DVD Videos

It is no exaggeration to say that the two performances of Tosca at the Royal Opera House in July 2011 - with Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel as the leads - were opera history in the making and by far the hottest tickets in town.

For the majority of us who weren’t lucky enough to be there, it has been captured on this DVD, exclusively released by EMI.

Subtitles in Italian, English, German, Japanese, French & Spanish

“Amazing production of Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne, a work of art in itself… Magnificent as the set is, this will also be a Don Giovanni to listen to for the orchestra. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are so good that they can generate almost demonic energy from the lighter timbres of period instruments. Vladimir Jurowski has rarely sounded more inspired”. Opera Today

“The graceful purity of Kate Royal as Elvira ... gave lustre to Mozart's kaleidoscopic masterpiece”. The Scotsman

“Suavely ruthless, Finley was both steely monster and molten charmer, singing with a firmness, clarity and stylistic elegance that I can’t easily imagine surpassed”. The Telegraph

For this 2010 production, the first new staging of the opera in 10 years, Glyndebourne welcome back the winning team of director Jonathan Kent and designer Paul Brown with Festival Music Director, Vladimir Jurowski conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Set at a time of seismic social and cultural change - in a Fellini-esque vision of post-war life - Jonathan Kent's urgently propulsive production offers a 'white-knuckle rollercoaster ride' through the events of the Don's last day as they unfold in and around Paul Brown's magical 'box of tricks' set.

In the title role we also welcome back the great bass-baritone Gerald Finley. He has sung Don Giovanni to worldwide acclaim in New York, London, Paris, Vienna, Rome, Budapest and Prague. Finley is joined by Luca Pisaroni (Guglielmo in the 2006 Festival’s Così fan tutte) as Leporello, Kate Royal (the Governess in Jonathan Kent’s 2006 staging of The Turn of the Screw) as Donna Elvira, and the young Russian soprano Anna Samuil making her UK opera debut as Donna Anna.

Bonus features include rehearsal and backstage footage, interviews with the production staff and cast as well as a glimpse into the costume, design and technical departments at Glyndebourne.

The DVD will feature English, French and German subtitles.

The production will be revived next summer at the 2011 Glyndebourne Festival.

Kate Royal is an exclusive EMI Classics artist since 2006. She has made two solo recordings: Kate Royal with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Edward Gardner and Midsummer Night with the Orchestra of English National Opera/Edward Gardner. As a guest artist, she has recorded discs for the label with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Le Concert d’Astrée/Emmanuelle Haïm and Paul McCartney. Kate Royal's new album ‘A Lesson in Love’ (released in 2011), is an intimate recital with pianist Malcolm Martineau charting a young girl’s journey of love and loss through a combination of German lieder, English and American songs and French melodies. Kate Royal returns to Glyndebourne in Summer 2011.

Designer Paul Brown

“Crowning glory for triumphant Domingo” The Independent – 5 Stars

“In the lowest range of his voice he has always had mahogany where other tenors have chipboard” The Guardian

Plácido Domingo’s triumphant “return” to his baritone roots (his first debut with the Mexican National Opera, in 1959, was as a baritone), is captured in this stunning 2-DVD set of the Royal Opera House’s 2010 production of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Domingo is joined by Marina Poplavskaya, Joseph Calleja, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Jonathan Summers and Lukas Jakobski in this Antonio Pappano conducted performance, directed by Elijah Moshinsky.

The Simon Boccanegra release features exclusive bonus material, including a “Back Stage with Plácido Domingo” featurette and an interview with director Moshinsky. There is an additional audio function which features introductions to each of the opera’s scenes (in English with subtitles).

Simon Boccanegra is Verdi’s magnificent telling of a humble 14th century Genoan who rises to become Doge of the great city. The plot centres on the political intrigues between Boccanegra (Domingo) and his adversary, the aristocratic Jacopo Fiesco and the discovery of his long-lost daughter, Amelia. This story – though replete with an inevitable tragic conclusion – is ultimately one of hope, as the two great men are able to rise above their power-driven animosities to ensure peace amongst their beloved Genoa’s warring factions and by placing familial and civic love ahead of their own individual desires.

This stunning production garnered critical acclaim for Domingo and cast, especially Ferruccio Furlanetto.

