DVD Videos

“this Barcelona interpretation by [Alden] is almost Brechtian in the spare objectivity of its stage set, and Expressionist in its use of the shadowy, zombie-like figure of Time that shuffles across the back of the stage...Persson is a superb Poppea who can really act with her voice but whose body seems constrained by the direction...The orchestral accompaniments are nicely varied.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 ****

“a punchy 2009 performance of distinctively dark musical colouring...Nothing is overly camped up - even Dominique Visse in loud, bra-flashing drag...The whole is acutely paced and supported by Harry Bicket's orchestra, thei performance a reminder of how much progress has been made in the realisation of early Venetian opera in the last half-century...The hand-picked European cast is in fine fettle, Connolly's Nero outstanding” Gramophone Magazine, September 2012

“Sarah Connolly is an outstanding Nerone, her rich mezzo on splendid form. She conveys his neuroticism and frustrations...[Beaumont] is mesmerizing in her final farewell to Rome, displaying great, even tone throughout her range...Franz-Josef Selig's sonorous bass suits his thoughtful Seneca” International Record Review, September 2012

“the set is well worth acquiring...for a cast with no weak links and an inspiring conductor” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011

“When this staging was presented in 1992, in various theatres, Gardiner decided to be his own director because he didn't trust any available alternative to be faithful to Da Ponte's and Mozart's original. In the circumstances his was a sensible decision because his deeply discerning stage interpretation perfectly seconds his own musically perceptive reading. His keen understanding of what this endlessly fascinating work is about is made plain in his absorbing essay in the booklet.
The first advantage of this film of the opera is Carlo Tommasi's ravishing décor that accords with what the libretto predicates, conjuring before our eyes 18th-century Naples overlooked by Vesuvius. Then Gardiner's direction makes all-too-clear the emotional turmoil engineered by Don Alfonso's cynical plans to test the ladies' constancy. At all times it's responsive to the music, except when members of the cast march through the stalls and when certain scenes are more sexually explicit than would have been contemplated in Mozart's age.
Amanda Roocroft's Fiordiligi is intrepidly sung, her tone always firm and gleaming, and she acts expressively. She's partnered, as originally intended, by a soprano Dorabella. Rosa Mannion proves an apt foil for her sister, and is deliciously flighty when falling for her 'Albanian' lover.
Rainer Trost is the young, fluent, eager Ferrando who makes the most of his taxing music, although his second aria, 'Ah! lo veggio', is here excluded.
His vulnerable portrayal is a nice contrast to Rodney Gilfry's macho Guglielmo. The four voices blend well in the many ensembles.
In the pit, Gardiner's direct, big-scale yet sensitive conducting is the engine-room of the performance, superbly sustained by his periodinstrument band. Peter Mumford's video direction is faultless; so is the sound picture. All in all, it would be amazing if any successor surpasses this DVD's achievements on all sides.
Recommended without reservation.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The traditional approach to staging nicely matches the freshness and imagination of the period performance, with uniforms from the Napoleonic period and Ferrando and Guglielmo in disguise dressed identifiably as Albanians...Visually, the whole production consistently heightens the impact of the opera” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***

“the most widely respected living conductor” New York Times

“The Schubert Mass may tax Abbado's greatest fans. Yet the Mozart sequence with Karita Mattila is revelatory, camerawork for the Brahms Second Piano Concerto as fluid and imaginative as the Abbado-Pollini partnership...He combines a phenomenal technique with a poetic temperament. Wonderful.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2008 *****