The Wiener Staatsballett is one of the great companies in the world. Yet never before had Rudolf Nureyev’s world-famous choreography of The Nutcracker been performed in Vienna. The present production remedies this omission by presenting Nureyev’s final, 1985 Paris version with two magnificent young soloists and the splendid Vienna corps de ballet. Nureyev’s version enjoys a particular standing in the history of this well-known ballet in that it was the first to incorporate the psychology of E. T. A Hoffman’s fairy tale on which Tchaikovsky’s ballet is based. The critic Clive Barnes set the tone by remarking: “No version of The Nutcracker that we have ever seen has been more potently dramatic; few have displayed so sharp an imprint of personal style. “Elegant, romantic, delightful” (Die Presse) · “Outstanding soloists” (Der Standard)
REJOICE with Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot
This DVD celebrates the extraordinary artistic world of Eastern European Jewish music, or in the words of Itzhak Perlman, “chicken soup for the soul.” Legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman and renowned cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot join forces for a musical exploration of liturgical and traditional works in new arrangements for both chamber orchestra and klezmer settings. In Rejoice with Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, these two incomparable virtuosos unite for an evening of cantorial masterpieces, Yiddish folk and theater tunes, Hassidic melodies, and klezmer instrumentals.
Arabella
A “lyric comedy” is how Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal described their final collaboration, on which they worked between 1927 and 1929. Arabella revolves around the true
love between two very different couples – the love that unites two people forever “in joy and sorrow, hurt and forgiveness”, as Arabella herself puts it at the end of the opera. With Renée
Fleming in the title role and a supporting cast that includes Thomas Hampson, Gabriela Benacková and the young tenor Daniel Behle – surely a star of the future – this production from the Salzburg Easter Festival was the first of the piece at the Festival since 1958. Under the Strauss specialist Christian Thielemann, it featured a Strauss ensemble that could hardly be bettered today. Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson are a “dream couple for Richard Strauss” (Salzburger Nachrichten).