Prey’s legendary Schubert song cycle for the first time on BD. Prey, best known as a master of German art song, was a worldwide celebrated baritone with an international career over 45 years at the MET, Bayreuth, Salzburg, Japan, La Scala, etc. “In his finest interpretations Hermann Prey sang Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin with a captivatingly natural phrasing that flowed organically like a river and as such was the very opposite of the more intellectual approach of his rival, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.” – DIE ZEIT Online, 1998
Rusalka
This highly acclaimed production from the Bayerische Staatsoper, a powerful and fascinating re-interpretation of Dvorák’s fairy-tale opera Rusalka, was a revelation: the young, up-and-coming Latvian soprano, Kristine Opolais, whose performance was rightly hailed by the press as “one of the most vivid and striking accomplishments seen on an opera stage in a long time” (Vienna’s leading daily Der Standard). With her supple and velvety soprano voice, her captivating physical beauty and her hauntingly moving stage presence, Kristine Opolais perfectly embodies the role of the water nymph who becomes a human being in order to find love.
Mefistofele
Best-known today as the librettist of Verdi’s final Shakespearean masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff, the multitalented Arrigo Boito was also a fine composer in his own right. Hugely ambitious in scope, and some 20 years in the making, his first (and only completed) opera, Mefistofele, sets out to encompass nothing less than the whole of Goethe’s vast poetic drama Faust (part I and II), and is considered the very central work of his phase between Verdi and Puccini. Making his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper, director Roland Schwab (a protégé of the legendary Ruth Berghaus) plays devil’s advocate by setting the opera in a nightmarish atmosphere. “The exceptional solistic cast” (ORF) features René Pape, Joseph Calleja, Kristine Opolais and Karine Babajanyan.
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker
Experience the wonder of New York City Ballet’s iconic holiday classic on the big screen. In George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky’s beloved melodies transport the young and young at heart to a magical world where mischievous mice besiege a battalion of toy soldiers, and an onstage blizzard leads to an enchanted Land of Sweets. Balanchine’s stunning choreography shines amidst awe-inspiring set pieces, ornate costumes, and grand one-of-a-kind visual effects, like the one-ton Christmas tree that grows to an astonishing 40 feet. NYCB’s beloved production has been performed in New York City every year since ist premiere on February 2, 1954, and is seen live by more than 100,000 people annually.
La Traviata
Star tenor and director Rolando Villazón’s staging of La Traviata at the Festspielhaus in Baden Baden is “visually spectacular” (The Huffington Post) and made for “an enthusiastic reception for the premiere” (Stuttgarter Zeitung)! Villazón “proves again his excellent narrating skills on stage” (WDR Klassik). “The setting and opulence of the stage captivates the spectator, as do the stylized costumes designed by Thibault Vancraenenbroeck for circus artists” (Stuttgarter Zeitung). Olga Peretyatko as Violetta delivers “a fantastic portrait of the title role wavering between adolescent joie de vivre, mature insight and anguish” (Stuttgarter Zeitung). Her partner is the tenor Atalla Ayan as the jealous Alfredo, who delivers a “beguiling interpretation with a dark, warm timbre and rich top notes” (Stuttgarter Zeitung). Simone Piazzolla as Alfredo’s strict father Giorgio Germont adds fine vocal lines to provide a strong sense of “Italianità” on stage (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). Conductor is Pablo Heras-Casado, “a great hope of a new generation of conductors” (WDR Klassik).
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4
After the release of the Bruckner Symphonies Nos. 5, 8 and 9 with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Bruckner cycle is continued with Symphony No. 4, “Romantic”, one of Bruckner’s most popular work. It is played here in the presumed original version recovered by Robert Haas, which differs considerably from the first published score, accepted by Bruckner as a stopgap only so that the work could easily be performed. The press cheered the performance: “Tone paintings of the finest quality.”