DVD Videos

This live production from the 2008 Salzburg Festival features young singers Marina Poplavskaya and Stephen Costello and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of leading Verdian Riccardo Muti, in a new production by Stephen Langridge, known from his successful work at London´s Royal Festival Hall, Tokio and Bregenz.

Bonus Talking Otello (20 minutes)

DVD: DD 5.1, PCM Stereo

Restaged by Elisabetta Courir & Set Design by Emanuele Luzzati.

Il Turco in Italia is one of Rossini‘s wittiest but most neglected works. It is full of ingenious and freshly composed invention. It is Rossini‘s first collaboration with Felice Romani - Bellini‘s librettist - on this opera and Romani understood perfectly Rossini‘s love of pastiche and parody. He provided a commedia dell‘ arte scenario that gave Rossini plenty of opportunity to mock traditions he had helped to cultivate in the first place. The plot is delightfully salcious and among the many jewels in the score, the duet for Geronio and Selim, in which the Turk tries to persuade the ageing husband to sell his wife to him, is widely considered one of the composer‘s masterpieces.

Amongst the singers appearing on this DVD are the highly sought-after Sicilian bass Simone Alaimo, the Greek soprano Myrtò Papatanasiu, who became known to a wider public after her appearance as Violetta in Zeffirelli’s Traviata in Rome in 2007 and the legendary basso-buffo and pupil of Bruscantini, Bruno de Simone.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Picture Format: 16:9

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

FSK: 0

Running Time: 162 mins

Translucence, transparency – warmth’ are the qualities identified by Bernard Haitink as necessary for an ideal sound performance of Beethoven’s only opera, and all are present in this fantastic recording of Katharina Thalbach’s new production for Opernhaus Zurich. Haitink conducts the Zurich Opera Orchestra in a magnificent performance in which Leonore Overture No. 3 provides an interlude between the two scenes of the second act, following a tradition started by Gustav Mahler. German soprano Melanie Diener, in the role of Leonore, leads a brilliant cast including Alfred Muff as Rocco, Roberto Saccà as Florestan, Sandra Trattnigg as Marzelline and Christoph Strehl as Jaquino. This High Definition recording with true surround sound marks the start of an exciting new collaboration between Opus Arte and Opernhaus Zurich.

Extra features:

Illustrated synopsis

Cast gallery

Running time 149 mins

Region code All regions

Picture format 16:9 Anamorphic

Sound format 2.0 PCM & 5.0 DTS

Menu language EN

Subtitles EN/FR/DE/ES

Christopher Hogwood conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a distinguished cast including Danielle de Niese and Charles Workman in Wayne McGregor's new production of Handel's opera in which The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet appear in a rare and beautifully crafted collaboration. Filmed with High Definition cameras and recorded in true surround sound.

“Charles Workman and Danielle de Niese had bags of vocal and personal charm in the title roles, with strong contributions from Matthew Rose as Polyphemus and Paul Agnew and Ji-Min Park as attendant shepherds; among the dancers, special praise to Lauren Cuthbertson as Galatea's frolicking nymph. …An evening of exquisite sensual pleasure.” The Telegraph

Extra features:

Illustrated synopsis

Cast gallery

Documentary: Staging Acis and Galatea

Running time 110 mins

Region code All regions

Picture format 16:9 Anamorphic

Sound format 2.0 PCM & 5.0 DTS

Menu language EN

Subtitles FR/DE/ES (extra features only)

Recorded at Opera Royal de Wallonie, Liège, Feb. 2008.

Domenico Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto was a popular example of opera buffa in its day and one of the most successful operas of the eighteenth century.

The libretto for the opera was based on the 1766 English comedy ‘The Clandestine Marriage’ by David Garrick and George Colman.

This comic opera tells the story of Geronimo, a wealthy citizen of Bologna, who is trying to arrange aristocratic marriages for his two daughters, Carolina and Elisetta. What he doesn’t know is that his youngest daughter Carolina is already secretly married to Paolino, his young secretary. Through a series of humorous situations the young couple confess their marriage and all ends well.

Picture Format: 16:9*

* Only recording of Il matrimonio segreto made in 16:9

Sound Format: LPCM 2.0

Subtitles: IT/EN/G/FR/SP

Running Time: 155 minutes

Available Worldwide

Choreography by Mauro Bigonzetti & Set and Costumes by Fabrizio Plessi.

An idea by Mauro Bigonzetti & Fabrizio Plessi.

Never has a story been narrated as often, and has crossed as many geographic, cultural and class boundaries, as Romeo and Juliet. In ancient Greece a myth, like the wind or a river, crossed lands and cultures, changing from story to story, but always carried its profound meaning. And so, in our day, the myth of Romeo and Juliet crosses the social categories of the western world, and is probably the most well-known story of our culture. The feelings which pervade the story and determine its main structure, rather than the characters and setting, strike our sensibility of Westerners.

