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Production by: Anthony Minghella The Metropolitan Opera’s Peabody and Emmy Award®-winning series The Met: Live in HD has excited audiences around the globe. Four highly-requested productions from the past two years are now available on DVD for the first time. These four stunning releases contain recordings of recent acclaimed Metropolitan Opera productions, taken from state-of-the-art, high-definition transmissions broadcast live from the stage of the Met, and include backstage interviews with the cast and production crew. TECHNICAL INFO: Sound: PCM Stereo/ DTS Sound Screen Format: 16:9 Region Code: 0 (All regions) Subtitles: French, German, Spanish and English Recording Date: March 7, 2009 Approximate Running Time: 2 Hrs 26 Min “Minghella has minimized the singers' actions...there is no over-emoting. The sad story is allowed to speak for itself...Racette's Butterfly is magnificent. Her full-bodied voice is imbued with a warm vibrato and her phrasing is natural and sharply musical. Just as crucially, she listens and reacts like a young girl...There are several other versions of this opera available on DVD..[but] the choice is pretty obvious - it's this one from the Met.” International Record Review, March 2011 “Minghella's ENO production looks colourful at the Met.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 **** | | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
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The Metropolitan Opera’s Peabody and Emmy Award®-winning series The Met: Live in HD has excited audiences around the globe. Four highly-requested productions from the past two years are now available on DVD for the first time. These four stunning releases contain recordings of recent acclaimed Metropolitan Opera productions, taken from state-of-the-art, high-definition transmissions broadcast live from the stage of the Met, and include backstage interviews with the cast and production crew. Indisputably one of the greatest Salome’s of our time, Karita Mattila reprises her stunning interpretation including her unforgettable “Dance of the Seven Veils”. With Strauss’s groundbreaking music magnifying the degenerate atmosphere and building the erotic tension, this is one opera that is as shocking today as it was at its premiere in 1905. TECHNICAL INFO: Sound: PCM Stereo/ DTS Sound Screen Format: 16:9 Region Code: 0 (All regions) Subtitles: French, German, Spanish and English Recording Date: October 11, 2008 Approximate Running Time: 1 Hr 46 Min “It all gets off to a good start with the best and handsomest ever love-struck Narraboth...[Mattila] does sound ideally young and silvery...with an impressive, sometimes scary chest voice to match the last great Salome, Hildegard Behrens. Juha Uusitalo's prophet is a powerful brute until he suddenly shows sensitivity in his Sea of Galilee monologue...[in the Liebestod] Mattila pulls out all the stops in expressing the heroine's crazy longing” BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 **** “As astoundingly lithe mover, [Mattila] plays the rapacious princess with a teenager's impetuosity and energy...No-one can surpass her when crazed anticipation is needed, which means the whole 'Es ist kein laut zu vernehmen' episode is incomparable...[Kaiser's] glowingly sung, touchingly acted Narraboth makes every word tell...the sheer virtuosity and tonal splendour [of the playing] are mind-blowing...Mattila is now first choice among DVD Salomes.” International Record Review, March 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
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| |  | Live Recording from The Wiener Staatsoper, 2010
Marlis Petersen (Medea), Michaela Selinger (Kreusa), Elisabeth Kulman (Gora), Michael Roider (Kreon) & Adrian Eröd (Jason) Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, Michael Boder World Premiere Recording on DVD Stage Director, Set & Lighting Design by Marco Arturo Marelli Costume Design Dagmar Niefind Aribert Reimann is one of the world’s most important living composers. His works are performed regularly all over the world. Now comes his latest opera - Medea. Roughly 30 authors have written works based on this ancient myth but it was the play by Franz Grillparzer which inspired Reimann most: »In no other version is it made so brutally clear that Medea is an outsider. (…) Right from the start of act one my mind was flooded by musical ideas and by the end of the second act I really thought my head would burst.« Vienna State Opera succeeded in recruiting Marco Arturo Marelli – a man with a world-wide reputation, especially for global premieres – as director and scenographer for this performance. Unusually for a world premiere, the first series of performances of the opera were a huge success amongst audiences and press alike. The public stormed the box office and ticket sales by far exceeded availability. A “Sold Out” notice had to be put up for virtually every performance! Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1 Picture Format: 16:9 DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC Subtitle Languages: DE, GB, FR, IT, ES, JP Running Time: 113 mins FSK: 0 “This is a taut, gripping work...Marlis Petersen is outstanding in the demanding title role, more than ably supported by Adrian Eröd's uneasy Jason, and Michaela Selinger's naive Kreusa. Max Emanuel Cencic is visually as well as vocally striking as the Herold...this is an invaluable document of a strong work.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2011 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Live Recording from The Zurich Opera House, 2001
