Le Nozze in Villa

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Donizetti Le Nozze in Villa opera to a libretto by Bartolomeo Merelli. Directed 2020 by Davide Marranchelli at the Teatro Donizetti Bergamo. Stars Gaia Petrone (Sabina), Omar Montanari (Don Petronio), Fabio Capitanucci (Trifoglio), Giorgio Misseri (Claudio), Manuela Custer (Anastasia), Claudia Urru (Rosaura), and Daniel Lettieri (Anselmo). Stefano Montanari conducts the Orchestra Gli Originali and the Coro Donizetti Opera (Chorus Master Fabio Tatari). Set design by Anna Bonomelli; costume design by Linda Riccardi; lighting design by Alessandro Carletti. Directed for TV by Matteo Ricchetti; recorded by Rino Trasi, Vera Zanotti, and Silvano Landonio; editing and post-production by Rino Trassi. Sung in Italian. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

The Fondazione Teatro Donizetti and Dynamic raise yet another body from the dead—Donizetti’s third attempt at writing an opera. This project almost suffered yet another death . . .

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L'ange de Nisida

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Donizetti L’ange de Nisida opera to libretto by Alphonse Royer and Guastave Vaëz. Directed 2019 by Francesco Micheli at the Teatro Donizetti. Stars Florian Sempey (Don Fernand d’Aragon), Roberto Lorenzi (Don Gaspar), Konu Kim (Leone de Casaldi), Lidia Fridman (La comtese Sylvia de Linarès), and Federico Benetti (Le Moine). Jean-Luc Tingaud conducts the Orchestra Donizetti Opera and the Coro Donizetti Opera (Chorus Master Fabio Tartari). Set design by Angelo Sala; costume design by Margherita Baldoni; lighting design by Alessandro Andreoli; assistant directors are Davide Gasparro and Erika Natali; costume assistants are Silvia Pasta and Valentina Volpi. Directed for TV by Adriano Figari and Matteo Richetti; video production by Matteo Richetti; sound recording by Rino Trasi, Giuseppe Famularo, and Vera Zanotti; sound editing and post production by Rino Trasi. Sung in Italian. Released 2020, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Nisida is a tiny and romantic-looking island in the Bay of Naples that is corrected to Naples by a small bridge. Donizetti started on L’ange de Nisida (the The Angel of Nisida), in 1839. He abandon the project

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Fortunio

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Andre Messager Fortunio opera to libretto by Gaston Arman de Caillavet and Robert de Flers. Directed 2019 by Denis Podalydès at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Stars Cyrille Dubois (Fortunio), Anne-Catherine Gillet (Jacqueline), Franck Leguérinel (Maître André), Jean-Sébastien Bou (Clavaroche), Philippe-Nicolas Martin (Landry), Pierre Derhet (Lieutenant d’Azincourt), Thomas Dear (Lieutenant de Verbois), Aliénor Feix (Madelon), Luc Bertin-Hugault (Maître Subtil), Geoffroy Buffière (Guillame), Sarah Jouffroy (Gertrude), Laurent Podalydès (Comedien). Louis Langrée conducts the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and the Chœur Les Éléments (Chorus Master Joël Suhubiette). Set design by Éric Ruf; costume design by Christian Lacroix; lighting design by Stéphanie Daniel. Directed for TV by François Roussillon. Sung in French. Released 2020, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

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Tosca

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Puccini Tosca opera to libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. Directed 2019 by Margarethe Wallmann at the Wiener Staatsoper. Stars Karine Babajanyan (Floria Tosca), Piotr Beczaɫa (Mario Cavaradossi), Carlos Álvarez (Baron Scarpia), Sorin Coliban (Cesare Angelotti), Alexandru Moisiuc (The Sacristan), Wolfram Igor Derntl (Spoletta), Hans Peter Kammerer (Sciarrone), Ayk Martirossian (A Gaoler), and Maryam Tahon (A Shepherd). Marco Armiliato conducts the Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper and the Chor der Wiener Staatsoper (Chorus Master Martin Schebesta). Costume and set design by Nicola Benois. Directed for TV by Ella Gallieni. Sung in Italian. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

This Wallmann show premiered 63 years ago! The Vienna State Opera kept it going ever since to . . .

