DVD Videos

“All in all, the new Stuttgart Rheingold was a clear winner.” Opera

“This DVD version of Hänsel und Gretel starts well with the glorious horns of the Dresden Staatskapelle in the overture, and Michael Hofstetter draws warmly expressive playing in a work very much central to their repertory. The staging tells the story clearly and believably but the trendy ideas come too thick and fast for comfort; the delight of the children in the audience, shown in close-ups, adds to one's irritation.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2007

“This DVD version of Hänsel und Gretel starts well with the glorious horns of the Dresden Staatskapelle in the overture, and Michael Hofstetter draws warmly expressive playing in a work very much central to their repertory. The recording, live in the helpful acoustic of the Semperoper, adds to expectation, with eager children in the large audience.
That said, Katharina Thalbach's production will not please everyone. Grotesquerie rather than charm is the keynote. Hansel and Gretel are portrayed as dolls with crude make-up on spotty faces. Even their movements mimic those of puppets. Costumes are those of German peasants, with the drunken father still more of a caricature, both in costume and acting. The sets and designs by Ezio Toffolutti, minimal and stylised, are undistracting.
Other characters, too, match the grotesque illustrations in traditional German fairy-tale books, which seem strangely old-fashioned to us. The exception is the Witch, characterfully sung by Iris Vermillion, initially glamorous in a form-fitting scarlet gown with shiny high boots but transformed into an old crone when she takes off her wig, revealing a bald head, huge false ears and a hump on her back. Small wonder the children push her into the oven.
The cuckoo is another sort of doll, shooting out from the wings on a spring, with the gigantic sweets of the Witch's house let down from the flies, and with the little house itself made up of gigantic biscuits. The Sandman is another doll, and the Dew Fairy appears wearing ice skates around her neck. The captured children are revealed as sweets, until Hansel with a broom frees them all, and they form a long line to shake hands with Hansel and Gretel in a very Germanic way.
The staging tells the story clearly and believably but the trendy ideas come too thick and fast for comfort. Singing is generally good if not outstanding. Hansel (Antigone Papoulkas) and Gretel (Anna Gabler) are diminutive figures with clear, bright voices, and Hans-Joachim Ketelsen as the Father and Irmgard Vilsmaier as the Mother sing strongly; Lydia Teuscher is jewel-bright as the Sandman and the Dew Fairy.
Excellent singing, too, from the chorus of children and women.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“a wholly enchanting production of Humperdinck's wonderfully tuneful children's opera that cannot be recommended too highly...Iris Vermillon is a gloriously camp Witch...But it is Katharina Thalbach's production that makes this such an enchanting entertainment, full of imaginative detail” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“The director Alain Maratrat transforms the flimsy story - of upper-crust travellers stranded together on their way to the coronation of Charles X - into sparkling entertainment. Bertola's cream-coloured set suggests the inside of a marquee, and a runway extending into the stalls brings the fluid action close to the audience. ...there are especially dazzling contributions here from the sopranos Larissa Yudina, as Contessa di Folleville, and Anastasia Belyaeva, as Madame Cortese. Gergiev presides with style and good humour.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2007 ****

