Bianca e Fernando

Bellini Bianca e Fernando opera to a libretto by Domenico Gilardoni, revised by Felice Romani. Directed 2021 by Hugo de Ana (with Assistant Director Filippo Tonon) at the Opera Carlo Felice Genova. Stars Salome Jicia (Bianca), Giorgio Misseri (Fernando), Nicola Ulivieri (Filippo), Alessio Cacciamani (Clemente), Giovanni Battista Parodi (Viscardo), Carlotta Vichi (Eloisa), and Antonio Mannarino (Uggero). Mimes are Andrea Baldassarri, Simone Campisi, Sabrina Cerrone, Leuca De Rinaldo, Dario Greco, Ivano La Rosa, Allesandro Percuoco, Martin L. Ruis, Martina Serra, Savino Somma, Stefania Ventura, Marianna Zanaglio, and Elidon Zemblaku. Donato Renzetti conducts the Orchestra e Coro dell’Opera Carlo Felice Genova (Chorus Master Francesco Aliberti). Set and costumes by Hugo de Ana (with Assistant Set Designer Nathalie Deana and Assistant Costume Designer Cristina Aceti); lighting by Valerio Alfieri. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini. Recording, editing, and post production by MASClassica Audio Recording Claudio Speranzini and Antonio Martino. Sung in Italian. Released 2022, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

This is an early and rarely performed Bellini opera. It’s not top drawer Bellini, but from the looks of the trailer below, it seems Hugo de Ana and his team have given this top-drawer support. It’s impressive how much material Dynamic has published in recent years for true fans of Italian opera. If you are such a fan, you will probably want to give this title a try.

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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.