NEW RELEASES
Recommendations for May 2012
Eugene Onegin - Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
A bizarre production that depends on several time-shifts, and will be incomprehensible to anyone who is not already very familiar with the story. Otherwise, beautifully played and sung.
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Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow) - Richard Strauss
Christof Loy's production reconstructs the studio sessions in the Sofiensaal in Vienna for the first recording of Die Frau ohne Schatten by Karl Böhm in 1955. Whether or not you like the meta-production approach, the singing is superb and the recorded sound first rate.
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The Invisible City of Kitezh (Skazanie o Nevidimom Grade Kitezhe i Deve Fevronii) - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
An excellent performance; Russian soprano Tatiana Monogarova is especially good as the Maiden Fevroniya. Note that the DVD was reissued due to an audio sync problem on the first disc; make sure you get the latest version.
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L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) - Claudio Monteverdi
David Alden's production, recorded at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, in 2009, combines modernist sets with costumes that parody the story.
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The Makropulos Case - Leoš Janáček
From the 2011 Salzburg Festival, a masterful production of this strange opera.
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Parsifal - Richard Wagner
Harry Kupfer's production recorded at the Berlin State Opera in 1992, a superb performance with outstanding sound.
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Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
A very different Magic Flute, directed by artist William Kentridge, sets the opera in the magical world of monochrome photography. Recorded live at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 2011.
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Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) - Richard Strauss
A new restoration of this lavish film version, from a live performance at the Salzburg Festival in 1960. Uses multi-camera techniques developed by the director Paul Czinner, it's one of the best versions available on DVD.
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28th April 2012
Russian operas on DVD
Compared to their German, Italian, and French counterparts, Russian operas are poorly represented on DVD. But fortunately there have been some excellent releases in the last few years, and this month we review a selection of the best of these.
Boris Godunov
Mussorgsky's only completed opera Boris Godunov is considered to be the greatest Russian opera, despite the confusing array of different versions and revisions.
Several versions are available on DVD, but our recommendation is a 2010 production directed by Andrei Konchalovsky for the Teatro Regio, Turin, with a mesmerising performance by Orlin Anastassov as Boris:
Available on DVD
Sadko
In addition to creating his own revised version of Boris Godunov, Rimsky-Korsakov also wrote fifteen operas of his own, several of which are based on Russian folk tales. The greatest of these is Sadko, the story of the merchant Sadko with a yearning to travel who encounters a magical underwater queen, and it contains some of the composer's most beautiful music.
There are two versions available on DVD; we recommend the 1994 version performed by the Kirov Opera and Ballet, conducted by Valery Gergiev; a fine production, with outstanding sets:
Available on DVD
The Invisible City of Kitezh
Another opera by Rimsky-Korsakov based on Russian folklore, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya, is a mysterious story about how a humble maiden foils the Mongol army's attempts to capture Great Kitezh by making it become invisible.
It was released on DVD for the first time in 2011. It's a generally good production, with a notable performance by Tatiana Monogarova as the Maiden Fevronya:
Available on DVD
The Golden Cockerel (Le Coq d'Or)
Rimsky-Korsakov's last opera didn't receive its premiere until 1909, a year after the composer's death. It satirises Russian imperialism, and the Russo-Japanese war.
A superb production from the Théâtre Musical de Paris, Châtelet, in 2002, uses Ennosuke Ichikawa's Japanese Kabuki designs to great effect, and the whole production is a triumph:
Available on DVD
