GIACOMO PUCCINI
Puccini: Il Trittico (complete operas recorded live in 2011) Royal Opera House / Lucio Gallo, Aleksandrs Anton, Ermonela Jaho, Ekaterina Siurina / Antonio Pappano [ Opus Arte DVD / 3 DVD - released 20/Jan/2013 ] GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER 2013: Opera |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Salome (complete opera recorded in 1992) Royal Opera House / Maria Ewing, Michael Devlin, Kenneth Riegel, Gillian Knight / Edward Downes [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 25/Nov/2015 ] "Maria Ewing is the magnetic anti-heroine in this rather stagey production by her former husband, Peter Hall. With solid support from the other principals and conductor Edward Downes, the result is worthy rather than gripping." (BBC Music) |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Salome (complete opera recorded in 2008) Royal Opera House / Nadja Michael, Thomas Moser, Michaela Schuster / Philippe Jordan (cond) [ BBC / Opus Arte DVD / 2 DVD - released 1/Dec/2008 ] "One of the most hotly anticipated, controversial and downright exciting opera productions of this year arrives quickly onto DVD. David McVicar, one of the most in-demand opera directors at work today, produces a visceral, exciting realisation of... |
SERGEI PROKOFIEV
Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67 (complete ballet recorded in 2010) Royal Opera House / Sergei Polunin, Will Kemp, Kilian Smith, Charlotte Edmonds / The Royal Ballet School & Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Paul Murphy [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 25/Nov/2014 ] "...Matthew Hart's Peter and the Wolf is one of the most beguiling children's ballets around." The Telegraph |
TCHAIKOVSKY
Eugene Onegin (complete opera recorded in 2013) Royal Opera House / Simon Keenlyside, Krassimira Stoyanova, Peter Rose / Robin Ticciati (cond) [ Opus Arte / BBC DVD / DVD - released 20/Oct/2013 ] Gramophone Magazine DVD of the Month - December 2013 |
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Britten: Gloriana (complete opera recorded in June 2013) Royal Opera House / Susan Bullock, Toby Spence, Patricia Bardon, Mark Stone, Kate Royal / Paul Daniel (conductor) [ Opus Arte Royal Opera House Collection DVD / DVD - released 25/Nov/2013 ] Central to the Royal Opera's centenary celebrations marking the birth of Benjamin Britten was Richard Jones's witty and insightful new production of the royal operatic pageant that Britten wrote to honour the Coronation, exploring the late life, love... |
TCHAIKOVSKY
Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66 (complete ballet recorded in 1994) Royal Opera House / Viviana Durante, Zoltán Solymosi, Anthony Dowell, Benazir Hussein / Barry Wordsworth (cond) [ BBC / Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 1/Sep/2009 ] G - 'Viviana Durante is outstanding as Aurora. Radiant and youthful, she dances with an ease and naturalness that is enchanting.' Evening Standard |
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Parsifal (complete opera recorded in 2013) The Royal Opera / Simon O'Neill, Angela Denoke, René Pape, Gerald Finley / Antonio Pappano (cond) [ OPUS ARTE DVD / 2 DVD - released 25/Nov/2014 ] "Simon O'Neill's singing is fully engaged and dramatically able to ride the storms that Pappano conjures up from the orchestra pit." (MusicWeb) |
HANDEL
Deidamia (complete opera recorded in 2012) Sally Matthews, Veronica Cangemi, Olga Pasichnyk / Concerto Köln, Ivor Bolton (conductor) & David Alden (director) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 2/Feb/2013 ] "Sally Matthews is perfect as Deidamia: saucy in 'Nasconde l'usignol', heartfelt in 'M'hai resa infelice'...Ivor Bolton conducts with passion: splendid sforzandos in another intense aria, 'Se il timore'." (Gramophone) |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Die Frau ohne Schatten (complete opera recorded in 2011) Salzburg Festival / Stephen Gould, Anne Schwanewilms, Michaela Schuster / Christian Thielemann (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 20/Apr/2012 ] Already brimming with symbols and transformations, the epic fairytale recounted by Strauss and his librettist Hofmannsthal in Die Frau ohne Schatten acquires a further allegorical dimension in Christoph Loy's inventive production for the Salzburg... |
RACHMANINOV