Set Design by Stefanos Lazaridis With this opera, Verdi composed a true music drama. For this great early opera, he demanded from his librettist Francesco Maria Piave a text that would have “extravagance, originality brevity and sublimity.” Thomas Hampson made a triumphant début in the title role of Verdi’s Macbeth in this Zurich Opera production, with Paoletta Marrocu as his beautiful, power-hungry wife. In David Pountney’s hard-edged, post-modern production duality of man and woman is constantly brought into question. His Macbeth is not just a story about the usurpation of a crown with supernatural intervention, it resonates with symbolic references to the battle of the sexes and throws into sharp relief the link between power and gender. A strong supporting cast draws a top quality performance from the Zurich Opera Orchestra. Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1 Picture Format: 16:9 DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC Subtitle Languages: IT, GB, DE, FR, ES Running Time: 141 mins FSK: 0 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Live Recording from The Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, 2000
Maria Gavrilova (Tatyana), Vladimir Redkin (Eugene Onegin), Nikolay Baskov (Lensky) & Aik Martirosyan (Prince Gremin) Bolshoi Theatre, Mark Ermler (conductor) & Boris Pokrovsky (stage director) Choreography by Yuri Papko Set Design Alena Pikalova This DVD presents a lavish and naturalistic staging of Eugene Onegin performed in Moscow, the city where the work had its world premiere on 29 March 1879. In their production, the Bolshoi not only adopted a traditional music theatre approach, they also successfully revived a previous and popular production. A feast of music is spread before the audience for their pure enjoyment. The gifted singers are so secure in their command of the Russian idiom that the music’s inner content, its lyrismo, is constantly at the fore. Vladimir Redkin with his profound, glowing baritone takes the title-role, and Maria Gavrilova sings Tatyana, her soprano gleaming at the top, is almost unequalled for warmth and radiance. This Eugene Onegin is a sumptuously arrayed feast of singing. But it is also a feast of good theatre, because it concentrates on the most important element of the tale it tells; namely the tragedy of the human soul and its suffering. The setting and costumes are naturalistic and the drama develops its intensity primarily from the music and the text. Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 Picture Format: 4:3 DVD Format: 1 DVD9 & 1 DVD5, NTSC Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, IT, ES, CN Running Time: 157 mins FSK: 0 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Live Recording from The Teatro Carlo Felice, 2003
Stefania Bonfadelli (Lucia), Marcelo Álvarez (Edgardo) & Roberto Frontali (Enrico) Teatro Carlo Felice, Patrick Fournillier (conductor) & Graham Vick (stage director) Set & Costume Design Paul Brown This DVD shows an impressive staging of Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti filmed at the opera house in Genoa, directed by preeminent opera director Graham Vick, conducted by renowned opera conductor Patrick Fournillier and sung by an all star cast - Marcelo Álvarez hailed as one of the hottest tenors on the international scene and Stefania Bonfadelli frequent guest on the stages of the world‘s greatest opera houses and celebrated by audience and critics alike. In this staging, Graham Vick concentrated all his attention on the performers and employed the simplest of means to create spaces representing the atmosphere of the scenes rather than concrete physical locations for them. In spirit, therefore, his production remains loyal to the libretto by Salvatore Cammarano, the music by Gaetano Donizetti and their concentration on the story’s essentials, focussing as closely as possible on the passionate engagement of Lucia, Edgardo and Enrico. Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 Picture Format: 16:9 DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, IT, ES Running Time: 145 mins FSK: 0 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Sonia Ganassi (Elisabetta), Fiorenza Cedolins (Maria Stuarda), Jose Bros (Leicester), Mirco Palazzi (Talbot), Pervin Chakar (Anna), Marco Caria (Cecil) Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice, Fabrizo Maria Carminati Stage Director Denis Krief The recording was made at Venice's beautiful Teatro La Fenice. With his sharp and lively conducting, Fabrizio Maria Carminati puts the Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice entirely at the service of three exceptional singers, Sonia Ganassi ("an extraordinary performance," Opera Today) as Elisabetta, Fiorenza Cedolins ("colorful, nuanced, highly dramatic heroine," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) as Maria Stuarda, and José Bros as a passionate Leicester. "Maria Stuarda" is the most popular work in Donizetti's trilogy of bel canto operas on Tudor queens. Running Time Opera: 140 minutes Picture 16:9, HD DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo Subtitles: ENG, FR, D, IT, SP “Maestro Carminati looks an amiable, gentle soul as he enters the pit but he unleashes a firestorm of tension and passion in the big duets and his judicious tempi bind Donizetti's not-so-easy recitatives into flowing music-drama. Ganassi is in superb fettle throughout, encompassing both power and agility...An outstanding release, and a great relief to be removed from the static period costume displays normally inflicted on this drama.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2011 “Carminati leads La Fenice's orchestra in a powerful reading yet with a supportive flow of sound in more reflective passages. All the acrimony, antagonism and enmity can be felt...Ganassi makes a strong figure, strongly sung, her voice full toned as she encompasses the scalework of her opening aria...[Cedolins] brings a dramatic intensity to her performance.” International Record Review, April 2011 “the musical performance, starting in the pit with a vivid, dynamic and elegant performance conducted by Fabrizio Maria Carminati...Sonia Ganassi and Fiorenza Cedolins spit marvellous poison...Donizetti's surprising efficiency in conveying conflicted motives is really well caught in the ensembles, and Mirco Palazzi is a really powerful Talbot.” Opera Now, Summer 2011 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Recorded live at La Teatro alla Scala 21st & 23rd December 2009
