La Traviata (Gimadieva)

Verdi La Traviata opera to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. Directed 2014 by Tom Cairns at Glyndebourne. Stars Venera Gimadieva (Violetta Valéry), Michael Fabiano (Alfredo Germont), Tassis Christoyannis (Giorgio Germont), Emanuele D’Aguanno (Gastone de Letorières), Magdalena Molendowska (Annina), Hanna Hipp (Flora Bervoix), Eddie Wade (Baron Douphol), Oliver Dunn (Marquis d'Orbigny) , and Graeme Broadbent (Doctor Grenvil). Mark Elder conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Glyndebourne Chorus. Lighting by Peter Mumford. Directed for TV by François Roussillon. Sung in Italian. Released 2015, Blu-ray disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

This clip of "Brindisi" racked up more than 2,500,000 views in a couple of years:

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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.