Wellington City Libraries

Te Matapihi Ki Te Ao Nui

Search options

New Opera DVDs

list updated February 2009


classical music graphic

The title-underlined links will take you directly to our catalogue. Featured items are linked via their covers to enable you to read more reviews.


Amazon DVD jacket Don Pasquale, by Donizetti. (a production of the Zürich Opera House)
The plot is typical Donizetti (old man seeks young pretty wife) with its usual tricks and misunderstandings. But this features such refreshing and charistmatic musical performances e.g. Ernesto, tenor Juan Diego Florez that it is worth this treat alone.

Amazon book jacket La fille du régiment, by Gaetano Donizetti . (a Royal Opera House/BBC co-production)
Most reviewers agree that this version now tops the selection of this work, and even makes the "best of" DVD lists. The production captures the essence of the comedy with laughs aplenty and stars Juan Diego Flórez and Natalie Dessay, both unbeatable, are in top form.

Amazon DVD jacket Eugene Onegin, by Tchaikovsky. A co-production of ORF/Unitel Classica in cooperation with the Salzberg Festival - featuring a superb young cast and the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by maestro Daniel Barenboim, with the title role taken by Peter Mattei.

Amazon book jacket Khovanshchina, by Mussorgsky . (Bolshoi Theatre ; Yuri Simonov, conductor)
An epic of immense power and humanity, set at the time when Peter the Great became czar of Russia. Political intrigue, religious persecution, and the tragedy of a nation form the backdrop against which intense personal dramas are played out.

Amazon DVD jacket King Priam , music and libretto by Sir Michael Tippett.
Performers: Rodney Macann (King Priam) ; Sarah Walker (Andromache) ; Howard Haskin (Paris) ; Anne Mason (Helen) ; Janet Price (Hecuba) ; Neil Jenkins (Achilles) ; Omar Ebrahim (Hector) ; supporting soloists ; Kent Opera Orchestra and Chorus ; Roger Norrington, conductor.

Amazon book jacket Doctor Atomic, by John Adams. (libretto, Peter Sellars, commissioned by the San Francisco Opera)
J. Robert Oppenheimer began an experiment that formed a threat to the whole of humanity, and whose scientific results still do today. The question of the moral implications of the atomic bomb is raised in Adams opera.

Amazon DVD jacket Parsifal, by Wagner. A new production from the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in co-production with ENO London, San Fransisco Opera and Lyric Opera Chicago. Deutsches-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin ; Festspielchor Baden-Baden ; Kent Nagano, conductor. German romantic music drama at its best.

Amazon book jacket Die Walkure, by Wagner. (Patrice Chereau production)
Performers include Donald McIntyre, whom many consider as one of the greatest Wotan interpreters - conveying the pathos and despair as his world distintegrates around him before moving to rage when Brunnhilde rebels.

Amazon dvd jacket Das Rheingold, , by Wagner, with the Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele ; Pierre Boulez, conductor.
This is the first opera (the prologue) in Wagner's Ring Cycle.
The rhinegold -- if made into a ring -- would enable the wearer dominion over the world. Power comes with a price, however; whoever would steal the gold would have to renounce love.

Amazon DVD jacket Siegfried , by Wagner, with the Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele ; conducted by Pierre Boulez and Donald McIntyre as Der Wanderer.
The Library also has Gotterdammerung, from the same Patrice Chereau production series and The making of the Ring : a documentary, produced and directed by Peter Weinberg.

Amazon dvd jacket Lohengrin, , by Wagner, with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus ; James Levine, conductor.
Remastered from a live 1986 performance with production by August Everding; TV director, Brian Large. Although some vocal performances earned mixed reviews, the critics were unanimous about the masterful musical direction by James Levine and ability of the production team to make this a wonderful "performance" event in every respect.

Amazon DVD jacket Il viaggio a Reims : dramma giocoso en un acte , by Rossini, with Chorus & Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre; Valery Gergiev, conductor; Alain Maratrat, stage director; Vincent Bataillon, TV director.
This was Rossini's last Italian opera and written for the coronation of France's King Charles X (so he did not expect it to be heard again). It got a fresh airing after languishing for 200 years, in 1984.

Amazon dvd jacket Natalie Dessay, , greatest moments on stage. Hear her handling those top notes with great panache, and it is interesting to hear different performances of the same aria.

Amazon DVD jacket Il Signor Bruschino, by Rossini.
Alessandro Corbelli (Gaudenzio) ; Amelia Felle (Sofia) ; Alberto Rinaldi (Bruschino padre) ; Vito Gobbi (Bruschino figlio) ; David Kuebler (Florville) ; Oslavio di Credico (Un commissario di polizia) ; Carlos Feller (Filiberto) ; Janice Hall (Marianna) ; Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart ; Gianluigi Gelmetti, conductor.

Amazon dvd jacket Faust, , by Charles Gounod ; with Alfredo Kraus (Il Dottor Faust) in the 1986 Parma performance.
Entire ballet sequences are included.

Amazon DVD jacket Pique dame , by Tchaikovsky.
This Glyndebourne production of Pique Dame ("The Queen of Spades") received rave reviews when it appeared in 1992.

Amazon dvd jacket Don Carlo, , by Verdi.
With Rolando Villazon as Don Carlo, this is a musically fresh production under the auspices of Riccardo Chailly, conductor.

