DVD Videos

Alexander Lintl, stage design and costumes

Salvatore Sciarrino’s intense and compact opera Luci mie traditrici first performance was on 19th May 1998 at the Schwetzinger Festpiele under the German title Die tödliche Blume (The Deadly Flower). The Libretto is based on madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo's notorious murder of his wife and her lover in 1590.

The composer Salvatore Sciarrino (*1947) has created a compressed story of love and death, beauty and decay. Sciarrino’s music is decidedly avant-garde, and he is known for his use of isolated sonorities, extended playing techniques, frequent silences, and the ironic or confrontational quotation of previous music or stories. For this love story of a single day he creates a form of music which expresses the finest nuances of feeling of the human soul. In parallel to the condensing of the original drama in time, the musical language of the music drama acts as a crystallization of the feelings of love.

The co-production of the Oper Frankfurt with the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano has been recognized as the finest production of this work presented to date. Compelling staging by German director Christian Pade. Detlev Glanert leads the summer festival of modern music until 2011, which was founded by Hans Werner Henze in Montepulciano.

Striking young cast, lead by Croatian mezzo-soprano Nina Tarandek, who is a member of the Opera Studio at Oper Frankfurt.

A name to be remembered!

Bonus: Making of Luci Mie Traditrici, including Interviews with Salvatore Sciarrino, Marco Angius, Christian Pade, Detlev Glanert, Alexander Lintl, Christian Miedl and Nina Tarandek.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 0

Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Japanese

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Runnning time: 100 mins (Performance 70 mins + Bonus 30 mins)

With Linda di Chamounix Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) has created wonderful, inspired music. Donizetti’s unfailing attention to the last detail becomes apparent in his numerous revisions of the work, the cuts and the new arrangement of the overture, which he had initially composed as a short prelude but had then developed further, to suit the taste of the Viennese.

For the performance at the Zurich opera, the producer Daniel Schmid changed the sentimental story into an ironical post-card idyll and thus achieved a modern note. The story is now set in a snow-white mountainous region where passions develop slowly. Removed from their familiar environment, the characters lose their connection with reality and become aggressive or insane. Apart from Edita Gruberova there is hardly anyone who could express this insanity better – at the premiere in 1842 it was the soprano Eugenia Tadolini. Everything around her turns into decoration. The roles of the jealous lover Carlo Deon Van der Walt, the Marchese Jacob Will and the Prefect László Polgár are superbly cast. Under the baton of Adam Fischer, the orchestra of the Zürich opera plays in strict rhythm and with melodic delicateness.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 5 + DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 164 mins

FSK: 0

Set Design by RINALDO OLOVIERI (after Ettore Fagiuoli’s design for the 1913 Verona première)

Recorded at the world-famous Arena di Verona, this opulent production of Verdi’s popular opera Aida was brought to life in a classic staging by Gianfranco De Bosio and conducted by Nello Santi, one of the greatest living representatives of the Italian singer-conductor tradition, who led a cast of exceptional singers, all well rooted in the Italian tradition.

The dramatic role of Aida was central to Maria Chiara’s repertoire, and she regularly appeared at the arena as Verdi’s heroine. Her intense, introverted interpretation of the role is complemented by Icelandic tenor Kristján Jóhannsson’s Radamés. The other roles are filled by equally strong singers: American mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick has made a speciality of Verdi’s troubled rich-girl Amneris, while Juan Pons is heard at the peak of his powers in his reading of Amonasro. The opera is staged in front of the imposing, ancient Roman backdrop of the Arena di Verona and the sets, based on the original designs by influential Veronese architect and painter Ettore Fagiuoli (1884-1961), are similarly impressive. The vastness of the arena, allows for a vision that is almost cinematic, thus making the work ideal for a recording on DVD. Masterfully captured this opera classic proves to be a feast for the eyes and the ears of the home viewer.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 146 mins

FSK: 0

With its charmingly romantic theme, effective stage action and abundance of spirited and delicate moods, this Parisian-flavoured libretto gave Franz Lehár every opportunity to display his talent. After the sensational success of the “Merry Widow” (1905), Lehár completed this operetta in only three weeks in 1909 and at first referred to it himself as „a slovenly piece of work“. Once again, however, impulsiveness and spontaneity proved to be the ingredients of an outright success. „The Count of Luxembourg“ is - with regard to its inventiveness, originality and instrumental colouring - on a par with Lehár‘s other international successes. This film version offers a wealth of artistic entertainment, with a superb cast that includes Eberhard Wächter, Lilian Sukis, Erich Kunz, Jane Tilden, Peter Fröhlich and Helga Papouschek.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 95 mins

FSK: 0

The culmination of a three-year Monteverdi project led by conductor William Christie and director Pier Luigi Pizzi at Madrid’s Teatro Réal, L’incoronazione di Poppea brings a potent blend of sex and politics, high drama and comedy. Leading the cast are Danielle de Niese as Poppea, Philippe Jaroussky as Nerone, Max Emanuel Cencic as Ottone and Anna Bonitatibus as Ottavia.

William Christie – the French-based American conductor, best known for his work with his ensemble Les Arts Florissants – started 2012 at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, conducting The Enchanted Island, a spectacular new pastiche featuring music by Handel, Vivaldi and other composers,.

Here, he conducts an operatic performance recorded in 2010 at Madrid’s Teatro Réal: Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, with its potent Ancient Roman blend of sex and politics, high drama and comedy. “William Christie’s achievement with Les Arts Florissants is enormous,” wrote Spain’s leading newspaper, El País. “With 17 musicians playing period instruments, he evoked a veritable orgy of nuances, subtly created atmosphere and showed a perfect sense for the accents of the piece.” Poppea proved an apt culmination to Christie’s three-year project mounting Monteverdi’s three operas in Madrid with the Italian director Pier Luigi Pizzi, whose productions are always notable for their elegance and beauty.

