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“You could not hope for a stronger cast” The Times

“A clever and beautifully made dramatisation” Sunday Times

“This was thrilling stuff, as exciting visually as it was aurally” Sunday Telegraph

“Ian Hart is brilliant as Beethoven, a volatile, magnetic figure of genius and uncouth charm…not to be missed” Daily Mail

“'June 1804' says the legend at the film's opening.
Denis Matthews (in his Master Musicians volume) thought it was six months later that the Eroica was given a first run-through in the palace of Prince Lobkowitz, but had that been so we should have been denied Beethoven and his pupil Ferdinand Ries tramping river banks, and Beethoven and the object of his unrequited love lazing idly in the palace courtyard, so June it is.
Let's not complain: historical verisimilitude is always going to be at a premium in such reconstructions, and the makers of this BBC film do not take us for fools. They use what we know of the people and places concerned to invent a plausible narrative of politics, love and anger that, most importantly, centres on the music.
In fact the domestic scale of the setting is a powerful reminder of the work's vast reach and capacity to shock. Potential purchasers will have to judge for themselves whether they are likely to be bothered by the soundtrack being palpably separate from the visuals, or the orchestra being visibly smaller than the sum of its excellent parts.
The recording is instrumental in bringing film and symphony to life: winds to the fore, bassoons and growly double-basses balefully everpresent.
In the Eroica itself, Gardiner's first movement (without its repeat) has a bare and remorseless intensity; his own previous DG recording is nearer Beethoven's metronome mark and some distance further from the expressive force of this new recording. The Scherzo is a little plainly phrased but Gardiner springs his surprise with the finale. A tempo that seems at first tepid grows around the music, allowing the fugue its due weight, the flute solo its pathos and the horns their full measure of glory.
The film's producers think the performance worth hearing on a separate set of tracks, without noises off: there are only so many times that you will want to hear Beethoven tell Ries to 'piss off' after his pupil has interrupted halfway through the first movement. In a further act of charity, Opus Arte spares us the otherwise ubiquitous musical excerpt over the title menus. The enterprise is probably a one-off but it's tempting to imagine what this team could do with the Fifth, or even the Ninth.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Andrew Davis presents the documentary in an engaging style, giving an overview of the variations, as well as homing in on several of them. …there's a lot of information presented in an unassuming way, and, for anyone coming to this masterpiece for the first time, it's a good way.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2005 ***

“Sir Andrew Davis's warmly committed performance of the Enigma Variations, atmospherically recorded in Worcester Cathedral, introduces a highly enjoyable documentary about the work and the 'friends pictured within'. Davis suggests that each variation, as well as reflecting the character of a particular friend, reveals much about Elgar himself, 'like an actor playing many roles'.
Each section is illustrated with archive material and period reconstructions, happily with no dialogue, only Davis's narration. He describes and analyses nine of the 14 variations with orchestral clips and illustrations played on the piano.
So the first variation, 'CAE', depicting Elgar's wife Alice, concentrating on the central majorkey section of the theme, includes a brief, passionate climax, 'showing his depth of feeling'.
'RBT', subject of the third variation, was the treasurer of the local golf club, who got Elgar accepted as a member even though his social class was against him. We're shown what used to be the clubhouse, now set in waste land. 'Nimrod' depicts the publisher August Jaeger and Elgar walking together, and Davis points to echoes of the slow movement from Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata. The intermezzo, 'Dorabella', brings a good portrait of the young Dora Penny, but after a reference to her cycling, ends absurdly on shots of a modern couple roller- blading – an example of fussy and intrusive visual illustration.
Fairly enough, Davis favours the idea that the 13th variation, 'Romanza', represents not Lady Mary Lygon, as has generally been thought, but his first love, Helen Weaver, who emigrated to New Zealand. Irritating are the accompanying shots of a soulful modern teenager on Lambeth Bridge looking at a launch bearing his girlfriend away.
The performance itself has no unwanted intrusions – just a sepia photo of the subject as each variation begins – and is a fine one.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This film was much lauded when shown on BBC2. Katie Mitchell's arresting production opens up the story, taking it into the countryside and producing spooky and louring images to create the mysterious and dangerous aura of Bly, which does no harm to the intentions of Henry James and Benjamin Britten. Mitchell allows the characters' interior monologues to be heard while the singers' mouths remain closed – especially apt for the role of the Governess.
For about two-thirds of the work the director keeps within the boundaries stipulated by Britten and librettist Myfanwy Piper, making us fully aware of the ambiguities of the participants and their relationships. But in the third part she rather allows her ideas to get out of hand, the nightmarish images becoming too surreal, especially for the ghosts and the children, although she recovers in time to make the final struggle between the Governess and Quint for Miles's soul an arresting close. We're left, as we should be, uncertain at the state of the Governess's mind and the exact powers of the ghosts.
Richard Hickox commands every aspect of the tricky score, lovingly executed by members of his City of London Sinfonia, even if the balance with the singers sometimes goes awry.
The cast is splendid. Nicholas Kirby Johnson as Miles achieves just the right balance between innocence and knowingness. His singing is fluent and pointed, as is that of Caroline Wise, a teenage Flora with a lively presence, expressive eyes and a malleable voice. Lisa Milne, unflatteringly garbed, is rather too confident of voice and mien as the Governess. Although she sings with her customary clarity of line and word, she doesn't suggest the nervous vulnerability of Jennifer Vyvyan, who created the role. Diana Montague is a gratifyingly sympathetic Mrs Grose, using body language to convey just the right feeling of apprehension and concern over the fate of her charges. Mark Padmore is among the best of Quints, vocally and histrionically. Catryn Wyn-Davies is a properly wild and scary Miss Jessel. All in all, this is the version to have.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Katie Mitchell directs very much in the BBC classic manner… Bly's grand but bleak interiors and iron-grey woodlands splendidly atmospheric. Hickox and his exceptional cast capture beautifully the escalating tension that makes the score so gripping in the theatre. Lisa Milne sings the Governess as finely as any on disc; more plumply prosaic than the usual tormented waif, her growing hysteria is all the more alarming. By contrast Diana Montague's Mrs Grose is unusually tall and patrician, but utterly convincing. Catrin Wyn Davies is a sensuous, eerie Miss Jessel, but Mark Padmore's Quint, though mellifluous, could use more supernatural menace... Caroline Wise and Nicolas Kirkby Johnson as the children, though, are ideal... and they sing with genuine expressive power. ...one of the truest opera films to date.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2005 *****

