L'Arlesiana — HDVDARTS

Francesco Cilea L'Arlesiana opera to a libretto by Leopoldo Marenco. Directed 2013 by Rosetta Cucchi at the Teatro G. B. Pergolesi, Jesi, Italy as part of the Festival Pergolesi Spontini. Stars Annunziata Vestri (Rosa Mamai), Dmitry Golovnin (Federico), Mariangela Sicilia (Vivetta), Stefano Antonucci (Baldassarre), Valeriu Caradja (Metifio), Christian Saitta (Marco), and Riccardo Angelo Strano (L'Innocente). Francesco Cilluffo directs the Marche Philharmonic Orchestra and the Marche Lyric Choir "V. Bellini" (Chorus Master Carlo Morganti). Set design by Sarah Bacon; costume design by Claudia Pernigotti; lighting by Martin McLachlan. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini. Sung in Italian. Released 2015, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Michael Cookson wrote a strong and favorable review of this obscure opera for musicweb-international.com that ends as follows: “This is a strong production that generates considerable dramatic tension. For those with a particular interest in verismo this Cilea work is a real find and is easy to recommend.”

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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.