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Renée Fleming and Andreas Scholl lead a superb cast in Stephen Wadsworth’s celebrated production of Handel’s Rodelinda from the Metropolitan Opera – based on the "Live in HD" transmission to cinemas worldwide. The title role is unique in featuring no less than eight magnificent arias. Renée Fleming’s triumph in the first run of the production was hailed by The New York Times, "Ms Fleming draws on every resource of her artistry in this portrayal: luminous sound, exquisite ornamentation, floating high notes, emotional volatility." Playing opposite her is Decca Classics countertenor star, Andreas Scholl, as King Bertarido, assumed dead, but returning to reclaim his throne and his queen. The handsome period production sets the drama of public and private passion in the Milan of Handel’s own time – majestically presented in the set designs of Thomas Lynch and the lavish costumes of Martin Pakledinaz. “the orchestra delivers a nimble performance...Scholl's cool Bertarido and Iestyn Davies's mellifluous Unulfo make a pleasing contrast to Joseph Kaiser's splenetic Grimoaldo...Blythe displays handsome tones, while Shenyang sings the brutish role of Garibaldo with elan. Fleming, without whom none of this would be happening, is perplexing: an exquisite voice untroubled by consonants, mermaid-like in its dolorous beauty” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 **** “Bicket coaxes the Met into a credible Baroque style...Iestyn Davies's intelligent singing and acting make Unulfo an especially likeable confidant to the heroic couple. Joseph Kaiser's acting of the sorrowful tyrant Grimoaldo undergoing a crisis of confidence ('Pastorello') is first-class...Wadsworth's amiable production comes to the boil nicely in acts 2 & 3.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 “In this packaging of [Handel's] Rodelinda, the unfriendly size of the Met auditorium is neutralized...we can better appreciate the period theorbo and recorders that conductor Harry Bicket adds for flavoring in the pit. Via this medium, characters give every sign of communicating with one another, while the producer's agile camera focuses tightly on individual expressions...[Fleming] invests her high-speed passagework with convincing venom” Opera News, April 2013 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | The Handel Collection3 Full Length Programmes
Two complete operas, Rodelinda & Theodora, and 'A Night With Handel' a performance-based film of arias set in contemporary London by night.
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Here is what is probably Handel's most accomplished opera: the heir to L'incoronazione di Poppea with respect to the villainy of some of its characters, but also the Baroque ancestor of certain Romantic operas! Scrupulously based on historical characters, this work illustrates many different facets of the human soul, and also boasts perhaps the most sumptuous orchestral textures Handel ever conceived, magnificently brought out by Lars Ulrik Mortensen in this production from the Copenhagen Opera. Francisco Negrin’s transposition of the opera to the universe of modern war and Anthony Baker’s refined designs place Andreas Scholl (Giulio Cesare) and the other soloists in an unsettling, crepuscular atmosphere that is highly contemporary. Direction: Francisco Negrin, Design & costumes: Anthony Baker “Though all of the performances are delivered with some intelligence Negine fails to draw much in the way of intensity from any of his singers, either individually or in confrontation. …any DVD Caesar has to measure itself against Glyndebourne's (on Opus Arte), which is going to take some beating.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2007 *** “This is certainly the most insightful and intelligent for drama, and probably also the best for all-round musical
consistency” Gramophone Magazine “Francisco Negrin's production, though not without judiciously applied humour in a few places, is essentially of a serious nature (and more so than his lighter and brighter Sydney production, reviewed above). Unsurprisingly, this sympathetic approach suits Handel's operaseria to a tee. There are neither damaging large cuts nor ill-advised reordering of movements, and Negrin's ideas fully support the musico-dramatic nature of the characters as presented in the libretto and score. The modernistic setting laced with elements of ancient Egypt provides the platform for a dark and brooding drama.
Where some directors use tricks to amuse the audience, Negrin uses visual playfulness to illustrate a serious point about the characters (such as the contest between elevating thrones in 'Va tacito'). It is refreshing that at the end there is little doubt that the good guys have triumphed: Sesto is caked in Tolomeo's blood, which seems to mark his coming of age in a brutal world, but there is no attempt made to ridicule the victorious leading characters, who fully deserve their happy ending.
Andreas Scholl's singing is consistently astute, and his acting has advanced considerably in subtlety since his operatic debut in Glyndebourne's Rodelinda nearly a decade ago. However, this is an excellent team performance.
Inger Dam-Jensen performs with the ideal sincerity and emotiveness that Cleopatra's character too often lacks in superficial productions.
Tuva Semmingsen's Sesto sings with crystalclear phrasing ('Cara speme' is heart-stopping).
Christopher Robson's singing is weak but his acting as the nasty Tolomeo is superb in its timing of gestures (there is plenty of comedy in his scenes, but he is brutal and menacing rather than the simply camp idiot too often portrayed onstage). Lars Ulrik Mortensen's direction of the music from his harpsichord is well nigh perfect.
This is not the most flamboyant or fancy Giulio Cesare on DVD, but it is certainly the most insightful and intelligent for drama, and probably also the best for all-round musical consistency.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Schweizer Fernsehen 2005Artistic Direction - Wilhelm Zürrer and Producer - Thomas Grimm
Subtitles in Latin, French, English, German  BBC Music Magazine
DVD Choice - June 2007 |
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A major contribution to ‘Handel Year’: countertenor star Andreas Scholl returns to the Decca label in Handel’s comedy Partenope “the finest countertenor of his generation” Opera News Technical Specifications Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese “Mortensen's magnificent direction brings out the full measure of excitement, pathos and emotion in Handel's score...[the production] conveys an enormous amount of what makes Partenope very special” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Andreas Scholl - CountertenorA Portrait by Uli Aumüller and Hanne Kaisik
The film accompanies the internationally renowned countertenor Andreas Scholl to recitals in Dresden, Schwetzingen and his home town, Kiedrich. In interviews Andreas Scholl sheds light on his personal and artistic development. In the bonus parts of the DVD Andreas Scholl sings John Dowland’s “Lute Songs“ and Dietrich Buxtehude’s “Jubilate Domino“. Directly after the recital, Scholl and his co-performers discuss the works and their interpretation of them. Recording Date: 2002
Running Time: 87 min
Picture Format: 16:9
Sound Format: PCM Stereo
Menu Languages NTSC: D, F, GB, I, JP, SP
Subtitle Languages NTSC: F, GB, I, JP, SP
“Scholl‘s voice is pure and beautiful in sound, his taste exquisite, his pitch and diction immaculate. It is inadequate to compare Andreas Scholl to many other countertenors now working, even the fi nest of them. Instead one is put in mind of legendary past masters.” Fanfare | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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