DVD Videos

Staged by Calixto Bieito.

Fantastic cast with Roberto Alagna, Erwin Schrott, Marina Poplavskaya, Béatrice Uria-Monzon.

This prestigious 2011 production from the Gran Teatre del Liceu was staged by the world famous and highly controversial stage director Calixto Bieito, admired for his raw and evocative stagings.

Running Time Total: 155 minutes

DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Set & Costumes by GEORG WAKHEVITCH

The opening of the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 24 September 1961 is always seen in the context of partition of Germany, cemented six weeks earlier, and the construction of the Berlin Wall. The coincidence of the two events did not go unnoticed in the many press reports at the time, with most citing remarks about the city’s circumstances by the then Governing Mayor of Berlin, Willy Brandt: “Having experienced more in the last few weeks than in an entire generation, a city divided by a wall of coercion and shame is once again making music, producing theatre, staging fine international exhibitions and can at last open the doors of its long-awaited new opera house.” For almost twenty years – since the destruction of the former “Deutsches Opernhaus” in November 1943 – Berlin had had to make do with a makeshift stage. Although already in the early stages of a terminal illness, Ferenc Fricsay conducted the inaugural performance. Fricsay died in 1963. Staged by Carl Ebert, the performance featured a cast of singers unparalleled to this day, including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role, Elisabeth Grümmer and Pilar Lorengar as Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, Donald Grobe, who stepped in at short notice and built an international career on his performance, Walter Berry as Leporello and Erika Köth as Zerlina.

The inaugural performance of Don Giovanni at the Deutsche Oper Berlin is available here for the first time on DVD. The recording of the dress rehearsal on 23 September 1961 was broadcast on German national television simultaneously with the premiere on 24 September.

Sound Format: PCM Mono

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: 2 x DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: DE, GB, FR, ES, IT, JP, Korean

Running Time: 176 mins

FSK: 0

Facoltà di Design e Arti Iuav – Venezia, direction/sets/costume

La virtù de’ strali d’Amore was the first of ten operas Cavalli wrote with librettist Giovanni Faustini. Set in Cyprus, the plot involves enchanted and pastoral elements, love and its thwarting, the counterpointing of Man and God, sorcery, revelation and ultimate resolution, all accomplished in a brilliant series of scenes. A follower of Monteverdi, Cavalli reveals the influence of the older man but also his own pronounced independence. Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante have become one of the most admired partnerships in the history of baroque music performance.

Video Format • NTSC / Colour / 16:9 / DVD 5 (Disc 1) & DVD 9 (Disc 2)

Audio Format • DTS 5.0 / Dolby Digital 5.0 / PCM 2.0

Region Coding • No Region Coding

Box set comprised of the following operas already available in the Dynamic catalogue.

Sound format: 16:9 / Dolby Digital 5.1

Running Time: Duration: 132+135 Min.

Picture format: LPCM 2.0 / Dolby digital 5.1

Booklet Notes: Italian, English, French, German

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian

AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

WORLD PREMIÈRE ON DVD

This 2008 production from the famous Teatre la Fenice is the world première on DVD of Schoenberg’s first twelve tone opera, and Schoenberg's only comedy.

The plot is based around a Husband and Wife (they are not given names) who reject opportunities for extramarital flings whilst at the same time attacking the superficiality of fashion.

The main prop of Andreas Homoki’s vividly directed production is a white leather sofa, which, at the end—with the Friend and the Singer on it, both of whom had tried to attract the attention of the Husband and Wife —the Husband and Wife push away. Frank Philipp Schlössmann’s décor also includes blackboard-like flats covered with words and figures, principally the word “modern” in various languages.

Sound format: 16:9

Picture format: LPCM 2.0 / Dolby digital 5.1

Subtitles: French, English, German, Spanish, Italian

AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

Sung in German

Staged by Keith Warner.

After the huge success of Aida, here is the spectacular new production from the Bregenz Festival 2011.

Girodano Umberto’s Andrea Chénier is set against the backdrop of the horrors of the French Revolution and tells the tragic tale of a doomed love affair involving the historical figure of the poet Andrea Chénier, who initially champions the Revolution but later turns against its leaders, before ending up on the scaffold.

Staged by Keith Warner who has worked at major opera houses including Bayreuth, Covent Garden, Vienna etc.

Stage designer David Fielding has worked at important opera houses and with bands including the Pet Shop Boys

“Giordano’s music is verismo of the very highest caliber and drives the high voltage plot forward with breathtaking speed.” Artistic director David Pountney

Total: 120 minutes

DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

World Premiere Recording on DVD!

Giovanni Simone Mayr‘s „Medea in Corinto“ is „the most absolutely amazing opera discovery in decades“ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). A triumph for the Bavarian State Opera, the work was staged with a roster of top vocalists headed by Nadja Michael and Ramon Vargas in a production crafted by one of the leading directors of our time, Hans Neuenfels, and with a musical director in demand all over the world, Ivor Bolton.

Born near Ingolstadt, Germany, in 1763, Mayr moved to Italy around 1787 and became one of the most important composers of Italian opera between Mozart and Rossini. He also taught many reputable composers, such as Donizetti. Written at the dawn of romanticism and the bel canto era, his main works unite stylistic characteristics of Viennese classicism with Italian melodic exuberance. „Medea in Corinto“ was premiered in Naples in 1813. Although his works are largely forgotten today, they were played by all major theaters in Europe during his lifetime. Based on the ancient tragedy of Medea, who kills her children in a mad act of blind revenge against her faithless husband, the work deals with timeless subjects. Medea, a powerful woman whose fierce independence and passion strike fear in the hearts of men, is an outsider who is rejected by society. Director Hans Neuenfels stages this tragedy of betrayed love, lust for power and murderous hatred as a fascinating socio-political thriller - the ever controversial director interweaves scenes of gripping brutality into the action.

As Medea, soprano Nadja Michael – „one of the most celebrated German sopranos of our day“ (Die Welt) – breathes fire into her role and dominates the stage with her coloraturas. On a par with Michael is Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas as Giasone, Medea‘s ex-husband. The vigorous early-music specialist Ivor Bolton – who conducted epoch-making Handel performances in Munich – plumbs the depths of Mayr‘s rich score. Is „Medea in Corinto“ one of the first chapters in a Mayr renaissance?

BONUS: Making of // interviews with the cast and production team // rehearsal and backstage footage // about the life and work of Giovanni Simone Mayr

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.0

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: 2 x DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 151 mins + 48 mins (Bonus)

FSK: 12

Turandot from the Verona Arena: Franco Zeffirelli’s epic production of Puccini’s masterpiece.

In its 88th year, the prestigious Verona Arena Festival honoured the legendary Italian stage director Franco Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli delivered an opulent staging af the fairy-tale story of the Chinese Princess Turandot, who will only marry a prince capable of solving her riddles.

The Russian soprano Maria Guleghina proved a brilliant Turandot, whilst tenor Salvatore Licitra’s trump card is his imposingly radiant voice of which he remains in sovereign control even in the role’s muchfeared tessitura. The soprano Tamar Iveri is a beautiful and sensitive Liù. The Orchestra and Chorus of the Verona Arena are conducted by Maestro Giuliano Carella.

NTSC 16:9, Sound: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1

Audio, Subtitles: Fr, Eng, Ger, It, Sp, Jap

Total Time: 2h 8min

Filmed in HD, August 2010