The Golden Cockerel (Le coq d'or)

Rimsky-Korsakov The Golden Cockerel (Le coq d’or) opera to a libretto by Vladimir Belsky. Directed 2021 by Barry Kosky at the Opéra National de Lyon. Stars Dmitry Ulyanov (Tsar Dodon), Nina Minasyan (The Queen of Shemakha), Andrey Popov (The Astrologer), Margarita Nekrasova (Amelfa), and Mischa Schelomianski (General Polkin). Daniele Rustioni conducts the Orchestre et Chœurs de l’Opéra National de Lyon. Set design by Rufus Didwiszus; costume design by Victoria Behr; lighting design by Frank Evin; choreography by Otto Pichler; dramaturgy by Olaf A. Schmitt. Directed for TV by François Roussillon. Sung in Russian. Released in 2022, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Marina Frolova-Walker, the Russian expert for Gramophone Magazine, says (October 2022 issue at page 100) this Golden Cockerel is “one that cannot be missed.” Ulyanov is the best Tsar Dodon Marina has ever seen, and Nina Minasyan is “vocally and visually gorgeous” in a “mesmerising seduction scene.” And maybe best of all, the magician looks exactly like Rimsky-Korsakov!

Here’s a trailer from Naxos:

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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.