Opus Arte
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Special offer. Bellini: Norma
RecommendedSonya 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.... —
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, October 2017
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2017
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Special offer. Britten: Death in Venice
RecommendedJohn 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... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2014
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Gramophone Awards, 2015, Finalist - Opera
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Handel: Saul
RecommendedChristopher Purves (Saul), Iestyn Davies (David), Lucy Crowe (Merab), Sophie Bevan (Michal), Paul Appleby (Jonathan), Benjamin Hulett (High Priest) & John Graham-Hall (Witch of Endor)
The Glyndebourne Chorus & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Ivor Bolton (conductor) & Barrie...
Pivotal is Christopher Purves’s Saul – surely the father-in-law from hell should the Goliath-slaying David choose his daughter Michal (or son Jonathan – tenderly sung by Paul Appleby). Purves... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2016
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Opera, December 2015, Recording of the Month
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Special offer. Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Recommended1869 version
Bryn Terfel (Boris), Kostas Smoriginas (Andrey Shchelkalov), John Graham-Hall (Shuisky), Ain Anger (Pimen), David Butt Philip (Gregory), John Tomlinson (Varlaam), Rebecca de Pont Davies (Hostess)
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano, Richard Jones
I am very grateful that we have a well-made recording of this production, which allows us at last to see the 1869 version as an independent work of art that makes sense in its own terms, a... —
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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Special offer. Pergolesi: Adriano in Siria
Marina Comparato (Adriano), Lucia Cirillo (Emirena), Annamaria Dell’Oste (Farnaspe), Nicole Heaston (Sabina), Stefano Ferrari (Osroa) & Francesca Lombardi (Aquilio Tribuno)
Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone (conductor) & Ignacio García (director)
Top marks go to conductor and director for giving the music space to breathe. The vocal cast is almost uniformly brilliant. The tension between unbridled feeling and duty's constraints - a tension... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, February 2012, DVD of the Month
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BBC Music Magazine, February 2012, DVD Choice
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Special offer. Glass, P: Einstein on the Beach
RecommendedHelga Davis, Kate Moran, Antoine Silverman
The Philip Glass Ensemble, Michael Riesman, Robert Wilson (director), Lucinda Childs (choreographer)
Its four principal vocalists – Kate Moran is vocally and visually particularly arresting – and choir cope admirably with the fiendish demands of Glass’s now trademark repetitions of solfege,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2016
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Diapason d’Or de l’Année, 2017, Winner - Opéra
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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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Monteverdi: Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria
Hana Blažíková (Minerva/Fortuna), Furio Zanasi (Ulisse), Lucile Richardot (Penelope), Michał Czerniawski (Pisandro), Gareth Treseder (Anfinomo), Gianluca Buratto (Tempo/Nettuno/Antinoo), English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner
Gardiner and Rooke’s conception for Ulisse is simple, direct and subtle. Richardot captures Penelope’s loneliness and constrained emotions...Furio Zanasi is a world-weary yet dignified Ulisse. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2022, DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
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International Classical Music Awards, 2023, Nominated - Video: Opera
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Special offer. Pergolesi: Adriano in Siria
Marina Comparato (Adriano), Lucia Cirillo (Emirena), Annamaria Dell’Oste (Farnaspe), Nicole Heaston (Sabina), Stefano Ferrari (Osroa) & Francesca Lombardi (Aquilio Tribuno)
Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone (conductor) & Ignacio García (director)
Top marks go to conductor and director for giving the music space to breathe. The vocal cast is almost uniformly brilliant. The tension between unbridled feeling and duty's constraints - a tension... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, February 2012, Blu-ray of the Month
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BBC Music Magazine, February 2012, DVD & Blu-ray Choice
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Special offer. Verdi: La Traviata
Ermonela Jaho (Violetta), Charles Castronovo (Alfredo), Placido Domingo (Germont)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Royal Opera Chorus, Antonella Manacorda, Richard Eyre (director)
[Jaho's] tone is never what one could call ‘lustrous’, but she gets inside the character so thoroughly that one cannot help but suffer with her...and she battles so hard in Act 3 that one harbours... —
Awards:
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Female Singer of the Year (Jaho)
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Male Singer of the Year (Castronovo)
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