DVD Videos

The Requiem of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opens a new series of DVDs released by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute presenting outstanding artistic events.

The first disc in the series is a recording of a solemn mass celebrated on 17 October 2010 at the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Warsaw, where traditionally on the anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin’s death, in front of his heart, a recreated funeral service is combined with Mozart’s Requiem, which in accordance with the composer’s wishes was performed at his funeral in Paris. During Chopin Year, this event gained a special dimension: the Requiem was treated to a masterful rendition by the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Collegium Vocale Gent and Accademia Chigiana Siena choirs, and the soloists Christina Landshamer, Ingeborg Danz, Robert Getchell and Matthew Brook, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, recorded for the first time ever in its liturgical version, and in its original period sound.

Produced in HD film technology, preserving the highest possible sound quality, it conveys in a sophisticated way the unique atmosphere of both the ceremony and the venue.

This release also inaugurates the cycle ‘Romantic Requiem’, comprising recordings of funeral masses by nineteenth century composers to be performed in front of Chopin’s heart at Warsaw’s Holy Cross Basilica. The Institute will shortly be issuing Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, also under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe.

Filmed live in Baden-Baden by the veteran director Brian Large, Renée Fleming makes her debut in the role of Ariadne together with fellow key Strauss interpreters Sophie Koch and Christian Thielemann, following on from their Rosenkavalier triumph.

Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden, the orchestra to whom Strauss dedicated his Alpine Symphony and which premiered Feuersnot, Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier and Daphne.

Fleming's voice might have been made for Ariadne and she achieved a great personal triumph in this production:

“The chief glory of the evening was hearing Renée Fleming, the Straussian soprano par excellence, making her role debut as Ariadne… As the possessor of what is, possibly, the most beautiful soprano voice in the world, she put her vocal treasures in the service of an empathic, nuanced interpretation of the role. From the creamy top, through a rich, warm middle, to the bewitching, darker colours of her lower register, Fleming poured her magnificent sound into Strauss’s enchanting melodic arcs, animating the sadness, vulnerability, and desire of the bereft princess...” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

This compendium of rare television performances (1957-1963) features legendary Savoyard Martyn Green in songs and scenes from HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance and others. Also included are the two Tennessee Ernie Ford specials devoted to scenes from The Mikado and HMS Pinafore, and although a country music legend, Ford had begun his studies as a classical bass-baritone. Among the other highlights are excerpts from made-for-TV Productions of The Yeoman of the Guard (1957), with Alfred Drake and Barbara Cook.

Running time: 96 minutes.

Beatrice di Tenda is a relatively unknown and rarely recorded opera composed by Vincenzo Bellini.

Available on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Format 16:9

Region Code 0

Subtitles: Fre, Eng, Ger, Spa, Ita, Kr

Notes: Ita, Eng

One Roman emperor is not enough for conductor Emmanuelle Haïm. After Julius Caesar in Handel’s opera –recorded for Virgin Classics DVD at Paris’ Palais Garnier with Lawrence Zazzo as Giulio Cesare and Natalie Dessay as Cleopatra – she now brings a ruler of less illustrious reputation: Nero (Nerone) in Monteverdi’s sensuous and cruel story of love, ambition and politics, L’incoronazione di Poppea.

This production, recorded in 2012 at the exquisite opera house in Lille, is by the French director Jean-François Sivadier; he was also responsible for La traviata in 2011 at Aix-en-Provence, a staging which starred Natalie Dessay and can be seen on a Virgin Classics DVD.

In Poppea, Sivadier takes a relatively minimalist approach, with the characters in an eclectic mixture of modern and Ancient Roman dress. Nerone, here an almost punk-like figure, with peroxide blond spiky hair, is portrayed by star countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic, who has recently enjoyed major successes with his Virgin Classics recordings of Vinci’s rare opera Artaserse and a recital programme Venezia. Cencic has already appeared on a Virgin Classics DVD of Poppea, conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm’s mentor William Christie, recorded in Madrid and released in 2012, but there he played Poppea’s discarded lover, Ottone, a role taken in Lille by British countertenor Tim Mead. Poppea herself is sung here by the glamorous Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, who won Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition in 2010 and is a former member of William Christie’s academy for young singers, Le Jardin des Voix.

Speaking of his approach to the opera, Jean-François Sivadier has said: “Nero’s court is cut off from the world, a place ruled by terror and paranoia, a family in which each member is full of ambiguities. I wanted the audience to be constantly aware of the interdependence of all the characters: each event takes the course of history in a new direction; it is like a chain of chemical reactions between bodies that are sensitive to the slightest change.”

As the French newspaper Les Échos wrote: “The excitement, the passions, the impulses and the hatred to be found in this Shakespearean story are all the more intense [for the sobriety of Sivadier’s approach]. Sonya Yoncheva has no trouble seducing both Nerone and the audience, thanks to her voluptuous roundness of voice and physique. A feline lover, she knows how to flash her claws when she wishes to depose her rival Ottavia, the unhappy woman who, in Ann Hallenberg, finds an interpreter as superb for the nobility of her singing as for her expressions of sorrow ... Max Emanuel Cencic portrays a Nerone who is in thrall to his senses while remaining the pitiless master of his court. Emmanuel Haïm takes the colours and dramatic nuances proffered by her ensemble, Le Concert d’Astrée, and distributes them to fine effect. She takes an active role in Monteverdi’s triumph.” Classica magazine, meanwhile, wrote that: “Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée, in fine form, breathe amorously hot and cold over Jean-François Sivadier’s intelligent production, which, typically, favours living beings over decor.”

