VAI — New Titles/Journal

Mahler Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth) & Richard Strauss Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration). Neeme Järvi conducts the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in a live performance in 2012 at Victoria Hall in Geneva. Paul Groves (tenor) and Thomas Hampson (baritone) are soloists. Directed for TV by Jason Starr; produced for Blu-ray by Allan Altman; executive producer was Edward Cardona. Sung in German. Released 2013, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

What's New

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.