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Browse: DVD Video, James Levine (conductor)
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Rossini: L'Italiana in Algeri
Marilyn Horne (Isabella), Paolo Montarsolo (Mustafa), Douglas Ahlstedt (Lindoro), Allan Monk (Taddeo), Myra Merritt (Elvira), Diane Kesling (Zulma), Spiro Malas (Haly)
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, James Levine
Sparkily conducted by James Levine, Ponnelle's 1986 Met production goes for broad comedy rather than subtlety, but Marilyn Horne knows exactly how to sing Isabella, and receives strong buffo... — More…
Awards:
Strauss, R: Ariadne auf Naxos
Recommended
Deborah Voigt (Ariadne/Prima Donna), Natalie Dessay (Zerbinetta), Susanne Mentzer (The Composer), Richard Margison (Bacchus/The Tenor), Wolfgang Brendel (The Music Master), Waldemar Kmentt (The Major-Domo)
The Metropolitan Opera, James Levine, Laurie Feldman
...two prima donnas [Voigt and Mentzer] at the peaks of their careers having fun with the liveliest Elijah Moshinsky production I've seen...Dessay slips between complex human truth and the commedia... — More…
Awards:
Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
Recommended
James Morris (Wotan/Der Wanderer), Hildegard Behrens (Brünnhilde), Siegfried Jerusalem (Loge/Siegfried), Ekkehard Wlaschiha (Alberich), Christa Ludwig (Fricka/Waltraute), Gary Lakes (Siegmund), Jessye Norman (Sieglinde), Kurt Moll (Hunding), Matti Salminen (Fafner/Hagen)
Metropolitan Opera...
None of the four video-recorded versions can be called ideal; but this Met cycle has plenty of strong points. It's the only one Wagner would have recognised – no small consideration. It's frequently... — More…
Awards:
Verdi: La Traviata
Recommended
Teresa Stratas (Violetta), Plácido Domingo (Alfredo), Cornell MacNeil (Giorgio Germont)
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine
Severely cut and rearranged, Zeffirelli's famous film suffocates under its own opulence; but Parisian and Provencal locations, Levine's rich conducting, Domingo and Stratas remain rewarding. — More…
Awards:
Verdi: Otello
Recommended
Plácido Domingo (Otello), Renée Fleming (Desdemona), James Morris (Iago), Richard Croft (Cassio), Charles Anthony (Rodrigo), Alexander Anisimov (Lodovico), Jane Bunnell (Emilia), Christopher Schaldenbrand (Un Araldo), Ted Lambrinos (Monatano)
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, James...
It is good to have so telling a reminder on DVD of Placido Domingo's masterly assumption of the role of Otello...[Fleming was] then at her freshest and purest, yet also with power, looking and... — More…
Awards:
Verdi: Luisa Miller
Renata Scotto (Luisa), Plácido Domingo (Rodolfo), Sherrill Milnes (Miller), Bonaldo Giaiotti (Walter), James Morris (Wurm), Jean Kraft (Federica), Ariel Bybee (Laura), Dale Caldwell (Contadino)
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, James Levine
Levine's version of Luisa Miller consistently demonstrates his Verdian mastery, and not just in the best-known masterpieces...Not only in Levine's conducting but also in the sets and costumes... — More…
Donizetti: Don Pasquale
Anna Netrebko (Norina), Matthew Polenzani (Ernesto), John Del Carlo (Don Pasquale), Mariusz Kwiecień (Malatesta)
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus, James Levine
Donizetti's modest little domestic comedy almost sinks under the weight of such production values. That is stays afloat is a tribute to Netrebko who unleashes some fearsome coloratura; and to... — More…
Offer, Mozart: Die Zauberflöte
Peter Schreier (Tamino), Christian Boesch (Papageno), Edita Gruberova (Queen of the Night), Ileana Cotrubas (Pamina), Martti Talvela (Sarastro), Walter Berry (Sprecher), Horst Hiestermann (Monostatos), Gudrun Sieber (Papagena)
Wiener Philharmoniker, James Levine
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
James Morris (Hans Sachs), Ben Heppner (Walther von Stolzing), Karita Mattila (Eva), Thomas Allen (Beckmesser), Jill Grove (Magdalena), Matthew Polenzani (David), René Pape (Pogner), John Relyea (Nachtwächter)
Metropolitan Opera & Chorus, James Levine
Thank goodness for no quirky ideas...The singers are all outstanding, led by James Morris's warmly genial Sachs...and by Ben Heppner, who is an equally convincing Walther...Mattila not only looks... — More…
Awards:
Verdi: Don Carlo
Recommended
Five-act version
Plácido Domingo (Don Carlo), Mirella Freni (Elisabetta), Grace Bumbry (Eboli), Nicolai Ghiaurov (Filippo II), Louis Quilico (Rodrigo) & Ferruccio Furlanetto (Il Grand Inquisitor)
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, James Levine