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Romeo and Juliet

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Romeo and Juliet ballet. Music by Sergei Prokofiev. Choreography by John Cranko. Filmed 2017 at the State Theatre Stuttgart. Stars Elisa Badenes (Juliet), David Moore (Romeo), Reid Anderson (Lord Capulet), Melinda Witham (Lady Capulet), Robert Robinson (Tybalt), Roman Novitzky (Count Paris), Marcia Haydée (Juliet’s Nurse), Matteo Crockard-Villa (Lord Montague), Julia Bergua Orero (Lady Montague), Martí Fernández Paixà (Mercutio), Adhonay Soares da Silva (Benvolio), Rolando D’Alesio (Duke of Verona), Egon Madsen (Friar Laurence), and Rocio Aleman (Rosaline); Katarzyna Kozielska, Ami Morite, and Magdalena Dziegielewsha (Gypsies); Alexander McGowan, Aurora de Mori, Paula Rezende, and Louis Stiens (Carnival Dancers). James Tuggle conducts the State Orchestra Stuttgart. Set and costume design by Jü rgen Rose. Directed for TV by Michael Beyer. (It appears this was shot in 4K but published in 2K.) Released 2018, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+

There have been 3 major versions of Romeo and Juliet.

  1. The original, choreographed by Lavrovsky, played in Russia during World War II. It was an ideological ballet featuring progressive young people vs. feudal traditions. Prokofiev’s score for this, now considered to be the greatest ballet score not written by Tchaikovsky, was pretty controversial back in those days.

  2. Cranko in 1962 took up Prokofiev’s music and added a narrative ballet that follows well the basic themes of the Shakespeare play. It doesn’t have an epilogue with the two warring families making peace, but everyone knows that’s the whole point of the story.

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ROB Classic Program

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ROB Classic Program. Performed 2019 as a triple-bill at the Royal Opera House. Pavel Sorokin conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (Concert Master Vasko Vassilev):

  • Concerto. Choreography by Kenneth MacMillan. Music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Staged by Christopher Carr. Stars Anna Rose O’Sullivan, James Hay, Yasmine Naghdi, Ryoichi Hirano, and Mayara Magri. Also features Kate Shipway (piano). Designs by Jürgen Rose; lighting design by John B. Read.

  • Enigma Variations. Choreography by Frederick Ashton. Music by Edward Elgar. Staged by Kevin O’Hare and Christopher Carr. Stars Christopher Saunders, Laura Morera, Paul Kay, Philip Mosley, Calvin Richardson, Reece Clarke, Beatriz Stix-Brunell, Matthew Ball, Romany Pajdak, Bennet Gartside, Francesca Hayward, Luca Acri, Erico Montes, and Itziar Mendizabal. Designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman; lighting design by John B. Read.

  • Raymonda, Act III. Choreography by Rudolf Nureyev after Marius Petipa. Music by Alexander Glazunov. Staged by Christopher Carr. Stars Natalia Osipova, Vadim Muntagirov, Fumi Kaneko, Meaghan Grace Hinkis, Claire Calvert, and Beatriz Stix-Brunell. Designs by Barry Kay; lighting design by John B. Read.

Directed for TV by Ross MacGibbon. Released 2020, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: D

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Les Indes galantes

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Jean-Philippe Rameau Les Indes galantes opera-ballet to a libretto by Louis Fuzelier. Choreographed and directed 2014 by Laura Scozzi at the Bordeaux National Opera. Stars Amel Brahim-Djelloul (Hébé/Fatime/Phani), Benoît Arnould (Bellone/Alvar), Eugénie Warnier (Roxane), Olivera Topalovic (Amour/Zima), Judith van Wanroij (Emilie/Atalide), Vittorio Prato (Osman), Anders Dahlin (Valère/Tacmas/Carlos/Damon), Nathan Berg (Huascar), and Thomas Dolié (Adario). Christophe Rousset conducts Les Talens Lyriques and the Choeur de L'Opéra National be Bordeaux (Chorus Director Alexander Martin). Sets by Natascha Leguen de Kerneizon; costumes by Jean-Jacques Delmotte; lighting by Ludovic Bouaud. Directed for TV by Olivier Simonnet; produced by Jean-Stéphane Michaux. The publisher Alpha-Classics is a French company, and the keepcase material is in French. Sung in French. Released 2015, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A with ‽ designation for extensive nudity.

Jean-Philippe Rameau's first hit was the opera Hippolyte et Aricie from 1733. In 1735, Les Indes galantes (The Amorous Indies) was his first opera-ballet. It's a package of 5 mini-operas: a prologue followed by 4 independent pieces, each running from roughly 30 to 40 minutes. The Prologue is set in a mythological garden (here the Garden of Eden). Bellone, the God of War, enters the Garden and leads the men off to the joy of combat. Amour then sends the women off to observe 4 stories about love; director Scozzi assigns this task to 3 lady comedians called the “love tourists.”

