La Fanciulla del West

Puccini La Fanciulla del West opera to a libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini. Directed 2013 by Marco Arturo Marelli at the Wiener Staatsoper. Stars Nina Stemme (Minnie), Tomasz Konieczny ( Jack Rance), Jonas Kaufmann ( Johnson), Norbert Ernst (Nick), Paolo Rumetz (Ashby), Boaz Daniel (Sonora), Michael Roider (Trin), Hans Peter Kammerer (Sid), Tae-Joong Yang (Bello), Peter Jelosits (Harry), Carlos Osuna ( Joe), Clemens Unterreiner (Happy), Il Hong ( Larkens), Jongmin Park (Billy Jackrabbit), Juliette Mars (Wowkle), Alessio Arduini (Jake Wallace/José Castro), and Wolfram Igor Derntl (Postman). Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Orchester & Chor der Wiener Staatsoper with Chorus Master Thomas Lang. Sets and lighting by Marco Arturo Marelli; costumes by Dagmar Niefind. Directed for TV by Felix Breisach. Sung in Italian. Released in 2015, disc has 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.