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By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 Arts projects in Europe with any visual aspect to them nowadays migrate to DVD whether or not there is a need, partly to justify public subsidy through distribution. Many are operas filmed too often, like Nationaltheater Mannheim<\/a>\u2019s just-released Der Ring des Nibelungen<\/a><\/em>, which joins DVD tetralogies from Barcelona<\/a>, Copenhagen<\/a>, Erl<\/a>, Frankfurt<\/a>, Milan<\/a>, Stuttgart<\/a>, Valencia<\/a> and Weimar<\/a> issued since 2002. (The same staging nearly bankrupted Los Angeles Opera yet could not be filmed in the movie capital for lack of funds.) Others are more worthy or at least cover rarer material, and generally record labels can license their adventurous content with only modest investment. Here are seven such DVD releases along with some live or live-related European CDs, mostly from recent seasons.<\/p>\n Ivan Alexandre<\/a>\u2019s staging of Hippolyte et Aricie<\/a><\/em> premiered in 2009 in the intimate Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Capitole<\/a> in Toulouse. Its fluid interweaving of Rameau\u2019s vocal and dance elements and credible Personenregie<\/em> adapted to the composer\u2019s pace earned it a transfer to Paris in 2012, now viewable on a 2-DVD Erato set<\/a>. Alexandre approaches scenography using methods consistent with period practice<\/a> and potential. Helped by handsome flat designs and tight control of color, the effects were intriguing and refreshing to watch in both cities\u2019 theaters, and happily they advance the story equally well through the camera lens. Indeed the project is of a quality to set beside Jean-Marie Vill\u00e9gier<\/a>\u2019s legendary Montpellier production<\/a> of Lully\u2019s Atys<\/em> and faithful to Rameau\u2019s trag\u00e9die lyrique<\/em> in a way the modish competing Glyndebourne DVD<\/a> of 2013 could be only in its audio. Dynamic musicianship underpins the effort, with an admirable cast, notably St\u00e9phane Degout<\/a> as a mellifluous Th\u00e9s\u00e9e (pictured, right, aux enfers<\/em>). Emmanuelle Ha\u00efm<\/a>\u2019s conducting, all elbows and fists, apparently suits her orchestra, Le Concert d\u2019Astr\u00e9e<\/a>.<\/p>\n Warner Classics, the new EMI, has issued a Berlin Philharmonic CD pairing live 2012 and 2010 performances of Rachmaninoff\u2019s Kolokola (Bells)<\/em> and Symphonic Dances<\/a>. Simon Rattle\u2019s urbane and at times sultry reading of the cantata \u2014 the composer called it a choral symphony \u2014 disappoints, with his veteran soprano thin-voiced and only Mikhail Petrenko<\/a>, his bass in the concluding Mournful Iron Bells<\/em>, injecting much Russian flavor. But in the dances the conductor\u2019s refinement creates an enthralling balance of power and grace, and he presents a progression from the bucolic first movement, through a hardened Andante con moto<\/em>, to the contrasts and drama of the suite\u2019s lengthy third part. The string sound has bloom and the woodwinds find a huge range of expression and character.<\/p>\n The Pergolesi tricentennial of 2010 did the Jesi-born Neapolitan composer proud, prompting Claudio Abbado\u2019s priceless 3-CD survey of his choral music<\/a> as well as a 12-DVD \u201ctutto\u201d collection of the operas<\/a>, filmed in Jesi. Perhaps the richest single work is the comedy Lo frate \u2019nnamorato<\/a><\/em>, written at the same time as Hippolyte et Aricie<\/em> but a world away from it (and pointing forwards to Mozart rather than back at Lully). It is ably led by Fabio Biondi in the big set<\/a>, but Teatro alla Scala<\/a> in 1989 had a cast for this opera of charming da capo<\/em> arias that won\u2019t soon be equaled in technique or liveliness, and their RAI-televised work is currently an Opus Arte DVD<\/a>. Several Italian singers at the start of good careers \u2014 Nuccia Focile<\/a>, Luciana d\u2019Intino<\/a>, Bernadette Manca di Nissa<\/a>, Alessandro Corbelli<\/a> \u2014 energize the story of Ascanio (Focile), \u201cthe brother enamored\u201d unknowingly of his two sisters and, luckily, a third woman too. It is unavoidably a larger-scale staging than the piece wants, but Roberto de Simone<\/a> directs the action neatly on a revolving unit set. The orchestral playing has poise and discipline even if Riccardo Muti<\/a> propels the score at a tad slower pace than would be ideal.