“What Katie Mitchell has devised is a highly evocative film to go with a performance of The Turn of the Screw. The result is very different from a conventional staging, with the singers, for much of the time, acting out their roles without being seen...A distinctive version with many great qualities, most of all in presenting the full horror of the story, set against an eerie background.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ***

“Harry Kupfer's Bayreuth staging was Teutonically technological and ugly, but despite some dramatic silliness it actually heeded Wagner's stage directions. So does this one, created originally for Berlin, but it's a lot more attractive, and rightly attentive to the Ring's mythological core.
Its centrepiece, towering above a black mirrored stage surface, is the massive World-Ash tree, from which we see Wotan tearing his spear, and around whose roots the Rhinemaidens gambol and climb; the action moves up and down the trunk with the aid of the Liceu's splendid new machinery. Sillinesses – recurring suitcases, the gods' premature entrances and over-extended dance finale, the serpent reduced to feeble claws – aren't crippling.
Bertrand de Billy's warm, slowish reading is likeable, but doesn't generate enough shape and dramatic drive. Falk Struckmann's Wotan is a strong-voiced dynamic presence, but his tone is harsh and vibrant, and his characterisation arrogantly unsympathetic. Günter von Kannen is now a rather portly Alberich, and, despite a wonderfully malign glare, short on vocal and dramatic bite. Not so Graham Clark's Loge, incisively sung, even if his character tenor underplays the part's more lyrical side. Lioba Braun, Elisabete Matos and Andrea Bönig are worthy goddesses, Jeffrey Dowd a strong if not ideally mellifluous Froh, and Wolfgang Rauch an unusually impressive Donner. Veteran Matthias Hölle and rising star Kwangchul Youn are excellent Giants, android-like figures more effective than Bayreuth's dehumanised monstrous puppets. That goes, too, for the romantic rather than tarty Rhinemaidens.
So we have a decent modern staging on DVD, recorded in vivid surround-sound and clear if somewhat stygian vision. It does, though, have one infuriating disadvantage: unlike any other Rheingold it's spread over two discs; the sidebreak isn't well chosen, and you have to go through the whole menu rigmarole before the second side.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Gunter von Kannen is a powerful, hypnotic Alberich, whose voice conveys a sense of strength and authority which makes his curse on the Ring convincing...There's enough convention to be familiar and the modern touches are highly appropriate to the plot and its development.” MusicWeb International

“Spectacular and pacy, Attila fills the stage with barbarians, gives them good tunes to sing and places them in a busy world where every moment may bring a reversal of fortune. Moreover, the four leading characters are fired with passionate determination which in turn fires their magnificent voices. There is sure to be something to write home about after a good Attila. And this is a La Scala performance fully worthy of the great house and its best traditions. It is very much the kind of opera that thrives in Muti's care.
A hard, percussive energy plays off against long elegiac phrases, and the resulting tension, very Italian with its sense of personal suffering in the midst of great public events, permeates the whole performance. The singers match up to the challenge wonderfully well. Samuel Ramey's ironfisted voice is the perfect vocal image of the man, a voice with no flab, trained as by an athlete. The limitations are of tonal variety, in the dream sequence; but this is still a triumphant Attila. The soprano role of Odabella is as formidable as any in the Verdi canon, and Cheryl Studer masters it with astonishing assurance, and without the usual register-breaks and smudged scales. The tenor Kaludi Kaludov brings a clean, incisive tone and a well-schooled legato, and among all these foreigners Giorgio Zancanaro represents his country in its leading national opera house with a welcome infusion of Italian resonance and a reminder (intrusive aspirates apart) of the true vocal method of which Italy was for so long the fount.
Moreover, these individual talents come together as a well-disciplined ensemble, and the concerted numbers have the authentic thrill of Italian opera in best working order.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The relative brevity of the piece...makes a strong impact on DVD, in a production with traditional costumes and using minimal but atmospheric sets. [Ramey and Zancanaro] are ideally cast, with Cheryl Studer also outstanding as Odabella.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“The slickness of the scene changes, the direction of Werner Herzog, together with Rossini’s music, the solo and choral singing and Muti’s vibrant conducting keep the watcher and listener interested. As Elena, June Anderson keeps a pure vocal line with secure legato, plenty of tonal colour and secure coloratura.” MusicWeb International