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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | from Zurich Opera House
Ambrogio Maestri (Falstaff), Barbara Frittoli (Alice Ford), Meg Page (Judith Schmid), Mistress Quickly (Yvonne Naef), Massimo Cavalletti (Ford), Eva Liebau (Nannetta), Javier Camarena (Fenton), Peter Straka (Dr. Cajus), Martin Zysset (Bardolfo), Davide Fersini (Pistola) Orchester der Oper Zürich & Chor der Oper Zürich, Daniele Gatti Staged by Sven-Eric Bechtolf Daniele Gatti, currently Music Director of the Orchestre National de France and Zurich Opera will conduct Verdi’s Falstaff at the Royal Opera House in May with Ambrogio Maestri in the leading rôle. Features a great cast: Ambrogio Maestri is one of the finest Falstaffs of our time. The Italian baritone brings a powerful, versatile voice to his role, but also brings his character a hilarious buffo quality. Daniele Gatti, one of the most acclaimed opera conductors working today, leads a stunning cast of singers including Barbara Fritolli as Alice Ford. Genuinely warm italianita in all of the music-making, combined with a boisterous production by stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf, turns Verdi’s commedia lirica into a fireworks display of high spirits as well as what the Neue Zürcher Zeitung called “musically and dramaturgically a feast of life and of love of life.” Running Time Total: 126 minutes DVD: DTS 5.0, PCM Stereo Subtitles Italian (original language), English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean “the conductor starts apparently quite steadily. But this lack of a certain flick and bounce is compensated for by the focus of Daniele Gatti...places on Verdi's radically forward-looking orchestration...The cast, led by a secure Maestri, can boast a lovable Nannetta in Liebau and further clever variations on Quickly's eccentricity from Naef.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012 “As usual in a good Falstaff, the heroes are the conductor and the protagonist. Daniele Gatti never lets pacing drag, he's alive to every nuance onstage...and the bounciness of his reading is never too heavily or obviously applied...Maestri's voice ideally suits the role - an attractively timbred, well-focused, wide-ranging baritone, with sufficient power and variety of colour. He works the text in detail, frequently risking a genuinely intimate delivery.” International Record Review, October 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Live from the Antiche Terme Romane, Baia, 2007
Ildiko Komlosi (Santuzza), Sung Kyu Park (Turiddu), Cinzia De Mola (Lucia), Marco di Felice (Alfio) & Barbara Di Castri (Lola) Teatro di San Carlo, Zhang Jiemin (conductor) & Maurizio Scaparro (stage director) 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 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Recorded: Sydney Opera House, 2011
Ji-Min Park (Rodolfo), Jose Carbo (Marcello), David Parkin (Colline), Shane Lowrencev (Schaunard), Takesha Meshe Kizart (Mimi) & Taryn Fiebig (Musetta) Opera Australia Chorus & Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Shao-Chia Lu (conductor) & Gale Edwards (director) Set Design: Brian Thomson Costume Design: Julie Lynch Lighting: John Rayment This sensational new productin of La boheme, the inspired concept of director Gale Edwards, is set in early 1930s Berlin, a city of liberal indulgence, glittering Spiegeltents and glitzy cabaret clubs, where no excess is considered too much. Charismatic Ji-Min Park gives a stunning performance as Rodolfo, the poet who falls in love with Mimi, played by Takesha Meshe Kizart, who delivers a dazzling version of the impoverished working girl. Renowned conductor Shao-Chia Lu draws from the orchestra and chorus a magnificent performance of Puccini's lush score. Audio DVD/2.0 LPCM/5.1 DTS Picture format: NTSC Audio BD LPCM stereo and 5.0 DTS-HD Master Audio “The director Gale Edwards updates from 1830s Paris to 1930s Berlin, hardly an unreasonable decision...From the start this is a very physical staging...Admirably singing comes only from the attractive Jose Carbo, whose Marcello also boasts a notably manly but sensitive, un-actorship presence.” International Record Review, September 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Death in Venice: The Opera By Benjamin Britten
Tony Palmer’s film of Benjamin Britten’s opera Death in Venice, shot on location, is released on DVD for the first time on the director’s own label. Based on Thomas Mann’s masterly novella - also the source for Visconti’s famous movie - it follows the last days of a writer, disillusioned, in despair and nearing death, in disease-ridden Venice. The cast includes Robert Gard as Gustav von Aschenbach, John Shirley-Quirk as The Traveller, James Bowman as The Voice of Apollo, Vincent Redman as Tadzio, the object of Aschenbach’s infatuation, and Deanne Bergsma as Tadzio’s Mother. Steuart Bedford conducts the English Chamber Orchestra, and Peter Pears makes a special appearance. Death in Venice was to be Britten's last full-length opera, first performed at Snape Concert Hall on 16 June, 1973. The composer