Götterdämmerung

Wagner Götterdämmerung opera. Directed 2013 by Guy Cassiers at the Teatro alla Scala. Stars Lance Ryan (Siegfried), Gerd Grochowski (Gunther), Johannes Martin Kränzle (Albrerich), Mikhail Petrenko (Hagan), Iréne Theorin (Brünnhilda and Third Norn), Anna Samuil (Gutrune), Waltraud Meier (Waltraute and 2nd Norn), Margarita Nekrasova (1st Norn), Aga Mikolaj (Woglinda), Maria Gortsevskaya (Wellgunda), and Anna Lapkovskaja (Flosshilda). Daniel Barenboim conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala (Chorus Master Bruno Casoni). Set design by Guy Cassiers; set and lighting design by Enrico Bagnoli; costume design by Tim van Steenbergen; video design by Arjen Klerkx and Kurt D'Haeseleer; choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Directed for TV by Patrizia Carmine. Sung in German. Released 2014, disc has 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. Grade: NA

Now the entire Ring by Cassiers/Barenboim at La Scala has been published. How will this compare to the mighty Met Ring cycle that was completed in 2012?

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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.