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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Gluck: Iphigénie en Aulide & Iphigénie en TaurideRecorded live at De Nederlandse Opera, September 2011
Two late and baleful tragedies by Euripides focus on the ill-starred daughter of the Greek King, Agamemnon. Will he sacrifice Iphigenia in order to secure fair winds for his voyage to Troy? In Aulis, the drama rages until she is spared. Having escaped to Tauris, Iphigenia finds herself compelled to kill her own brother before, once more, the fickle gods intervene. Gluck's operatic settings are very rarely staged together, but Pierre Audi's production makes a darkly compelling case for their dramatic unity. All the lead performers here are experienced exponents of Gluck, and together they present a powerfully idiomatic experience. First ever release together on DVD/Blu-ray. Iphigénie en Aulide has never been issued before on DVD/Blu-ray. Top international cast includes Véronique Gens as Iphigénie and Anne Sofie von Otter as Clytemnestre. Marc Minkowski & Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble have been widely acclaimed for their Gluck performances. Running time: 267 minutes Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/DU/KO Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS “in this performance every cross-hatched, baleful figure is crisp and clear...Veronique Gens's submissive, poised Iphigénie [en Aulide] becomes Mireille Delunsch's red-eyed, hysterical Iphigénie en Tauride...Both sopranos sing magnificently despite Audi's over-stylised movement direction” BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 ***** “[von Otter] presents a deeply sympathetic character...[Gens's] Iphigenia is equally touching and just as beautifully sung...one or two [production] oddities are far outweighed by the intensity that Pierre Audi secures from his team. Minkowski conducts superbly.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2013 | 
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Anita Rachvelishvili (Orfeo), Maite Alberola (Euridice), Auxiliadora Toledano (Amore) Orquesta BandArt, Gordan Nikolić Staged by La Fura dels Baus Another fantastic staging by La Fura dels Baus. Recorded at the 25th Peralada Festival, Spain, 2011. A splendid cast as well as an avant-garde production that makes extensive use of large projection screens and includes members of the orchestra as actors onstage result in one of the most exciting opera performances in recent years. Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPqcM6PWsyc This is the first Orfeo opera on Blu-ray! Running Time Total: 110 minutes Picture 16:9, HD BD: DTS-HD MA 5.1, PCM 2.0 Subtitles Italian (original language), English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean “Rachvelishvili is a natural performer with a beautifully full mezzo-soprano, but as yet a lightweight Gluckian.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2012 ** “Padrissa keeps the stage in a constant state of motion, often in ways that are conceptually rooted in historic authenticity...The big surprise is that, no matter how busy the screen becomes, it rarely distracts from the music...Rachvelishvili is a vocally robust, poetically alert Orpheus, though Auxiliadora Toledano steals the vocal honours in her wonderful portrayal of Amore” Gramophone Magazine, November 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Roberto Alagna (Orphée), Serena Gamberoni (Eurydice) & Marc Barrard (L'Amour) Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra, Giampaolo Bisanti Libretto Pierre-Louis Moline Theatrical and musical adaptation in one prologue and three acts by David Alagna Filmed in High Definition at the Bologna Opera, January 2008 THE PERFORMANCE: Roberto Alagna as Orpheus in his brother David's new version of Gluck’s masterpiece. A major event recorded in Bologna. Opting for the French-language version of Orpheus, David Alagna was faced with the task of achieving an appropriately subtle adaptation. In a plot transposed to the present day, Eurydice dies in a car accident on the day of her wedding and Orpheus's quest for his beloved is a dream beginning and ending at the cemetery. No happy ending in this interpretation, but a new approach to characterisation:Amore, sung by a baritone, becomes a funeral parlour employee and Orpheus' guide. Orpheus, of course, loses his loved one forever by turning to look back. World famous tenor Roberto Alagna throws himself body and soul into this production. His incredible vitality, flawless timbre and diction make him a great Orpheus. His partner, young Italian soprano Serena Gamberoni, is simply stunning as Eurydice, while French baritone Marc Barrard is suitably terrifying as the guide to the Underworld. The orchestra is conducted by Giampaolo Bisanti, who masterfully brings out all Gluck's poetry, romantic melancholy and depth. A co-production with the Montpellier Opera. Colour 16/9 - PCM STEREO, DTS HD MASTER AUDIO 5.1 “The first of several fade-cuts… takes us to the scene of a car crash, where paramedics pull Eurydice's body from the wreckage. Thence to the graveyard, whence all that follows is