GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: Macbeth (complete opera recorded in 2014) BLU-RAY Metropolitan Opera / Anna Netrebko, Željko Luèiæ, René Pape, Joseph Calleja / Fabio Luisi (conductor) [ Deutsche Grammophon Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Oct/2015 ] An unforgettable performance of Anna Netrebko at the MET now on DVD/BR! Outstanding press acclaim for her performance: New York Observer stated: ".. a superstar cast ... the most potent: Anna Netrebko's ferociously exciting star turn as Lady... |
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (complete opera recorded in 2009) BLU-RAY Metropolitan Opera / Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczala, Mariusz Kwiecien / Marco Armiliato (conductor) [ Deutsche Grammophon Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Aug/2014 ] G - Having dazzled opera audiences from St. Petersburg to L.A. as Lucia, Anna Netrebko triumphantly returns to the Metropolitan Opera in this touchstone coloratura role. |
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Rossini: La Cenerentola [Cinderella] (complete opera recorded in 2009) BLU-RAY Metropolitan Opera / Elina Garanca, Lawrence Brownlee, Simone Alberghini / Maurizio Benini (cond) [ Deutsche Grammophon Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 12/Dec/2014 ] Elina Garanca builds on the success of her previous album, Bel Canto, incarnating the bel canto title role heroine, Cinderella, in Rossini's touching and hilarious comic masterpiece, La Cenerentola. This new DVD was recorded live at the... |
PUCCINI
Turandot (complete opera recorded in 2009) BLU-RAY Metropolitan Opera / Maria Guleghina, Marcello Giordani, Marina Poplavskaya, Samuel Ramey / Andris Nelsons (cond) [ Decca Music Group Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 28/Jul/2011 ] Franco Zeffirelli's magnificent staging of Puccini's final opera - a fairy tale set in a mythical China - is one of the most popular in the Met repertory. |
VERDI
Aida (complete opera recorded in 2009) BLU-RAY Metropolitan Opera / Violeta Urmana, Johan Botha, Dolora Zajick & Carlo Guelfi / Daniele Gatti (cond) [ Decca Music Group Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 28/Jul/2011 ] Verdi's epic drama of ancient Egypt comes to life in the Met's monumental production, captured here in a breathtaking Live in HD presentation. |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Parsifal (complete opera recorded in 2013) BLU-RAY Metropolitan Opera / Peter Mattei, Rene Papp, Jonas Kaufmann, Katarina Dalayman / Daniele Gatti (cond) [ Sony Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 6/Mar/2014 ] "The impassioned intensity Jonas Kaufmann brings to Parsifal's music is matched by the rhetorical conviction of Peter Mattei's Amfortas and Evgeny Nikitin's Klingsor." (Gramophone Award Nomination 2015 - Opera) |
HANDEL
Rodelinda (complete opera recorded in 2012) BLU-RAY Metropolitan Opera / Renee Fleming, Andreas Scholl, Stephanie Blythe / Harry Bicket (cond) [ Decca Classics Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Nov/2012 ] E: 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. |
BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Leonore Nathalie Paulin, Jean-Michel Richer, Stephen Hegedus, Matthew Scollin, Pascale Beaudin, Keven Geddes, Alexandre Sylvestre, Opera Lafayette, Ryan Brow [ Naxos / Blu-ray - released 8/Jan/2021 ] Beethoven started composing Leonore in January 1804. The subject - the release to freedom of an unjustly imprisoned man by his devoted wife - was part of the genre of 'rescue operas' which were very popular at the end of the 18th century. The... |
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia (complete opera recorded in 2007) BLU-RAY Nationaltheater, Munich / Edita Gruberova, Pavol Breslik, Franco Vas / Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Bertrand de Billy [ EuroArts / Unitel Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Feb/2014 ] "the major vocal honours of the evening belong to Pavol Breslik as Gennaro. He sings with excellent diction, variety of tone and good characterisation whilst acting with conviction." (MusicWeb) |
PROKOFIEV
L'Amour des 3 Oranges [Love for Three Oranges] (complete opera recorded in 2005) BLU-RAY Netherlands Opera / Alain Vernhes / Martial Defontaine / Francois Le Roux / Stephane Deneve (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Jan/2009 ] Blu-Ray - Recorded live at Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam, in 2005. |
VERDI