Monteverdi’s seminal first opera tells the dramatic story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses of the descent of Orfeo (Georg Nigl) into the underworld to recover his beloved wife Euridice (Roberta Invernizzi), who has died from a snake bite. In a new production for La Scala, based on a painting by Titian and directed by Robert Wilson, the opera receives a powerful and inspiring performance from a fine cast, the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala and Concerto Italiano under the much-admired Italian early music specialist, Rinaldo Alessandrini. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true surround sound. ‘Robert Wilson meets Monteverdi with successful results’ The Opera Critic Extra features: Cast Gallery Illustrated Synopsis Running time 1 hours 56 mins Region Code All regions Picture format 16:9 Anamorphic Sound format 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS Menu languages EN Subtitles EN/FR/DE/ES/IT “I've never heard [the separation scene] more effectively sung by either Orfeo or Euridice...[Nigl] animates the recitatives by putting the words and their rhetorical structures first...In short, this is a wonderfully satisfying performance, featuring one of the finest Orfeos on disc, and a production which suits the needs of both the large-scale theatre and the small screen equally well.” International Record Review, March 2011 “Director Robert Wilson takes his inspiration from a Titian painting, Venus with Eros and an Organist, and delivers a series of starkly-lit tableaux - strong geometric shapes framing the highly stylised gestures of the cast. The drama comes from Alessandrini's edition and the bite and brilliance of the La Scala orchestra, and Concerto Italiano's inventive continuo section.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2011 **** “the singers are drawn from the top drawer of Baroque practice...Wilson's concept of abstraction - both visual and dramatic - never seems to work with real live performers. But there's still a great deal of musical pleasure to be had from the singers and Rinaldo Alessandrini's conducting.” Classic FM Magazine, May 2011 *** “Beautifully flimed in Milan, this DVD shows how well Wilson's minimalist productions can take to the small screen...Alessandrini directs an authentically sized La Scala orchestra in playing that is at once historically informed and always alive...Georg Nigl, previously a Wozzeck at La Scala, sings with much beauty of voice.” Gramophone Magazine “This bears all Wilson's trademark stylisations with slow movement and hand gestures full of meaning casting their hypnotic spell. The lighting is also crucial to Wilson's approach. The singing is enthusiastic with Georg Nigl a solid Orpheus, Roberta Invernizzi a poignant Eurydice and Sara Mingardo an outstanding Messenger.” Opera Now, Summer 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Sung in Italian
Ruggero Raimondi (Sir John Falstaff), Luca Salsi (Mr. Ford), Virginia Tola (Mrs. Alice Ford), Sabina Puértolas (Nannetta), Tiberio Simu (Fenton), Cinzia De Mola (Mistress Quickly), Liliana Mattei (Mrs. Meg Page), Gregory Bonfatti (Dr. Caius), Pietro Picone (Bardolfo) & Luciano Montanaro (Pistola) Orchestra & Chorus de l’Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Paolo Arrivabeni (conductor) & Stefano Poda (director) Falstaff, the lyric comedy was Giuseppe Verdi’s last opera. It is an operatic favourite, long admired by critics and opera goers alike because of its brilliant orchestration, scintillating libretto and refined melodies. This production from 2009, recorded at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, Belgium was staged by Stefano Poda and features the well known Italian Bass Ruggero Raimondi as the title-role. Sound format: LPCM 2.0 Picture format: 16:9 Region Code: 0 Running Time: 129 mins Booklet notes: IT/EN/FR/GER Available Worldwide “this is one of the musically enchanting Falstaffs I've ever encountered. Conductor Paolo Arrivabeni leads a mellow performance...Ensemble is precise and inner voices always clear: he leads it as if it were Renaissance polyphony, but more charming...Tiberius Simu and Sabina Puértolas are the loveliest Fenton and Nannetta imaginable...Virginia Tola's Alice is a born leader - sure of herself, sassy, classy and singing with impeccable pitch.” International Record Review, May 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Alfred Drake (Fred Graham/Petruchio), Patricia Morison (Lilli Vanessi/Kate), Julie Wilson (Lois/Bianca), Bill Hayes (Bill Calhoun), Harvey Lembeck and Jack Klugman (Two Gangsters) Franz Allers Original Broadway stars Alfred Drake and Patricia Morison recreate their roles in this legendary 1958 television production of Cole Porter’s most beloved musical. Black & white, mono, 4:3, 78 min., all regions | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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Gramophone Magazine
