L'elisir d'amore — HDVDARTS

Donizetti L'elisir d'amore opera to libretto by Felice Romani. Directed 2012 by Rolando Villazón at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus. Stars Miah Persson (Adina), Rolando Villazón (Nemorino), Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Dulcamara), Regula Mühlemann (Giannetta), and Roman Trekel (Belcore). Pablo Heras-Casado conducts the Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble and Choir (Ch;orus Master Detlef Bratschke). Staging by Rolando Villazón; sets by Johannes Leiacker; costumes by Thibault Vancraenenbroeck; lighting by Davy Cunningham; movement coached by Nola Rae. Directed for TV by Nele Münchmeyer; produced by Jocthim Lang. Sung in Italian. Released 2014, this disc has 5.0 dts Master Audio. 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.