La traviata (Fleming)

Verdi La traviata opera to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. Directed 2009 by Richard Eyre at the Royal Opera House. Stars Renée Fleming (Violetta Varéry), Joseph Calleja (Alfredo Germont), Thomas Hampson (Giorgio Germont), Monika-Evelin Liiv (Flora Bervoix), Kostas Smoriginas (Marquis D'Obigny), Eddie Wade (Baron Douphol), Richard Wiegold (Doctor Grenvil), Haoyin Xue (Gastone de Letorières), Sarah Pring (Anina), Neil Gillespie (Giuseppe), Charbel Mattar (Messenger), and Jonathan Coad (Servant). Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (Concert Master Vasko Vassilev) and the Royal Opera Chorus (Chorus Director Renato Balsadonna). Designs by Bob Crowley; lighting design by Jean Kalman; movement direction by Jane Gibson. Directed for TV by Rhodri Huw. Sung in Italian. Released 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A

Wonk Gordon Smith's L'OperaDou jury gave this production an A. But Gordon still appears to prefer the La Scala version with Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas over this version.

Here is a fairly nice clip about this production:

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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.