Blu-ray
Benjamin: Written on Skin (The Royal Opera)
Christopher Purves (Protector); Barbara Hannigan (Agnès); Bejun Mehta (First Angel/Boy); Victoria Simmonds (Second Angel/Marie); Allan Clayton (Third Angel/John);
"Magic and irresistible ... It is the best opera written over the last twenty years." (Le Monde)
Benjamin: Written on Skin / Lessons in Love and Violence (The Royal Opera)
Christopher Purves (The Protector); Barbara Hannigan (Agnès (Written on Skin), Isabel (Lessons in Love and Violence)); Bejun Mehta (Angel 1 / The Boy); Victoria Simmonds (Angel 2 / Marie); Allan Clayton (Angel 3 / John); Stéphane Degout (King); Gyula Ordent (Gaveston / Stranger); Peter Hoare (Mortimer); Samuel Boden (Boy / Young King); Ocean Barrington-Cook (Girl);
"Hailled as a 'triumph' at its premiere in Aix-en-Provence in 2012, 'Written on Skin' has quickly establsihed itself as one of the essential 21st-century operas." (Gramphone - Winner of the Contemporary Award - Gramophone Awards 2014 (Written on Skin))
Berg: Lulu (The Royal Opera)
Agneta Eichenholz (Lulu); Michael Volle (Dr Schön / Jack the Ripper); Klaus Florian Vogt (Alwa); Jennifer Larmore (Countess Geschwitz);
"It is immaculately rehearsed and executed - one doesn't often see opera acted with such freedom and honesty and absence of flummery. And its unsparing analytic clarity forces one to confront the bitter truth about Lulu's inner life and the corruption and idiocy of the men who are infatuated by her...Antonio Pappano's electrifying conducting is razor-sharp in the manner of PierreBoulez, and the orchestral playing is magnificent...Singing with an extraordinary grace and insouciance, Eichenholz manages to make this monster chillingly real and hauntingly beautiful." (The Daily Telegraph)
Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict (Glyndebourne)
Stéphanie d’Oustrac (Béatrice); Paul Appleby (Bénédict); Sophie Karthäuser (Héro); Philippe Sly (Claudio); Lionel Lhote (Somarone); Frédéric Caton (Don Pedro); Katarina Bradić (Ursule);
"…delivered with sumptuous assurance..." (The Times)
Berlioz: Les Troyens (The Royal Opera)
Anna Caterina Antonacci (Cassandra); Eva-Maria Westbroek (Dido); Bryan Hymel (Aeneas); Fabio Capitanucci (Coroebus); Robert Lloyd (Priam); Narbal (Brindley Sherratt); Ashley Holland (Panthus); Daniel Grice (Soldier);
"David McVicar's stupendous production at the Royal Opera House would be worth seeing for Es Devlin's mighty sets and Constructivist Trojan horse alone. But Antonio Pappano's orchestra plays the ravishing score with such élan, and the singing and acting are so fine, especially Cassandra (Anna Caterina Antonacci), Dido (Eva-Maria Westbroek) and Aeneas (Bryan Hymel), that you can forgive the long, angular ballets that are like misbegotten descendants of Isadora Duncan and the Ballets Russes." (The Wall Street Journal)
Berlioz: Les Troyens (Théâtre du Châtelet)
Susan Graham (Didon); Anna Caterina Antonacci (Cassandra / Clio); Gregory Kunde (née); Ludovic Tézier (Chorèbe); Laurent Naouri (Narbal / Le Grand Prêtre);
"In October 2003 John Eliot Gardiner with his Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique had a great success when they visited Paris to give Berlioz's epic opera in the relatively intimate Theatré du Châtelet but, as the video shows, the stage production by Yannis Kokkos neatly achieves clarity and directness in the complex plot with an economical but effective staging....The performance gains from the fine singing in the central role of Cassandra of Anna Caterina Antonacci, then coming to the fore as a star of the future. Ludovic Tezier is also excellent as her lover Chorebus, and the final chorus of Trojan women, led by Cassandra, brings a thrilling climax." (The Penguin Guide)