DVD Videos

“This is unquestionably among the finest opera films ever made. Phyllida Lloyd's Opera North staging vindicated this problematic piece, but the film she also directed… takes it to new heights of intensity. Lloyd's camera flows between stage and backstage... This is not gimmickry; it captures the rhythm of the action and the changing scenes with exciting immediacy one moment, deep intimacy the next, staring mirror-close into Barstow's deeply expressive features...The fine ensemble cast survives such potentially cruel exposure through sheer involvement...” BBC Music Magazine, September 2006 *****

“an unforgettable portrayal of Gloriana, imperious, fickle, dangerous, noble and in the great final scene when she reviews her life, devastatingly moving. This is a performance to class with Callas’s Tosca in its total believability.’” Sunday Telegraph

“Barstow's portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I could not be more magisterial and Tom Randle's Essex is hardly less convincing. A very strong cast with a strong sense of dramatic purpose and a first-class orchestral response under Paul Daniel.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ***

“Nobody today, not even Goodall, can match Knappertsbusch's combination of line and emotional power” The Gramophone

“An impressive, and controversial, achievement.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008

“Jörg Dürmüller (the Evangelist) is first-class in every way. He tells the tragic story sympathetically and often dramatically, and he has a fine, rich tone, and when he makes a lyrical comment his voice is honeyed. Ekkehard Abel (Christ), darker but not gruff, is similarly impressive” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***

“A peculiarity among the brothers is that they look almost entirely dissimilar. But looks aren't everything: they sounded like brothers, in that their playing had the kind of bracing empathy of ideas and feelings that characterizes all great chamber ensembles.” The New York Times