Thaïs — HDVDARTS

Massenet Thaïs to a libretto by Louis Gallet. Directed 2021 by Peter Konwitschny at the Theater an der Wien. Stars Nicole Chevalier (Thaïs), Josef Wagner (Athanaël), Roberto Saccà (Nicias), Carolina Lippo (Crobyle), Sofia Vinnik (Myrtale/Albine), Güneş Gürle (Paléman), and Samuel Wegleitner (Amor). Leo Hussain conducts the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor (Chorus Master Erwin Ortner). Set and costume design by Johannes Leiacker; lighting design by Guido Petzold. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini. Sung in French. Released 2021, disc has dts-HD Master Audio 5.1 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.