Aida — HDVDARTS

Giuseppe Verdi Aida opera to libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Directed 2012 by Joseph Franconi Lee at the Teatro Regio di Parma as part of the Verdi Festival. Stars Carlo Malinverno (The King), Mariana Pentcheva (Amneris), Susanna Branchini (Aida), Walter Fraccaro (Ramadès), George Andguladze (Ramfis), Alberto Gazale (Amonasro), Yu Guanqun (Priestess), and Cosimo Vassallo (Messenger). Antonino Fogliani conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio Di Parma (Chorus Master Martino Faggiani). Sets and costumes by Mauro Carosi, lighting by Guido Levi; choreography by Marta Ferri. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini. Sung in Italian. Released 2013, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

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Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.