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Les Indes galantes

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Jean-Philippe Rameau Les Indes galantes opera-ballet to a libretto by Louis Fuzelier. Directed and choreographed 2016 by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui at the Prinzregentheater in Munich as part of the Munich Opera Festival. Stars Lisette Oropesa (Hébé/Zima), Goran Juric (Bellone), Ana Quintans (L'Amour/Zaïre), Tareq Nazmi (Osman/Ali), Elsa Benoit (Emilie), Cyril Auvity (Valère/Tacmas), François Lis (Huascar/Don Alvaro), Anna Prohaska (Phani/Fatime), Mathias Vidal (Don Carlos/Damon), and John Moore (Adario). Also features the Dancers of Eastman. Ivor Bolton conducts Munchner Festspielorchester and Balthasar-Neumann-Chor (Chorus Master Detlef Bratschke). Set design by Anna Viebrock; costume design by Greta Goiris; lighting design by Michael Bauer; dramaturgy by Antonio Cuenca Ruiz and Miron Hakenbeck. Directed for TV by Andy Sommer; produced by François Duplat. Released 2017, the disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound output. Grade: B-

The Prologue opens in a elementary school where Hébé (Lisette Oropesa), the goddess of youth, is teaching school children about the wonders of nature.

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Romeo and Juliet

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Romeo and Juliet ballet. Music by Prokofiev. Directed and choreographed in 2019 by Christian Spuck at the Opernhaus Zürich. Stars Lucas Valente (Capulet), Eva Dewaele (Lady Capulet), Katja Wünsche (Juliett), Tigran Mkrtchyan (Tybalt), Elena Vostrotina (Juliet’s Nurse), Daniel Otevrel (Lord Montague), Mélannie Borel (Lady Montague), William Moore (Romeo), Daniel Mulligan (Mercutio), Christopher Parker ( Benvolio), Jan Casier (Paris), Filipe Portugal (Father Laurence) and other dancers from Ballett Zürich and the Junior Ballett. Michail Jurowski conducts the Philharmonia Zürich. Set design by Christian Schmidt; costume design by Emma Ryott; lighting design by Reinhard Traub; dramaturgy by Michael Küster. Directed for TV by Michael Beyer; produced by Paul Smaczny. Released 2020, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B-

For reasons I’ll mention later, I find this to be an uneven and weak production. But it appears TV Director Michael Beyer went out and bought new cameras for this shoot. The PQ is maybe better than any other of hundreds of fine-arts Blu-ray titles I’ve watched in recent years. So in this review, I’ll focus on beautiful video images. Even the fleeting views of the orchestra are beautiful. For example, consider the image below. Note the bright sheet music, the fine rendition of the instruments, and the nice skin tones of the musicians. On my TV display I’m also able to see variations in the black clothing of the players. It looks in my home theater almost like 4K with HDR, but it’s just regular 2K:

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Le Grand Macabre

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György Ligeti Le Grand Macabre opera to a libretto by the composer based on a play by Michel de Ghelderode. Directed 2011 by Àlex Ollé and Valentina Carrasco with staging by La Fura dels Baus at the Gran Teatre Del Liceu. Stars Chris Merritt (Piet the Pot), Inés Moraleda (Amando), Ana Puche (Amanda), Werner Van Mechelen (Nekrotzar), Frode Olsen (Astradamors), Ning Liang (Mescalina), Barbara Hannigan (Venus/Gepopo), Brian Asawa (Prince Gogo), Francisco Vas (White Minister), Simon Butteriss (Black Minister), Gabriel Diap (Ruffiak), Miquel Rosales (Schabiack), and Ramon Grau (Schabernack). Michael Boder conducts the orchestra and chorus of the Gran Teatre Del Liceu (Chorus Master José Luís Basso). Set design by Alfons Flores; video by Franc Aleu; costume design by Lluc Castells; lighting design by Peter van Praet. Directed for TV by Xavi Bové; produced by Magdalena Herbst. Sung in English. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+ with ‽ designation

Le Grand Macabre premiered in 1978, but Ligeti rewrote the opera in 1996. A Hungarian, Ligeti thought that operas should be enjoyed in the native language of the audience. The 1996 version was written in a way that allowed the libretto to be translated into various languages without changing the music. The production in Barcelona was in English (rather than Spanish) in a successful effort to help the work travel better. Le Grand Macabre is a savage comedy and satire on

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Carmen (Garanča)

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Bizet Carmen opera to libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Directed 2010 by Richard Eyre at the Met. Stars Elīna Garanča (Carmen), Roberto Alagna (Don José), Barbara Frittoli (Micaëla), Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Escamillo), Elizabeth Caballero (Frasquita), Sandra Piques Eddy (Mercédès), Trevor Scheunemann (Moralès), Keith Miller (Zuniga), Earle Patriarco (Le Dancaïre), Keith Jameson (Le Remendado), Maria Kowroski (dancer), and Martin Harvey (dancer). Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Chorus Master Donald Palumbo), a production Stage Band (Conductor Jeffrey Goldberg), and the Children's Chorus (Director Anthony Piccolo). Set and costume design by Rob Howell; lighting design by Peter Mumford; choreography by Christopher Wheeldon; associate costume design by Irene Bohan; musical preparation by Joan Dornemann, Jane Klaviter, Linda Hall, Pierre Vallet, and Jonathan Kelly; fight direction by Nigel Poulton; assistant stage direction by Jonathan Loy, Paula Williams, and Tomer Zvulun; dramaturgy by Paul Cremo. Directed for TV by Gary Halvorson; Music Producer was Jay David Saks; Supervising Producers were Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park; Producers were Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik. Sung in French. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A