“ Il viaggio a Reims was the Théâtre Italien's offering to the celebrations surrounding the coronation of Charles X in the summer of 1825, a showcase for Italian music-making in Paris.
Since the Russians later supplanted the Italians as purveyors of high-class art to the French, there is something apt about this Russian revival of Il viaggio in Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet.
A stylishly designed concert in costume, it is a latter-day showcase for the rising stars of the Mariinsky Theatre.The orchestral players are seated at the rear of the stage. Decked out in cream-coloured evening attire, they make an effective backdrop to the primary colours of Mireille Dessingy's haute couture costumes.
Events, such as they are, are mainly played out along the front of the stage and on a T-shaped catwalk that extends into the auditorium. Since this is not a full-blown theatre staging, there is no grand visual display in the closing scene.
The opening sequence is unpromising. The staging is aimless and the words of the hotel housekeeper, delivered from a stage box, are inaudible because the sound engineer has omitted to provide her with a microphone. Things improve as the cast warms to its task and individual singers begin to catch the eye and the ear. The staging, however, continues to be variable. Don Profondo's catalogue aria manages to be both messy and dull, yet the duet between Count Libenskof and Belfiore is a delight. Corinna and her harp are awkwardly separated but the idea of having the solo flautist playing alongside the diffident Lord Sidney dressed as a silver-clad Rosenkavalier is an inspired one. Gergiev conducts in a brown racing trilby. The reading is exquisitely paced, the ensemble work often stunningly good, remarkably so given the fact that conductor and orchestra are behind the singers.
There is no attempt here to adapt the tributes to Charles X to latter-day political concerns, let alone rewrite the end as Dario Fo did – cruelly, wittily, timelessly – in his famous Helsinki production.
The Russians play the score as written, a number of small cuts notwithstanding.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The orchestral players are seated at the rear of the stage. Decked out in cream-coloured evening attire, they make an effective backdrop to the primary colours of Mireille Dessingy's haute couture costumes. Don Profondo's catalogue aria manages to be both messy and dull, yet the duet between Count Libenskof and Belfiore is a delight. Corinna and her harp are awkwardly separated but the idea of having the solo flautist playing alongside the diffident Lord Sidney dressed as a silver-clad Rosenkavalier is an inspired one. Gergiev conducts in a brown racing trilby. The reading is exquisitely paced, the ensemble work often stunningly good...” Gramophone Magazine, August 2007

“The depth of talent that the Mariinsky Academy and Gergiev have formed is impressive. Many major opera houses would hesitate before programming a Rossini opera that demands so many expert Rossinians. The academy miraculously managed to double cast the work.” Opera News

“the singing team and orchestra from the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg offer a sparkling account of Rossini's festival opera under their director...With such a well co-ordinated team it is hard to pick out individual stars among the young singers” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Musically, the performance is first-rate, with Franz Grundheber commanding in the Sprechstimme role of Moses, and Thomas Moser coping valiantly with the Aaron's taxing tenor writing. …with Daniele Gatti at the helm this unremittingly intense opera leaves a strong impression.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2007 ****

“A student recently asked Milton Babbitt what he made of the plot of Moses und Aron. 'Oh I don't know, I'm not really a plot person,' he replied.
'Boy meets Girl, Moses meets Aron…' Of course, there's more than a grain of truth to Babbitt's quip.
The bonus to this appearance of Schoenberg's 'opera fragment' on DVD is a discussion which does not attempt to explain what the piece is 'about' (dread phrase) but throws up some arresting images along the way, not least the suggestion that Moses is a 'Führer des Jüdischen Volks'. It certainly accords with the director Reto Nickler's conception of the work as 'a highly topical psychodrama that represents the thorny path between theory and practice'.
Indeed, Schoenberg's absurdly unrealisable stage directions make the last scene of Les Troyens pale into insignificance.
Nickler takes an effectively practical tack, abstract but straightforward. Three-dimensional video conjures the miracles of the First Act, staff into serpent and so forth, while in Act 2 it becomes the focus of consumer materialism.
Aron dons a natty gold jacket while the chorus wave hankies of the same material, economically symbolising the banality of their demands and theology. The Golden Calf is revealed as a set of letters spelling out ICH BIN GOTT, the counterpart of Moses's tablets of stone.
Such intelligent, dramatic pragmatism lends equal lustre to the musical values. It's good to hear a conductor who is steeped in verismo conveying the underestimated sweep of these Biblical declamations, even if it is inevitably at the expense of many of the notes. Both Grundheber and Moser seize every cue for lyrical expression, and the super-size chorus is every bit the collective hero/anti-hero of the piece. The prologue to Act 2 is typically stark and precise, with harsh lighting and tenebrous murk reflecting the sotto voce polyphony of abandonment as the Jewish people sit motionless. Their grim suitcases, their raised clenched fists and mob behaviour, all allude to fresher horrors in Jewish history, until they whip out gold party-frocks and dinner- jackets for the orgy. The Ephraimites become Scaramangas, murdering the true believers to a backdrop of clicking cameraphones and rolling TV coverage – then Z-list celebs totter on as alter egos of the Four Naked Virgins, copulating with the God-letters while Buñuel-esque images of cruelty dominate the giant TV screens. No wonder the Viennese loved it.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Nickler takes an effectively practical tack, abstract but straightforward. Three-dimensional video conjures the miracles of the first act, staff into serpent and so fourth, whilst in Act 2 it becomes the focus of consumer materialism. The Golden Calf is revealed as a set of letters spelling out ICH BIN GOTT, the counterpart of Moses's tablets of stone. Such intelligent, dramatic pragmatism lends equal lustre to the musical values. It's good to hear a conductor who is steeped in verismo conveying the underestimated sweep of these Biblical declamations... Both Grundheber and Moser seize every cue for lyrical expression, and the super-size chorus is every bit the collective hero/anti-hero of the piece.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2007

