swastika. The film brings to life, in a manner as fascinating as it is sensitive, this chapter in the history of Germany and its capital Berlin, and explores the question: How does one tread the fine line between independence and individual responsibility?

SPECIAL FEATURE: Wilhelm Furtwängler conducts the Vorspiel from Richard Wagner „Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg“, 1942 at an AEG Worker Concert

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Resolution: 1080i FULL HD

Subtitle Languages: DE (Original Version), GB, FR, ES, IT, JP, KOR

Running Time: 90 mins + 10 mins (bonus)

Blu-ray Disc: 25 GB (Single Layer)

FSK: 0

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

World Premiere Recording.

Early Rossini has something buoyant, vibrant, youthful about it – even when it is a „dramma per musica“ such as Sigismondo, a dark swirl of an opera revolving around a mad king and his delusions, his wife who is allegedly dead but very much alive, the fate of Poland and much more. Premiered in 1814 but rarely played thereafter, the work deserves to be resurrected, if only for its many beautiful and original arias and ensembles, some of which were such brilliant little masterpieces that he reused them in his later successes such as Il turco in Italia, La Cenerentola and Il barbiere di Siviglia.

The work was given its first performance from the critical new edition at the 2010 Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. The press hailed the production as a „perfect symbiosis of music and stage work“ that yields „truly brilliant theater“. Director Damiano Michieletto sets the first act in a startlingly realistic „insane asylum“ of around 1900, where King Sigismondo has been placed after losing his mind over his wife’s death, which he, convinced of her infidelity, had ordered. The second act takes place in an elegantly appointed royal palace, where Sigismondo, who has now recovered, must confront an assault by the Bohemian army and decide upon Poland’s fate.

Mezzo Daniela Barcellona – a sought-after Rossini and Verdi singer – portrays the mad King Sigismondo with fi erce intensity and effortlessly flowing coloraturas; restored to health in the second act, her Sigismondo dominates the stage as ruler of Poland, alongside Olga Peretyatko, Antonino Siragusa and Andrea Concetti. Bringing youthful exuberance and supreme musicality to his conducting is Michele Mariotti, principal conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and acclaimed maestro at La Scala, the Met and other leading houses.

Special Feature: Making Of Sigismondo

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master

Audio 5.1 (Blu-ray)

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i

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

Running Time: 164 mins + 19 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0