Le Nozze in Villa

Donizetti Le Nozze in Villa opera to a libretto by Bartolomeo Merelli. Directed 2020 by Davide Marranchelli at the Teatro Donizetti Bergamo. Stars Gaia Petrone (Sabina), Omar Montanari (Don Petronio), Fabio Capitanucci (Trifoglio), Giorgio Misseri (Claudio), Manuela Custer (Anastasia), Claudia Urru (Rosaura), and Daniel Lettieri (Anselmo). Stefano Montanari conducts the Orchestra Gli Originali and the Coro Donizetti Opera (Chorus Master Fabio Tatari). Set design by Anna Bonomelli; costume design by Linda Riccardi; lighting design by Alessandro Carletti. Directed for TV by Matteo Ricchetti; recorded by Rino Trasi, Vera Zanotti, and Silvano Landonio; editing and post-production by Rino Trassi. Sung in Italian. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

The Fondazione Teatro Donizetti and Dynamic raise yet another body from the dead—Donizetti’s third attempt at writing an opera. This project almost suffered yet another death from Covid-19. No live audience. The orchestra sat on the stage with the woodwinds behind a plexiglass screen. The producers removed the orchestra seats and covered the floor with artificial grass. The green stage became a tacky wedding emporium where the wacky action unfolds for Italian TV. A must for any die-hard fan of bel canto or balloon art.

Here is an official 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.