Verdi Operas Box Set

Verdi Operas box set released 2016. Below are the discs. Each of them has already been reported on this website, and you can get more details by using the links provided:

Il trovatore. 2008. (Grade: B)
La traviata. 2011. (Grade: A)
Macbeth. 2012. (Grade: A)

This is one of the few box sets for which I have some enthusiasm. Most of the boxes on the market have some eagle offerings plus several turkey titles mixed in that ruin the package. But here are three solid and conservative (if somewhat older) productions that are still worth your time. If you get a discount on this, it's a good value.

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What's New

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.