Jenůfa — HDVDARTS

Janáček Jenůfa opera to a libretto by the composer. Directed 2014 by Christof Loy at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Stars Michaela Kaune (Jenůfa), Jennifer Larmore (Kostelnička Buryjovka), Will Hartmann (Laca Klemeň), Ladislav Elgr (Števa Buryja), Hanna Schwarz (Grandmother Buryjovka), Simon Pauly (Foreman), Stephen Bronk (Mayor), Nadine Secunde (Mayor's Wife), Martina Welschenbach (Karolka), Jana Kurucová (Barena), Alexandra Hutton (Jano), and Fionnuala McCarthy (Herdswoman). Donald Runnicles conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Chorus Master William Spaulding). Set designs by Dirk Becker; costumes by Judith Weihrauch; lighting by Bernd Purkrabek; choreography by Thomas Wilhelm; dramaturgy by Christian Arseni. Directed for TV by Brian Large. Sung in Czech. Released 2015, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio surround sound. Grade: NA

Buy on Amazon

What's New

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.