Amazon DVD jacket The Modena recital, by Pavarotti.
In 1986 Luciano Pavarotti returned to his old music school, the Liceo, to perform this benefit recital which includes works from Gluck to Schubert to Puccini.

Amazon dvd jacket Flying Dutchman, , by Richard Wagner ; directed by Harry Kupfer.
Performed by the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, this interpretation presents the entire story as a hallucination on the part of Senta.

Amazon DVD jacket Maid of Orleans, by Tchaikovsky.
The Bolshoi Opera, conducted by Alexander Lazarev.

Amazon dvd jacket King Arthur, , by Purcell.
Performers : Michael Maertens (King Arthur) ; Christph Kail (Aurelius) ; Dietmar Konig (Oswald) ; Sylvie Rohrer (Emmeline), with the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor ; Concentus Musicus Wien ; Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor.

Amazon DVD jacket Agrippina, by Handel.
While the characters are based on historical figures the plot is comedic rather than epic. Claudio, Emperor of Rome, names Ottone, as his heir, but his wife, Agrippina, hopes to place her own son, Nerone, on the throne.

Amazon dvd jacket War and peace, , by Prokofiev.
Live from the Kirov Opera in St Petersburg, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Amazon DVD jacket Mefistofele, by Arrigo Boito.
Samuel Ramey has won overwhelming critical acclaim for his performance in the San Francisco Opera's production of Goethe's classic conflict of good versus evil.

Amazon dvd jacket The cunning little vixen, , by Janacek.
This is an animated film version, published by the BBC, with music under the direction of Kent Nagano. Recall that Janacek's inspiration was indeed a run of daily cartoons drawn by Stanislav Lolek.

Amazon DVD jacket Ruslan and Lyudmila, by Glinka, performed by the Kirov Opera and Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev.
The fantastical elements of Pushkin's work particularly appealed to Glinka as an inspiration but the libretto is largely written by Shirkov, after Pushkin's untimely death in a duel.

Amazon dvd jacket Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, , by Claudio Monteverdi, performed by The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists, with John Eliot Gardiner.
The choice of the location for this performance was Venice's San Marco, where Monteverdi spent much of his career.

Amazon DVD jacket Simplicius, by Johann Strauss.
Simplicius was lost for more than a century. When it was recovered, the Zurich Opera House welcomed it back with a worthy production.

Amazon dvd jacket Die Zauberflote = The magic flute, , by Mozart, performed by The Metropolitan Opera with James Levine.
"Battle's Pamina is my favorite ever. I feel it was this sort of voice Mozart had in mind for the part - a radiant soprano." (Amazon customer)

Amazon dvd jacket Le Nozze di Figaro = The marriage of Figaro, by Mozart, performed by the Monteverdi Choir with John Eliot Gardiner.
With Bryn Terfel as Figaro and Alison Hagley as Susanna, this is definitely a disc of note. An Amazon customer writes "This is the best performance of Le Nozze di Figaro I have seen and ranks as one of my favorite opera dvds. "

Amazon dvd jacket Carmen, , by Bizet. A Francesco Rosi film with Julia Migenes Johnson and Placido Domingo.
This movie version was filmed on location, taking the action out of doors for many scenes. It uses the opera's original opera comique form with some spoken dialogue rather than recitatives.

Amazon DVD jacket L'elisir d'amore, by Donizetti, with husband-and-wife team of soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenor Roberto Alagna. Included is a 52-minute film "Love Potion," which goes behind the scenes of the production.

Amazon dvd jacket Les Contes d'Hoffmann, , by Offenbach, performed by The Royal Opera Covent Garden, with George Pretre.
This production departs from Offenbach's evident intentions particularly in the Venetian act. However, these additions include some of the best-loved material in the opera. Placido Domingo, Luciana Serra, Agnes Baltsa and Ileana Cotrubas.

Amazon DVD jacket Les Hugenots, by Meyerbeer, with the Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
The original context is the 16th-century St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of thousands of French Calvinists under the Catholic regime. This particular production carries with it references to 20th century persecution of the Jews in wartime Germany.

Amazon dvd jacket Manon Lescaut, , by Puccini, performed by The Royal Opera Covent Garden, conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli.
"Manon", wrote Puccini in 1889, "is a heroine I believe in and therefore she cannot fail to win the heart of the public." In this classic production (1984) Manon is played by Kiri Te Kanawa.

Amazon DVD jacket Il Trovatore, by Verdi.
With Jose Cura as Manrico and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the Count di Luna.

Amazon DVD jacket Aida, by Giuseppe Verdi, DVD.
Performer Note: Margaret Price, Luciano Pavarotti, Simon Estes, Stefania Toczyska, Kevin Langan, Kurt Rydl ; San Francisco Opera Orchestra ; San Francisco Opera Chorus ; Garcia Navarro, conductor.

Amazon DVD jacket Simon Boccanegra, by Verdi , performed by the Metropolital Opera Chorus with James Levine.
Another epic plot. Features Kiri Te Kanawa as Amelia.

Amazon DVD jacket Billy Budd, by Britten, performed by the Chorus And Orchestra Of The English National Opera; conducted by David Atherton. Set aboard a British man-of-war.

Amazon book jacket Peter Grimes, by Benjamin Britten, DVD.
Philip Langridge, Janice Cairns, Alan Opie, Ann Howard, other soloists ; English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus ; David Atherton, conductor.

Popular Home