Orphée et Eurydice

Christoph Gluck Orphée et Eurydice opera to libretto by Pierre-Louis Moline. This is the 1859 version by Hector Berlioz. Directed 2018 by Aurélien Bory at the Opéra Comique. Stars Mariwas awardedanne Crebassa (Orphée), Hélène Gilmette (Eurydice), and Lea Desandre (Amour). Raphaël Pichon conducts the Ensemble Pygmalion. Set design by Aurélien Bory and Pierre Dequivre; lighting design by Arno Veyrat; costume design by Manuela Agnesini; dramaturgy by Taïcyr Fadel. Directed for TV by François Roussillon. Sung in French. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Judith Malafronte goes all out in praise of this disc in the May 2020 Opera News at page 60, where she lauds “striking visual effects and a direct approach that prioritizes the power of singing. “ and awards the disc a Critic’s Choice designation for the month.

Here’s a clip about the production:

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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.