Maria Stuarda — HDVDARTS

Donizetti Maria Stuarda opera to libretto by Giuseppe Bardari. Directed 2009 by Denis Krief at the Teatro La Fenice. Stars Fiorenza Cedolins (Maria Stuarda), Sonia Ganassi (Elisabetta, Queen of England), José Bros (Roberto), Mirco Palazzi (Giorgio Talbot), Marco Caria (Lord Guglielmo Cecil), and Pervin Chakar (Anna Kennedy). Fabrizio Maria Carminati conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro La Fenice (Chorus Master Claudio Marino Moretti). Sets, costumes, and lighting by Denis Krief. Directed for TV direction by Tiziano Mancini. Sung in Italian. Released 2011, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

This production earned an "Editor's Choice" in the May 2011 Gramophone as well as a perceptive review in the June 2011 Opera News.

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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.