<\/p>\n Twelve years after Cecilia Bartoli\u2019s exploratory Decca disc of rare Gluck arias, the label has issued a companion CD<\/a> introducing German lyric tenor Daniel Behle<\/a>. Recorded under sponsorship in Athens in 2013, it leaps out of the loudspeakers. The Bavarian composer\u2019s pre-reform music, now more familiar, can still startle in its inventive turns and loose palettes, and Behle, who sang a riveting Tito in the Mozart opera last fall here at the Staatsoper, opts for several pieces that lie high. In two contrasted arias from La Semiramide riconosciuta<\/em> he copes manfully with technical demands while keeping power in reserve, as he did on stage. Se povero il ruscello<\/em> from Ezio<\/em> brings relaxed lyricism and a mellow timbre that caresses the line. The stunning scena<\/em> that opens La contesa de\u2019 Numi<\/em> is duly dramatic. But who oversaw this project? Everything is closely miked. Period orchestra Armonia Atenea<\/a> accompanies vigorously as led by George Petrou<\/a>, right in your ear. Misplaced vowel sounds from Behle, in the context of generally accurate delivery, were not fixed. And we jump to French arias at the end, familiar ones, including a bizarrely jovial J\u2019ai perdu mon Eurydice<\/em>. Producers matter.<\/p>\n Stage director Pierre Audi<\/a> in 2009 combined Iphig\u00e9nie en Aulide<\/em> and Iphig\u00e9nie en Tauride<\/em><\/a> for the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre Royal de la Monnaie<\/a> in Brussels, and Christophe Rousset<\/a> conducted imaginatively over an extended evening as Euripides\u2019 heroine appeared first as teenager in a Greek port and then as adult exile somewhere in Crimea. Two years later Audi\u2019s literally clunky conception \u2014 on metal steps and without backdrop \u2014 resurfaced in Amsterdam with a mostly changed cast and, alas, Marc Minkowski<\/a> defining the music through irksome rhythmic stresses, missing much beauty. There it was filmed. Unenhanceable by camera blocking and with Aulide<\/em> cut by thirty fine minutes, the production is now an Opus Arte 2-DVD set<\/a>. Gluck\u2019s first opera has the more lyrically inspired and stately score, with a terrific overture; in Tauride<\/em> his musical frame is tauter and more overtly theatrical. V\u00e9ronique Gens<\/a> and Nicolas Test\u00e9<\/a> excel as the young Iphig\u00e9nie and her father, while Anne Sofie von Otter<\/a> returns affectingly to Clytemnestre, a role she recorded<\/a> 24 years earlier; Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Antoun<\/a> contributes a credible, unstraining Achille. Tauride<\/em> revolves around the smart Mireille Delunsch<\/a>, abetted by Yann Beuron<\/a> (Pylade), Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Lapointe<\/a> (Oreste) and Laurent Alvaro<\/a> (Thoas); all sing with imposing dedication.<\/p>\n The less rare Werther<\/a><\/em> received an uncommonly strong cast at the Bastille home of the Op\u00e9ra National de Paris<\/a> in 2010, resulting in a 2-DVD Decca set<\/a> that is reportedly selling well. Sophie Koch<\/a> and Jonas Kaufmann<\/a> impersonate Goethe\u2019s awkward soulmates, both fresh of voice. Originally created for London, Beno\u00eet Jacquot<\/a>\u2019s innocuous yet intriguing, glum and sparse production presents the characters faithfully, the action plainly. Unusually Jacquot serves as video director too, lending style by shooting from behind the scenes and above the proscenium as well as from out front. These angles provide glimpses of the conductor, Michel Plasson<\/a>, who unfortunately blunts the contrasts in Massenet\u2019s score and weighs it down.<\/p>\n When the French, or at least the Franks, helped the Roman Church standardize chant cycles and structures for worship in order to make the liturgy operable and enforceable across regions, their effort left out Milan. Charlemagne\u2019s 8th-century directives invoking St Gregory<\/a> encouraged steps to document if not yet notate chants, but in the city where St Ambrose<\/a> had promoted the Church\u2019s adoption of Latin \u2014 his small corpse still lies there<\/a> wondrously on display \u2014 a divergent liturgy prevailed. Canto ambrosiano<\/a><\/em> has accordingly stood apart, its manuscripts complete in one place, unlike the scattered repositories of Gregorian chant. In 2010 the Arcidiocesi di Milano<\/a>, manager of this legacy, commissioned a book and recordings to survey and better disseminate the chants.