Gustavo III — HDVDARTS

Verdi Gustavo III opera to libretto by Antonio Somma. Directed 2021 by Jacopo Spirei on a project by Graham Vick at the Teatro Regio di Parma. Stars Piero Pretti (Gustavo III), Anna Pirozzi (Amelia), Amartuvshin Enkhbat (Il Conte Gian Giacomo Anckastrom), Anna Maria Chiuri (Ulrica), Giuliana Gianfaldoni (Oscar), Fabio Previati (Cristiano), Fabrizio Beggi (Ribbing), Carlo Cigni (Dehorn), Cristiano Olivieri (Il ministro di giustizia), and Federico Veltri (Un servo del Conte). Roberto Abbado conducts the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini - Orchestra Rapsody and the Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma (Chorus Master Martino Faggiani). Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini; sound recording, editing and post-production by Elfride Foroni - BHaudio. Sung in Italian. Released 2022, this disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Gustavo III is an early version of Un ballo in maschera, which was set in Sweden. Papal censors required that the action be moved to colonial Boston. In the December 2022 Gramophone (page 100), Hugo Shirley, one of the deans of opera video critics, dismisses the confusing marketing gimmick of calling this a “world premiere.” (It was also confusing where to put this on our Alphalist of opera Blu-rays.) The nasty-green and black color scheme one sees in the artwork and trailer below are also discouraging. But Shirley does report that the singers are all good. Maybe the charm here is to wait and see if a CD will come out with the music only.

Here’s a trailer from Dynamic:

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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.