L'elisir d'amore — HDVDARTS

Donizetti L'elisir d'amore opera to libretto by Felice Romani. Directed 2005 by Otto Schenk at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus. Stars Rolando Villazon (Nemorino), Anna Netrebko (Adina), Leo Nucci (Belcore), Ildebrando d'Arcangelo (Dulcamara), Inna Los (Gianneta) and Michael Burggasser (Dulcamera's assistant). Alfred Eschwé conducts the Orchester and Chor der Wiener Staatsoper. Sets and costumes by Jürgen Rose Directed for TV by Karina Fibich. Sung in Italian. Released 2015. Grade: NA

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The way they were. This was a much-admired DVD that came out in 2007, the year that HDVD began. We still need a good picture of the back act or other accurate information on credits. Then it remains to be seen how well this looks and sounds republished in HDVD.

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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.