DVD Videos

Recorded at Palermo, Teatro Massimo, January 2008

Boito’s Mefistofele is an opera that focuses on the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, in a path made of temptation, lust and redemption that director Giancarlo Del Monaco sets in contemporary society. At the beginning the location and the costumes recall the German expressionism of the 1930s that are soon abandoned to become a glittering Vegas-like location.

The once popular opera is nowadays rarely performed. It was thus unusual that this opera was chosen to be broadcast as part of the DDCinema project in cinemas throughout Europe. Dynamic are now proud to present this acclaimed production on DVD which includes special features including interviews with the cast (Furlanetto, Theodossiou, Filianoti and Del Monaco).

This production which was performed at the Teatro Massimo features artists of the highest standing: the bass Ferruccio Furlanetto is one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed singers of the last thirty years and appears in the greatest theatres and festivals all over the world. Alongside him we find a young but already well-known tenor Giuseppe Filianoti, and the Greek soprano Dimitra Theodossiou an artist of international calibre with great vocal and performance talents.

The performance was well received. Italian critics gave only the highest praise to the cast: “[Furlanetto] brought real conviction to Boito's occasionally surreal libretto, and his oaken voice truly filled the theatre (which has ideal acoustics).” “Giuseppe Filianoti sang with ideal smoothness of line and ingratiating tone.” “All the singers were well supported by conductor Stefano Ranzani, who paced the work well… [and the choral singers and dancers] conveyed genuine relish in bringing life to what on this occasion proved to be a totally absorbing theatrical experience.”

Recorded in 1985

In addition to being a renowned new music pianist, Margaret Leng Tan is the foremost specialist at the toy piano. She has performed worldwide with her miniature instruments, bestowing them with serious music status in repertoire both written for her and arrangements.

For this disc of attractive yet challenging music, Ms. Tan performs Cage’s classic Suite for Toy Piano plus her arrangement of Cage’s seminal Dream for toy & grand piano (a work that foreshadowed new age music); and her arrangement for voice and toy instruments of a recent song by George Crumb. Ms. Tan uses no less than six different toy pianos here. Some works find the toy piano performed with other instruments including grand piano, toy zithers, music boxes, glockenspiels and percussion, with Ms. Tan as a veritable one-person toy orchestra.

Her initial toy piano CD, The Art of the Toy Piano on Philips/Point (1997) was critically acclaimed and a strong cross-over seller. This long awaited follow-up recording combines serious classics (Cage’s Suite) with colorful fun (Griswold), a sultry blues-tango (Twining), drama (Crumb), to haunting meditations (Cage’s Dream and Liben).

Also available on DVD with full video. Original 96khz/24-bit recording.

Liner notes by Margaret Leng Tan.

SPECIAL DVD FEATURES:

Each work is treated to its own visual mood, and captures the theatricality of Ms. Tan’s performance combined with the exotic toy instrumentation, as directed by Spanish cinematographer Anton Cabaleiro.

Filmed in high-definition video.

Uncompressed Stereo PCM audio in 96khz/24-bit.

The King of Tenors is captured in his prime in this thrilling 1984 recital from the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy. The program includes many of the most beloved songs and arias.

77 minutes, color, no subtitles. Texts and English translations enclosed.

The legendary bass Evgeny Nesterenko sings the title role in this thrilling 1981 Bolshoi Opera production. Though performances outside of Russia are rare, the arias for Vladimir and Igor are beloved staples of the tenor and bass repertoire, and the sequence of the Polovtsian Dances contains some of the most famous and beloved music in the entire classical music repertory. With the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Mark Ermler. 169 minutes, Color, 4:3, mono, subtitles in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian (cyrillic), All regions.

Produced by Music Department of Soviet TV

Stage Director: Oleg Moralev

Production Design: Fedor Fedorovsky

Video Director: Alexander Barannikov

Recorded at the Teatro San Domenico, Crema, 2009

Bottesini is remembered mainly as a double-bass virtuoso and conductor, but he was also a composer; apart from several works for the double-bass he also wrote seven operas. The best known, Ero e Leandro, was recorded at the Teatro San Domenico, Crema, in 2009 and Dynamic is delighted to present its world première recording on DVD.

The opera has only three characters: the priestess of Venus, Ero, Leandro of Abìdo and the perfidious Ariofarne, high magistrate of Thrace and King of the Sacrifices. The Greek myth of two beautiful humans whose love causes the envy of the gods has been changed by librettist Arrigo Boito, who creates the character of a mean king who opposes their relationship.

The score, stylistically comparable to the late Verdi, certainly reveals unusual attention to orchestration and uses a richly chromatic language, not without influences of the Wagnerian style that was then catching on in Italy too. It stands as a worthy addition to Italian opera repertoire of the second half of the nineteenth century.

Sound format: 16:9

Picture format: LPCM 2.0

Region Code: 0

Running Time: 102 Mins

Booklet notes: Ita / Eng / Fre / Ger

Subtitles: Fre, Eng, Ger, Spa, Ita

AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE