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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Verdi: La TraviataTeatro Regio Di Parma, 2007
Staged by Karl-Ernst Herrmann & Ursel Herrmann C Major’s Tutto Verdi project arrives at arguably Verdi’s most popular opera: La traviata. This 2007 production from the Teatro Regio di Parma is conducted by Yuri Termirkanov. He has appeared with many leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and La Scala. SOUND: DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM STEREO RUNNING TIME: TOTAL: 143 MINUTES (OPERA: 133 MINUTES, BONUS: 10 MINUTES) SUBTITLES: ITALIAN (ORIGINAL LANGUAGE), ENGLISH, GERMAN, FRENCH, SPANISH, CHINESE, KOREAN, JAPANESE AVAILABILITY: WORLDWIDE | 
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| |  | Verdi: La Traviata
Emma Matthews (Violetta Valéry), Gianluca Terranova (Gianluca Terranova), Jonathan Summers (Giorgio Germont), Margaret Plummer (Flora Bervoix), Martin Buckingham (Gastone), James Clayton (Baron Douphol) & Christopher Hillier (Marquis d’Obigny) Opera Australia Chorus & Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Brian Castles-Onion (conductor) & Francesca Zambello (director) Stage Designer Brian Thomson Costume Designer Tess Schofield Lighting Designer John Rayment La Traviata, one of the world’s best loved romantic operas, and is performed under the stars on a floating, mirrored stage in Sydney Harbour, with the city, Opera House and Harbour Bridge acting as a stunning backdrop. Giuseppe Verdi's captivating music is performed with the orchestra concealed in a studio beneath the stage to ensure the finest amplified sound combines with the superlative singing of the cast. With the singers discreetly miked, the recorded sound is presented here in superb quality. Emma Matthews is continually being garnered with praise - ‘Emma Matthews could inspire the dead, turning in one of the finest readings of this role I’ve ever heard’ (International Record Review on Rigoletto), ‘As Gilda, Emma Matthews is outstanding’ (Opera Now on Rigoletto) – and doesn’t disappoint. Includes a glittering Swarovski chandelier illuminating the stage and fireworks decorating Sydney Harbour’s sky-line, which render this production as something truly spectacular. “Emma Matthews's Violetta is exuberant and breathtakingly accurate...she has nothing to fear from close scrutiny and amid what must have been considerable challenges she feels free enough to wow the audience.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Verdi: La Traviata
Renata Scotto (Violetta Valéry), Sarah Walker (Flora Bervoix), Cynthia Buchan (Annina), Alfredo Kraus (Alfredo Germont), Renato Bruson (Giorgio Germont), Suso Mariategui (Gastone), Henry Newman (Barone Douphol), Richard Van Allan (Marchese d’Obigny), Roderick Kennedy (Dottore Grenvil), Max-René Cosotti (Giuseppe) & Christopher Keyte (Commissionario) Philharmonia Orchestra, Ambrosian Opera Chorus & Band of the Royal Marines, Riccardo Muti | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Verdi: La Traviata
“Sutherland's second studio Traviata shows her on mature if still considerable form alongside the ebullient Pavarotti and the considered Matteo Manuguerra.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Verdi: La Traviata
Joan Sutherland (Violetta Valéry), Miti Truccato Pace (Flora Bervoix), Dora Carral (Annina), Carlo Bergonzi (Alfredo Germont), Robert Merrill (Giorgio Germont), Giorgio Germont (Gastone), Paolo Pedani (Barone Douphol), Silvio Maionica (Marchese d’Obigny), Giovanni Foiani (Dottore Grenvil), Angelo Mercuriali (Giuseppe), Tenero Meridionale (Domestico di Flora) Orchestra e coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Sir John Pritchard La Traviata – the ultimate opera of love and loss – is a great favourite of opera-goers. To coincide with Opera Australia’s Traviata production in the spectacular setting of “Opera on the Harbour”, Eloquence releases Joan Sutherland’s first recording of La Traviata, complete on 2 CDs. It is for many her greatest recorded portrayal of the doomed heroine Violetta. Her Alfredo is the ‘simply supreme’ (Gramophone) Carlo Bergonzi and Sir John Pritchard conducts a ‘most persuasive, well-balanced and well-timed account’ (Gramophone) of this magnificent opera. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Verdi: La TraviataRecorded at Aix-en-Provence in 2011
Natalie Dessay (Violetta), Charles Castronovo (Alfredo), Ludovic Tézier (Germont), Adelina Scarabelli (Annina), Silvia de la Muela (Flora Bervoix), Manuel Nunez Camelino (Gastone de Letorière), Kostas Smoriginas (Barone Douphol), Andrea Mastroni (Marchese d'Obigny), Maurizio Lo Piccolo (Dottor Grenvil) London Symphony Orchestra, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Louis Langrée (conductor) & Jean-François Sivadier (stage director) Natalie Dessay made her first European appearances as Violetta in La traviata in a new production by the French director Jean-François Sivadier at the 2011 Aix-en-Provence Festival. This DVD captures her intense performance in the company of American tenor Charles Castronovo as Alfredo and French baritone Ludovic Tézier as his father, Giorgio Germont. “Her theatrical impact is devastating,” wrote the Financial Times. With this new production of La traviata at the 2011 Aix-en-Provence Festival, Natalie Dessay made her first European appearances as Verdi’s Violetta, a pinnacle of the soprano repertoire. She made her debut in the role in 2009 at the Santa Fe Festival in the US, and subsequently sang Violetta in Japan. Dessay’s 2011-12 season will include La traviata at the Vienna State Opera (in this Aix-en-Provence production by French theatre and opera director Jean-François Sivadier) and the New York Metropolitan. Violetta makes tremendous demands on a singer, both vocally and dramatically, and signals Dessay’s transition from lighter coloratura roles to the more full-blooded lyric repertoire. “I’m tired of playing weeping girls,” she told the French magazine Télé 7 Jours, “Violetta is a real woman. That makes a nice change!” The change was clearly successfully achieved: describing Dessay’s performance, the Financial Times wrote that “her theatrical impact is devastating”. Sivadier’s production was staged in the open air, in Aix-en-Provence’s exquisite Théâtre de l'Archevêché with its huge spiral staircases, medieval arches and 18th-century wings. The stage décor was minimal, the simple costumes evoked the 1940s or 1950s, and the prime focus was on intense characterisation. Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian “Her age and silvery voice may not in theory be suited to playing Violetta. But try believing that after Ah, fors’è lui or Addio, del passato, emotional pinnacles scaled with tremendous, tender subtlety. There’s also plenty to relish in the bloom and finesse of the London Symphony Orchestra” The Times, 16th March 2012 **** “This is one of the most truthful and moving realisations of Verdi's La Traviata I could ever imagine...such is its intelligence in focusing on the essentials of the characters and the action that one is repeatedly knocked sideways...Dessay is exceptional throughout, not just physically but vocally; she realises Verdi's notes with insight as well as technical command. Charles Castronovo's impetuous, intensely vulnerable Alfredo is equally fine.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 ***** “This turned out to be the most moving reading of Violetta I have ever seen. ..Argue about the 'sound' if you like, but there's no chance that you won't be touched by her overall performance. Charles Castronovo's Alfredo is just right: ardent, embarrassingly young and shy at the start, his tone warm and Italianate...Louis Langree's conducting is controversial; it's almost too classical...Both sound and picture are superb.” International Record Review, July/August 2012 “Dessay really rises to considerable histrionic heights and draws in the watcher to share in Violetta’s agonies of despair, brief hope and then despair again. Her total involvement blurs the odd moment of thin or unsteady tone...Castronovo as Alfredo sings with ardent lyricism and pleasing tone.” MusicWeb International, June 2012  BBC Music Magazine
DVD Choice - May 2012 |
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| |  | Verdi: La TraviataFox Theatre Atlanta 4/5/1960 live
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| |  | Verdi: La TraviataRecorded live at the Royal Opera House, London, June & July 2009
Verdi’s best-loved work, is performed here by a star cast in a revival of Richard Eyre’s highly acclaimed 1994 production. Music Director Antonio Pappano conducts La traviata for the first time at Covent Garden. American soprano Renée Fleming returns to Covent Garden to sing Violetta for the first time with The Royal Opera. La traviata was first performed at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice in March 1853. "...Antonio Pappano takes charge of this revival, searching out the meaning of Verdi's score in a supple, sentient reading that sweeps you along." The Guardian Extra features: Cast gallery Antonio Pappano interviews Renée Fleming Running time 135 mins Region Code All regions Picture format 16:9 Anamorphic Sound format 