Browse: Blu-Ray Video, Opus Arte (label)
Purcell: The Fairy Queen, Z629
Recommended
Lucy Crowe (Juno/Mystery), Claire Debono (Spring/First Fairy), Anna Devin (Second Fairy), Helen-Jane Howells (Eve), Carolyn Sampson (Night), Robert Burt (Mopsa), Sean Clayton (Summer), Ed Lyon (Secrecy/Adam), Adrian Ward (Autumn), Lukas Kargl (Phœbus), Desmond Barrit (Drunken Poet), Andrew Foster-Williams...
Jonathan Kent's joyous Glyndebourne production burst[s] with opulent stagecraft...Kent is abetted by William Christie in the pit, a man of the theatre down to his gainfully-employed fingertips...Altogether... — More…
Awards:
Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Recommended
Sarah Connolly (Cesare), Danielle de Niese (Cleopatra), Angelika Kirchschlager (Sesto), Christophe Dumaux (Tolomeo), Patricia Bardon (Cornelia), Christopher Maltman (Achilla) & Rachid Ben Abdeslam (Nireno)
The Glyndebourne Chorus & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, William Christie...
David McVicar's 2005 staging, revived the following summer, provoked a deal of contrasting views among the critical fraternity but was adored by the Glyndebourne public. Chief cause of their... — More…
Awards:
Puccini: Il Trittico
Recommended
Il 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. — More…
Awards:
Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict
Recommended
Stéphanie d’Oustrac (Béatrice), Paul Appleby (Bénédict), Philippe Sly (Claudio), Sophie Karthäuser (Hero), Lionel Lhote (Somarone), Frédéric Caton (Don Pedro) & Katarina Bradić (Ursule)
London Philharmonic Orchestra & The Glyndebourne Chorus, Antonello Manacorda, Laurent Pelly (director)
This is Pellyland, a deeply satisfying comic world with its own style conjured up for Glyndebourne by one of the most assured opera directors at work today...The LPO rise magnificently to the... — More…
Awards:
Britten: The Rape of Lucretia
Recommended
Christine Rice (Lucretia), Allan Clayton (Male Chorus), Kate Royal (Female Chorus), Duncan Rock (Tarquinius), Matthew Rose (Collatinus), Michael Sumuel (Junius), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Bianca) & Louise Alder (Lucia)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leo Hussain (conductor) & Fiona Shaw...
The production, set during an archaeological excavation, packs a punch — More…
Awards:
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…
Awards:
Berlioz: Les Troyens
Recommended
Susan Graham (Didon), Anna Caterina Antonacci (Cassandre), Renata Pokupic (Anna), Gregory Kunde (Énée), Ludovic Tézier (Chorèbe), Nicolas Testé (Panthée), Laurent Naouri (Narbal), Mark Padmore (Iopas), René Schirrer (Priam/Mercure), Topi Lehtipuu (Hylas)
Monteverdi Choir, Choeur du Théâtre...
Les Troyens hasn't fared well on DVD, but this superb authentic-instrument performance of October 2003 from the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, equals Sir Colin Davis's pioneering original. Orchestrally... — More…
Awards:
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... — More…
Awards:
Glass, P: Einstein on the Beach
Recommended
The Philip Glass Ensemble, Michael Riesman, Robert Wilson (director), Lucinda Childs (choreographer)
The static tableaux are as much art installation as music theatre, and need to be seen rather than just heard — More…
Awards:
Britten: Death in Venice
Recommended
John Graham-Hall (Gustav von Aschenbach), Andrew Shore (Traveller/Elderly Fop/Gondolier/Barber/ Hotel Manager Player/Dionysus), Tim Mead (Apollo), Sam Zaldivar (Tadzio), Laura Caldow (The Polish Mother), Mia Angelina Mather/Xhuliana Shehu (Her Two Daughters), Joyce Henderson (The Governess), Marcio...
It's not often one can say a production is improved by viewing on a small screen but, for me, this one was...Graham-Hall is a real stage-animal, convincing us utterly of his descent into obsession...Above... — More…