Rossini Demetrio e Polibio opera to a libretto by Vincenzina Viganò-Mombelli. Directed 2010 by Davide Livermore at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Stars María José Moreno (Lisinga), Victoria Zaytseva (Demetrio-Siveno), Yijie Shi (Demetrio-Eumene), and Mirco Palazzi (Polibio). Corrado Rovaris conducts the Orchestra Sinfonica G. Rossini and the Prague Chamber Choir (Chorus Master Lubomír Mátl). Stage and costume design by the Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino; lighting by Nicolas Bovey; répétiteur and piano by Gianni Fabbrini; cello continuo by Andrea Agostinelli; Alessandre Premoli assisted in direction; special effects by Alexandra. Sung in Italian. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
This was Rossini's first opera. It premiered in Rome in 1812 and was thereafter not produced again until it was revived at Pesaro in 2010. It follows that this in the only video ever made of Demetrio e Polibio (Arkiv Music has one CD in its database of this that was released by Dynamic in 1996). So this HDVD of Demetrio e Polibio is truly a rare item! Isn't it astonishing that we now can have a video of Rossini's first (juvenile) opera in our own homes? How did this come to pass? Well, this is an unexpected aspect of the quiet revolution we are witnessing in the fine arts brought about by HD TV and the availability of HDVDs. There are many worthy operas that have been neglected and all but lost. It was too expensive to revive them just for live audiences. But now these works can get produced because of the prospects of selling discs later. DVDs started this trend, but HDVDs promise to deliver even more sales far into the future once consumers have the gear in their homes and see for themselves the quality that they can now enjoy with HD TV.
OR