<\/p>\n The resulting Antifonale Ambrosiano<\/a><\/em> is invaluable. It reproduces scores in early and modern notation. It details Milan\u2019s chant practices in italiano<\/em> and truly spans the subject: chants for the Ordinary of the Mass and for the Hours (Vigilie, Lodi, Prima, Terza, Sesta, Nona, Vespri, Compieta<\/em>), chants proper to seasons and saints, chants with psalm and canticle texts \u2014 each in one musical line, most to be sung antiphonally. Although not free of audible splices, the recordings are vivid yet with a resonant aura. Italian women and men sing in glorious Latin (and the vernacular), a joy in itself. The three CDs<\/a> hold about as much music as Parsifal<\/em> and are issued, with the book, by Libreria Musicale Italiana<\/a>, an academic body whose website offers a handy carrello<\/em> and U.S. shipping<\/a>.<\/p>\n Then there is Bejun Mehta<\/a>\u2019s Orlando<\/a><\/em>. The countertenor first personified the mad soldier at Glimmerglass<\/a> in 2003 and must relish the vocal fireworks and range H\u00e4ndel gives him. A performance in Brussels leaked onto video<\/a>, but in 2013 the same team reconvened in Bruges for a studio recording that Forum Op\u00e9ra<\/a> justly hails as an \u201cOrlando d\u2019une \u00e9poustouflante intensit\u00e9.\u201d Mehta rises to every ornamental challenge, adjusts his tone to paint words, sings with evenness from bottom to top, and sounds so believably on the fringes of sanity that a Zoroastrian mend is only logical. Senesino lives. But it is not a one-man show. The other principals likewise inhabit their roles even if they crush countless Italian consonants. Sophie Karth\u00e4user<\/a>: super trills, too closely miked. Sunhae Im<\/a>: charm in the voice, sweet-sounding. Kristina Hammarstr\u00f6m<\/a>: a focused alto with smooth, masculine tones. Konstantin Wolff<\/a>: assured and agile. The conducting lacks subtlety but Ren\u00e9 Jacobs<\/a> does support his singers, and Ah! Stigie larve! \u2026 Vaghe pupille<\/em>, the accompagnato<\/em> climax to Act II, properly showcases Mehta. Engineers of the 2-CD Archiv set<\/a> alas place the B\u2019Rock Orchestra Ghent<\/a> far forward, so that even the expertly played harpsichord can grate. Fine, fleet woodwinds announce themselves in the overture.<\/p>\n Equally brilliant on a 2012 disc of seldom-heard Mozart concert arias<\/a> is Rolando Villaz\u00f3n<\/a>, the tenor whose voice and career were supposedly kaputt<\/em>. After streamed (and moving) portrayals<\/a> of Offenbach\u2019s Hoffmann here at the Staatsoper in late 2011, he went to Abbey Road to make this Deutsche Grammophon CD with the London Symphony Orchestra<\/a>. There the sound engineers proved that the art of balancing musicians hasn\u2019t been totally lost, and conductor Antonio Pappano<\/a> proved a resilient foil in the bold, precocious, clever, sad, amusing scores, even gracing one aria with a dryly comic bass voice. The results are essential listening, largely because Villaz\u00f3n gets straight to the heart of every piece and finds all the color, truth and humanity anyone could wish for. Even the juvenile work sounds masterly.<\/p>\n Alexander Pereira\u2019s long years as Intendant<\/em> at Opernhaus Z\u00fcrich<\/a> (1991\u20132012) brought a wave of sponsors for the company and, significantly, its \u201ccantonization,\u201d making it the charge not just of the city but of a wealthy catchment area reaching to the German border. Pereira had a confident ear for talent, built an ensemble, and gave lead roles to unknown singers like the tenors Piotr Beczala (from 1997), Kaufmann (1999) and Javier Camarena<\/a> (2007). Working with a quintet of conductors \u2014 Nikolaus Harnoncourt, William Christie, Nello Santi, \u00c1d\u00e1m Fischer and Franz Welser-M\u00f6st \u2014 he widened the audience for the small house through DVDs, ahead of a trend. Two such projects late in the tenure were Rossini operas led by veteran Muhai Tang<\/a>, with Bartoli, Liliana Nikiteanu<\/a>, and Camarena in stagings by Patrice Caurier<\/a> and Moshe Leiser<\/a>. These are now out on Decca after a delay, poles apart in nature but both vividly impressive.