Death in Venice — HDVDARTS

Benjamin Britten Death in Venice opera to a libretto by Myfanwy Piper. Directed by Deborah Warner in 2013 at The London Coliseum. Stars John Graham-Hall (Gustav von Aschenbach), Andrew Shore (Traveller/Elderly Fop/Old Gondolier/Hotel Manager/Hotel Barber/Leader of the Players/Voice of Dionysus), Tim Mead (Apollo), Sam Zaldivar (Tadzio), Laura Caldow (The Polish Mother), Mia Angelina Mather (Polish Daughter), Xhuliana Shehu (Polish Daughter), Joyce Henderson (The Governess), and Marcio Teixeira (Jaschiu, Tadzio's Friend). Edward Gardner conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the English National Opera. Sets by Tom Pye, costumes by Chloe Obolensky; lighting by Jean Kalman; choreography by Kim Brandstrup. Directed for TV by Ross MacGibbon. Sung in English. Released 2014, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

(Yes, the back art is from the DVD—we can’t find the Blu-ray back art anywhere. But the production info will be the same on both formats.)

Gramophone Magazine in its 2015 Awards Issue lists 3 videos as the best opera recordings for the year, and this Opus Arte Death in Venice is No. 3. It's good to see that the rest of the world is catching on to how important video is to the enjoyment of opera. But it also ridiculous that Gramophone doesn't even state in the awards story that all the three winners were available in Blu-ray. They just give you the DVD catalog numbers. When it comes to video, the folks at Gramophone are really show to catch on.

Here's the official clip:

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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.