L'incoronazione di Poppea

Monteverdi L'incoronazione di Poppea opera to a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello. Directed 2009 by David Alden at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Stars Miah Persson (Poppea), Sarah Connolly (Nero), Jordi Domènech (Ottone), Franz-Josef Selig (Seneca), Maite Beaumont (Ottavia), Ruth Rosique (Drusilla), Dominique Visse (Arnalta/Ottavia's Nurse), Guy de Mey (Lucan), William Berger (Valletto), Judith van Wanroij (Damigella/Virtue), Francisco Vas (Liberto), Josep Miquel Ramón (Lictor/Mercury), Marisa Martins (Fortune/Pallas Athene/Venus), Olatz Saitua , Judith van Wanroij, Elena Copons, and Inés Moraleda (Cupids). Harry Bicket conducts the Baroque Orchestra of the Gran Theatre del Liceu (Continuo Kai Gleusteen). Set design by Paul Steinberg; costume design by Buki Shiff; lighting design by Pat Collins. Directed for TV by Xavi Bové; produced for Blu-ray by James Whitbourn. Sung in Italian. Released 2012, 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.