Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci

"Cav and Pag" opera double feature directed and staged 2015 by Damiano Michieletto at the Royal Opera House:

First plays the Pietro Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana to libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzeti and Guido Menasci. Stars Aleksandrs Antonenko (Turiddu), Elena Zilio (Mamma Lucia), Eva-Maria Westbroek (Santuzza), Dimitri Platanias (Alfio), and Martina Belli (Lola).
Then follows the Ruggero Leoncavallo Pagliacci to libretto by the composer. Stars Dimitri Platanias (Tonio), Aleksandrs Antonenko (Canio), Carmen Giannattasio (Nedda), Benjamin Hulett (Beppe), Dionysios Sourbis (Silvio), Elliot Goldie (Villager), and Nigel Cliffe (Villager).

Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the Royal Opera Chorus. Set design by Paolo Fantin; costume design by Carla Teti; lighting design by Alessandro Carletti. Directed for TV by Rhodri Huw. Sung in Italian. Released 2016, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound (information on package confused) and Dolby Atmos 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.