Norma — HDVDARTS

Vincenzo Bellini Norma opera to libretto by Felice Romani. Directed 2015 by R.B. Schlather (after Kevin Newbury) at the Gran Teatro del Liceu. Stars Gregory Kunde (Pollione), Raymond Aceto (Oroveso), Sondra Radvanovsky (Norma), Ekaterina Gubanova (Adalgisa), Ana Puche (Clotilde), and Francisco Vas (Flavio). Renato Palumbo conducts the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatro del Liceu (Chorus Master Peter Burian). Set design by David Korins; costumes by Jessica Jahn; lighting by D.M. Wood. Directed for TV by by Jean-Pierre Loisil. Sung in Italian. Released 2016, 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.