Aureliano in Palmira

Rossini Aureliano in Palmira opera to a libretto by G. F. R. (generally attributed to Giuseppe Felice Romani). Directed 2014 by Mario Martone at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Stars Michael Spyres (Aureliano), Jessica Pratt (Zenobia), Lena Belkina (Arsace), Raffaella Lupinacci (Publia), Dempsey Rivera (Oraspe), Sergio Vitale (Licinio), Dimitri Pkhaladze (Gran Sacerdote), and Raffaele Constantini (Un Pastore). Will Crutchfield completed a new critical edition of the score and conducts the Orchestra Sinfonica G. Rossini and the Chorus of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Chorus Master Andrea Faidutti). Set design by Sergio Tramonti; costume designs by Ursula Patzak; lighting by Pasquali Mari. Directed for TV by TTiziano Manciniiziano Mancini. Sung in Italian. Released 2015, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

We have a number of interesting and well-made HDVDs from Pesaro Festival productions of Rossini operas. This appears to be another recently-uncovered jewel for Rossini fans to admire. Richard Osbourn gives it a warm review at page 113 of the 2015 Awards Issue of Gramophone calling it "the Aureliano to have."

Here’s a short clip that we feel 99.9% is from this production, but which might not be from the file recorded by Tiziano Mancini:

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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.