Norma — HDVDARTS

Bellini Norma opera to libretto by Felice Romani. Directed 2018 by Sir David McVicar at the Metropolitan Opera. Stars Matthew Rose (Oroveso), Joseph Calleja (Pollione), Adam Diegel (Flavio), Sondra Radvanovsky (Norma), Joyce DiDonato (Adalgisa), Michelle Bradley (Clotilde), and Christopher Reynolds and John Reynolds (Norma’s Children). Carlo Rizzi conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Chorus Master Donald Palumbo). Set design by Robert Jones; costume design by Moritz Junge; lighting design by Paule Constable; movement direction by Leah Hausman. Directed for TV by Gary Halvorson; music producer was David Frosts. Supervising Producers were Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park; Producers were Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik. Sung in Italian. Released 2018, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Here are 2 clips from the Met. We are not sure how these relate to the recording on the Blu-ray disc:

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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.