When Herbert von Karajan conducted Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival in 1987 featuring an outstanding cast of singers, the fantastic Wiener Philharmoniker and staged by Michael Hampe, it became a legendary performance of the highest artistic level. This dream of artistic collaboration made it one of the best opera performances, which now is available for the first time on Blu-ray.
Falstaff
Based, in part, on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff is Verdi’s last work for the stage – and only his second comic opera. And yet the humour in this multilayered masterpiece is distinctly wry, for all the main characters exhibit an array of human weaknesses that are implacably exposed by Verdi and his librettist Arrigo Boito. In this legendary performance from the Salzburg Festival 1982, Herbert von Karajan is not only leading a stunning cast of singers featuring the Wiener Philharmoniker, he too directed the opera, in the amazing set design of Günther Schneider-Siemssen.
Jenufa
Jenufa is still Janácek’s most successful and most often performed opera, and the Berlin premiere at the Staatsoper in 1924 brought the work its final breakthrough on German stages. This performance from Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden is “artistically unsurpassable. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, the cast […], secondly: the direction […], thirdly: Simon Rattle, the Staatskapelle and the chorus of the Staatsoper” (BR Klassik). “Simon Rattle revs up the Staatskapelle Berlin with a passion as if he had to fill a melodrama by Giacomo Puccini with bursting sound life” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). “A beguiling mixture of speaking articulation and tonal roundness.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Great Conductors
Four documentaries about the some of the greatest conductors of all time, Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein and Carlos Kleiber Available on Blu-ray for the first time. BD 1 Carlos Kleiber – I am lost to the World; BD 2 Sir Georg Solti – Journey of a lifetime + Solti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; BD 3 Leonard Bernstein – Larger Than Life (prizewinning Documentary); BD 4 Herbert von Karajan – Maestro for the Screen + Karajan conducts Berliner Philharmoniker
Orlando
“A vivid Orlando makes history in Vienna” (New York Times International): Olga Neuwirth’s opera Orlando, based on Virginia Woolf’s novel of the same name, is the first full-length opera work by a woman celebrating its premiere at the Vienna State Opera. Olga Neuwirth, for a long time one of the great composers of the present, succeeds with this opera in creating a captivating arc across many musical genres. It’s an exciting, socially critical production by Polly Graham who puts a fantastically singing and playing Kate Lindsey in the center of the action. For Orlando Olga Neuwirth won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, it became “world premiere of the year” by Opernwelt magazine and for Die Zeit it was “the premiere of the season”. BONUS: Interviews with Kate Lindsey, Will Duke (Video Designer), Lucas Niggli (drummer)
Herbert von Karajan, Wiener Philharmoniker & Berliner Philharmoniker
The New Year´s Concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein Vienna with the Wiener Philharmoniker is always one of the best-selling classical albums each year. In 1987 Herbert von Karajan conducted his only performance of the New Year´s Concert performing famous pieces from Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss. As soloist in one piece you can hear the legendary soprano Kathleen Battle. The New Year´s Eve Concert 1988 was one of the last concerts that Herbert von Karajan gave with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Berlin. For this concert he invited the 17 year old Evgeny Kissin to his debut with the orchestra. After the concert the press did raving reviews about Kissin´s musicality and technical skills and he proves till today that he is one of the best pianists of our time. It was barely half a year after this concert, on July 16, 1989, that Herbert von Karajan passed away. The present recording thus forms an essential document of two highlights in the last years of the maestro’s life. One of many such documents that have made this great conductor immortal.
David Garrett: Unlimited
Star violinist David Garrett celebrates his ten-year spectacular crossover programme with thousands of fans in the extraordinary atmosphere of the Arena di Verona, Italy. Performing his Greatest Hits of brilliant interpretations of rock classics like “We Are The Champions” or “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and world-famous pop songs like “Viva La Vida” or “Hey Jude” and his arrangements of classical melodies like Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, David Garrett left a thrilled audience in the Arena.
Der Freischütz
Christian Räth’s inspired staging of Der Freischütz, Weber’s seminal Romantic opera, at the Haus am Ring stands out due to the bold set and costume design by Gary McCann. It was “a festival of singers, that the young conductor Tomas Netopil underscored with the State Opera Orchestra with warmth. Andreas Schager, the immense Heldentenor, as Max, Camilla Nylund as the touching Agathe – a magnificent pair. The other roles were also well cast … “ (Salzburger Nachrichten)
Idomeneo
Idomeneo is considered as the first of the seven uncontested masterworks of Mozart’s dramatic oeuvre and it is perhaps even the most revolutionary and forward-looking of his work. In “Kasper Holten’s coherent production” (Die Presse) Bernard Richter was “a cultivated bright tenor with beautiful expressive moments” (Kronen Zeitung). “Valentina Nafornit¸a performed the role of Ilia with passion and reached every height with ease and Irina Lungu portrayed Elettra as a great tragic figure and unfolded her soprano with verve in the final aria” (Kurier). Conductor Tomáš Netopil provided with the orchestra “gripping moments from the virtuoso overture onwards” (Kronen Zeitung)
Parsifal
In Palermo where Richard Wagner composed this monumental opera during a long stay, conductor Omer Meir Wellber makes a highly successful debut as music director of Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, architecturally and artistically one of Italy’s most impressive opera houses. “With the Teatro Massimo’s excellent orchestra he succeded in a reading that was absolutely straight forward” (Opera Today). The singers are excellently cast especially Julian Hubbard as Parsifal “who was a sensation” (neue musikzeitung). Stage director “Graham Vick strips Parsifal of mysticism to deliver a powerful indictment of divisive ideologies” (Musical America).