The Miserly Knight (complete opera) Sergei Leiferkus / Vladimir Jurowski / Annabel Arden / London Philharmonic Orchestra / Vladmir Jurowski [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 19/Dec/2005 ] G :- '…an inspired piece of programming...Sergei Leiferkus was utterly compelling in the title role...he delivered an appropriately mean performance' - Opera |
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Britten: Peter Grimes (complete opera recorded in 2012) Teatre alla Scala / John Graham-Hall, Susan Gritton, Christopher Purves, Felicity Palmer / Robin Ticciati (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 31/Jul/2013 ] "Gritton's Ellen is remarkable...[Graham-Hall ] lives his role - earnest, lonely, impulsive, with a desperate desire for acceptance...Ticciati is in full control from the start" Gramophone DVD of the month July 2013 |
FRANCESCO CILEA
Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur (complete opera) Teatro alla Scala / Giandrea Gavazzeni / Mirella Freni / Peter Dvorsky / Ivo Vinco [ Opus Arte / Rai Trade La Scala Collection DVD / DVD - released 16/Dec/2004 ] G - Cilea's four-act opera of jealousy and tangled love, first performed in Milan in 1902, is based on the true-life story of Adriana Lecouvreur, an 18th-Century actress at the Comédie Française |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Don Giovanni (complete opera recorded in 2005) Teatro Real / Carlos Alvarez, Alfred Reiter, Marla Bayo, Jose Bros, Sonia Ganassi, Lorenzo Regazzo / Víctor Pablo Pérez (cond) [ Opus Arte Essential Opera Collection DVD / 2 DVD - released 20/Oct/2013 ] ""Magnificent Maria Bayo as Donna Anna, the evolution of this soprano is spectacular. José Bros is tenor Midas: he converts everything he touches into gold. What a delightful performance! " Opera Actual |
PHILIP GLASS
The Perfect American (complete opera recorded in 2013) Teatro Real / David Pittsinger, Donald Kaasch, Christopher Purves, Janis Kelly / Dennis Russell Davies (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 1/Oct/2013 ] The last days of the American icon Walt Disney form a powerful and poignant subject for Philip Glass's latest opera, which was filmed at its first performances in Madrid in January 2013. Phelim McDermott's spectacular production is worthy of Disney's... |
ALBENIZ
Merlin (complete opera recorded in 2003) Teatro Real Madrid / David Wilson-Johnson / Stuart Skelton / Eva Marton / Carol Vaness / Jose De Eusebio (cond) [ Kultur / BBC / Opus Arte DVD / 2 DVD - released 2/Feb/2009 ] G :- "From its opening stage scene, as dawn breaks outside St Paul's Cathedral in London on a Christmas Morning to the final curtain, with the sun setting behind Madrid's encircling mountains, turning the Plaza de Oriente and the Teatro Real pink,... |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Idomeneo (complete opera) Teatro Real Madrid / Eric Cutler, David Portillo, Annett Fritsch, Eleonora Buratto / Ivor Bolton (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 1/May/2020 ] "Mozart's third venture into the "opera seria" genre, demolished its traditional boundaries to open the way to lyric drama. Blending youthful earnestness with mature mastery, Mozart uses - while profoundly changing - the elements of a genre based on... |
VERDI
La Traviata (complete opera recorded in 2006) Teatro Real Madrid / Norah Amsellem / Jose Bros / Renato Bruson / Itxaro Mentxaka / Maria Espada / Jesus Lopez Cobos (cond) [ Kultur / Opus Arte DVD / 2 DVD - released 2/Feb/2009 ] G :- 'Norah Amsellem's Violetta flourishes - vocally and dramatically, nothing is a challenge to her… Thanks to Pizzi's intelligence, every detail in the action works in this production... Jesus Lopez Cobos' maturity is astonishing... his perfect... |
VERDI
Un Ballo in Maschera [The Masked Ball] (complete opera recorded in 2008) Teatro Real / Marcelo Alvarez, Violeta Urmana, Marco Vratogna, ElenaZaremba / Jesus Lopez-Cobos (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 1/Aug/2011 ] Passion, loyalty and political conspiracy are the three pillars of Un ballo in maschera (1859), the 'most operatic of all operas'. Set in XIX century Boston, Mario Martone's atmospheric production for the Teatro Real in Madrid brings out all the... |
MODEST MUSSORGSKY
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (complete opera recorded in 2010) Teatro Regio, Torino / Orlin Anastassov, Alessandra Marianelli, Pavel Zubov / Gianandrea Noseda (cond) [ Opus Arte DVD / DVD - released 1/Aug/2011 ] ''Orchestrally and vocally outstanding'' The Opera Critic |