“Despite the flood of brilliant music that evokes God, Moses, Aron, Israelites, an orgy, and everyone and everything else, the music is essentially only a messenger. And that is the radical, reflexive idea here: that even this opera itself is probably inadequate to convey the basic unknowability of a higher power. That Schoenberg even attempted to address all of this -- using a multiplicity of techniques in the same piece -- is a bit formidable. He tackles a project with dimensions and implications that are far beyond what most of us can even conceive.” MusicWeb International

“Hampe's production is conventional, though the individual performances are all acceptable, with Ileana Cotrubas's Ninetta offering something more.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2007 ***

“In an odd way, La gazza ladra is as disorientating as Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, which answers the old definition of tragi-comedy as a form of drama bringing characters near to death 'which maketh it no comedy', yet ends happily so that it is no tragedy either. On first acquaintance Rossini's opera semiseria can have you seriously worried. The title, overture and opening scenes induce the sure expectation of a comedy of nothing more serious than errors. The Mayor's dastardly designs upon Ninetta give the framework for a plot and the father's return as a deserter from the wars thickens it; but it still comes as quite a profound shock when Ninetta is sent to prison.
When the court sentences her to death we rub our eyes. They strike up the funeral march and we say 'Oh no!'. But Rossini and his librettist risk a stage further towards tragedy as Ninetta sings her last prayer and is led off to execution out of our sight. Of course other developments are in hand and the musical conventions assure us that what seems now inevitable must take a turn for the better. But there is a distinct element of touch-and-go, which makes the opera a remarkable piece for its time, and for its composer.
It also presents a challenge to the producer and the whole company, a challenge well met here, with the right balance struck, and no undermining of one half by the other.
Sets, costumes and acting are all under sensible direction and there are none of those silly diversionary indulgences that have become so habitual in recent years. There are four good vocal performances: by Elena Zilio and Nucci Condò, both sturdy mezzos; by David Kuebler, an accomplished lyric tenor; and by the grand veteran Carlos Feller, looking rather like Bertrand Russell but endowing the old croaker with a fullbodied and still resonant bass voice. The baritones are sonorous but uneven, while Ileana Cotrubas as the heroine sometimes touches the heart but at this stage in her career rarely delights the ear. Bartoletti and his players do justice to Rossini's score, as do the video director and his crew to the events onstage.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Sets, costumes and acting are all under sensible direction and there are none of those silly diversionary indulgences that have become so habitual in recent years. There are four good vocal performances: by Elena Zilio and Nucci Condò, both sturdy mezzos; by David Kuebler, an accomplished lyric tenor; and by the grand veteran Carlos Feller... Ileana Cotrubas as the heroine sometimes touches the heart but at this stage in her career rarely delights the ear. Bartoletti and his players do justice to Rossini's score, as do the video director and his crew to the events onstage.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2007

“All the roles are done with character and obvious enjoyment, including the ensembles and choruses. The orchestra is lively and alert, with Rossini's tuneful invention a constant delight. The production is the crowning glory of this performance, with beautiful sets and costumes, all brightly and sympathetically lit.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

'A musical and vocal pleasure...A major festival event in the anniversary year' Donaukurier

“The camera-work here is as artful as the production: during the Overture (conjured into being by a Mephisto-like MC of a Don Alfonso in Thomas Allen), a single white feather descends; badminton and fencing ensue. Under a vast azure horizon, a huge white egg watches as the women overhear the plotting of the men. This makes for a compelling new twist, as the human heart's infinite potential for self-delusion is unfolded. Manfred Honeck draws swift and minutely attuned playing from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2007 *****