Pelléas et Mélisande

Claude Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande opera to libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck. Directed 2004 by Sven-Eric Bechtolf at Opernhaus Zürich. Stars Rodney Gilfry (Pelléas), Isabel Rey (Mélisande), Michael Volle (Golaud), Lásló Polgár (Arkel), Cornelia Kallisch (Geneviève), Eva Liebau (Le petit Yniold), and Guido Götzen (Doctor/Shepherd). Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House and the Chorus of the Zurich Opera House (Chorusmaster Ernst Raffelsberger). Sets by Rolf Glittenberg; costumes by Marianne Glittenburg; lighting by Jürgen Hoffmann. Directed for TV by Felix Breisach. Sung in French. Released 2010, disc has 7.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B

Arthaus bought the the rights to this title and published it later with different artwork. Go to the Arthaus story for a full review with screenshots.

La finta giardiniera

Mozart La finta giardiniera opera (composed at age 18) to a libretto possibly from Giuseppe Petrosellini. Directed by Tobias Moretti at Opernhaus Zürich in 2006. Stars Eva Mei (Sandrina), Christoph Strehl (Il Contino Belfiore), Rudolf Schasching (Il Podestà Don Anchise), Isabel Rey (Arminda), Liliana Nikiteanu (Il Cavalier Ramiro), Julia Kleiter (Serpetta), and Gabriel Bermúdez (Nardo). Nikolaus Harnoncourt directs the Orchestra "La Scintilla" of the Zurich Opera. Set design by Rolf Glittenberg; costumes by Renate Martin and Andreas Donhauser; lighting by Jürgen Hoffmann. Directed for TV by Felix Breisach. Sung in Italian. Released 2009, disc has 7.1 dts-HD sound. Grade: A

NB: This title has been rereleased by Arthaus Musik with different artwork. We have included screenshots in our extensive review of the Arthaus Musik version.

This title might be translated into English as "The Bogus Garden Girl." It was performed maybe three times during Mozart's life and then lost for about 175 years until a manuscript was discovered in the 1970s. Although it's considered "early" rather than "mature" Mozart, it's a complete three-hour-long work with an intriguing opera buffo libretto to keep you on your toes, interesting characters, lots of laughs, and a steady parade of arias suffused with that limpid tenderness that distinguishes Mozart from all others. Everything about this production is good to great. But the super-hero is Felix Breisach, who directed a superb video. I still can hardly believe I have something this rare, this precious, and this well-done to watch in my home theater any time I wish. And TDK provided Italian subtitles along the the other languages. There's a lot of repetition in the arias—I watch in English first and then switch over to Italian for a mini language lesson.

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Tosca

Puccini Tosca opera to libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. Directed 2006 by Hugo de Ana at the Arena di Verona. Stars Fiorenza Cedolins (Tosca), Marcelo Alvarez (Cavaradossi), Ruggero Raimondi (Scarpia), Marco Spotti (Angeotti), Fabio Previati (Sacristan), Enrico Facini (Spoletta), Giuliano Pelizon (Sciarrone), Angelo Nardinocchi (Jailer), and Ottavia Dorrucci (Shepherd). Daniel Oren conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Arena di Verona (Chorus Master Marco Faelli) and the A.Li.Ve. Chorus (Conductor Paolo Facincani). Set, costumes, and lighting design by Hugo de Ana; stage design by Giuseppe De Filippi Venezia; lighting by Paolo Mazzon; costumes by Tirelli Costumi. Directed for TV by Loreena Kaufman. Released  2009,  disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. This is the same production of Tosca that was later released by Arthaus.  There was only one substantial change between the two versions: the Arthaus Musik disc has Japanese subtitles whereas this TDK version does not. Grade: D

It's an article of faith with fans of HDVDs that everything benefits from high-resolution video. But there is a glaring exception: HDVD recordings made of outdoor productions (designed to be seen in large amphitheaters) usually turn out poorly. Subject Tosca in the Arena di Verona is prosecutor's "Exhibit 1." The setting probably looked OK from 200 meters up the hillside in the dark. But up close in high-definition the stage looks like a brodingnagian scrap yard in front of a burned-out industrial plant. Humongous crude props litter the place. The costumes and make up were designed to look rich at long distance by weak light---to the HDVD camera they look garish and cartoonish. The stage blood wouldn't scare a 3-year old. All this misery-en-scène magnifies the physical ugliness of the singers: aging Fiorenza Cedolins has turned into a frump, pudgy Marcelo Alvarez needs to check himself in at the fat clinic, and Ruggero Raimondi looks like a doorman at a Las Vegas wedding palace.

The audience looks uncomfortable fanning themselves in the heat; only the swarming insects are having fun. So what's left to say about the orchestra and the singing amidst the junkyard? Well, not too bad actually. But why would anyone waste his time with this when he has so many other better choices to pick from?

Here's a YouTube clip that of this that doesn't look too bad. But we warn you that this production has many scenes where the sets and costumes look ridiculous.

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