<\/p>\n Stendhal described Rossini\u2019s Otello, ossia Il moro di Venezia<\/a><\/em>, as \u201cvolcanic\u201d; certainly it is an unsettling score and a contrast in sensibility to the other heroic operas. Zurich\u2019s staging straddles the line between tragedy and melodrama, with credible interactions and an inner focus that does not let up. Sparse but graphically textured sets lend a tension of their own. Otello<\/em> needs three tenors who can cope with a high tessitura and sing accurately through wild embellishments, and these it received when filmed in 2012. John Osborn<\/a> is a duly martial moro<\/em>, while the romantic role of Rodrigo is ardently taken by Camarena. The two are phenomenal in Ah vieni, nel tuo sangue<\/em>, their bilious Act II clash. Edgardo Rocha<\/a> is skilled as Iago (strictly \u201cJago\u201d), a smaller role. Bass-baritone Peter K\u00e1lm\u00e1n<\/a> makes an imposing Elmiro (and Graham Chapman lookalike), but the capable women come across less ideally: Bartoli\u2019s Desdemona machine-gun in delivery and Nikiteanu\u2019s Emilia a deer in the headlights. Tang has the mood of the piece and conducts it with unfailing propulsion.<\/p>\n Great fun is Le comte Ory<\/a><\/em>, a farce that brought down the Swiss house when premiered in Jan. 2011. Anyone who knows it through Bartlett Sher\u2019s misfiring production<\/a> for the Metropolitan Opera owes it to themselves to see Decca\u2019s DVD<\/a>: it is full of joie de vivre<\/em>, keenly observed in its humor by the directing partners despite a seven-century advance in the action to 1950s France. Carlos Chausson<\/a> sang hilariously at the premiere as the Gouverneur, who has a smug early scene, but he is alas replaced in the video (filmed later) by a discomfited Ugo Guagliardo<\/a>. That said \u2014 and the Gouverneur does fade from the plot \u2014 there are outstanding musical turns from the other principals and all play the comedy straight. Bartoli moves from Isolier, the suitor role she sang in Milan long ago, to Ad\u00e8le, Comtesse de Formoutiers, and is a stitch, literally, as directed, exuding dignity except where circumstance overtakes her. Rebeca Olvera<\/a> essays a chain-smoking warrior of an Isolier. Nikiteanu is deadpan as Ragonde, making sparing use of emotive poses. Camarena smirks sweetly as the \u201cermite\u201d but upholds due gravity as \u201cSoeur Colette\u201d; he and Oliver Widmer<\/a>, the excellent Raimbaud, parade the virtues of ensemble acting as well as singing, not to mention comic timing. Tang and the orchestra breezily convey the score\u2019s spirit.<\/p>\n Against the odds, Zimmermann\u2019s Die Soldaten<\/a><\/em> (1964) has become a repertory opera in German-speaking lands. The visionary magnum opus with its depraved storyline sanctions a grab bag of what are now Regietheater<\/em> clich\u00e9s, magnified by pluralism, simultaneous scenes and surround sound. Its 110 minutes embrace various musical forms and want a massive orchestra, plus jazz combo, such that, all told, the composer\u2019s concept remains barely feasible. Recent stagings in Salzburg (2012), Zurich (2013*) and Munich (2014*) inevitably went their separate ways; the first, by Alvis Hermanis<\/a>, is now a EuroArts DVD<\/a>. Filmed in the Felsenreitschule and presenting a row of arched vignettes mimicking the venue\u2019s rock-carved backdrop, it is preset for simultaneous drama. But once adjusted to the tritone stills of vintage porn backed by live-action images of walking horses, masturbating soldiers and Peeping Toms, the viewer tires of the left-and-right back-and-forth. A striking cast is headed by Laura Aikin<\/a> as Marie; Ingo Metzmacher<\/a> works magically with a somewhat backwardly balanced Vienna Philharmonic<\/a>, not heard with the impact experienced at the venue.<\/p>\n [*Presumably in the DVD pipeline, worth or not worth the wait. Zurich\u2019s has Marc Albrecht<\/a> conducting a Calixto Bieito concept (less refinement, more degradation, spatially restricted and with lesser musical forces); Munich\u2019s offers Kirill Petrenko<\/a> on the podium and Andreas Kriegenburg directing traffic (less sex, more clich\u00e9s). John Rhodes on the Swiss show: \u201cMost sexual perversions and some torture were presented quite graphically \u2026 . Marie was in a constant state of undress. At the end she poured blood on herself and stood \u2026 as though crucified at the front of the stage.\u201d In Munich the opening scene was overplayed, weakening what followed. Kriegenburg\u2019s box-based staging offered unedifying and in the end unenlightening views, but Petrenko presided over an inflamed Bavarian State Orchestra and a superb cast centered on Barbara Hannigan\u2019s Marie.]<\/span><\/p>\n Still image from video \u00a9 Warner Classics<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: March 31, 2015<\/span><\/p>\n
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