Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg opera to a libretto by the composer. Directed 2017 by Barrie Kosky at the Bayreuth Festival. Stars Michael Volle (Hans Sachs), Günther Groissböck (Veit Pogner), Johannes Martin Kränzle (Sixtus Beckmesser), Klaus Florian Vogt (Walther von Stolzing), Daniel Behle (David), Anne Schwanewilms (Eva), and Wiebke Lehmkuhl (Magdalene). Philippe Jordan conducts the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus (Chorus Master Eberhard Friedrich). Stage design by Rebecca Ringst; costume design by Klaus Bruns; lighting design by Franck Evin; video by Regine Freise; dramaturgy by Ulrich Lenz. Directed for TV by Michael Beyer. Sung in German. Released 2018, 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.