was already ill with heart problems, and completing the work at all had clearly been a struggle. But he was determined to write an opera and a leading part specifically for his long-time lover and inspiration, Peter Pears. And it was Pears who gave the triumphant American première in October the following year at his own debut in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. It was soon after Britten had died, in December 1976, that Pears first asked Tony Palmer to film the entire opera with all the original cast, if possible on location in Venice. After all, apart from Suffolk, Venice was the place which meant most to Britten. Despite a miniscule budget (less than £100,000), Palmer eventually managed to fulfil Pears' ambition in 1980 - but without the tenor himself as Aschenbach. By then, a couple of strokes had effectively ended his singing career, but the Australian tenor Robert Gard frequently looks (and sounds) almost more like Pears than Pears himself. Director & editor: Tony Palmer Photography: Nic Knowland Sound: Brian Saunders Costumes: Charles Knode Choreographer: Ian Spink Production Design: Kenneth E. Carey DVD specifications: Region: 0 (All Regions) Rating: E (Exempt from Certification) Duration: 131 minutes Picture Format: NTSC (all regions) | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | abridged; produced for the Bell Telephone Hour television series. Originally telecast April 29, 1960
Groucho Marx (Ko-Ko), Helen Traubel (Katisha), Stanley Holloway (Pooh-Bah), Dennis King (Mikado), Robert Rounseville (Nanki-Poo), Barbara Meister (Yum-Yum)Sharon Randall (Pitti-Sing), Melinda Marx (Peep-Bo) & Martyn Green (Host / Adaptation) For the legendary comic actor Groucho Marx, playing the role of Ko-Ko in The Mikado “fulfilled a lifelong ambition.” The Mikado was Groucho’s favorite among the works of his beloved Gilbert and Sullivan, and the 1960 Bell Telephone Hour production was adapted for television and directed by Martyn Green, a man Groucho revered as an authority on interpreting the role of Ko-Ko. The score is condensed to fit into The Bell Telephone Hour's 60-minute format (allowing room for commercials), but the adaptation was done with great ingenuity and finesse by Gilbert and Sullivan authority Martyn Green. The strong supporting cast features distinguished veterans like Helen Traubel, Stanley Holloway, Robert Rounseville, and Dennis King, as well as young artists like the lovely soprano Barbara Meister as Yum-Yum and Groucho’s 13-year-old daughter, Melinda, as Peep-Bo. Special features [46 minutes] include audio interviews with Dick Cavett, Melinda Marx, and Barbara Meister; Martyn Green in excerpts from H.M.S. Pinafore (Bell Telephone Hour, 1963, in color), cast bios, the commercials from the original telecast, and more! B&W, 4:3, 52 minutes, All Regions | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Recorded live at the Bayreuth Festival, August 2011
Hans Neuenfels’s striking new production of Wagner’s fairytale opera gives this medieval story of doomed love and sorcery the Bayreuth treatment. As controversial as it is stimulating, this production was the talk of the 2011 Festival, and showcases a new generation of Wagnerian singing talent including soprano Annette Dasch and tenor Klaus Florian Vogt. Running time: 84 minutes Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/ES Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS “If the recording of the live performance had been on CD, I would have been mainly enthusiastic. Andris Nelsons is the most promising Wagner conductor I have heard for a long time, and his account of this glowing, radiant score is broad. The singing is good, too, with a lovely Elsa from Annette Dasch, and a Lohengrin who has magnificent moments.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 ** “This is a rather special Lohengrin...the spacious Bayreuth sound is moulded with exceptional tonal refinement and richness of colour...Vogt has more than enough stamina and vocal authority to sustain the role. All six solo singers are musically excellent and dramatically persuasive, with Petra Lang's excoriating Ortrud and Georg Zeppenfeld's grave yet warm-toned King Henry particularly memorable...The general air of conviction owes much to the excellent cinematography” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012 “In appearance and textual delivery Vogt is ideal, but his sweet, plaintive voice doesn't ring on top...Vogt hasn't an ideal legato style either, but his tenderness is extremely affecting...[Lang is] directed into overacting, but she sigs passionately into the text and for this role has transformed her mezzo into a bright-toned dramatic soprano. Bayreuth's incomparable chorus really deserves a medal for its performance here.” International Record Review, September 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Palau de les Arts Reine Sofia, Valencia, 2011