Performed in a new edition of the Venetian version of the opera by the musicologist Jonathan Cable, Poppea features a starry cast. Playing the upwardly mobile temptress of the opera’s title is the glamorous American soprano Danielle de Niese, who, in the words of the New York Times, is “seductive enough to woo gods as well as mortals”. She made her international breakthrough at Glyndebourne as another legendary siren of the First Century AD – Cleopatra (in Handel’s Giulio Cesare). In an interpretation described as “overwhelming” by El País, the capricious Emperor Nero (Nerone) is embodied by French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky – in a role very different from the last operatic Roman he took on for Christie, the titular saint in Landi’s Sant’Alessio (Virgin Classics DVD 5099951899998). The brilliant Croatian countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic is a frequent sparring partner for his French colleague – not least in a recent Virgin CD of duetti da camera conducted by William Christie – and in Sant’Alessio he played Jaroussky’s mother (!); here he plays Nerone’s rival for Poppea’s love, Ottone, while Nerone’s discarded wife, Ottavia, is sung by the Italian mezzo soprano Anna Bonitatibus, described by Forumopera as “an incandescent Ottavia who vouchsafed a superb example of singing and of theatre”.

Starring Angela Gheorghiu as the celebrated French actress Adriana Lecouvreur and Jonas Kaufmann as her lover Maurizio, Count of Saxony, Cilea’s verismo drama explores celebrity, romance, jealousy, and death.

The trio of sublime voices is completed by Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina as Adriana’s jealous rival, the Princess de Bouillon.

David McVicar’s hit production – the first performance of the opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for more than a century – presents the life of the French actress as a blurring of the distinction between fantasy and reality.

The action revolves around a life-size Baroque Theatre, taking us from the bustle and colour of the first act backstage at the playhouse, to the bare final scenes as the drama reaches its fatal climax.

The DVD & Blu-ray contain bonus footage featuring interviews with the principal artists, Director, Set Designer and Conductor.

“Kaufmann and Gheorghiu radiate sexiness" (Financial Times)

“Gheorghiu is a dream" (The Independent)

Musical Arrangement BERT GRUND

Franz Lehár (1870-1948) found remarkably expressive and brilliantly colorful sounds for the drama and romantic moods of this unique topic. The style was decisively infl uenced by the familiar cadence of Hungarian gypsy music in the composer‘s native country. This is not only evidenced by the csárdás rhythms or the inclusion of the cymbalom in the arrangement, but above all by the many pronouncedly melancholy hues of the melody and harmony produced by the use of minor keys.

After „The Merry Widow“ and „The Count of Luxembourg“, „Gypsy Love“ is Franz Lehár‘s third most successful operetta. After its triumphant Vienna premiere in 1910, it was performed all over the world from Broadway to the Far East, for example at the Empire Theater in Darjeeling, at the foot of the Himalayas! This 1974 film features major artists with extensive operatic experience such as Janet Perry, Ion Buzea and – last but not least – Adolf Dallapozza.

Set & Costumes by WILHELM REINKING

In 1964 Deutsche Oper Berlin still had no General Music Director. But Artistic Director Gustav Rudolf Sellner made a virtue out a necessity and – in addition to the permanent conductor Heinrich Hollreiser and the regular guest conductor Karl Böhm – brought in further conductors from home and abroad for individual productions. For Don Carlos he invited Wolfgang Sawallisch, who since 1957 had been making a name for himself at the Bayreuth Festival, above all with Tannhäuser and the Flying Dutchman and since 1960 had been acting General Music Director in Hamburg. He had at his disposal an ensemble of outstanding soloists. In addition to Josef Greindl and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, they included James King in the title role, Pilar Lorengar, Martti Talvela, Patricia Johnson and Lisa Otto as the Voice from Heaven.

Sound Format: PCM Mono

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 155 mins

FSK: 0

Staged by Christoph Marthaler

One of the highlights from the 2011 Salzburg Festival. With Angela Denoke in the lead role, this emotionally powerful opera was given superior treatment at the hands of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen. The staging by Christoph Marthaler received fantastic reviews from all over the world.

Janáček’s absorbing masterpiece The Makropulos Case reflects all the dominant musical styles of the early 20th century, from Bohemian tunefulness to big Straussian phrases, Berg-like jaggedness and primeval rhythms.

Running Time Total: 135 minutes

Picture 16:9, HD

DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Sung in Czech (original language), English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean subtitles

Already brimming with symbols and transformations, the epic fairytale recounted by Strauss and his librettist Hofmannsthal in Die Frau ohne Schatten acquires a further allegorical dimension in Christoph Loy’s inventive production for the Salzburg Festival. The central character, the Empress – half-spirit, half-human, and unable to bear children until she finds a shadow – here becomes a young soprano who makes a voyage of personal and professional discovery as she records the opera. A superb cast fulfils the complex vocal and dramatic demands of the piece while Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic rise gloriously to the challenges of Strauss’s most ambitious and splendid operatic score.

Premiere recording of this production.

Christian Thielemann’s first opera performance at the Salzburg Festival.

First opera from Salzburg Festival to be released on Opus Arte.

Extra features include 'Christian Thielemann rehearses 'Die Frau Ohne Schatten', and cast gallery.

Running time: 220 minutes

Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/ES

Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS