Tannhäuser — HDVDARTS

Wagner Tannhäuser opera to libretto by the composer. Directed 2014 by Sasha Waltz at the Staatsoper Berlin. Stars Peter Seiffert (Tannhäuser), Marina Prudenskaya (Venus), Ann Petersen (Elisabeth), Peter Mattei (Wolfram von Eschenbach), René Pape (Hermann, Landgraf von Thüringen), Peter Sonn (Walther von der Vogelweide), Tobias Schabel (Biterolf), Jürgen Sacher (Heinrich der Schreiber), Jan Martiník (Reinmar von Zweter), and Sónia Grané (Ein Hirtenknabe). Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin. Choreography by Sasha Waltz; costume design by Bernd Skodzig; set design by Pia Maier Schriever and Sasha Waltz; lighting design by David Finn. Directed for TV by Vincent Bataillon; produced by François Duplat. Sung in German. Released 2015, disc has dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

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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.