Anna Bolena

Donizetti Anna Bolena opera to a libretto by Felice Romani. Directed 2011 at the Wiener Staatsoper by Eric Génovèse. Stars Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Anna Netrebko, Elīna Garanča, Dan Paul Dumitrescu, Francesco Meli, Elisabeth Kulman, and Peter Jelosits. Evelino Pidò conducts the Chor, Orchester und Bühnenorchester der Wiener Staatsoper (Chorus Masters Thomas Lang and Martin Schebesta). Set design by Jacques Gabel and Claire Sternberg; costume design by Luisa Spinatelli; lighting design by Bertrand Couderc; video direction by Brian Large.  Released 2011, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: Help!

Opera Now (August/September 2011 at page 85) praised the singing but panned the stage production for this Anna Bolena as "pretty much . . . a concert version of the opera."

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The Opera Gala

The Opera Gala recital concert. Anna Netrebko (soprano), Elīna Garanča (mezzo-soprano), Ramón Vargas (tenor), and Lodovic Tézier (baritone) sing opera favorites for the 2007 Gala Concert at the Baden-Baden Festival. Here's the program:

1. Bellini  "Sinfonia"  from Norma

2. Bellini  "Mira, o Norma" from Norma

3. Donizetti "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'elisir d'amore

4. Bellini "Or dove fuggo io mai?--Ah! per sempre io ti perdei--Bel sogno beato" from I Puritani

5. Bellini "Casta Diva--Ah, bello a me ritorna" from Norma

6. Rossini "Nacqui all'affanno e al pianto" from La Cenerentola

7. Verdi "È lui!...Desso!...L'Infante! from Don Carlo

8. Saint-Saëns "Bacchanale"  from Samson et Dalila

9. Delibes "Viens, Mallika--Dôme epais, le jasmin" from Lakmé

19. Bizet "Au fond du temple saint" from Les Pêcheurs de perles

11. Saint-Saëns "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix" from Samson et Dalila

12. Verdi "Oh! fede nocgar potessi-Quanda le sere al placido" from Luisa Miller

13. Verdi "Felice ancor io son" (Morte di Rodrigo) from Don Carlo

14. Puccini "O soave fanciulla"  from La Bohème

15. Verdi "Un di, se ben rammentomi" from Rigoletto

16. Lehár "Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß" from Giuditta

17. Rossini "La danza"

18. Ruperto Chapí "Al pensar en el dueño de mis amores" from Las hijas del Zebedeo

19. Bizet "Toreador Song" from Carmen

20. Verdi "Brindisi" or "The Toast" from La Traviata

Marco Armiliato conducts the SWR (Südwestrundfunk) Sinfonieorchester of Baden-Baden und Freiburg. Released 2008, disc has 5.1 PCM and 5.1 dts-HD sound. Grade: A+

Beautiful young singers. It's great to hear the 4 different voices instead of 3 tenors. Intelligent program gets slightly off the beaten path and gives us 20 numbers from 10 composers in 8 voice combinations. Everything sounds and looks so pretty in the elegant Baden-Baden palace! It's the perfect show for anyone who wants an introduction to the art of opera singing. And Netrebko wakes up the old guys with her "hot lips" encore.

Le nozze di Figaro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Le nozze di Figaro to libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Directed 2006 by Claus Guth for the Salzburg Festival (Haus für Mozart).   Stars Anna Netrebko, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Bo Skovhus, Dorothea Röschmann, Christine Schäfer, Marie McLaughlin, Franz-Josef Selig, Patrick Henckens, Oliver Ringelhahn, Florian Boesch, Eva Liebau, and Uli Kirsch (mute role). Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker and Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor (Chorus Master Andreas Schüller). Continuo: harpsichord, Stefan Fottfried; cello, Franz Bartholomey. Stage and costume design by Christian Schmidt; choreography by Ramses Sigl; lighting by Olaf Winter; directed for TV by Brian Large. Released  2008, disc has 5.1 PCM and 5.1 dts-HD sound. Grade: B

This opera hardly needs to swallow a pep pill. But Guth added one with the mute role of Cherub---a cute, mute angel who wanders about being charming. We liked stupid cupid OK, but among seasoned opera lovers there was controversy over our poor power to add or detract.

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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.

Manon

Jules Massenet Manon opera to libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille. Directed 2007 by Vincent Paterson at the Staatsoper unter den Linden. Stars Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, Christof Fischesser, Alfredo Daza, Rémy Corazza, Arttu Kataja, Hanan Alattar, Gal James, Silvia de la Muela, and Matthias Vieweg. Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Staatsopernchor (Chorus Master Eberhard Friedrich). Stage design by Johannes Leiacker; costumes by Susan Hilferty; lighting by Duane Schuler; choreography by Vincent Paterson; direction for TV by Andreas Morell. Released 2008; disc has 5.1 dts-HD Audio and 5.1 PCM sound. Grade: A

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Roméo et Juliette

Charles Gounod Roméo et Juliette opera to libretto by Jules Barbier & Michel Carré. Directed 2008 by Brian Large at the Salzburg Festival. Stars Nino Machaidze, Rolando Villazón, Mikhail Petrenko, Russell Braun, Cora Burggraaf, Falk Struckmann, Juan Francisco Gatell, Susanne Resmark, Christian Van Horn, Mathias Hausmann, Jean-Luc Ballestra, and Robert Murray. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor (Chorus Master Jörn H. Andresen). Staged by Bartlett Sher; set design by Michael Yeargan; costumes by Catherine Zuber; lighting by Jennifer Tipton; choreography by Chase Brock; fight scene by B. H. Barry. Released  2009,  disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B

The keep case and the booklet both say that Brian Large directed this show. Large, of course, probably has directed more film and TV shooting of fine-art projects than anyone else. But this is the only time I've seen him credited for having a direct artistic hand in a production. Maybe the folks who wrote the blurbs were confused and Bartlett Sher was the overall director of the project. Can anyone clear this up for us?

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Don Pasquale

Gaetano Donizetti Don Pasquale opera to libretto by Giovanni Ruffini. Directed 2010 by Gary Halvorson at the Metropolitan Opera. Stars Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani, John Del Carlo, Mariusz Kwecien, and Bernard Fitch. James Levine conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Chorus Master Donald Palumbo). Sets and costumes by Rolf Langenfass; lighting by Duane Schuler; dramaturgy by Paul Cremo. Released, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B+

The Met show is funny. But alas, Anna Netrebko, who looked so young and fresh in 2007 (in for example, her I Puritani), now looks like a healthy mom who just can't get rid of 15 pounds. She should not play Norina any more, at least not on high-definition TV. So I give the Met a "B+."

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