Semiramide — HDVDARTS

Rossini Semiramide opera to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. Directed 2011 by Nigel Lowery at the Vlaamse Opera. Stars Myrtò Papatanasiu (Semiramide), Ann Hallenberg (Arsace), Josef Wagner (Assur), Robert McPherson (Idreno), Igor Bakan (Oroe), Julianne Gearhart (Azema), Eduardo Santamaria (Mitrane), and Charles Dekeyser (L'Ombra di Nino). Alberto Zedda conducts the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Vlaamse Opera Antwerp/Ghent (Chorus Master Yannis Pouspourikas). Set design and costume design by Nigel Lowery; lighting design by Lothar Baumgarte. Directed for TV by Matteo Ricchetti. Sung in Italian. Released 2015, 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.