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS Menu languages EN Subtitles EN/FR/DE/ES/IT “I was sniffy about her first night but this DVD comes from later in the run, by which time she had found an uncharacteristic emotional freedom. She is still the prima donna playing the part, but the beautiful sounds she makes, especially in the Act One finale and the Act Two party, are well worth hearing, and the high-quality film-work puts us right at the heart of the action.” Financial Times, 21st May 2011 **** “this is a sensible, believable, attractive presentation that is more in line with Verdi than with the idiocies of Regietheater...Vocally, [Fleming] is on good form at almost every turn... Calleja must sound authentic enough as an Italianate tenor for anyone...I always have the impression that [Pappano] works with the singers rather than challenging them to a duel. The chorus and orchestra respond fittingly to his direction.” International Record Review, July 2011 “At the age of 50, [Fleming] still looks very good in the role of the doomed courtesan...[she] sounds good, too, singing with consistent skill...There's a sincerity to Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja's portrayal of Alfredo which gives it more spontaneity than his American colleagues supply...Stronger than the vocals is the conducting of Antonio Pappano, which possesses a natural stylishness and fluency” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Verdi: La TraviataRoyal Opera House, Covent Garden, 20 June 1958
Maria Callas (1923-1977) needs no introduction as she was quite simply one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. Any recording is of major importance and this Traviata from 1958 given in London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden is no exception. Peter Heyworth in the Observer commented, ‘it was a performance of outstanding distinction and musicality, full of details that illuminated again and again the part as though for the first time’. Opera News said, ‘there must have been many Verdi lovers who felt at last that they had come face to face with Violetta herself...’ John Ardoin in his book The Callas Legacy was very enthusiastic about the performance, not only Callas but also the Germont of Mario Zanasi for example, ‘Zanasi’s intrinsic musicality combined with Callas’s wealth of insights to bring the lengthy second act scene between Germont and Violetta to a living realisation. This duet is a study in contrasts, tensions and releases on the highest expressive level’. Of Callas herself, Ardoin went on to say ‘it is in the final Act that Callas makes the tragedy of Violetta most immediate. The opening recitatives and “Addio del passato” are from another world…Callas’ Violetta is summed up in the strain “Se una pudica vergine” sung in a half-lit legato of breathtaking eloquence’. Ardoin praised the conductor Nicola Rescigno who ‘brings sanity and song to the performance and was remarkably at one with Callas in the ends she sought’. This recording drawn from private tapes has been remastered by Paul Baily using ICA’s Ambient Mastering process which has enhanced and widened the sound considerably. Here is his description: “Our Ambient Remastering process creates a sense of space and width to a mono, or very narrow stereo, recording. No artificial reverberation is added in this process, so that it remains faithful to the natural acoustic of the original”. “though it has been issued on various labels, this ICA Classics recording is the best I have heard...after Act 1, in which [Callas] still does many wonderful things, her performance is on a level which no other soprano compares with. The scene with Germont is overwhelming, and her immense affirmation of love to Alfredo is almost unbearably intense...This is art at its absolute limit, and a unique document.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 ***** “Maria Callas's Violetta was one of the wonders of our age: scarily elemental, supernaturally brilliant...Callas sounds less full-voiced, more restrained, than in her 1958 Lisbon performance, but the combination of vocal depth and fragile, eloquent virtuosity is unbeatable and the emotional collapse across the three acts is heartbreaking...Nicola Rescigno's conducting lifts the performance to the highest level. A classic indeed.” The Observer, 20th March 2011 | | | (also available to download from $20.75) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Verdi: La Traviata
Full track-list and synopsis in English, German and French | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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