Cristina Gallardo-Domâs (Salud), Jorge de León Paco (Paco), María Luisa Corbacho (Grandmother), Sandra Ferrández (Carmela), Felipe Bou (Uncle Sarvaor), Isaac Galan (Manuel), Juan Carlos Gómez Pastor (Guitarrista), Antonio Lozano (Forge's Voice) Orchestra de la Comunitat Valenciana & Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana, Lorin Maazel Staged by Giancarlo del Monaco Released for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray! A national monument in Spain, Manuel de Falla’s La vida breve is perhaps the greatest opera ever written in the Spanish language. A kind of ‘tragic zarzuela’, it unites verismo atmosphere, Andalusian local colour and a score shimmering with reminiscences of French Impressionism. La vida breve is the story of a poor gypsy and her lover, who is engaged to wed a wealthy girl. “Simply a stroke of genius” wrote Spain’s Opera Viva about Guancarlo del Monaco’s austere, minimalist staging at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reine Sofia. Giancarlo del Monaco has worked with most important opera houses and festivals (MET, La Scala, Bregenz etc.) Running Time Total: 82 minutes DVD: DTS 5.0, PCM Stereo Subtitles English, German, French, Spanish “this highly sympathetic video reveals the piece's strengths without trying to convince you that it's something more than it is...It's a compliment to say that a number of moments are hard to watch because the emotion is so undiluted...[Gallardo-Domas's] theatrical savvy is such that she can sustain her emotional torment during long non-singing passages. Vocally, the role fits her like a glove...Other voices are all excellent verismo-weight singers” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012 “Gallardo-Domâs is vocally dominating and give a remarkable study in physicality and sexual frustration...Jorge de Leon as the faithless Paco and Maria Luisa Corbacho as the Grandmother are also powerful presences...Maazel conducts with fire, and the ensemble dances are vividly staged. A short, unhappy life, magnificently rendered.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 ***** “Its brutality is reinforced by Giancarlo Del Monaco's production. Although the stage is large, the stark setting...gives a suffocating sense of claustrophobia...Tempos tend to be slow, often hypnotically so; and even when they're not, Maazel's stress of dark colours and his bass-tilted balances give the music a consistent sense of threat...Gallardo-Domâs holds us in her grip from her opening notes.” International Record Review, October 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Recorded live at Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro, August 2009
Daniele Zanfardino (Dormont), Olga Peretyatko (Giulia), Anna Malavasi (Lucilla), José Manuel Zapata (Dorvil), Carlo Lepore (Blansac) & Paolo Bordogna (Germano) Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, Claudio Scimone (conductor) & Damiano Michieletto (stage director) Rossini's sparkling La scala di seta of 1812 weaves a burlesque tale of gentlemen climbing in and out of a lady's bedchamber on a silken ladder. Damiano Michieletto's modern-day production from the Rossini Festival in Pesaro sets the action in the tworoom apartment of the heroine Giulia, sung with 'wonderful suppleness' (Opernwelt) by Olga Peretyatko. The production also features a spectacular grand aria for Blansac (Carlo Lepore) extraneous to the work. Leading a young and spirited cast of Rossini specialists is maestro Claudio Scimone, a key figure in the international Rossini Renaissance. The Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the composer’s birthplace, is internationally renowned for its innovative stagings and musically impeccable productions. This colourful and exuberant production was staged by Daminano Michieletto, “one of the truly new voices in stage direction today” (L’Unita). Damiano Michieletto made his international debut at the Wexford Opera Festival in 2003 with a highly-acclaimed production of Weinberger’s Svanda Dudák, named Opera Production of the Year by the Irish Times. Claudio Scimone, a key figure in the international Rossini Renaissance, conducts the Orchestra di Bolzano e Trento and leads a cast of Rossini specialists including Daniele Zanfardino, Olga Peretyatko and Anna Malavasi. Running time: 127 minutes Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/ES Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS “[Lepore] puts in a very fine effort as Blansac, moving and reacting convincingly and singing with a firmness of tone which makes the character stronger and more realistic, perhaps supplying a better voice than Rossini's original interpreter...Jose Manuel Zapata manages the coloratura with no discernible difficulty but his top notes become thin and lose quality...[Peretyatko] both sounds and looks good. Her voice has a shine and a command of coloratura.” International Record Review, July/August 2012 “The cast is uniformly good. With her film-star looks and shiny top register, Olga Peretyatko has a lot of fun as Giulia, Carlo Lepore shows off as the vacuous Blansac, Jose Manuel Zapata makes an engaging Dorvil, and Paolo Bordogna proves an expert clown in the buffo role of Germano.