Features exclusive bonuses: “Back Stage with Plácido Domingo” featurette, A video interview with director Elijah Moshinsky and audio introductions to each of the scenes (the DVD will include and option play with or without the introductions).

In a market full of Domingo birthday and anniversary reissue products, this 2-DVD release is a much anticipated new recording and performance.

Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna star in the 2009 Metropolitan Opera production of Puccini’s La Rondine (The Swallow). This new production, directed by Nicholas Joël, was the company’s first staging in 70 years.

This elegant romance is the least-known work of the mature Giacomo Puccini. The story concerns a kept woman who defies convention to chase a dream of romantic love with an earnest, if naïve, young man. This Met Opera production features the dynamic soprano Angela Gheorghiu and Frenchborn tenor Roberto Alagna performing the roles of Magda and Ruggero, it blooms into its rightful place in the glorious Puccini canon.

La Rondine (The Swallow) was commissioned by Vienna’s Carltheater in 1913. Due to the impending outbreak of World War I, premiered in 1917, at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo with Gilda Dalla Rizza and Tito Schipa. Set in a Parisian salon, it is the story of Magda, the glamorous mistress of wealthy banker Rambaldo. Her yearning for romantic love compels her into the arms of the ardent and adoring young Ruggero.

The New York Times hailed the Art-Deco set production as “as sophisticated, charming and poignant”. This DVD features the 10th January, 2009 performance of the opera, which was aired globally in HD as well as two bonus interview featurettes: the first with Gheorghiu and Alagna; the second with Lisette Oropesa and Marius Brenciu, who sing the roles Lisette and Prunier respectively.

“Ms. Gheorghiu, as Magda, sings with gleaming sound and wonderfully dusky colorings…The conductor, Marco Armiliato, in what may be his best work to date at the Met, draws a nuanced and supple performance from the orchestra. I thought I knew this score quite well, but have never been so struck by the intricacies of the music”. The New York Times

“Mr Alagna supplied plenty of vocal and physical glamour and equal amounts of intelligent phrasing and text-reading; his boyish Ruggero was entirely sympathetic and very moving”. Classics Today

“I have never heard Alagna sing better, and Gheorghiu is at her sumptuous best. There are comparably beautiful performances by the younger couple, Marius Brenciu and Lisette Oropesa” New York Daily News

Bonuses:

Interview with Angela Gheorghiu & Roberto Alagna (3’35)

Interview with Lisette Oropesa & Marius Brenciu (4’21)

David McVicar's spectacular 2004 production of Gounod’s Faust, featuring a divine cast of opera’s superstars: Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu, Bryn Terfel, Simon Keenlyside and Sophie Koch.

McVicar is one of the most innovative and in-demand directors, and his lush, haunting realised vision of Faust received glorious praise. The production revels in a gothic, seamy Second French Empire setting, with the Act V ballet “haunting the imagination long after” (The Independent).

“This is opera at its grandest and best” The Wall Street Journal

National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner’s new staging of Verdi’s grandest – and arguably greatest – opera, Don Carlo, was the highlight of the 2007/2008 Royal Opera House season. This new production marked Rolando Villazón’s much anticipated, triumphant return to the house.

Don Carlo is Verdi’s musical retelling of Schiller’s poem Don Carlos. Set amidst the political, religious and sexual intrigue of the 16th century Spanish court, this epic work is the tragic story of the virtuous young prince, Don Carlo when he is pitted against the powers of a dominant, corrupt society.

The Italian version premiered at Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 10th January, 1884, following the French premiere (Don Carlos) in 1867, at the Paris Opera. It was first staged at The Royal Opera House in 1886. This new production is the first new version of the 5-Act complete opera to be staged at Covent Garden in 50 years. With sets and costumes by Bob Crowley, direction by Nicholas Hytner and an enviable cast, this production of Don Carlo is worthy of the greatness of Verdi’s original, masterful work.