Orphée's dream. If you can swallow the concept, the acting is detailed and humane, the Underworld a powdery fantasy of suspended animation. ...Robert Alagna's verismo Orphée is a perceptive study of sudden bereavement. Giampaolo Bisanti's conducting is fleet and finely accented” BBC Music Magazine, March 2010 *** “The opening scene is set at Orpheus and Eurydice's wedding. The couple are involved in a car crash and soon the action changes to the cemetery as Eurydice's coffin is lowered into the grave. …as Orpheus descends into Hades, the set changes to a more abstract vision of a frozen Hell with bodies suspended in mid-air... The whole production veers between the sublime and the ridiculous in about equal quantities. Roberto Alagna as Orpheus gives a performance of great intensity.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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Choreography and Stage Direction: Pina Bausch Set, costume and lighting designs: Rolf Borzik Filmed in HD at the Palais Garnier February 2008 Orpheus and Eurydice is Pina Bausch's masterpiece and the ultimate symbol of the genius of this German choreographer, who died last June, five days after being diagnosed with cancer. Bausch was the artistic director of the Tanztheater Wuppertal, which she founded in 1973. She had a formidable international reputation as one of modern dance's greatest innovators. Her dance-theatre works include the melancholic Café Müller (1978), in which dancers stumble around the stage crashing into tables and chairs, and a thrilling Rite of Spring (1975), which required the stage to be completely covered with soil. Excerpts from Bausch's Café Müller and another of her works, Masurca Fogo, reached a wider audience when they were featured in Pedro Almodóvar's film Talk to Her (2002). Bausch also appeared in Federico Fellini's 1983 film And the Ship Sails On. In recent months, she had been preparing a 3-D cinema project with Wim Wenders; shooting was slated to commence in September. Bausch continued to perform as a dancer throughout her 60s. Her company last visited the UK in 2008 for a sold-out series of performances, drawing long queues for returns at Sadler's Wells in London. Guardian critic Judith Mackrell gave the show a five-star review, praising Bausch's ability to "combine movement of shocking visceral intensity with stage visions of often hallucinogenic strangeness". "She was an artist of the kind that the world is only blessed with from time to time. Her repertoire of works has inspired generations of audiences and artists with an impact that is hard to overestimate." Alistair Spalding, artistic director, Sadler's Wells Color, 16/9 - PCM STEREO, DTS HD MASTER AUDIO 5.1 Le ballet : 104 minutes Subtitles : FR, ENG, DE, SP, IT “Even though I’m a bit allergic to Bausch’s brand of Teutonic gloom, I can’t deny that this has a rare emotional intensity which grows out of the music.” The Telegraph, 2nd December 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Lionel Bringuier & Nelson Freire Live at the Royal Albert Hall
Leading Chopin interpreter Nelson Freire is the soloist in Chopin’s lyrical and brilliant Second Piano Concerto. On the podium the young French conductor Lionel Bringuier makes his Proms debut conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and gives a sizzling performance of Roussel’s Symphony No.3 and of Ravel’s score for the ballet 'Daphnis et Chloé' - Suite No 2. Chopin wrote his concerto at the age of 19 while crazily in love with an opera singer, but it's the work itself which is the object of adoration for soloist Nelson Freire who describes himself as having something of a 'crush' on the piece after first hearing it as a teenager. The three other works on the programme chart French music over a century of changing musical tastes, beginning in 1844 with Berlioz's vivid evocation of a swashbuckling pirate adventure in his overture 'Le corsaire'. By 1912 the tides of modernism influenced Ravel's lavishly scored, pastoral ballet Daphnis and Chloë, with its famous opening soundscape of dawn breaking over the forest canopy, and by the 1930s Roussel's Third Symphony reflected the trends of neo-classicism. "It was around the beginning of the second movement of Albert Roussel's Third Symphony that the playing of the BBC Symphony Orchestra – under the outstanding 23-year-old French conductor Lionel Bringuier, making his Prom debut – moved into top gear. From that point on, the orchestra's awareness of its own sound, collectively and individually, became heightened to an unusually compelling degree. The playing stayed on this exalted level until the end of the concert, which closed with Ravel's second Daphnis and Chloé suite...shaped with a certainty of direction that never compromised the music's inherent sensuousness. It provided a sensational climax to the evening." George Hall, The Guardian 13/8/2010 Recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall, 08/2010, Running time 95 min. Booklet: French, German, English Image 1BD25, Colour 16/9, 1080i Full HD Sound PCM Stereo, DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 |
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