DVD Videos

The Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache (1912-96) was one of the most adamant personalities in the music world. He rehearsed three times as much as other conductors and avoided making recordings because he believed they were a false representation his musical intentions. This concert from the Herkulessaal in Munich captures one of the rare occasions on which he consented to a recording being made. He conducts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra with Anton Bruckner’s “Romantic” Symphony No. 4 in E flat major.

SPECIAL FEATURE: Interview with Sergiu Celibidache about conducting Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4.

Sound Formats: PCM Stereo, D D 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Languages (bonus): FR (Original Version), GB, DE

Running Time: 82 mins + 40 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

Set Design by Nicola Rubertelli

Following the sensational success of his one-act opera Cavalleria rusticana at Rome’s Teatro Costanzi on 17 May 1890, Mascagni left no stone unturned in his attempt to ensure that his star remained in the ascendant. But neither his Cavalleria remake, Silvano (1895), nor his Romantic reworking of the Lady Godiva legend, Isabeau, has survived the passing years.

This Cavalleria rusticana has left the traditional opera house far behind it and been staged in an open-air theatre once associated with the Emperor Nero. The site in question is the legendary Roman baths in the port of Baia not far from Naples, arguably the most famous resort in classical antiquity and at the same time a byword in luxury and vice. Although some of the baths have vanished in the course of the last two millennia, the remains form a unique backdrop with their high walls and galleries poised between heaven and earth. A World Heritage Site, this was the setting for a production of Cavalleria rusticana by the visiting San Carlo company from Naples.

BONUS: Behind the scenes

Sound Formats: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9 anamorphic

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: IT (Original Language), GB, DE, FR, ES

Running Time: 78 mins + 31 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

Maestro Sergiu Celibidache (1912–1996) was one of the most uncompromising figures in the music world, demanding three times as much rehearsal time as other conductors and with an ardent dislike of making recordings because he feared they misrepresented his musical intentions. He agreed to set aside his long-held antipathy to recordings of his work to enable the cameras to capture this concert from the Philharmonie in Munich, in which he conducts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

“Sergiu Celibidache demands unheard-of amounts of orchestral rehearsal time and obviously knows what he wants to do with it. He has an extraordinary ear for orchestral detail. He has a highly developed ... technique for maintaining spacious tempos. He understands, as Herbert von Karajan and Carlos Kleiber and a few other conductors do, that it is advantageous to play softly a lot of the time if you want a wide palette of expression and tonal beauty. He has a charismatic hold over his orchestra and his admirers.” The New York Times

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 90 mins

FSK: 0

Richard Heuberger (1850–1914) came from a wealthy, art-loving Graz (Austria-Hungary) family. After working as an engineer, he decided to devote himself completely to music, working as choral director of the Vienna Singakademie, composer of instrumental music, ballets, cantatas and operas, music critic and music journalist.

Shortly before the turn of the century, he tried his luck with operettas. Only his first work, the delicately orchestrated, splendidly hued Opernball (Opera Ball ) of 1898 – a beautiful and substantial echo of the Strauss era – has managed to maintain its position in the repertoire. In this work, Heuberger tried to create a new operetta style, the “comedy operetta”. He eschewed spectacular costumes and choruses, sentimentality and drama by picking up where Offenbach had left off in La vie parisienne and Strauss in Die Fledermaus. According to the great Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick, he succeeded in “preserving the purity of the Viennese operetta. The Opernball was a popular, witty piece and Heuberger accordingly avoided the effects of grand opera, both noisy passion and watered-down sentimentality.”

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: DE (Original Language), GB, FR

Running Time: 100 mins

FSK: 0

As is now customary, the first part of the 2012 New Year‘s Concert from Teatro La Fenice is exclusively orchestral, with Symphony No.5 by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The second part, with soloists Jessica Pratt, Walter Fraccaro and Alex Esposito as well as the choir, is dedicated to melodrama, ending with the traditional chorus “Va pensiero” from Nabucco and the toast “Libiam ne lieti calici” from La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi.

The twenty-seven year old conductor and violinist Diego Matheuz is a graduate of the internationally known Venezuelan Sistema and is already widely known as one of the most promising developing talents from the Americas. In 2005 he began studying conducting and soon attracted the attention of Sir Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado, with whom he worked in Caracas, Lucerne and Bologna.

In September 2011 he was appointed as Principal Conductor of the Teatro La Fenice.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i High Definition

Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 108 mins + 27 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

Region Code: 0 (DVD)

Worldwide available

Stage Directed, Set & Costume Design by Herbert Wernicke.

World Premiere Recording on DVD.