“Supported by designer Bob Crowley's dazzling coups de thêatre, and by Antonio Pappano's band in scintillating form, he directs with such vivid forcefulness – and such psychological acuity – that Verdi's great rumination on theocracy, and on the battle between patriarchy and the brotherhood of man, emerges in its full beauty and menace…Ferruccio Furlanetto's King Philip, a commanding presence conveying as much by his stillness as by his gloriously resonant voice…This full five-act version is a long evening, but time flies thanks to transcendent performances by Poplavskaya and Villazón, and to the beauty emanating from the pit”. The Independent

Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian

“I would happily sit in King’s College Chapel listening to this choir sing for the rest of my days.” (Richard Morrison, The Times)

“Stephen Cleobury’s interpretation ticked all the boxes, with choir and orchestra impeccably balanced and soloists glowing.” (The Independent)

Following the rush-release on CD of the live recording of Handel’s Messiah earlier this year, EMI Classics is now proud to announce the release of the DVD of this extraordinary performance in the magnificent setting of the Chapel of King’s College. The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and the Academy of Ancient Music are conducted by Stephen Cleobury with soloists Ailish Tynan, Alice Coote, Allan Clayton and Matthew Rose.

The DVD of the concert on Palm Sunday 2009 was filmed and produced by Opus Arte.

This Messiah performance was at the heart of the fifth annual Easter at King’s festival and commemorated both the 250th anniversary of the death of George Frideric Handel and the 800th anniversary of the University of Cambridge. The concert was carried via satellite – a first for a live choral concert - and was screened in over 85 cinemas across Europe and North America. Further cinema broadcasts are planned in the US and Canada in November/ December 2009 (maybe in Europe as well), possibly in a 3D version. Further details of these broadcasts will be announced shortly.

The DVD and previously-released CD join the chart-topping CD, England, My England, released in July 2009 and a new live recording of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, to be released in November 2009 as ideal Christmas gifts from the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and EMI Classics.

George Frideric Handel’s crowning masterpiece, his oratorio Messiah, was a hit at its premiere in April 1742 and remains among the most popular works in Western choral literature. A native of Germany, the composer lived in England from 1712, where he was considered one of the leading musical figures of his day. In 1741, the year in which he wrote Messiah, however, Handel found himself on the verge of bankruptcy, depressed and broken following the failure of several of his operas. In London it was even being said that his career as a composer was over.

Not so in Ireland, where the Lord Lieutenant and governors of three charitable organisations invited Handel to Dublin to conduct a performance of one of his works for charity. Having recently completed his oratorio Messiah, the composer decided to use the invitation as an opportunity to present this new work to the world. The premiere – at Neal’s Music Hall in Dublin in 1742 – was eagerly awaited by the Dublin public and the hall was sold out.

Handel based Messiah on a libretto by Charles Jennens that employs verses from the bible to present the life of Jesus. The work is in three sections: the Advent and Christmas; Christ’s passion; and the events told in the Revelation to St. John. While the composer intended the oratorio to be secular theatre, today Messiah is performed equally in churches and concert halls, by professionals and amateurs alike, usually during Lent (prior to Easter) or Advent (prior to Christmas).

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is the world’s most famous choir and one of today’s most accomplished and renowned representatives of the great British choral tradition. The Choir dates back to the 1400s and consists of 16 choristers and 14 choral scholars. Its international reputation, established by the radio broadcast worldwide of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols each Christmas Eve, has been consolidated by regular international tours and by the critical and commercial success of its EMI Classics releases. The most recent releases by the Choir, under exclusive contract with EMI Classics, include England, My England, a patriotic collection of English choral favourites that has been at the top of the UK classical artist charts this summer, the stunning selection of Tudor anthems I Heard a Voice, Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, Purcell’s Music for Queen Mary with the Academy of Ancient Music, John Rutter’s Gloria, Magnificat and Psalm 150 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Heavenly Voices, in which the Boys of King’s College Choir, in their first solo recording for the label, perform works by Franck, Mendelssohn, Fauré, John Ireland and Patrick Hadley.

The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM), founded in 1973 by Christopher Hogwood, is one of the world’s first and foremost period-instrument orchestras. It takes its name from a London concert society established in 1726 for the purpose of studying and performing ‘old’ music, which was initially defined as music composed at least a century earlier, but soon came to include more ‘contemporary’ composers. The present-day Academy of Ancient Music has performed across six continents and made over 250 recordings, including many pioneering discs under Christopher Hogwood. In addition to making numerous recordings of baroque repertoire, especially Handel, the AAM was the first orchestra to record all of Mozart’s symphonies on period instruments and has since recorded the complete piano concertos and symphonies of Beethoven. It is also recording the Mozart piano concertos with fortepianist Robert Levin and the complete Haydn symphonies. At the start of the 2006-07 season, Christopher Hogwood assumed the title of Emeritus Director and Richard Egarr became Music Director.

