DVD Videos

“Supremely "real" is Sherrill Milnes's performance of the title-role. He is a singing actor with natural command of the stage, and what the filming shows to most moving effect in the face, marvellously responsive, especially as the brief moments of happiness are reflected in those deep-set-eyes.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2008

“not surprisingly, Sherrill Milnes's Boccanegra is totally memorable, sung and acted completely within a believable human characterisation...Add to this the characteristic Met production values, with a superb chorus and more than excellent orchestra under the inimitable and always reliable James Levine...'Live from the Met' usually means something special, and it does here.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ***

“Václav Kašlík goes whole-heartedly for the Romantic jugular - very creditably, too, with lost of dark water, two huge ships, and lashings of spooky effects. …the finest 'traditional' version available.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2008 *****

“The adaptaion by the Czech director Václav Kaslik...succeeds in gripping the viewer visually as successfully as does Wolfgang Sawallisch musically. Indeed Sawallisch is the reason to investigate this set for he gets gloriously eloquent playing from his wonderful Bavarian forces. No complaints about the soloists either.” Penguin Guide, 2010 **/*

“The great work and the great performance; and, crucially, both gain from the filming. …is deeply impressive, and moving, to see how completely Domingo lives his role Te Kanawa too shows herself alive to every suggestion of her music and words.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2008

“Sergei Leiferkus's dark Russian tone… suits Iago down to the ground. Kiri Te Kanawa's limpid tone makes her a near-ideal Desdemona… Plácido Domingo… is noble and heroic.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 *****

“‘Pure gold from the top team… Here was an evening to cherish, one to go straight into the memory in firmest indelible ink… The combination of Domingo and Solti promised gold and delivered every ounce expected.” The Times

“At Covent Garden, Elijah Moshinsky's production insists heavily on its religious agenda: Christ crucified looms at the back, dominant as in the east window of a cathedral. In the film version (because the camera roams) it is more a suggestive presence, less a directional imposition. If the opening storm is prefigurative, the Byzantine Christ may have a valid place among the chaos of images that bewilders the eye in the first few minutes; and though initially it may seem that the film crew are finding it impossible to capture at once the detail and the overall picture of the complex stage action, the confusion makes its own point and of course resolves itself into reassuring single focus with Otello's entry. The boldness of pictorial imagination at work here can be appreciated by comparison with the conventional battery of stage lightning in Graham Vick's production at La Scala (filmed in 2001 and also with Domingo), where the chorus is simply a mass embodiment of terror and awe, unlike Moshinsky's where all are individuals with a task in hand and up against a real emergency.
We then look on, helpless, as order turns to chaos in the unfolding tragedy. Here again film probes the principal characters. Conventional operatic gestures and facial expressions will not do, and it is deeply impressive, and moving, to see how completely Domingo lives his role. Te Kanawa too shows herself alive to every suggestion of her music and words (it is utterly wrong to represent her here as bland or uncomprehending).
Leiferkus is a powerful embodiment of malign will, and, as with the others, his voice, sure in its bony-hard definition, is the perfect instrument of his character. As much again could now be written about Domingo's singing, and Te Kanawa's, and about Solti's conducting, but a video demands attention to the visual. Suffice to say that you can have the highest expectation and not be disappointed.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Moshinsky's traditional Covent Garden production with lavish costumes and sets makes an ideal DVD with an almost unmatchable cast of principals.. Placido Domingo was at his peak as Otello, powerful and heroic, while Dame Kiri te Kanawa as Desdemona sings ravishingly” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“Presently the only DVD version of Janácek's last opera, and it's a good one - even if it doesn't match the Scottish Opera/Welsh National staging many will remember.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 ****

“As in all his productions and films, Chéreau's directing turns everyone into such complete and natural actors that the descriptive term "acting" seems almost redundant. Boulez… treading the finest balance, as did Janácek, between reported emotion and outright passion.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008

“Decca's DVD is to be welcomed in this 40th anniversary year of Pizzetti's death, a reminder of his creative genius. Visually, the production is simple but effective. The sound is well balanced, the basilican acoustic suiting the music, and the performances all round are excellent.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2008

“Assassinio nella cattedrale has been absurdly neglected on the stage (as indeed has Pizzetti generally) but this superbly paced and intensely felt reading brings home the beauty and nobility of this score. Recommended with enthusiasm.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Georg Solti's Grammy-winning recording is more idiomatic than some much praised rivals both in his intense, atmospheric conducting (he was briefly Bartók's pupil) and his native Hungarian singers. Here it provides the soundtrack to cinema director Miklós Szinetár's vivid interpretation, capturing both author Balázs's Pelléas-like mysticism and more contemporary psychodrama. Sylvia Sass is deeply impressive, vocally incisive but sensitive and smoulderingly dramatic.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 *****

“His two soloists could not have been better chosen, for both the dark-timbred Kolos Kovats and the rich-voiced Sylvia Sass are totally convincing in their roles....Solti's orchestral commentary is superbly controlled: the taut grip for which his conducting is celebrated is felt at its most magnetic, and the powerful closing scene is haunting.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Schenk's direction is stodgy, but authentic settings and a superb cast, with Janowitz in angelic voice and Solti at his Straussian finest make this the best Arabella in any medium. Michael Scott Rohan” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 *****

“…a valuable record and a highly enjoyable one, in Elijah Moshinsky's clean-cut production… Pavarotti, in golden voice and intense presence, is well matched by Louis Quilico's rich-voiced, mordant Renato and Katia Ricciarelli's deeply felt if occasionally strained Amelia, not to mention Judith Blegen's sparkling Oscar.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 *****

“Pavarotti [is] at his very finest, both as singer and actor...Patane conducts throughout with flair and Brian Large's video direction could hardly be bettered.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****