English National Opera, Sir Charles Mackerras (conductor) & Nicholas Hytner (stage director)
DVD Video
$32.75
Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days.
Set Design by DAVID FIELDING
Nicholas Hytner’s highly innovative production of Handel’s comic opera won the coveted Laurence Olivier Opera Award. This live recording from the English National Opera stars Lesley Garrett and Ann Murray as Xerxes, whose love for Romilda, sung by Valerie Masterson, sets off a series of love intrigues. The designer, David Fielding, has produced a stunning and elegant series of curious and absorbing images, creating a world of its own and recreating the culture of Vauxhall Gardens in Handel’s own time. Sir Charles Mackerras conducts the English National Opera orchestra in an edition prepared by himself.
Sound Format: PCM Stereo
Picture Format: 4:3
DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC
Subtitle Languages: GB (Original Language), DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, GR
Running Time: 186 mins
FSK: 0
****
“a landmark in the reassessment of Handel's genius...Mackerras understood Handel's music intimately...Murray's Xerxes is unfailingly elegant, whether serenading a plant in the shadow of Roubiliac's statue of Handel, or pausing over a demitasse. Less delicate of voice, Robson gives the most expressive performance.”
August 2012
“This 1988 performance features some of the outstanding English-speaking singers around at that time. All are good in their roles and if there are a few moments of vocal imperfection they are more than compensated for in outstanding acting and decorated singing. [Murray and Rigby] are quite magnificent...With a trimmed-down band he manages a near Baroque rendering of his own erudite edition of Handel’s even longer score.”
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