I Puritani

Vincenzo Bellini I Puritani opera to libretto by Carlo Pepoli. Directed 2007 by Sharon Thomas at the New York Metropolitan Opera. Stars Anna Netrebko, Eric Cutler, Franco Vassallo, John Relyea, Valerian Ruminski, Eduardo Valdes, and Maria Zifchak. Patrick Summers conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus  (Chorus Master Raymond Hughes). Set design by Ming Cho Lee; costumes by Peter J. Hall; directed for TV by Gary Halvorson. Released 2008; disc has 5.1 PCM and 5.1 dts-HD sound. Grade: A+

If you could take only 4 or 5 opera HDVDs with you into solitary confinement, you would include this one in your kit. This serene work requires and deserves great singers, and the Met provides. Netrebko is enchanting (yes, this is the one where she signs upside-down), and the men are admirable also. We were lucky enough to see this in a movie theater (in let's pretend high-definition), on Public Television (in real high-definition), and in DVD before Deutsche Grammophon published their HDVD version. For a detailed discussion of all this, check out our review of I Puritani.