This is sort of a companion thread to both the "Future opera releases on DVD and Blu-ray" and the "What governs the choice of what opera DVDs/Blu-rays get released?" threads. But rather than discussing particular productions about to be released, or the general politics of why productions do or don't get released, this thread is about particular productions you would LIKE to see released on DVD or Blu-ray that, for whatever reason, have not been made commercially available.
These can be recent stage productions that have every likelihood of being released on video soon, or older productions where the possibilities for a DVD edition are looking more and more forlorn. You can express your desire as a wistful, winsome yearning, or an angry, resentful rant. Basically it's a place to vent or lament about the injustice of life in general and the classical music industry in particular. Here, if nowhere else, you can celebrate great productions that may or may not ever see the light of DVD day.
And who knows? If enough of us raise our voices loudly enough, perhaps we can help promote some of these works to the "Future opera releases" thread!
I'll start things off with a production I haven't seen but would more than any other like to have released on DVD: Stefan Herheim's Bayreuth Parsifal.
Premiering in 2008 (to replace the much reviled Christoph Schlingensief production), Herheim's version was in its own way just as radical, but was nonetheless met with overwhelming praise. The director provided his usual layering of multiple interpretive levels, that tendency to try to do too much which is at once his most fascinating, frustrating, and endearing trait. As Per-Erik Skramstad, quoted on the Wagneropera.net blog, points out, the production variously explores "Parsifal's development as a child and later young man, the history of Germany from 1870 to the 1950's, [and] the history of the Bayreuth Festival in the same period." In superimposing all these elements, Herheim has created "a many-layered, ambiguous, interesting and very beautiful production," mixing "irony with sincerity and kitsch with heartbreaking tragedy" to create "a veritable dream world on stage."
The description above and images below remind me very much of Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's fascinating 1982 film of Parsifal--another work that meditated on Wagner's work within its multi-leveled cultural context.
Herheim's production is still in the Bayreuth rotation (and will be performed through the rest of this month), so there may still be hope of it being filmed for DVD. Perhaps we can pressure Opus Arte, who now distributes Bayreuth DVDs, to negotiate a deal so that this important production can be seen by the world.
Goes without saying that I'd like a Dessay Lucia -- any date, any production, just give me one please! The recent Met production is finally on Met Player but I'd like to have one for my personal collection.
I'd also like the Birgit Nilsson Salome that existed on VHS (and currently survives in various clips on YT).
I'm with you on the Dessay Lucia. As discussed in another thread, the chances of her Met performance making it to DVD are greatly diminished by the existing DVD of the same production featuring some *Russian* girl. Sigh.
I'm content to hear Nilsson on the Solti recording. It's probably people like me who keep you from getting her on DVD.
Parsifal is such a wonderfully weird, static, neurotic work that it lends itself to all sorts of outré interpretations (perhaps works best that way). It's sad that a lot of its most daring realizations may never make it to DVD.
Also high on my wish list: Robert Carsen's 2008 Munich Ariadne auf Naxos. This minimalist production, featuring Diana Damrau and Adrianne Pieczonka, was a popular and critical success. There was talk of filming it at the time, and the production is still in circulation, having played at the Deutsche Oper Berlin earlier this year. But I don't know whether a DVD is on the horizon.
Here are additional votes for the Munich Fidelio (Bieito) and Ariadne. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping the Met's new Anna Bolena will be released on DVD. I would have also liked to see the Salzburg Festival Rusalka from a few years ago with Nylund and Beczala as the water sprite and her prince.
Well, Dessay has been filmed in Lyon's production of Lucie di Lammermoor (the French version of the opera) so let's hope that makes to DVD eventually. There are clips of it on Youtube.
I think it might even be available on some European sites; sadly, I find Lucie to be vastly inferior to Lucia and it wouldn't be a viable substitute in my mind. No Regnava nel Silenzio is a painful loss, and the mad scene just sounds wrong to me in French.
Fantastic photos for this production of Die Frau Ohne Schatten, one of my favorite operas. It would be a dream come true, to have this production on blu-ray.
Don't you all think this thread is a bit depressing?
We can get depressed, or we can take action. Rise up! Demand your rights! Band together! Take to the streets! Storm the barricades! Death to the tyrants! Liberté, égalité, fraternité!!!
I'm trying to remember if this was the opera I was listening to and chatting on parterrebox when one of the knowledgeable members said it would never be on DVD because it was more popular than one of Katarina Wagner's productions...or maybe that was one of the other streaming operas I listened to that week...
