DVD Videos

Staged by ENNOSUKE ICHIKAWA

Stage Design by SETSU ASAKURA

Costumes by TOMIO MOHRI

Rimsky-Korsakov epitomises the fantastic side of the Russian soul. Regarding opera as „essentially the most enchanting and intoxicating of lies,“ he drew on his country’s rich folk heritage to create a fairy-tale world in which the fanciful and commonplace were fused through extravagant orchestral virtuosity and fervently Romantic vocal writing. This Châtelet revival of Le Coq d’or brings to the stage once again the great Kabuki actor Ennosuke III’s striking staging of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera first mounted in co-production with the San Francisco Opera in 1984.

Born into one of Japan’s most important Kabuki families in 1939, Ennosuke III is a master of his art, who has worked to give this traditional theatre form appeal for modern audiences. As an actor, director and producer his aim has been to bring back the energy and excitement of Edo-period Kabuki. High-tech special effects, dynamic lighting, stunning costumes and minimalist sets have drawn new fans to his ‘Super Kabuki’ shows. He worked on this sumptuous production of Le Coq d’or with an all-Japanese creative team and the result had an Oriental beauty and fascination entirely appropriate to this satirical fantasy opera.

Completed in 1907, Le Coq d’or, based on Pushkin’s 1834 poem, was Rimsky-Korsakov’s last opera. It was also his most provocative. When he completed the score, he was forced to submit it to the censor with the result that it was barred from production. Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908 without ever having heard the opera performed.

Sound Format: LPCM Stereo, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 108 mins

FSK: 0

The Invisible City of Kitezh, completed in 1905, is a remarkable opera that fuses folklore, mysticism and realism. Its subject is the story of the advancing Mongol army’s entry to Great Kitezh and the city’s subsequent miraculous survival. Rejecting archaisms and the more religiously inclined suggestions of his librettist, Rimsky-Korsakov sought to create an opera that “is contemporary and even fairly advanced”. It is therefore through-composed, hinting at times at Wagnerian procedure, and flooded with the composer’s rich, apt and brilliant orchestral palette, fully supportive of the powerful vocal writing.

Sung in Russian with English subtitles

Black & White, 4:3, 76 min. All regions.

Probably the most promising Italian composer of the new generation, Fausto Romitelli (1963-2004) died in Milan after a serious illness. Trained in Milan and Sienna, he was interested at a very early stage in the major pioneers of contemporary music (Ligeti, Scelsi, Donatoni), but was especially inspired by French spectral music and new technologies in sound; his period as a research composer at IRCAM from 1993 to 1995 definitely opened up horizons for him that had an unparalleled effet on the development of his musical language.

An astonishing composer, of insolent modernity, the Italian’s world included psychedelic rock and electric sonorities. An Index of Metals, his last work, was written during the final weeks of his life and is a veritable journey to the heart of sound, to the centre of sound matter. Romitelli explores sound in all its breadth, in all its depth, to find out to what extent he is close to something throbbing and alive, to admire its energy and even its violence. This is total immersion; all the component elements of Romitelli’s music seem to want to push the limits of sound and try out a novel sublimity. Even Kenka Lèkovich’s text becomes matter, linguistic in this case, reinforcing the sound matter, at once sensual and metallic.

Colour, movement, geometric lines come together in the video that is entirely based on shots of real metals, subjected to spectacular light effects; one sees buildings, mercury, metals in fusion, etc. This video-opera was conceived from the start as an ensemble in which music and image are indissociable; this comes from Romitelli’s complicity with the video artiste Paolo Pachini, who effected a veritable imaging of the sound matter. Originally conceived for three big screens overwhelming the stage and the musicians, a new single-screen version was made for this DVD release; both versions are available on it and they are captivating. The multitrack sound version of the DVD is also a stupefying experience.

A simultaneous CD / DVD video release is thus indispensible in order to appreciate fully the genius of this visionary work.

Melodramma in Four Acts

Libretto by Marco D’Arienzo.

First performed at the Teatro Regio, Turin, on 5 March 1876, Lauro Rossi’s penultimate opera Cleopatra caught the public’s attention in the wake of Verdi’s Aïda (1871).

Like that better-known work, it contains some wonderful arias and set pieces, including a marvellous Act 1 banquet scene, Cleopatra’s Act 2 aria, the thrilling ensemble that closes Act 3, and the confrontation between Cleopatra and Octavian in Act 4, all making for compelling viewing and listening.

From the brooding opening scene in which Diomedes foretells the fall of Egypt to Cleopatra’s death scene, this gripping grand opera by one of Italy’s forgotten masters springs vividly to life in this revival filmed at the 2008 Macerata Sferisterio Festival.

Total Running Time: 114:56

NTSC: No Region Coding

Aspect Ratio: 16:9

Dual Layer Disc

Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Dolby Surround 5.0

Worldwide Available

Riccardo Muti conducts a fine cast led by Giorgio Zancanaro in the title role of Rossini’s towering and opulent last opera, filmed in 1988, with the Corps de Ballet, Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro alla Scala.

Director Werner Herzog and conductor Riccardo Muti combine with the finest of casts to lavish Rossini’s rarely-performed Neapolitan masterpiece, set in feudal sixteenth century Scotland, with the genius it deserves. June Anderson is an outstanding Elena (the Lady of the Lake) in the 1992 production of the melodrama based on Sir Walter Scott’s poem.