Semele — HDVDARTS

Handel Semele opera to libretto by William Congreve. Directed 2019 by Thomas Guthrie at the Alexandra Palace Theatre in London. This is a staged concert performance of the opera before a live audience. Stars Louise Alder (Semele), Hugo Hymas (Jupiter), Lucile Richardot (Juno/Ino), Carlos Vistoli (Athamas), Gianluca Buratto (Cadmus/Somnus), Emily Owne (Iris), Angela Hicks (Cupid), Peter Davoren (Apollo), Angharad Rowlands (Augur), and Christopeher Webb (High Priest). John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists. Directed for TV by Felix Breisach. Sung in English. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio. Grade: NA

Here’s a clip from the Monteverdi Choir:

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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.