“Stephen Cleobury's interpretation … served Handel's piece well….the understanding between the orchestra and the Choir of King's College was remarkable. … the atmosphere in the Chapel, as well as in the cinema, was one of evocative majesty. … Former Young Artist of the Royal Opera Ailish Tynan made Handel's piece shine … One of the finest interpreters of the Baroque repertoire, Coote pushed her expressive power to the extreme. Her engagement with the text was almost surreal … Mimetic camera movements accompanied the singing … providing the audience in cinemas with another level of engagement.” (www.musicalcriticism.com)

Production/Direction - Matthias Hartmann

Stage Design - Volker Hintermeier

Costumes - Su Bühler

Video Design - Sven Ortel

Lighting - Jürgen Hoffmann

Choreography - Teresa Rotemberg

Dramaturgy - Michael Richard Küster

The Zurich Opera House has recorded more productions for DVD than any other opera house in the world. During the last twelve years, conductor Franz Welser-Möst has conducted more than fifty premieres with the Zurich Opera. They perform regularly together in London, Paris, Tokyo and other major international cities.

Welser-Möst has enjoyed a long and very fruitful relationship with the Zurich Opera. From 1995 - 2002, he was Chief Conductor of the House, was Principal Conductor from 2002 - 2005 and was then appointed General Musikdirektor.

In June 2007, Welser-Möst was appointed General Musikdirektor designate of the Staatsoper, Vienna, a position he will assume in the 2010/11 season. Prior to that, he undertakes a new production of “The Ring” in Vienna, which started in the 2007/8 season. He is also Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra.

This production of Tiefland marks the return of an opera to Zurich which has been one of the most successful works on European stages in the first half of the 20th century.

The opera’s composer Eugen d’Albert was a cosmopolitan by nature and as a musician. Born in Scotland in 1864 to a Scottish mother and a father of German/French/Italian descent, he grew up in London. He felt close to the German culture, lived in Italy for a while and eventually gained Swiss citizenship.

His ‘multicultural’ life is reflected in his works which comprise a wealth of different musical styles and are an indication that d’Albert was on a lifelong journey and search: the search for a possibility of opera after Wagner. He admitted that he wanted and needed to free himself from Wagner’s “engrossing claws”. This is clearly audible in Tiefland but the opera makes it equally evident that he didn’t completely succeed in avoiding the Wagnerian influence

Tiefland is the only work by d’Albert which has stayed in the opera repertoire continuously. The plot is heavily inspired by the Catalan play Terra baixa by Àngel Guimerà. Tiefland is seen today as the only German contribution to the genre of verismo.

In its re-worked 2-act form (originally the work consisted of three acts), Tiefland was one of the most frequently performed operas between 1905 and 1945. The fact that – apart from Wagner – Tiefland was one of Adolf Hitler’s favourite operas (which is said to have also motivated Leni Riefenstahl’s film version of the work) has greatly contributed to the controversial status of the opera today.

But despite this connection, operas by composers such as Puccini, Verdi and of course Wagner were still more commonly performed during Germany’s 3rd Reich period and d’Albert’s cosmopolitan lifestyle and the elements of jazz which he integrated in his 1929 opera Die schwarze Orchidee (The black Orchid) made him a suspicious figure.

After a quiet period following the second world war, the opera slowly found its way back onto the West German and GDR stages and had a real ‘renaissance’ in Germany between 1070 and 1979. This Zurich production spurred another Tiefland revival with several independent productions following suit in Germany.

This Zurich production marks general music director Franz Welser-Möst’s premiere conducting the work. He sees it as very much tied to the era in which it was composed which is his main focus in his own reception of the work.

For Welser-Möst, the works main qualities lie in the colours of the score and its refined instrumentation. Another main incentive for him to bring the opera back to Zurich was the availability of the perfect cast and team.

Artistic director Matthias Hartmann wanted to reflect the opera’s reception history and its status as one of the most performed works during the 1930s in the production. So despite the opera’s “Hochland” only existing virtually in this production (with the help of Sven Ortel’s video design), the costumes and stage setting are otherwise very much set in the 1930s and in stark contrast to the ‘fictional’ elements.

