Browse: Blu-Ray Video, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (opera company)
Donizetti: La Fille du Régiment
Recommended
Natalie Dessay (Marie), Juan Diego Flórez (Tonio), Felicity Palmer (La Marquise de Birkenfeld), Alessandro Corbelli (Sulpice), Donald Maxwell (Hortensius), Dawn French (La Duchesse de Crackentorp)
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Bruno Campanella, Laurent Pelly
Laurent Pelly's production of Donizetti's opéra comique was one of the highlights of the Royal Opera's 2006-7 season, and viewing this well-produced DVD of the show it's perfectly obvious why.... — More…
Awards:
New, Offer, George Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence
Recommended
Stéphane 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
As in Written On Skin, much of the work’s disturbing beauty lies in Benjamin’s ability to switch from sensuality to brutality in a heart-beat, and the contrast between Crimp’s economical language... — More…
Awards:
Offer, Puccini: Madama Butterfly
Ermonela Jaho (Cio-Cio San), Marcelo Puente (Pinkerton), Scott Hendricks (Sharpless), Carlo Bosi (Goro), Elizabeth DeShong (Suzuki), Jeremy White (Bonze)
Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano. Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier
Pappano is particularly alert to Puccini borrowing traditional Japanese melodies; at times he makes you hear this score, as well as the drama on stage, as a tug of war between East and West…It’s... — More…
Awards:
Offer, Szymanowski: Król Roger
Mariusz Kwiecien (King Roger II of Sicily), Georgia Jarman (Roxana), Saimir Pirgu (Shepherd), Kim Begley (Edrisi), Alan Ewing (Archbishop), Agnes Zwierko (Deaconess)
Royal Opera Chorus, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano (conductor) & Kasper Holten (director)
all the imagination of Kasper Holten's production coheres compellingly, and Antonio Pappano shapes an extremely lucid performance that somehow manages to be taut and lush at the same time. Mariusz... — More…
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Verdi: Otello (Blu-ray)
Recommended
Jonas Kaufmann (Otello), Marco Vratogna (Iago), Maria Agresta (Desdemona)
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor), Keith Warner (director)
Though he is in fine voice, he does not come across as the wounded animal that the greatest Otellos – Jon Vickers, Mario del Monaco - so impressively were. Kaufmann is happiest in the more lyrical... — More…
Awards:
Giordano, U: Andrea Chénier
Recommended
Jonas Kaufmann (Andrea Chénier), Eva-Maria Westbroek (Maddalena de Coigny), Željko Lučić (Carlo Gérard), Denyce Graves (Bersi), Elena Zilio (Madelon), Rosalind Plowright (Contessa de Coigny), Roland Wood (Roucher), Peter Coleman-Wright (Pietro Fléville), Eddie Wade (Fouquier-Tinville), Adrian Clarke...
The Countess de Coigny in sumptuous purple satin is sung to great effect by Rosalind Plowright, as is Elena Zilio’s Madelon…never less than compelling on screen, Jonas Kaufmann is a perfect foil... — More…
Awards:
Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia
Recommended
Juan Diego Florez (Count Almaviva), Joyce DiDonato (Rosina), Pietro Spagnoli (Figaro), Alessandro Corbelli (Doctor Bartolo), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Don Basilio), Jennifer Rhys-Davies (Berta), Changhan Lim (Fiorello)
The Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano
Juan Diego Florez is the Almaviva of one's dreams, vocally and musically impeccable...and an actor of enormous charm and intelligence, whilst in the title role Pietro Spagnoli offers warmth and... — More…
Awards:
Offer, Bellini: Norma
Recommended
Sonya Yoncheva (Norma), Joseph Calleja (Pollione), Sonia Ganassi (Adalgisa), Brindley Sherratt (Oroveso), David Junghoon Kim (Flavio), Vlada Borovko (Clotilde)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano, Àlex Ollé (director)
The virtues of this staging lie in individual performances and in the music-making, with the Royal Opera House Orchestra and chorus giving taut and committed interpretations under Antonio Pappano.... — More…
Awards:
New, Offer, Woolf Works
Anush Hovhannisyan (soprano) & Gillian Anderson (speaker)
Orchestra of The Royal Opera House, Koen Kessels
Offer, Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K492
Recommended
Erwin 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. — More…
