Falstaff — HDVDARTS

Verdi Falstaff opera to libretto by Arrigo Boito. Directed by Robert Carsen at the Metropolitan Opera. Stars Carlo Bosi (Dr. Caius), Ambrogio Maestri (Sir John Falstaff), Keith Jameson (Bardolfo), Christian Van Horn (Pistola), Jennifer Johnson Cano (Meg Page), Angela Meade (Alice Ford), Stephanie Blythe (Mistress Quickly), Lisette Oropesa (Nannetta), Paolo Fanale (Fenton), and Franco Vassallo (Ford). James Levine conducts the Metropolitan Opera, Orchestra & Chorus (Chorus Master Donald Palumbo). Set design by Paul Steinberg; costume design by Brigitte Reiffenstuel; lighting design by Robert Carsen and Peter Van Praet. Directed for TV by Gary Halvorson; music production by Jay David Saks. Supervising Producers were Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park; Producers were Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik. Sung in Italian. Released in 2015, disc has dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

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Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.