Carl Heinrich Graun (1704–1759) wrote a total of 27 operas for the Berlin court and not least for Frederick II. In 1742 his Cleopatra e Cesare was performed at the opening of the “Haus Unter den Linden”, and in 1755 he wrote his most impressive work – Montezuma. The opera tells the tragic story of the last ruler of the Aztecs, who lost his power and ultimately his life to the Spanish conquistadores. The libretto, in French prose, was written by none other than the Emperor of Prussia himself – Frederick II – and translated into Italian verse by his court poet. The music, written by his kapellmeister Graun, is as virtuosic as it is expressive – highly rewarding for singers and attractive for audiences. Montezuma is an opera that points forward to the future – to Gluck and even to Mozart.

In 1982, Deutsche Oper Berlin came to Bayreuth to perform Herbert Wernicke‘s impressive production in the baroque surroundings of the Markgräfliche Opernhaus (opened in 1748).

Sound Format: PCM Mono

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitles: DE (Original Language), GB, FR, ES, IT

Running Time: 140 mins

FSK: 0

World Premiere Recording on DVD.

Thanks to the new Cherubini Edition, the composer’s unknown comic opera Koukourgi was staged for the first time in celebration of his 250th anniversary 2010.

The premiere production of Luigi Cherubini‘s opera Koukourgi at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater revealed a work that combines a tale from ancient China with the sensibility of the French Revolutionary times of its composition. The three act opera sees a young Chinese man battling for the hand of his sweetheart against the Tartar mandarin Koukourgi, the not unlikeable anti-hero described as a large pumpkin.

The turmoil in Paris led to Cherubini’s librettist Honoré-Nicolas-Marie Duveyrier being imprisoned in the Bastille and fleeing to Denmark. The opera was left with the finale incomplete and has remained unperformed for over two centuries. Koukourgi’s finale was completed by Heiko Cullman and the new performing edition has allowed the opera to reclaim its rightful place on the stage.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: FR (Original Language), GB, DE, IT, ES, Korean

Running Time: 115 mins

FSK: 0

Choreographed by Roland Petit

Roland Petit’s “Fledermaus à la française”, La Chauve-souris, was originally created for the Ballet National de Marseille in 1979 with Petit’s wife Zizi Jeanmaire partnered by Denis Ganio and Luigi Bonino as the mastermind of the nocturnal escapades.

The action was transferred from the operetta’s Vienna to the Paris of Vaudeville theatres, which was the original source of Johann Strauss’s celebrated operetta.

Directed by Luigi Bonino, Petit’s assistant of many years, who also dances the role of Ulrich, it features two more dancing stars from the “Petit school” in the principal roles: Massimo Murru, the male star dancer of La Scala’s company, for whom Petit had written several ballets and Allessandra Ferri, who counts among the finest ballerinas of today. Awarded with the coveted title of “Prima Ballerina Assoluta” at La Scala, she was once described by Roland Petit as the only rightful successor to legendary Zizi Jeanmaire.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 93 mins

FSK: 0

Set Design by RUDOLF and REINHARD HEINRICH

Wagner set the action of his “romantic opera” Lohengrin in the “first half of the 10th century” – an instruction which director Wolfgang Weber and his stage designers Rudolf and Reinhard Heinrich clearly took very seriously when they produced it at the Vienna State Opera in 1990. We do indeed experience the early, gloomy Middle Ages: muted colours, dark clouds, barren landscapes and simple shapes dominate the scene. Weber’s simplicity succeeds in evoking clear symbolism; his staging does not impress by means of the spectacular, but underlines the dramatic sense embodied in the music, allowing the outstanding singers full scope to express themselves in this remarkable production under Claudio Abbado. The main roles are taken by Cheryl Studer as Elsa, and Plácido Domingo as Lohengrin – which he first performed as his debut role at the Hamburg State Opera in 1968, at the age of 27.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: 1 x DVD 5 & 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: DE (Original Language), GB, FR, IT, ES

Running Time: 219 mins

FSK: 12

Set & Costumes by FILIPPO SANJUST

Staged by Gustav Rudolf Sellner, conducted by Lorin Maazel, with costumes by Filippo Sanjust and performed by the six soloists with consummate vocal elegance, Cimarosa’s Die heimliche Ehe offers unalloyed pleasure, triggering a kind of ecstasy with its combination of delicacy and opulence and its refined humour. It brings out Cimarosa’s musical mastery – but also the visual impact of the opera.

Sound Format: PCM Mono

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitles: DE (Original Language), GB, FR, ES, IT

Running Time: 123 mins

FSK: 0