The nice thing about having seen few operas, is that there is so much to look forward to!
I'm trying to remember if this was the opera I was listening to and chatting on parterrebox when one of the knowledgeable members said it would never be on DVD because it was more popular than one of Katarina Wagner's productions...or maybe that was one of the other streaming operas I listened to that week...
Hmmm . . . if being more popular than one of Katarina's productions is enough to prevent a DVD release, we won't see much coming out of Bayreuth at all . . .
Great news! I see the recording won't take place until next summer, with the DVD release most likely several months after that. But it's still good to know that this striking production will be recorded for posterity (and that I'll finally get to see it).
I guess all the pressure we applied in this thread finally made Katharina Wagner give in. Good work, guys!
I just saw the world premiere of Adès' The Tempest on a BBC4 broadcast, recorded from TV on February 10, 2004. It was excellent. This should have been released on DVD.
Imaginative staging, very good singers who got through the very difficult vocal writing (especially the Ariel part) with flying colors.
The composer conducts the orchestra of the ROH and the sounds are beautiful.
Libretto by Meredith Oates, loosely based on the play by Shakespeare - it does keep much of the action but with different words and a few other differences.
The opera itself is truly excellent, combining dissonant and melodious music, with a score that is very successful at describing the actions and the characters, focusing on musical style rather then leitmotifs.
I just saw the world premiere of Adès' The Tempest on a BBC4 broadcast, recorded from TV on February 10, 2004. It was excellent. This should have been released on DVD.
Don't worry, Alma. Now that we've successfully lobbied for a DVD of Herheim's Parsifal, we can use our considerable influence to ensure the release of the Adès production.
Oh i wish the Antonio Papanno conducted Wozzeck from Londons Covent Garden several years ago (2002 i think) with Matthias Goerne as Wozzeck and Katarina Dalayman was Marie and Graham Clarke was the mad Captain. Stefanos Lazaridis was the director.
It had all those specimen jars and i recall Wozzeck drowning in one of them with Matthias Goerne using some kind of breathing tube.
It was just superb and one wonders why on Earth it was not recorded when so much mediocre stuff is? It puzzles me.
There is an interesting opera, that is not very well known, due to some circumstances.
There is not even a CD, but only fragments published:
It's Transatlantic, by George Antheil. It was premiered in Frankfurt, in 1930, and since then it has been almost forgotten, just a couple of performances in 1998 (Minnesota) and 2002 (Flensburg).
The subject of the opera (some elections in USA allegedly fixed by some moguls, but finally won by the popular candidate, that also finds love in the road), and also his musical style reminds one of those Frank Capra's movies from the 1930s, though a little bit more caustic.
Would love to watch a DVD in the future, meanwhile let's listen to a small fragment:
Bartok - Bluebeard's Castle - filmed production directed by Michael Powell (one half of the famed early british technicolor duo known for The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus)
I WANT THIS SO MUCH. it originally ran on german television when it was made in the 60s, and I don't think its been heard from since. Even though the lyrics are translated into German, I think it would be the one to own from a perspective of cinema history, Michael Powell had just had a critical failure and was losing faith in himself and his art, and this project was a final redemption in a way. Unfortunately, I don't think i'll be able to find it.
fortunately, there is this one
another filmed version, conducted by Solti, and I think in proper hungarian. I'm sure I could find this one.
I was actually hoping for the upcoming La Scala performances, she's singing with Florez.
To be fair, the plot of the opera doesn't allow for anything spectacular when it comes to staging so I'll be happy with normal historical sets/costumes.
I was actually hoping for the upcoming La Scala performances, she's singing with Florez.
To be fair, the plot of the opera doesn't allow for anything spectacular when it comes to staging so I'll be happy with normal historical sets/costumes.
I know there are already three Richard Strauss's Capriccio's on DVD: the San Francisco Opera production with Kiri Te Kanawa, and two with Renée Fleming - one from Paris Opera and another one from The Met -, but I would looove to see the Vienna production from 2008 with, again, Renée Fleming. Alas, I don't think this will ever be released, in part considering that there are already two with Fleming on the market. And I know I'm maybe one of the few who really likes this opera , but I read a really positive review and the few pics I've seen look stunning.
The other one that I would like to see is another R. Strauss opera, Daphne, again from a production at Vienna State Opera from 2004, I believe. There is a YouTube video of the very final scene which is stunning, visually and musically. Actually, one of the posters on YT says that he/she has this production on DVD (a DVD-/+R?) and I asked for more information on it, but no response yet.
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