Lohengrin — HDVDARTS

Wagner Lohengrin opera to libretto by the composer. Directed 2011 by Hans Neuenfels at the Bayreuth Festival. Stars Georg Zeppenfeld (König Heinrich), Klaus Florian Vogt (Lohengrin), Annette Dasch (Elsa of Brabant), Jukka Rasilainen (Friedrich nov Telramund), Petra Lang (Ortrud), Samuel Youn (Herald), Stefan Heibach, Willem van der Heyden, Rainer Zaun, and Christian Tschelebiew (4 Nobelmen of Brabant). Andris Nelsons conducts the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra & Chorus (Chorus Master Eberhard Friedrich). Costume and stage design by Reinhard von der Thannen; lighting design by Frank Evin; video by Björn Verloh; dramaturgy by Henry Arnold; conceptual collaboration by Susanne Øglænd. Directed for TV by Michael Beyer. Sung in German. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

This is the one with the rats!

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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.