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Blu-Ray Video, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (opera company)
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Wagner: Die Walküre
Stuart Skelton (Siegmund), Emily Magee (Sieglinde), Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde), John Lundgren (Wotan), Sarah Connolly (Fricka), Ain Anger (Hunding), Lise Davidsen (Ortlinde)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano, Keith Warner
Pappano has always had a special relationship with the Ring’s second part…and the Royal Opera House Orchestra rewards him with some of its most sumptuous playing. The cast in this 2018 staging... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, June 2020, Opera Choice
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2021, Winner - DVD/Blu-ray
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Special offer. Handel: Theodora
RecommendedJulia Bullock (Theodora), Joyce DiDonato (Irene), Jakub Józef Orliński (Didymus), Ed Lyon (Septimius), Gyula Orendt (Valens), The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Royal Opera Chorus, Katie Mitchell, Harry Bicket
Bullock’s Theodora is a compelling and passionate tour de force, even if the characterisations and moods of her music are dictated to by the director’s hamstrung concept. Joyce DiDonato’s Irene... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2023, Shortlisted - DVD/Blu-ray of the Year
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International Classical Music Awards, 2024, Nominated - Video Opera
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Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffmann
RecommendedJuan Diego Flórez (Hoffmann), Ermonela Jaho (Antonia), Alex Esposito (Lindorf/Coppélius/Miracle/Dapertutto), Julie Boulianne (Nicklausse), Olga Pudova (Olympia), Marina Costa-Jackson (Giulietta), Christine Rice (Muse)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Antonello Manacorda, Damiano Michieletto
Always an elegant, slightly cool presence on stage, Flórez's Hoffmann is more burnt-out playboy than manic tortured poet: this is a man who has spent his life chasing his next thrill rather... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 19th December 2025
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Benjamin, G: Written on Skin
RecommendedChristopher Purves (Protector), Barbara Hannigan (Agnès), Bejun Mehta (First Angel/Boy), Victoria Simmonds (Second Angel/Marie) & Allan Clayton (Third Angel/John)
Royal Opera Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, George Benjamin (conductor) & Katie Mitchell (director)
This is an outstanding release in every way...Benjamin's extraordinary music is breathtaking in its lightly worn compositional virtuosity...The cast is sensational...Hannigan deserves all the... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2014
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Gramophone Awards, 2014, Winner - Contemporary
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Diapason d’Or de l’Année, 2014, Winner - Musique contemporaine
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Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K492
RecommendedErwin Schrott (Figaro), Miah Persson (Susanna), Gerald Finley (Count), Dorothea Röschmann (Countess), Rinat Shaham (Cherubino), Graciela Araya (Marcellina), Jonathan Veira (Bartolo), Philip Langridge (Basilio)
Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano (conductor) & David McVicar (stage director)
…so accomplished a cast, in which Gerald Finley's Count, Miah Persson's Susanna and Rinat Shaham's Cherubino stand out as ideal. —
Awards:
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Building a Library, May 2014, DVD/Blu-ray Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, August 2008, DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2008, Winner - DVD/Blu-ray
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Puccini: Il Trittico
RecommendedIl Tabarro
Lucio Gallo (Michele), Aleksandrs Antonenko (Luigi), Eva-Maria Westbroek (Giorgetta), Alan Oke (Tinca), Jeremy White (Talpa), Irina Mishura (La Frugola), Ji-Min Park (Venditore), Robert Anthony Gardiner (Due Amanti)
Suor Angelica
Ermonela...
a triumph...three wonderfully directed and expertly acted productions. Add in Pappano's impeccable conducting and his valuable introductions to the pieces, and you have a nigh-on ideal Trittico. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, October 2012, Blu-ray of the Month
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BBC Music Magazine, September 2012, DVD & Blu-ray Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2013, Winner - Opera
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Verdi: Aida
Elena Stikhina (Aida), Francesco Meli (Radamès), Agnieszka Rehlis (Amneris), Ludovic Tézier (Amonasro), Soloman Howard (Ramfis), Insung Sim (King), Francesca Chiejina (High Priestess), Andrés Presno (Messenger)
Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano,...
It all adds up to a brave attempt to rethink a work which, for all its popularity, can be notoriously elusive in performance, though ultimately its theatrical and vocal drawbacks don’t make... —
Awards:
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Video Opera
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Puccini: Turandot
Lise Lindstrom (Turandot), Marco Berti (Calaf), Eri Nakamura (Liu), Raymond Aceto (Timur)
Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Henrik Nánási (conductor) & Andrei Serban (director)
Serban's galvanically colourful staging has survived with remarkable vigour...Lindstrom is pretty much the ideal Ice Princess: her voice one of steely intensity...Berti as Calaf has a clarion... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, July 2014, DVD/Blu-ray Choice
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Birtwistle: The Minotaur
John Tomlinson (The Minotaur), Johan Reuter (Theseus), Christine Rice (Ariadne), Andrew Watts (Snake Priestess), Philip Langridge (Hiereus), Amanda Echalaz (Ker), Rebecca Bottone, Pumeza Matshikiza, Wendy Dawn Thompson, Christopher Ainslie, Tim Mead (Innocents)
The Royal Opera Chorus &...
This opera, premiered at the Royal Opera last April, seems to me to be a masterpiece, of the kind that one feels the greatness of before one has a complete understanding of it. …the Minotaur... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, DVD of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2009, Finalist - DVD
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Opera, September 2009, Recording of the Month
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George Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence
RecommendedStéphane Degout (King), Barbara Hannigan (Isabel), Gyula Orendt (Gaveston/Stranger), Peter Hoare (Mortimer), Samuel Boden (Boy/Young King)
Orchestra of The Royal Opera House, George Benjamin, Katie Mitchell
His orchestral imagination is prodigious, and both as a composer and conductor he conjures up memorable soundscapes full of jittery tension…the entire cast seems convinced it is creating something... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 28th December 2018
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Diapason d’Or, May 2019
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2019
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