Medea — HDVDARTS

Aribert Reimann Medea opera to a libretto by the composer. Directed 2010 by Marco Arturo Marelli at the Wiener Staatsoper. Stars Marlis Petersen (Medea), Michaela Selinger (Kreusa), Elisabeth Kulman (Gora), Michael Roider (Kreon), Adrian Eröd (Jason), and Max Emanuel Cenic (Herold). Michael Boder conducts the Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper. Set & lighting design by Marco Arturo Marelli; costume design by Dagmar Niefind. Directed for TV by Peter Schröder. Sung in German. Released in 2011, has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B-

This was a world premiere production of a work commissioned by the Wiener Staatsoper. After watching this, I give it the provisional B- grade pending a more detailed review.

Here is an official trailer:

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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.