Le Villi — HDVDARTS

Puccini Le Villi opera to a libretto by Ferdinando Fontana. Directed 2018 by Francesco Saponaro at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Stars Elia Fabbian (Guglielmo Wulf), Maria Teresa Leva (Anna), Leonardo Caimi (Robert), and Tony Laudadio (Narrator). Marco Angius conducts the Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Chorus Master Lorenzo Fratini). Also stars dancers from Compagnia Nuovo BallettO di ToscanA and special extras Elena Barsotti, Gaia Mazzeranghi, and Paolo Arcangeli. Set design by Francesco Saporano; costume design by Chiara Aversano; lighting design by Pasquale Mari; choreography by Susanna Sastro; assistant direction by Veronica Bolognani; assistant set design by Lucia Imperato. Directed for TV by Matteo Ricchetti; video editing by Adriano Figari; sound recording by Rino Trasi, Vera Zanotti, and Giuseppe Famularo. Sung in Italian. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 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.