Les Vespres Siciliennes (complete opera recorded in 2010) BLU-RAY Netherlands Opera / Barbara Haveman, Burkhard Fritz, Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester / Paolo Carignani (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Nov/2015 ] Les vêpres siciliennes, like the similarly epic Don Carlos, was conceived as a grand opéra for Paris and is driven by the tensions between private passions and public politics. Originally set during Sicily's 13th-century uprising against French rule,... |
SHOSTAKOVICH
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk (complete opera recorded in 2006) BLU-RAY Netherlands Opera / Eva-Maria Westbroek / Christopher Ventris / Carole Wilson / Vladimir Vaneev / Mariss Jansons, conductor [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Jun/2009 ] "a first-rate protagonist in Eva-Maria Westbroek, a Katerina of Jean Harlow-like allure, who had all the vocal power and stamina that the role demands" (The Times) |
JOHN ADAMS
Adams: Doctor Atomic (Complete Opera directed by Peter Sellars recorded in 2007) BLU-RAY Netherlands Opera / Gerald Finley, Jessica Rivera, James Maddalena / Lawrence Renes (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Mar/2009 ] Blu-Ray - G - 'The cast is flawless… Adams has created a beautiful provocative work that refreshes the repertoire.' The Times |
BELLINI
Norma (complete opera recorded in 2005) BLU-RAY Netherlands Opera / Hugh Smith / Giorgio Giuseppini / Hasmik Papian / Julian Reynolds(cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Dec/2008 ] DVD Blu-Ray - "Irini Tsirakidis, a Greek soprano with a lowish mezzo extension to her voice, takes on the role of Adagisa in more than competent fashion." (MusicWeb July 2007) |
W. A. MOZART
Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (complete opera recorded in 2008) BLU-RAY Netherlands Opera / Laura Aikin, Edgaras Montvidas, Kurt Rydl, Mojca Erdmann / Constantinos Carydis (cond) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 2/Feb/2009 ] Blu-Ray - "Athenian wonder boy Constantinos Carydis has everything you could want from a Mozart conductor, combining manic energy with perfectionism and a profound sense of lyrical beauty." Bloomberg News |
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOSVKY
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin (complete opera recorded in 2011) BLU-RAY Netherlands Opera / Olga Savova, Krassimira Stoyanova, Elena Maximova / Mariss Jansons (conductor) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Apr/2012 ] Mariss Janson's conducting, very imposing in the big moments...accords with the broad brushstrokes of Herheim's production. But the singers are vocally near ideal. Krassimira Stoyanova's Tatyana is thrillingly secure as well as vulnerable" (BBC Music) |
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia (complete opera recorded in 2012) BLU-RAY Netherlands Opera / Svetlana Ignatovich, John Daszak, Vladimir Vaneev. / Marc Albrecht (conductor) [ Opus Arte Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 20/Feb/2014 ] Rimsky-Korsakov's opera is a fanciful fairytale, yet at the same time a parable on repression and political conceit. The peasant girl Fevroniya's prayer that the city of Kitezh becomes invisible, thus protecting it from Tatar attack, is magically... |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Puccini: La Boheme (complete opera recorded in 2012) BLU-RAY Norwegian National Opera / Diego Torre, Marita Salberg, Vasily Ladyuk, Jennifer Rowley / The Norwegian National Opera Orchestra, Eivind Gullberg [ Naxos Blu-ray / Blu-ray - released 10/Jun/2022 ] 'The cast's singing is clearly invigorated by these fresh staging ideas… Tenor Diego Torre has a wonderfully robust high C; soprano Marita Sølberg is a stylistically Italianate as any Mimì I've ever heard.' Gramophone |
MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG
Weinberg: Die Passagierin [The Passenger] (complete opera recorded in 2021) BLU-RAY Oper Graz / Dshamilja Kaiser, Nadja Stefanoff, Will Hartmann, Markus Butter / Roland Kluttig(cond) [ Naxos Blu-ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 8/Jul/2022 ] Mieczysław Weinberg's powerful Holocaust drama Die Passagierin channels his and his family's ordeals of wartime and Soviet persecution, applying them musically to Zofia Posmysz's autobiographical novel. |
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: la Traviata (complete opera recorded in 2011) BLU-RAY The Oper Graz / Marlis Petersen, Kristina Antonie Fehrs, Fran Lubahn, Giuseppe Varano / Tecwyn Evans (cond) [ Arthaus Musik Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Jan/2017 ] "Tecwyn Evans conducts with great rhythmic acuity and finds pace and tension without rushing or becoming unduly loud...An outstanding issue and a quite draining experience." Gramophone |