Der Rosenkavalier

Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier opera to libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Directed 2014 by Harry Kupfer at the Salzburg Festival. Stars Krassimira Stoyanova (Feldmarschallin), Günther Groisböck (Baron Ochs), Sophie Koch (Octavian), Adrian Eröd (Faninal), Mojca Erdman (Sophie), Silvana Dussmann (Leitmetzerin), Rudolph Schasching (Valzacci), Wiebke Lehmkuhl (Annina), and Stefan Pop (Sänger). Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker, Konzertvereinigung Wiener Philharmoniker (Chorus Master Ernst Raffelsberger), and the Salzburger Festpiele und Theater Kinderchor (Chorus Master Wolfgang Götz). Set design by Hans Shavernoch; costume design by Yan Tax; lighting design by Jürgen Hoffmann. Directed for TV by Brian Large. Sung in German. Released 2013, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Hugo Shirley, writing in the April 2015 Gramophone (pages 111-112) deplores static directing, which results, he says, in a production that is neither funny nor moving. He's not that crazy either about any of the female singers. He feels Günther Groisböck as Baron Ochs is too young and attractive to make him an unfeasible match for Sophie, "meaning that the whole basis of the comedy is undermined." He does however praise Welser-Möst and the Vienna Phil and Chorus.

Well, the cast on this recording seen attractive to me, and the YouTube clip below seems elegant and beautiful. Maybe we need another opinion about this video:

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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.