The engagement of baritone Matthias Goerne for the role of Sebastiano in this production was a stroke of luck. The internationally acclaimed lieder-interpreter, who appears only occasionally in handpicked operatic productions, agreed to premiere the role in Zurich.

Other critically acclaimed role debuts in this production include tenor Peter Seiffert as Pedro and Petra Maria Schnitzer as Marta.

Stage Director - Sven-Eric Bechtolf

Stage Design - Rolf Glittenberg

Costume Design - Marianne Glittenberg

Lighting - Jürgen Hoffmann

The Zurich Opera House has recorded more productions for DVD than any other opera house in the world. During the last twelve years, conductor Franz Welser-Möst has conducted more than fifty premieres with the Zurich Opera. They perform regularly together in London, Paris, Tokyo and other major international cities.

Welser-Möst has enjoyed a long and very fruitful relationship with the Zurich Opera. From 1995 - 2002, he was Chief Conductor of the House, was Principal Conductor from 2002 - 2005 and was then appointed General Musikdirektor.

In June 2007, Welser-Möst was appointed General Musikdirektor designate of the Staatsoper, Vienna, a position he will assume in the 2010/11 season. Prior to that, he undertakes a new production of “The Ring” in Vienna, which started in the 2007/8 season. He is also Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Welser-Möst has assembled over the years a close-knit ensemble which is frequently praised for both its vocal and acting abilities. Please see below for press quotes on this production.

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian

Stage production: Robert Wilson

Subtitles: French, English, German

When the historic Theatre du Chatelet in Paris re-opened after a period of extensive refurbishment, the first two productions mounted in the theatre were Gluck’s Alceste and Orphée et Eurydice.

Both operas were sung in their French versions and were mounted and designed by Robert Wilson and conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. This was the first time Wilson and Gardiner had collaborated and their individual credentials combined to produce an exceptional result.

American polymath Wilson was responsible for some of the most ambitious avant-garde performance projects of the 1970s and 80s.Since the mid-1980s he has increasingly brought his prodigious creativity to works fiom the standard dramatic and operatic repertoire, transforming them into his own unmistakably minimalist yet grandiose visions. His styled, classical interpretations of Alceste and Orphée bear his trademarks of an uncluttered stage and the arresting use of colour and light. They are not so much timeless as, in Robert Wilson’s words, “full of time”. With their minutely rehearsed gestures, at once formal and poetic, the singers have the grace and elegance of Balanchine or Martha Graham dancers.

A key figure in the revival of Early Music, John Eliot Gardiner has long been a champion of Gluck’s French operas and is a great Gluck conductor. He received enormous critical acclaim for his musical direction of both Orphée and Alceste at the Chatelet, as did his orchestras and chorus. He sought to rid the operas of any vestiges of remoteness or venerable respectability and to release the huge emotional charge that lies behind the beauty of Gluck’s classical sobriety. The stories are, after all, he says, not only poignant and deeply moving, they have an immediate and contemporary relevance: they portray two married couples striving to protect their union and their love, plumbing the very depths of their emotional strength and summoning the courage to make huge personal sacrifices. “If presented in a way that’s immediate and with tremendous intensity and truth of expression then all the dross and superficiality of the stage action falls away and you’re left with what’s actually a very visceral connection between two living people.”

Television’s top opera director, Brian Large, worked closely with Robert Wilson and John Eliot Gardiner to ensure that the translation of live performance to the small screen is of the highest artistic and techcal standard.

John Eliot Gardiner chose Gluck’s 1776 French version of Alceste for Robert Wilson’s production, conducting the piece for the first time with his period-instrument ensemble, the English Baroque Soloists. The excellent Monteverdi Choir provides the chorus and, unusually, they sing fiom the pit, with dancers taking their place on stage. They give magnificently persuasive expression to the horror and compassion demanded by the drama. The ‘Greek geometric perfection of Robert Wilson’s various tableaux is beautifully realised, with his eye for striking theatrical symbol creating an intriguing visual arena for one of Gluck’s most elevated and sublime works.

Soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, one of the finest singers of her generation, takes the title role of Alceste, Queen of Thessaly, who offers to die at the hands of the gods in place of her husband, Admete (Paul Groves), so that the people will not lose their king. To universal astonishment, she is saved from the Underworld by Hercule (Dietrich Henschel), whose action is sanctioned by Apollon (Ludovic Tézier) in a dramatic deus ex machina.