DVD Videos

Subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Color, 138 minutes.

DVD Bonus: The Finale of the Garden Scene from Gounod’s Faust starring Alfredo Kraus, Renata Scotto, and Nicolai Ghiaurov.

Includes optional subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

180 minutes, color, mono, all regions.

L'elisir d'amore : opera in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti, libretto by Felice Romani after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Auber's Le philtre (1831), premièred at the Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan on May 12, 1832 and one of the most frequently performed of all Donizetti's operas.

"Edward Gardner conducted with outstanding imagination and authority" The Times, 12th August 2008, BBC Proms 2008

"This concert performance was the jewel in the crown of the Barbican's Mostly Mozart Festival, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Edward Gardner, the most demanding and perceptive of musical stage-managers." The Times [Clemenza di Tito, the Barbican, July 2008]

Bergamo, Italy, Teatro Donizetti, second edition of the Bergamo Music Festival, October 12th-14th, 2007

This new Dynamic opera, Elisir d’amore was performed in Donizetti’s native city of Bergamo, during the most important world festival dedicated to the Italian composer. The opera is set in a rural environment and the action takes place in a country farm. It is a brilliant comedy with many points of contact with semi-serious operas. The choice of this subject must have been strongly influenced by the successes of Vincenzo Bellini’s La Sonnambula.

The opera is performed by a talented cast. Dulcamara is interpreted by young and talented bass Alex Esposito, who makes his debut here in the theatre of his native city. In 2006 he was awarded the Abbiati Prize as best opera singer of the season. Dulcamara steals the show thanks to Esposito’s dynamism and charismatic interpretation, adding to the opera a touch of freshness and modernity.

Conductor De Marchi used the original performance as his inspiration, altering the dynamics, highlighting aspects that are usually neglected and accompanying the recitatives with the cello or double bass rather than the piano or harpsichord, enhancing the theatrical aspect of the text.

The music is folksy and the melodic writing frank and straightforward with a broad variety of passages of high technical content and more elegiac in character; such is the case of the most famous piece in the whole opera, the aria Una furtiva lagrima, which is also the leitmotiv of the soundtrack of the 2005 film Match Point, directed by Woody Allen.

Libretto by Iacopo Ferretti and Andrea Leone Tottola

Staged for the first time at Teatro Nuovo in Naples in 1826, Don Gregorio is the Neapolitan version of one of Donizetti’s earliest masterpieces, L’ajo nell’imbarazzo (1824). This is the first representation in Italy in modern times, and a world premiere recording.

Director Roberto Recchia sets the performance in the 1920s, at a time when restrictions and false morality were strongly linked with Italian political and social situation.

In its new adaptation, the work differs from the original version in several aspects, the most important being the insertion of spoken dialogues in Neapolitan dialect in place of the recitatives. But Donizetti’s musical verve remains unchanged as he underlines the very enjoyable farcical situations of this comic work.

The characters are inspired by Italian Commedia dell’Arte, but possess at the same time a deeper psychological and human dimension.

Directed, Set Design and Costumes by Pier Luigi Pizzi

Two queens on one island. A recipe for disaster. Especially as both have a legitimate claim to the other’s throne. They are, after all, related… So the power politics are the name of the game. And, for reasons of state, one of the heads that wears a crown has to roll.

Maria Stuarda was laid to rest for more than a hundred years, finally being revived in 1958 in Bergamo under conductor Oliviero de Fabritiis. However the real breakthrough for the opera finally came with Giorgio de Lullo’s Florentine production for the Maggio Musicale in 1967 (with set design and costumes by Pier Luigi Pizzi, director, set designer and costume designer at La Scala in 2008). As the two queens, Leyla Gencer and Shirley Verrett, set the vocal standards. Since then, the triumph of Maria Stuarda has been unstoppable. Various top interpreters have taken on the vocal and acting challenges of the main roles, including Montserrat Caballé, Beverly Sills, Janet Baker, Rosalind Plowright, Joan Sutherland, Huguette Tourangeau, Maria Chiara, Edita Gruberova and Agnes Baltsa. Mariella Devia as Maria and Anna Caterina Antonacci as Elisabetta have now also added their names to this illustrious list.

Filmed at the Sferisterio Opera Festival, Macerata, Italy, 3 August 2007

Director, set and costume designer: Pier Luigi Pizzi

Lighting Designer: Sergio Rossi

In Donizetti’s opera Maria Stuarda the rôles of the doomed queen and her cousin, Elizabeth I, have been taken by some of the greatest divas, from Malibran to Gruberova and Tosi to Baltsa, each revelling in the high drama of their tragically linked fates.

Recorded live in 1959

This festive gala concert was held to mark the city’s 300th anniversary, bringing together some of the greatest Russian artists: young soprano Anna Netrebko, baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, such great instrumentalists as cellist Mischa Maisky and violinist Viktor Tretyakov.

World-famous St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Yuri Temirkanov in a repertoire of fascinating variety.

An extraordinary evening with a lot of highlights from the most loved classical masterpieces.

Re-release of our very successful DVD and Blu-ray.

“Anna Netrebko has become one of the most admired of young lyric sopranos the world over" The Gramophone Magazine

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 112 mins

Audience: all

Acclaimed Italian conductor Maurizio Benini makes his Glyndebourne debut in Donizetti’s intoxicating and deeply touching opera, whose fast-moving comic story unfolds the romantic rivalry between penniless farmhand and bumptious soldier, both vying for the love of Adina. Will the bogus Dr Dulcamara’s potion – the elixir of love – help farmhand Nemorino win her heart? Peter Auty takes the role of Nemorino with Ekaterina Siurina as Adina. Recorded in High Definition and true surround sound.

“It is a beautifully achieved piece of work. … Peter Auty’s Nemorino is world-class in his vocal accomplishment and touching presentation of the character’s plight. Alfredo Daza sounds exactly the right notes of God’s gift to women bumptiousness and fundamental decency with his good-looking, healthy sounding Sergeant Belcore. Luciano Di Pasquale hits the spot as the fake potion seller Dulcamara, bringing colour and vivacity to his every appearance. The chorus are marvellous. Maurizio Benini maintains lively music-making in the pit.” The Stage

Extra features:

Illustrated synopsis

Cast gallery

Running time 129 mins

Region code All regions

Picture format 16:9 Anamorphic

Sound format 2.0 LPCM & 5.0 DTS

Menu language EN

Subtitles EN/FR/DE/ES/IT