DVD Videos

Scenes and Costumes by Igor Mitoraj.

This DVD was recorded during the 53rd edition of the renowned Festival Puccini which takes place every year in the composer’s hometown of Torre del Lago.

The entire cast received excellent reviews, particularly Cifrone who “gave an exquisite performance both vocally and dramatically”, and Giordani’s who “shone in the top register and displayed an impressive dynamic range” (Musicweb)

Contemporary Polish sculptor and artist Igor Mitoraj has also been hailed for his splendid and imaginative sets. Mitoraj’s style is deeply rooted in classical traditions but with a post-modern twist and has had work displayed at Canada Square, and the British Museum.

“…a highly “musical” and talented cast . . . With Irina Lungu a sexier and more assertive Micaëla than usually expected and Nino Surguladze vocally perfect” La Repubblica

Centred on a production for the Puccini Festival staged in Puccini’s home town of Torre del Lago in Tuscany. This documentary provides a superb introduction to Puccini’s masterpiece whilst illustrating his consummate skill as a composer for the operatic stage. This DVD is an informative and insightful exploration of the opera’s themes and musical expression, which is wonderfully brought to life through substantial performance extracts.

Director for TV - Brian Large

Marta Domingo’s famous production of this increasingly popular ‘operetta’; the only version of this particular ending to the piece available on DVD.

A valuable addition to Decca’s catalogue of Puccini DVDs. The piece is barely represented on DVD and Marta’s Domingo’s famous production is one of several recently which have started to make this work more a part of the standard operatic repertoire.

The operetta is famous for the beautiful aria ‘Doretta’s Dream’, used in the Merchant Ivory film of a Room with a View. However, the piece is in fact full of Puccini’s luscious melodies, albeit written in a lighter manner than usual.

Marta Domingo’s production was celebrated yet controversial for adapting the ending to reflect the more tragic outcome of the story; this is one of three endings Puccini wrote for the opera and Decca’s DVD will be the only available release of this version.

Excellent cast led by the beautiful Spanish soprano Ainhoa Arteta. American Marcus Haddock plays her suitor and the soprano Inva Mula is also notable in the role of Lisette.

EXTRAS: PBS introduction to the opera

World Premiere Recording on DVD

Set and Costume Design by Maurizio Balò

A fake death, a perverse woman and a pure woman, a man torn between them, a murder: the story of Edgar, Giacomo Puccini’s second opera, is full of dramatic turns of events. Arthaus Musik presents this powerful and tragic opera now in a version which was count for lost for nearly 120 years.

For the first time the original version in four acts of Edgar by Giacomo Puccini was staged at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 2008. Thanks to the rediscovery of the manuscript score, after 119 years since the first and only performance in Milan in 1889 and after numerous versions condensing the opera in three acts, it will be again possible to experience the original opera that Puccini wrote. It was only when the American Puccini expert Linda B. Fairtile began reconstructing the original orchestration of the almost 40-minute final act that the composer’s granddaughter, Simonetta Puccini, came up with the intact score. José Cura, acclaimed all over the world for his intense interpretations, is Edgar. His rich and brilliant tenor voice, together with his fascinating stage presence, make him one of the most charismatic and sought-after artists in the world. With him, two prima donnas, two artists of great charm and with skyrocketing careers: the Italian soprano Amarilli Nizza and the Russian mezzo-soprano Julia Gertseva.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Menu Language: GB

Subtitle Languages: IT, GB, DE, FR, ES, Japanese

Running Time: 157 mins

FSK: 0

Region Code: 0

Stage / Video Director - Chen Kaige

This 2008 production is staged by Chen Kaige, the film director of Farewell My Concubine and winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival.

Shot in full HD, including Bonus material behind the scenes.

Maria Guleghina is one of the most celebrated and acclaimed sopranos of the world. The leading international tenor Marco Berti is recognised as one of the most important artists from Italy.

from Valencia's spectacular Calatrava opera house "Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía", 2008, with its phenomenal acoustics and breathtaking architecture.

Includes the aria Nessun dorma.

Bonus - Making of Turandot (36 min.)

Directed and Set Design by Franco Zeffirelli

Arthaus presents a recording of a marvelous opera production from Milan on DVD. Franco Zefffirelli staged Puccini’s masterpiece La Bohème with international opera stars in a set true to the touching story of Mimì and Rodolfo. These are wonderfully portrayed by Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, recognized as one of the top lyric sopranos with an expressive voice and vivid stage presence, and Marcelo Álvarez, hailed by critics as „one of the hottest tenors on the international scene“. Puccini’s opera about art and artists also touches the singers’ profession. Álvarez said of opera: “The audience wants authenticity. It wants a heavenly voice to make mistakes sometimes. It wants honest singers. But at the same time one must be able to step down off the stage and become an ordinary person again.” Role-playing and life, art and reality, are at the heart of La Bohème - what remains of the artists’ life and love at the end of the opera is the memory of them. “I love little things”, the composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) once said, “and I only can and want to make the music of little things, if they are true, passionate and human, and go to the heart.” The director Franco Zeffirelli is known for putting the real world on to the operatic stage in lavish sets and costumes. Yet by accumulating little things, by his virtuoso play with details, he built the cosmos of Puccini’s artists in La Bohème as a feast of little things, creating a world poised between poverty and beauty. This DVD shows how opera – the music, the acting, the singing and the staging - finds beauty and grace even in sorrow.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO

DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Picture Format: 16.9

Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES, IT, CN

FSK: 0

Running Time: 134 mins

Set and Costume Designer - Nall

The 51st Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago opened with a new production of an opera that is perhaps the composer‘s most underestimated work: “La Fanciulla del West” – often dismissed as a mere „western opera“. The musical director was Alberto Veronesi, artistic director of the festival. Ivan Stefanutti was the stage director, with spectacular sets by American painter Nall and an all-star cast including Daniela Dessì and Fabio Armiliato (the singers are regarded as two of the leading interpreters of Italian soprano and tenor roles) and the baritone Lucio Gallo.

On 27 March 1918 Anton Webern wrote from Prague to his friend and teacher Arnold Schoenberg after attending a performance of “La Fanciulla del West”: “A score with many original sounds. Magnifi cent. Every bar a surprise. Very special sounds. Not a trace of kitsch!“ There is little to add to that.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Picture Format: 4:3 Letterbox

Running Time: 138 mins

FSK: 0

Subtitle Languages: IT, GB, DE, FR, ES, JP

Embedded Japanese subtitles remain on screen throughout, with additional options to view subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. DVD Bonus: An exclusive interview with Antonietta Stella (Rome, 2008). 135 minutes (plus 24-minute bonus interview), black & white, mono, all regions.

La bohème remains one of the most popular of all operas with its stark contrasts of lively humour and poignant tragedy. This new production by Jonathan Miller for English National Opera, filmed at the London Coliseum in February 2009, also features a brand new English translation by Amanda Holden. Miller and designer Isabella Bywater have set Puccini’s opera in the Paris of the 1930s, the era of the Depression. Together they have created an un-romanticised view of bohemian life drawing inspiration from the realism and atmosphere caught in the films and sepia-tinted photos of the period. The young British tenor Alfie Boe takes the role of the struggling poet Rodolfo and US soprano Melody Moore is his tragic lover Mimí. They are joined by US soprano Hanan Alattar as Musetta, Roland Wood as Marcello, Pauls Putninš as Colline, and David Stout as Schaunard.

Peruvian conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya is the conductor, making his ENO debut with this passionate and unforgettable score.

“...Miller...observes human behaviour in ways that can be immensely telling” INDEPENDENT

“Miguel Harth-Bedoya draws a superb account of the score from the ENO orchestra: passionate yet supple, evoking the crackle of fire in the garret one minute and the stirrings of love the next” EVENING STANDARD

“Alfie Boe's slightly earnest, boyish charm was through and through honest, from start to tragic finish.....the intensity and truthfulness he communicates is irresistible” INDEPENDENT

“..Amanda Holden’s fresh, skilled new translation…” OBSERVER

Approx Duration: 120 mins

Picture format: NTSC 16:9

Colour

Region Code: All regions

Audio:

L-PCM Stereo & Dolby Digital 5.1

Surround

Subtitles:

English (also sung in English)