DVD Videos

“Domingo stars in three roles, all filmed when his talents were at their peak. The Covent Garden Fanciulla is exceptional, Manon Lescaut generally good and the real-time Roman Tosca more than a technical feat.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2010 ****

“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 *****

“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

“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

“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 ****

“‘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

“Christopher Swann's 1985 film of the sessions for a new recording of West Side Story repays repeated viewing. Bernstein, conducting his musical for the first time, alternates between thunderclouds and sunshine as he whips his top-flight scratch band into shape and exuberantly encourages his unlikely cast of singers to new heights.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2008

“A judiciously edited…intriguing….amusing glimpse of artistic temperaments at work.” New York Times

“a visual treat, but having some solos delivered as interior monologues is distracting” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011

“an ideal cast of principals and passionate, idiomatic conducting...the glorious singing of Placido Domingo as Des Grieux comes over heroically, and Kiri te Kanawa as Manon is both girlish and provocative...Thomas Allen is equally characterful and strong as Lescaut...For a realistic presentation it would be hard to find any rival.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“Runnicles is a deeply sympathetic conductor inspiring an outstanding cast with no weak link. Kirk te Kanawa not only sings gloriously with a continuous flow of full, warm sound, she acts most movingly...For sheer Straussian beauty, evocatively presented, it would be hard to match the rendering here of the final scene.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“[Thielemann] is an once thrusting and emotional, drawing ripe sounds from the orchestra. Dame Kiri te Manawa gives a convincing dramatic account of the title role and is in glorious voice, producing ravishing sounds in her big numbers...She obviously relishes the sumptuous production, which is as traditional as could be” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ***