Rusalka — HDVDARTS

Dvořák Rusalka opera to libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil. Directed 2012 by Kristina Wuss at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Stars Magdalena Polkowska (Rusalka); Tadeusz Szlenkier (Prince); Jacek Greszta (Water Gnome); Darina Gapicz (Witch); Katarzyna Nowak-Stańczyk (Foreign Princess); Pavlo Tolstoy (Gamekeeper); Victoria Vatutina (Turnspit); and Krystyna Nowak, Marta Ustyniak, Ewa Banasiak, Mariola Winkler-Kołtyś, Lidia Golińska, and Dorota Sobczak (Wood-sprites). Maciej Figas conducts Orchestra and Choir of the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz (Choir Master Henryk Wierzchoń). Set and costume design by Mariusz Napierała; choreography by Iwona Runowska; multimedia productions by Krystian Drywa; light design by Maciej Igielski. Sung in Czech. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. Grade: NA

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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.