I probably really don’t need to show screenshots explaining the Carmen plot; you know the story already. But in 2010, Gary Halvorson had 15 cameramen working on this video, which was shown in movie theaters all over the world. The result is almost unbelievable good picture quality, color handling, and video content

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Verdi Messa da Requiem

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Verdi Messa da Requiem ballet and concert. Recorded 2016 at the Opernhaus Zürich. Choreography and stage direction by Christian Spuck. Fabio Luisi conducts the Philharmonia Zürich, the Chor, und Zusatzchor (Supplementary Choir) of the Zürich Opera (Chorus Master Marcovalerio Marletta). Soloists are Krassimira Soyanova (soprano), Veronica Simeoni (mezzo-soprano), Francesco Meli (tenor), and Georg Zeppenfeld (bass). Star dancers are Yen Han, Alexander Jones, Anna Khamzina, Matthew Knight, William Moore, Filipe Portugal, Manuel Renard, Giulia Tonelli, and Katja Wünsche supported by corps dancers Nozomi Iijima, Tars Vandebeek, Francesca Dell’Aria, Jesse Fraser, Michelle Willems, Mark Geilings, Wei Chen, Andrei Cozlac, Jan Casier, Constanza Perotta Altube, Cristian Alex Assis, Irmina Kopaczynska, Danien Mulligan, Galina Mihaylova, Christopher Parker, Alba Sempere Torres, Dmitry Khamzin, Elizabeth Wisenberg, Dominik Slavkovsky, Mélanie Borel, Pornpim Karchai, Chinatsu Sugishima, Meiri Maeda, and Benoît Favre. Set design by Christian Schmidt; costume design by Emma Ryott; lighting design by Martin Gebhardt; dramaturgy by Michael Küster and Claus Spahn. There is also an excellent documentary on this disc called Stepping into the unknown—Christian Spuck's production of Verdi's Requiem. Ballet directed for TV by Michael Beyer; produced by Paul Smaczny. Sung in Latin. Released 2017, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A

Verdi gets his “operatic” Mass produced here as grand theater with the introduction of 33 dancers performing modern abstract ballet in soft shoes.

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Woodlands and Beyond…

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Woodlands and Beyond… multimedia concert. Performed 2017 at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Hélène Grimaud is piano soloist accompanied by images from Mat Hennek’s photo series “Woodlands and Beyond... “ shown on a large LED screen. All the music is about water. Inclusdes 8 short piano solos by Luciano Berio, Tōru Takemitsu, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel, Isaac Albéniz, Franz Liszt, Leoš Janáček, and Claude Debussy stitched together by 7 “Water Transition” chamber music pieces composed by Nitin Sawhney for this concert. The photographs from Hennek depict forests, water, and other nature images. Directed for TV by François-René Martin. Released 2020, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: D+

The Artists

Hélène Grimaud is a French A-list concert pianist who has performed classical music with top orchestras all over the world. Her partner in life is Mat Hennek, a German fine-art photographer. The couple live in upstate New York. Nitin Sawhney is a prodigious musician and composer . . .

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Le nozze di Figaro

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Mozart Le nozze di Figaro opera to libretto by Lorenza da Ponte. Directed 2016 by David Bösch at the Dutch National Opera. Stars Stéphane Degout (Il Conte di Almaviva); Eleonora Buratto (La Contessa di Almaviva); Christiane Karg (Susanna); Alex Esposito (Figaro); Mariane Crebassa (Cherubino); Katharine Goeldner (Marcellina); Umberto Chiummo (Bartolo); Krystian Adam (Basilio); Jeroen de Vaal (Don Curzio); Louise Kemény (Barbarina); Matteo Peirone (Antonio), and Tomoko Makuuchi and Fang Fang Kong (Due donne). Ivor Bolton conducts the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Chorus of the Dutch National Opera (Chorus Master Ching-Lien Wu). Set design by Patrick Bannwart; costume design by Meentje Nielsen; lighting design by Olaf Winter; dramaturgy by Klaus Bertisch. Directed for TV by Misjel Vermeiren. Sung in Italian. Released 2020, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

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Teatro alla Scala Operas Box Set

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Teatro alla Scala Operas box set released 2021. Below are the discs. Four of the titles have already been reported on this website, and you can get more details by using the links provided:

We excluded Die Zauberflöte because it is a student production.

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