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 **** “The most appealing member of the cast is Olga Peretyatko as young Giulia, who is exceptionally attractive...and sings with a lyric sheen, until her soprano gets fluttery at the very top. Jose Manuel Zapata's tenor brings a Mediterranean warmth to the role of Dorvil, though a tearing sound disfigures some of his top notes...The authoritative presence of Claudio Scimone in the pit is a plus, ensuring a clean-cut Rossini style” Gramophone Awards, Awards Issue 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Anita Rachvelishvili (Orfeo), Maite Alberola (Euridice), Auxiliadora Toledano (Amore) Orquesta BandArt, Gordan Nikolić Staged by La Fura dels Baus Another fantastic staging by La Fura dels Baus. Recorded at the 25th Peralada Festival, Spain, 2011. A splendid cast as well as an avant-garde production that makes extensive use of large projection screens and includes members of the orchestra as actors onstage result in one of the most exciting opera performances in recent years. Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPqcM6PWsyc Running Time Total: 110 minutes Picture 16:9, HD DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo Subtitles Italian (original language), English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean “Rachvelishvili is a natural performer with a beautifully full mezzo-soprano, but as yet a lightweight Gluckian.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2012 ** “Padrissa keeps the stage in a constant state of motion, often in ways that are conceptually rooted in historic authenticity...The big surprise is that, no matter how busy the screen becomes, it rarely distracts from the music...Rachvelishvili is a vocally robust, poetically alert Orpheus, though Auxiliadora Toledano steals the vocal honours in her wonderful portrayal of Amore.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Recorded at the Felsenreitschule during the Salzburg Festival 2011
Patricia Petibon (Lulu), Pavol Breslik (The Painter/A Negro), Michael Volle∙(Dr. Schön/Jack the Ripper), Cora Burggraaf (Dresser/High_School Boy/Groom), Franz Grundheber (Schigolch), Thomas Piffka (Alwa), Thomas Johannes Mayer (An Animal Tamer/Rodrigo), Heinz Zednik (The Prince/The Manservant), Andreas Conrad (The Marquis), Martin Tzonev (The Theatre Manger/The Banker), Emilie Pictet (A Fifteen-year-old girl), Cornelia Wulkopf (Her Mother) Wiener Philharmoniker & Upper Austrian Jazz Orchestra, Marc Albrecht Vera Nemirova, staging Vera Nemirova’s challenging production of Berg’s operatic masterpiece Lulu won critical acclaim when first seen at the Salzburg Festival in 2010, and was successfully repeated in 2011, when the production was filmed for DVD. Supporting Nemirova’s powerful vision of corruption, decadence and death were the highly praised set designs by the young German artist Daniel Richter. Musically the production was led with style and assurance by the brilliant young German conductor Marc Albrecht, currently director of the Netherlands Opera. Singing Lulu with allure and passion was the lauded French soprano Patricia Petibon, whose charms gripped an outstanding cast of top European singers. Lulu is a very rarely performed work, which was also left unfinished by the composer. This performance includes the missing 3rd act, which was completed by Friedrich Cerha, winner of the Salzburg Music Award 2010. Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9 Sound formats DVD: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 Region code: 2,3,4,5,6,8 Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean Booklet notes: English, German, French Runnning time: 173 mins “Nemirova's vibrant Salzburg production deliberately removes Berg's provocative opera from direct association with a specific time or place, placing the drama in a more mythical context...Almost all the major protagonists are powerfully drawn...But the real stars of this superb performance are undoubtedly the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Marc Albrecht, who bring a glorious richness, warmth and emotional intensity to Berg's astonishing score.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 ***** “Musically there is plenty to admire...Ultimately, it is Volle as Dr Schon and Jack the Ripper who impresses most...Petibon's background in early music may be thought to give her an unusual degree of vulnerability...After a cautious start, her performance gains conviction as it proceeds...this is one of those recordings that takes time to reach the dark, disturbed heart of Berg's most ambivalently poised and perturbing work.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012 “The singing and acting of Patricia Petibon as Lulu is magnificent. She is that rare creature, a singer with the face and figure of a model...One does not have to wonder why men fall under her spell and even die of it...Almost all of the staging and costuming is dedicated to the service of this music. It is not necessary to suspend one's disbelief as so often happens in current opera staging: here one is gripped from beginning to the disturbing and bloody end.” MusicWeb International, August 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Gramophone Awards Iss