Sadko — HDVDARTS

Rimsky-Korsakov Sadko opera to libretto by the composer with assistance from Vladimir Belsky. Directed 2020 by Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Stars Nazhmiddin Mavlyanov (Sadko), Aida Garifullina (Volkhova), Ekaterina Semenchuk (Lubava Buslaevna), Yuri Minenko (Nezhata), Stanislav Trofimov (Ocean Sea, the Sea Tsar), Mikhail Petrenko (Whistle), Maxim Paster (Fife), Dmitry Ulianov (Varangian Merchant), Alexey Nekludov (Indian Merchant), Andrey Zhilikhovsky (Venetian Merchant), Sergey Murzaev (Vision of the old mighty Warrior), Roman Muravitsky (Foma Nazaryich), Alexandra Durseneva (His Wife), Vladimir Komovich (Luka Zinovyich), and Irina Rubtsova (His Wife). Timur Zangiev directs the Orchestra and Chorus of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (Chorus Master Valery Borisov). Set design by Dmitri Tcherniakov; costume design by Elena Zaitseva; lighting design by Gleb Filshtinsky. Directed for TV by Andy Sommer; produced by François Duplat. Sung in Russian. Released 2021, disc has PCM stereo sound. Grade: NA

Tcherniakov continues his grand campaign as opera director to update all operas into the 21st century and to bring the glories of Russian opera to ignorant western audiences. In this title he pursues both goals by updating a Rimsky-Korsakov classic at the Bolshoi and getting BelAir to publish it. I never expect to know even a smattering of Russian, but this does give me a chance to spot Cyrillic cognates of English words like опера = opera and Садко = Sadko. This title only has stereo sound, but I overlook that blemish to get to see this production in Russian at the Big House. Sadko is considered an opera-bylina. The bylina is an ancient heroic Russian tale of knights, dragons, epic battles, underwater kingdoms and the like.

Marina Frolova-Walker, Gramophone’s expert on Russian opera, gives this “deconstructed” version of a classic (i.e., the classic Tcherniakov treatment) a mixed review at page 86 of the January 2022 edition. But Marina makes it clear that anyone with an interest in Russian opera has to get this title. And in view of what’s going on right now (April 2022) in Russia and the Ukraine, this may be the last Blu-ray we will get from the Bolshoi for a while.

Here’s an official trailer from the Bolshoi (ПАРК = PARK):

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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.