Die Liebe der Danae

Richard Strauss Die Liebe der Danae opera to a libretto by Joseph Gregor after Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Directed 2011 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin by Kirsten Harms. Stars Manuela Uhl (Danae), Mark Delavan (Jupiter), Matthias Klink (Midas), Thomas Blondelle (Merkur), Bukhard Ulrich (Pollux), Hulkar Sabirova (Xanthe), Paul Kaufmann, Clemens Bieber, Nathan De'Shon Myers, Hyung-Wook Lee (Four Kings), Hila Fahima (Semele), Martina Welschenbach (Europa), Julia Benzinger (Alkmene), and Katarina Bradić (Leda). Andrew Litton conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Chorus Master William Spaulding). Stage design by Bernd Damovsky; costume design by Dorothea Katzer; lighting design by Manfred Voss; dramaturgy by Andreas K. W. Meyer. Directed for TV by Myriam Hoyer. Sung in German. Released 2011, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio 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.