Ernani — HDVDARTS

Verdi Ernani opera to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. Directed 2017 by Jean-Louis Grinda at the Opéra Monte-Carlo. Stars Ramón Vargas (Ernani), Ludovic Tézier (Don Carlo), Alexander Vinogradov (Don Ruy Gomez de Silva), Svetla Vassilieva (Elvira), Karine Ohanyan (Giovanna), Maurizio Pace (Don Riccardo), and Gabriele Ribis (Jago). Daniele Callegari conducts the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Monte-Carlo Opera Chorus (Chorus Master Stefano Visconti). Set design by Isabelle Partiot-Pieri; costumes by Teresa Acone; lights by Laurent Castaingt. Directed for TV by Stéphan Aubé; produced by Frederic Allain (Wahoo). Sung in Italian. Released 2017, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Mark Pullinger, writing in the March 2018 Gramophone at pages 90-91, laments "static, park-and-bark staging" and he isn't that crazy about the singers either except for Ludovic Tézier, who gets credit for "breathtaking bronze tone and aristocratic phrasing."

Here's a YouTube clip:

Buy on Amazon

What's New

Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.