Passion, Conflict, Destiny, Love, Death - These are the five elements of this myth. Aterballetto stands for choreographies brimming with passion. The Prokofi ev score is powerful and evocative; the emotions it conveys are universal. The choreographer Bigonzetti focuses on the main message of sensuality and conflict, love and death. His ballet drama of Romeo und Julia pays homage to young people and their desire for taking risks. The Italian video artist Fabrizio Plessi has created a modern stage design with video effects and motorbike costumes for this extravagant ballet version.

Production: Cesare Lievi

Set & Costume Designer: Maurizio Balò

Elina Garanca builds on the success of her previous album, Bel Canto, incarnating the bel canto title role heroine, Cinderella, in Rossini’s touching and hilarious comic masterpiece, La Cenerentola

This new DVD was recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera during one of the fabled theatre’s greatest nights last season

Maurizio Benini waves a magic wand of a baton, eliciting effervescent, transparent, shining sound from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Piquant visuals and superb acting by the entire cast make this a DVD opera lovers will watch again and again

The Philadelphia Inquirer lauded: “Mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca was a sensation at the Metropolitan Opera's spring simulcast of La Cenerentola with her vocal virtuosity, intensely blond glamour, and acting ability…”

Extras:

Backstage at the Met: Thomas Hampson interviews…

-Elina Garanca

-Simone Alberghini, Alessandro Corbelli, Lawrence Brownlee and John Relyea

Technical Specifications

DVD Format:

DVD 1: DVD-9, DVD 2: DVD-5

Picture Format: NTSC/Colour/16:9

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Sound Format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1

Menu Language: English

Subtitles: I/G/E/F/S/Chinese

Packaging: Flex Box

Playing Times: DVD 1: c. 107 min, DVD 2: c. 62 min

L’Equivoco stravagante (the curious misunderstanding) was Rossini’s first attempt at writing a two act opera.

The plot is based around three characters; Ermanno, Ernestina and Buralicchio. Ermanno, who’s young and poor, loves Ernestina the daughter of Gamberotto, a wealthy farmer. However, Ernestina and her father have their eyes on Buralicchio, a young upstart who has more money than sense. To get his competition out of the way, Ermanno and a few servants hatch a plot to convince Buralicchio that Ernestina is actually a castrato, and worse, an army deserter. Ernestina is arrested, but eventually freed by Ermanno whom she then marries.

The opera is set in the seventies and features an international cast including opera stars Marco Vinco and Bruno de Simone.

Picture Format: 16:9

Sound Format: DD 5.1 / LPCM 2.0

Subtitles: IT/EN/G/FR/SP

Running Time: 165 minutes

Region Code:0

Available Worldwide

Bellini's romantic opera 'La sonnambula' (1831), hinges on the love and misunderstanding between Elvino and Amina (the ‘sleepwalker’ of the title). Discovered in the bedroom of Rodolfo, Amina is assumed to have been unfaithful, and Elvino cancels their wedding. But in the dramatic final scene, he witnesses Amina sleepwalking, understands her innocence, and all ends happily. Mary Zimmerman's production plays with the dual realities of a rehearsal of the opera and a performance of the opera itself.

In his latest Decca DVD release, bel canto star Juan Diego Flórez assumes the role of Elvino in Bellini’s romantic drama, playing opposite the mercurial French soprano, Natalie Dessay, in the MET’s striking, modern-dress production, screening live worldwide in March 2009.

The MET’s ‘La Sonnambula’ website reads: “Mary Zimmerman, who directed Natalie Dessay in last season’s hit new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, underlines La Sonnambula’s dual elements of sleep and wakefulness in an intriguing staging set in the present. Bellini’s hauntingly lyrical score soars as performed by Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez, back from their sensational run together in La Fille du Régiment in leading opera houses around the world.”

The DVD release will benefit from the addition of the customary MET backstage and interview footage, familiar to devotees of their live worldwide cinema broadcasts.

Following Flórez's latest DVD release (Cenerentola, in October 2009), 2010 will also see a second Flórez DVD – Bellini’s ‘I Puritani’, with Nino Machaidze, from Bologna.

Filmed in High Definition Widescreen.

SUBTITLES:

English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese

PICTURE FORMAT:

16:9 (anamorphic widescreen), Colour, NTSC, Region code 0 (worldwide)

SOUND FORMAT:

LPCM Stereo & DTS 5.1 Surround (DVD)

BONUS FEATURE:

'Backstage at the MET', presented by Deborah Voigt, featuring interviews with Dessay and Flórez