Ernani — HDVDARTS

Verdi Ernani opera to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. Direction, sets, costumes, and lighting by Pier'Alli in 2005 at the Teatro Regio di Parma Verdi Festival. Stars Marco Berti (Ernani), Carlo Guelfi (Don Carlo), Giacomo Prestia (Don Ruy Gomez de Silva), Susan Neves (Elvira), Nicoletta Zanini (Giovanna), Samuele Simoncini (Don Riccardo) and Alessandro Svab (Jago). Antonello Allemandi conducts the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma (Chorus Master Martino Faggiani). Directed for TV by Matteo Ricchetti. Sung in Italian. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio 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.