Alba — New Titles/Journal

Jukka Linkola Robin Hood contemporary music opera to a libretto by Jukka Virtanen. Directed 2011 by Kari Heiskanen at the Finnish National Opera. (In case you didn't know, the English word "opera" is rendered as "ooppera" in Finnish.) Aimed at children and grown-ups, stars Mari Palo, Ville Rusanen, Matti Salminen, Jyrki Anttila, Niall Chorell, and Päivi Niufsula. Mikko Franck conducts the Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Chorus, and Children's Choir. Designs by Kati Lukka; costumes by Marja Uusitalo; lighting by Mickey Kunttu; battle choreography by Seppo Kumpulainen; sound engineering by Tomi Pietilä; video post-processing by Oy Ilkka Niemi. Released 2013, disc has 5.1 surround 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.