Blu-ray
Verdi: Don Carlo (Teatro Regio, Torino)
Ramón Vargas (Don Carlo ); Svetlana Kasyan (Elizabeth); Ildar Abdrazakov (Filippo II ); Ludovic Tézier (Rodrigo); Daniela Barcellona (Princess Eboli); Marco Spotti (Grand Inquisitor);
"Without doubt, the Argentinian director’s [Hugo de Ana] production is one of the best around…" (Liricamente)
Verdi: Falstaff (Glyndebourne)
Christopher Purves (Falstaff); Tassis Christoyannis (Ford); Dina Kuznetsova (Mrs Ford); Marie-Nicolre Lemieux (Mistress Quickly); Jennifer Holloway (Mrs Page); Bulent Bezduz (Fenton);
"Some of Glyndebournes more entrenched punters took umbrage at Richard Joness updating of Falstaff to a 1940s Ealing-comedy Windsor. Most, though, as you can hear throughout this film, roared at the gags in a production so sharply coordinated with the music." (BBC Music Magazine)
Verdi: I Due Foscari (The Royal Opera)
Plácido Domingo (Francesco Foscari); Francesco Meli (Jacopo Foscari ); Maria Agresta (Lucrezia Contarini ); Maurizio Muraro (Jacopo Loredano); Samuel Sakker (Barbarigo); Rachel Kelly (Pisana);
"Domingo ... is, unquestionably, rather fine in it. There’s strong conducting from Antonio Pappano, and the dark-hued score, all sombre brass and low strings, is excitingly played." (The Guardian)
Verdi: Il trovatore (The Royal Opera)
José Cura (Manrico); Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Count di Luna); Yvonne Naef (Azucena); Verónica Vilarroel (Leonora);
"Elijah Moshinsky's production is surely as lively and moving as Verdis intricate masterpiece deserves. Jose Cura sizzles. Dimitri Hvorostovsky is everything one could want to see and hear in a Verdi baritone. This new Trovatore DVD is a reminder that not every golden age happened long ago." (San Francisco Chronicle)
Verdi: Il Trovatore (The Royal Opera)
Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Ferrando); Lianna Haroutounian (Leonora); Francesca Chiejina (Ines); Gregory Kunde (Manrico); Vitaliy Bilyy (Count Di Luna); Anita Rachvelishvili (Azucena); Jonathan Fisher (Old Gypsy); Samuel Sakker (Ruiz); Andrew O’Connor (Messenger);
"Verdi's melodrama is given a grand start by Alexander Tsymbalyuk as Ferrando, majestic in his retelling of the opera's convoluted back story about burning the wrong baby. I could have listened to the Ukrainian bass all evening... An earlier Covent Garden discovery, Lianna Haroutounian, who deputised so brilliantly for Anja Harteros in Don Carlo a few years back, is a devastatingly powerful Leonora. On grand tragic form throughout, her substantial voice retained its radiance throughout and was still fresh enough for a knockout account of the heroine's final-act set piece, the spectacular "Tu vedrai che amore in terra", in which the security of her vocal command was a wonder... Conductor Richard Farnes drew some fabulous singing from the Royal Opera Chorus: the women in particular were a credit to their new director William Spaulding in the hushed luminosity of their offstage requiem in the final act. And the dynamic maestro energised the ROH Orchestra throughout the performance with a succession of interpretational subtleties whose inventiveness kept Verdi's old war horse on the gallop. It is well worth a listen" (WhatsOn Stage ★★★★)
Verdi: La Traviata (Glyndebourne)
Venera Gimadieva (Violetta Valéry); Michael Fabiano (Alfredo Germont); Tassis Christoyannis (Giorgio Germont); Emanuele D’Aguanno (Gastone, Viscount de Letorières); Magdalena Molendowska (Annina); Hanna Hipp (Flora Bervoix); Eddie Wade (Baron Douphol); Oliver Dunn (Marchese D'Obigny); Graeme Broadbent (Doctor Grenvil);
" a Traviata that glances to the past while stepping resolutely into opera’s emotional and dramatic future." (The Independent ★★★★)