Naxos Blu-ray/SA-CD/DVD Wave: Mascagni’s
Cavalleria Rusticana & Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci**/ Ashton
& Lanchbery’s Tales of Beatrix Potter*/Berlioz’s Les Troyens (ArtHaus)/Ole Bull Violin Concertos (2L Blu-ray w/SA-CD)/Handel’s Acis & Galatea (* & Royal Opera)/Beethoven’s Fidelio/Liszt’s Mayerling** (Opus Arte [*Royal
Ballet/**Opernhaus Zurich] Blu-rays + DVDs)
Picture/Sound Extras: C+ Main Programs: B
Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana
& Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci B- & B/B &
B+
Ashton & Lanchbery’s Tales of
Beatrix Potter B-/B
Berlioz’s Les Troyens
B-/B
Ole Bull Violin Concertos
B
Handel’s Acis & Galatea
B & C+/B
Beethoven’s Fidelio
B & C+/B
Mayerling
B-/B+ & B
A
uniquely impressive set of Blu-rays and accompanying formats has been issued for
the month of April 2010 by Naxos with the
terrific ArtHaus, 2L and Opus Arte labels, including a sound-only multi-channel
music release and more major stage productions captured with a live audience.
Ole Bull Violin Concertos offers multi-channel music from
the Norwegian Radio Orchestra conducted by Ole Kristian Ruud performing six
major works by the late composer and it is easily the best of the audio-only 2L
productions in sound quality and content, doing a beautiful job of bringing
these works to life. The Blu-ray and
Super Audio CD are equal, but only because this is not a DSD recording, but
more on that below.
Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana
& Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci is the first double feature we have ever covered in Opera
on Blu-ray and it is a solid combination, including finally getting to see a
great performance of Pagliacci that
is the best, liveliest and most colorful Blu-ray here and among the best of any
HD shoot in any category of genre we have seen to date. Not to sell Cavalleria Rusticana short as it is also very good, but Pagliacci has a slight edge between the
two. Stefano Ranzani conducts the
Grischa Asagaroff-directed productions with José Cura, Paoletta Marrocu,
Fiorenza Cedolins and Carlo Guelfi staring and delivering some great vocals.
Ashton & Lanchbery’s Tales of
Beatrix Potter is
another big surprise and a very charming, fun, terrific production with the BBC
and Conductor Paul Murphy. The ballet
dancers wear and perform in excellent costumes bringing the character to life
and it is shocking this has never been done as a feature film of some
sort. Sets are made to be oversized so
the actors look like the animals in scale and the audience is one of the bets
for any of the ballet releases we have seen to date.
Berlioz’s Les Troyens is a double Blu-ray set with
Susan Graham, Anna Caterina Antonacci and Gregory Kunde bringing to life this
epic Opera to life based on Virgil’s classic poem The Aeneid. Sir John Eliot Gardiner is the conductor
along with the Choeur du Theatre du Chatelet and it is an almost madly
ambitious production ABOUT Greek Mythology, The Trojans and Troy, but it all
pays off in a real heartfelt result and is never boring once you get into it.
Handel’s Acis & Galatea is directed by its choreographer
Wayne McGregor, which is why is works so well, with the actors often in unique
beige body suits that might take some aback.
Danielle de Niese and Charles Workman head the cast of very talented
dancers backed by Conductor Christopher Hogwood’s fine interpretation of Handel’s
music in this work about a poetic, almost otherworldly realm of romance and
possible tragedy.
Beethoven’s Fidelio is a classic of love, gender,
identity and secrets that take place in a prison and is the master composer’s
only Opera. Conductor Bernard Haitink,
Director Felix Breisach and a fine cast (including Alfred Muff, Roberto Sacca,
Sandra Trattnigg and Christoph Strehl) deliver a version of the classic that
manages to balance the dark edge with the great music throughout and that is
not easy. Those who have seen Kubrick’s
film Eyes Wide Shut (1999) will note
the sly reference to this Opera in a key point of his film. Seeing it makes that film’s mysteries make
more sense.
Liszt’s Mayerling is about the final years in the
life of Crown Prince Rudolf (played here by Edward Watson) in this bold,
ahead-of-its-time work by the great composer who has always been one of the
edgiest of all Classical/Opera composers in content and form. Instead of a formula biopic like we would get
today, Liszt makes a grand statement about a privileged life and the man behind
it. John Lanchberry did the arrangement,
Barry Wordsworth conducts and the cast also includes Mara Galeazzi, Iohna
Loots, William Tucket and Cindy Jourdain.
This is one of the best of the releases here.
The 1080i
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on all but the Bull Blu-ray varies a bit throughout, but are as good as any of
them will look as they were shot in High Definition similar to this
format. As noted above, we also compared
the DVD versions of Acis, Fidelio and Mayerling to their Blu-ray counterparts and got surprising results
in all cases. Mayerling was barely
better on Blu-ray versus the DVD, but Fidelio
and Acis were revelations delivering
better image quality than you could ever imagine from seeing the DVDs and were
two of the three best performers in this batch, equaled only by Pagliacci, the clear winner of the
set. That leaves the other tapings held
back at times by motion blur or softness, though they also have their moments
and some may not be as picky. Still,
they all play as first-rate productions and look it despite flaws and minor
complaints.
All the
Blu-rays are listed as having DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mixes (though
Fidelio (in both formats), Acis (in both formats) and Troyens are not registering LFE
channels at all, making them really 5.0 mixes) save Pagliacci with DTS-MA 7.1 instead, but Bull has both. Its DTS-MA
5.1 is at 192/24 and 7.1 is at 96/24, then it also offers PCM 2.0 192/24
Stereo. All the Blu-rays and DVDs have
PCM 2.0 Stereo as well. Bull was recorded in DXD 24/352.8 kHz
and also has the DSD hybrid SA-CD with all three possible layers (DSD 5.1, DSD
2.0/PCM 2.0) and this may be the smoothest DXD recording I have heard to date,
but it is still harsh in the highs and disappoints as it pushes its PCM-based
technology over the edge and not for the better.
The sonic
winners here are Mayerling with an
exemplary 5.1 mix and Pagliacci with
one of the best 7.1 mixes in any format I have heard to date. So many just stretch out the sound or encode
it in odd ways, but this has a very natural soundfield whose music and singing
is very musical and nuanced.
As for
extras, all 10 releases have informative booklets with tech information,
illustrations and essays on the performers.
All the Opus Arte releases have Illustrated Synopsis, all save Potter (since everyone is in a costume
we surmise) have Cast Galleries, Acis
adds a short Staging featurette, Troyens
adds The
Trojans – A Masterpiece Revived documentary & cast/crew interviews
and Mayerling adds Principals In Rehearsal – a featurette
by Ballet Boyz Productions.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
