King Lear — HDVDARTS

Shakespeare King Lear motion picture. Trevor Nunn directed this television film in 2008. Stars Ian McKellen (King Lear), Romola Garai (Cordelia), William Gaunt (Earl of Gloucester), Jonathan Hyde (Earl of Kent), Philip Winchester (Edmund), Sylvester McCoy (The Fool), Frances Barber (Goneril), Monica Dolan (Regan), David Weston (A Gentleman), Guy Williams (Duke of Cornwall), Seymour Matthews (Curan), John Heffernan (Oswald) Ben Meyjes (Edgar), Julian Harries (Duke of Albany), Naomi Capron (Maid), Kieran Bew (Soldier), Peter Hinton (Duke of Burgundy), and Ben Addis (King of France). Music by Steve Edis; cinematography by Paul Wheeler; editing by Dave Thrasher; art direction by Emma Davis; produced by Andy Picheta and Richard Price. Spoken in English. Released 2008, disc has 5.1 surround sound. Grade: NA

This is from the RSC, so we would expect it to follow Shakespeare's text as closely as a stage version would.

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Alert! May be collectors item.

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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.