Don Pasquale — HDVDARTS

Donizetti Don Pasquale opera to libretto by Giovanni Ruffini. Directed 2010 by Otto Schenk at the Metropolitan Opera. Stars John Del Carlo (Don Pasquale), Mariusz Kwecien (Dr. Malatesta), Matthew Polenzani (Ernesto), Anna Netrebko (Norina), and Bernard Fitch (Notary). James Levine conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Chorus Master Donald Palumbo). Sets and costumes by Rolf Langenfass; lighting by Duane Schuler; dramaturgy by Paul Cremo. Directed for cinema and TV by Gary Halvorson. Sung in Italian. Released 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B+

The Met show is funny. But alas, Anna Netrebko, who looked so young and fresh in 2007 (in for example, her I Puritani), now looks like a healthy mom who just can't get rid of 10 pounds. She is starting to age out of playing Norina, at least on high-definition TV. So we give the Met version a "B+."

sBelow meet Norina (Anna Netrebko) seen on her porch and in her bedroom:

Dr. Malatesa (Mariusz Kwiecien) flatters the Don (John Del Carlo) by playing phony marriage broker for a phony marriage:

And now the Don learns what a complicated step it is to get married!

Here’s a nice YouTube 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.