Moby-Dick — HDVDARTS

Jake Heggie Moby-Dick opera to a libretto by Gene Scheer. Directed 2013 by Leonard Foglia at the War Memorial Opera House. Stars Jay Hunter Morris (Captain Ahab), Stephen Costello (Greenhorn), Morgan Smith (Starbuck), Jonathan Lemalu (Queequeg), Talise Trevigne (Pip), Matthew O’Neill (Flask), and Robert Orth (Stubb). Patrick Summers conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Sets designed by Robert Brill; costumes by Jane Greenwood; lighting by Donald Holder; projections designed by Elaine J. McCarthy; choreography by Keturah Stickann. Directed for video by Frank Zamacona; executive producer was David Gockley; producers were Jessica Kopios and Matthew Shilvock. Sung in English. Released 2013, 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.