Search - Amadeus: Mozart Collection on DVD

A voice teacher and early music fan

George Peabody | Planet Earth | 12/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"PIVOTAL PERFORMANCES OF MOZART'S OPERATIC MASTERPIECES THAT REPRESENT A CLASSICAL 'HIT-PARADE' OF PAST AND PRESENT VOCAL LEGENDS IN AN UNPRECEDENTED TRIBUTE TO THIS MOST POPULAR OF COMPOSERS.
"I have only to hear people talking about an opera. I need only set foot in the theatre and hear voices-and oh, I'm already quite beside myself with excitement." Thus we find the 21- year -old Mozart writing to his father in 1777, and he would eventually channel this enthusiasm into numerous masterpieces for the stage. This DVD offers a sampling of these great works which, all told, represent a high point in the history of music.

Cast from strength with some of the most beautiful voices to be heard today, these arias reflect Mozart's increasingly profound understanding of the characters' psychological states which emcompass all manner of thoughts and emotions.

The operas included:
DON GIOVANNI: three arias and a duettino- singers are Bryn Terfel, Ferruccio Furlanetto,Hei-Kyung Hong and Renee Flemming with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (James Levine).

DIE ENTFUHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL: three arias-singers are Francisco Araiza, Edita Gruberova and Martti Talvela with the Orchester der Bayerischen Staatsoper (Karl Bohm).

LE NOZZI DI FIGARO: Arietta, Duettino, Cavatina - singers are Maria Ewing, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Mirella Freni and Kiri Te Kanawa with Wiener Philharmonic (Karl Bohm). One Aria by Bryn Terfel with John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Solists.

DIE ZAUBERFLOTE: three arias -singers Wolfgang Brendel, Francisco Araiza and Edita Gruberova with Bayerisches Staatsorchester (Wolfgang
Sawallisch). One aria - singer Kurt Moll with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (James Levine).

COSI FAN TUTTE: one aria-singer Rainer Trost with John Eliot Gardiner and English Baroque solists. A Rondo with singer Edita Gruberova with the Wiener Philharmonic (Nikolaus Harnoncourt).

MITRIDATE,RE DI PONTO: one aria -singer Yvonne Kenny with Concentus Wien (Nikolaus Harnoncourt).

IDOMENEO, RE DI CRETA: one aria -singer Luciano Pavarotti with Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (James Levine).

REQUIEM: Introitus sung by Marie McLaughin with the Chor und Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Leonard Bernstein).

To view this recording if you are a lover of Mozart, and especially opera, is a joy unsurpassable! The selections are well chosen, the singers superb, and the video itself is well-done: good sound, good viewing and just a great overall listenng pleasure. Nothing I could complain about in this compilation."