Verdi Messa da Requiem

Verdi Messa da Requiem concert. Recorded 2007 at the Basilica di San Marco, Venice. Lorin Maazel conducts the Symphonica Toscanini and Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Chorus Master Piero Monti). Soloists are Norma Fantini (soprano), Anna Smirnova (mezzo-soprano), Francesco Meli (tenor) and Rafał Siwek (bass). Disc is In Memorium marking, in 2007, the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Arturo Toscanini. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini. Sung in Latin. Released 2015, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

It appears this is the exact same title that EuroArts published in 2012 except for "In Memoriam" artwork added to the front cover in 2015. We have deleted the 2012 version from the Alphalist. We have no inkling why EuroArts would go to the trouble to put this out again with such a small change.

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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.