Rodelinda — HDVDARTS

Handel Rodelinda opera to a libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym. Directed 2018 by Jean Bellorini with Mathieu Coblentz at the Opéra de Lille. Stars Jeanine de Bique (Rodelinda), Tim Mead (Bertarido), Benjamin Hulett (Grimoaldo), Avery Amereau (Eduige), Jakub Józef Orliński (Unulfo), Andrea Mastroni (Garibaldo) and Aminata Diouaré (Flavio, a mute child role). Emmanuelle Haïm conducts the orchestra and chorus of Le Concert d’Astrée. Sets by Jean Bellorini and Véronique Chazal; costumes by Macha Makeïeff; lighting by Jean Bellorini and Luc Muscillo. Directed for TV by Olivier Simonnet. Sung in Italian. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 Dolby Digital 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.