Semele — HDVDARTS

Handel Semele opera to libretto by William Congreve. Directed 2021 by Thomas De Mallet Durgess and Jacqueline Coats for The New Zealand Opera. Performed and recorded at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland. Stars Emma Pearson (Semele), Amitai Pati (Jupiter/Apollo), Sarah Castle (Juno/Ino), Paul Whelan (Cadmus/Somnus), Stephen Diaz (Athamas), Chelsea Dolman (Iris), and Sashe Angelovski (Priest). Peter Walls conducts the New Zealand Opera Baroque Orchestra (Concert Master Peter Clark), the New Zealand Opera Chorus, and the Holy Trinity Cathedral Choir (Chorus Master Andrew Crooks). Designs by Tracy Grant Lord; lighting by Jo Kilgour. Directed for TV by Rebecca Tansley. Sung in English. Released 2023, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio. Grade: NA

This is our first title from New Zealand! Also our first opera staged and recorded in a cathedral. Here’s a 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.