This DVD release celebrates the life of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German lyric baritone and one of the most acclaimed Lieder performers of the late 20th century. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf called him ‘a born god who has it all’. He performed and recorded a great many operatic roles and dominated both the opera and concert platform for over thirty years, being regarded as one of the finest lyrical vocalists of his generation.

In these two concerts from the Opera Theatre of Nuremberg, recorded in 1991 and 1992, Fischer-Dieskau performs beautiful and dramatic Lieder by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann.

157 MINS • ALL REGIONS • NTSC 4:3 • COLOUR • L-PCM STEREO

C Major is proud to present a stunning performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The highly acclaimed soloists are Marlis Petersen, Elisabeth Kulman, Werner Güra and Gerald Finlay.

SOUND: DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM STEREO

RUNNING TIME: 99 MINUTES

SUBTITLES: LATIN (ORIGINAL LANGUAGE), GERMAN, ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, CHINESE, KOREAN, JAPANESE

AVAILABILITY: WORLDWIDE

Staged by Karl-Ernst Herrmann & Ursel Herrmann

C Major’s Tutto Verdi project arrives at arguably Verdi’s most popular opera: La traviata.

This 2007 production from the Teatro Regio di Parma is conducted by Yuri Termirkanov. He has appeared with many leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and La Scala.

SOUND: DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM STEREO

RUNNING TIME: TOTAL: 143 MINUTES (OPERA: 133 MINUTES, BONUS: 10 MINUTES)

SUBTITLES: ITALIAN (ORIGINAL LANGUAGE), ENGLISH, GERMAN, FRENCH, SPANISH, CHINESE, KOREAN, JAPANESE

AVAILABILITY: WORLDWIDE

Staged by Patrice Chéreau

The legendary production of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, formerly released by Warner Music, again available on DVD.

A splendid opera under the musical direction of Daniel Barenboim and staged by his close friend Patrice Chérau.

When Alban Berg saw a performance of the existentialist drama Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, he said it left such a tremendous impression on him that he immediately made up his mind to set it to music.

Berg is recasting Büchner’s fragmentary drama in a nearly expressionistic way. His music tears into the flesh. Berg’s Wozzeck is not just an opera about social compassion, it is an opera in which fear finds consummate musical expression.

This extraordinary performance at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden was staged by Patrice Chéreau who can be called one of the greatest theatrical directors of this century.

Outstanding opera singers Franz Grundheber, Waltraud Meier, Graham Clark, Günter von Kannen and Mark Baker and many others complete this great opera performance.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3

Sound format DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0 (worldwide)

Subtitles: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 97 min

The Mariinsky label is delighted to release the first of four operas on DVD in 2013 with Verdi’s 'Attila'. Released in celebration of Verdi’s anniversary year, acclaimed Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov stars in the title role, in this the premiere of Arturo Gama’s production. He is ably supported by soprano, Anna Markarova in the role Odabella; baritone, Vladislav Sulimsky in the role of Ezio and tenor, Sergei Skorokhodov. The bluray release, filmed in the Mariinsky Opera House will feature a stunning picture gallery of scenes from the performance in addition to the three-act opera.

As is the case with many of Verdi’s operas, his ninth opera, 'Attila' is imbued with the spirit of Risorgimento, the national liberation movement of the Italian people against foreign rule and for the unification of trampled Italy. The plot, which tells of the struggle of Aquileia, one of the last remaining strongholds of once eternal Rome, against the barbarian hordes of Attila, King of the Huns, received an enthusiastic reception from the audience present at the premiere at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, and yet is rarely performed in today’s opera houses. Since the premiere in 2010, the Mariinsky has revived Arturo Gama’s production each season, most recently in January 2013.

A two-time Grammy Award winner for his Verdi readings, Ildar Abdrazakov has quickly established himself as one of opera’s most sought-after basses. Since making his La Scala debut in 2001 at only 25, the Russian singer has become a mainstay at leading houses worldwide. His powerful, yet refined voice coupled with his compelling stage presence have prompted critics to describe him as a “sensational bass … who has just about everything – imposing sound, beautiful legato, oodles of finesse”, The Independent.

Arturo Gama has been the Stage Director of the opera company at the Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin in Germany since 2005. He has staged a large number of productions, including 'Bluebeard’s Castle', 'Tosca', 'Die Zauberflöte' and 'Roméo et Juliette'; his most recent work was Richard Wagner’s 'Tannhaüser'. He originates from Mexico City and at the end of his dance career with the National Dance Company of Mexico, the Komische Oper Berlin offered him the position of Assistant Director, working with well-known directors including Harry Kupfer, Andreas Homoki, Peter Konwitschny, David Alden, Hans Neuenfels and Willy Decker.