This outstanding production of Verdi's tragic opera Ernani stars four of the world's great Verdi singers; Placido Domingo, Renato Bruson, Nicolai Ghiaurov and Mirella Freni as the gentle heroine desired by these three riva... more »ls. They have been described as "possibly the best quartet of singers any opera house has managed to assemble this year" - The Times. The cast give an impassioned performance under the baton of Riccardo Muti, an acclaimed interpreter of Verdi. Based on Victor Hugo's play, this violent and sombre story of frustrated passion, and ambition thwarted and rewarded, is set by the composer to a succession of irresistible tunes, unsurpassed even in his mature works. The opera's dramatic impetus is simply unstoppable. Sung in Italian, subtitles available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. Full Screen 4:3, Linear-PCM Stereo. Verdi was commissioned to write I Lombardi as a direct result of the success of Nabucco the year before. When the opera was first produced at La Scala, Milan in 1843, Verdi's operas were becoming increasingly popular not only in Italy but also abroad. The cast of international opera stars is headed by Jose Carreras as Oronte, Ghena Dimitrova as Giselda, Carlo Bii as Arvino and Silvano Carroli as Pagano. Gabriele Lavia, one of Italy's most popular producers and the designer, Giovanni Agostinucci, have designed sets of awesome Spartan Grandeur which match Verdi's atmospheric score with unprecedented intensity. Sung in Italian, with subtitles available in English, German, and Spanish. Full Screen 4:3, Linear-PCM Stereo. Falstaff was Verdi's last opera and the climax of his career. Completed in 1893, when the composer was almost eighty, it is also the culmination of Italian comic opera. Librettist Arrigo Boito took the subtance of the piece from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, but the central character, who embroils himself in numerous plots and dupes of love and marriage until eventually the Merry Wives get their revenge on him, is much closer to the Falstaff of Henry IV. The jokes are at the expense not of a buffoon, but of a whole man, boisterous and roguish but with an underlying streak of melancholy. In this Theatre Royal del la Monnaie de Bruxelles production, recorded during the 1987 Aix-en-Provence Festival, the titla role is sung by bass-baritone Jose' Van Dam, a genuine actor as well as a consummate singer, as the role demands. Sung in Italian, with subtitles available in English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. Full Screen 4:3, Dolby Digital Stereo. 14th-Century Genoa is the setting for Simon Boccanegra, one of Verdi's grandest works, and Peter Hall's elegant production, with its palpable sense of atmosphere evoked by John Gunter's sets and costimes, captures perfectly the shadowy world of scheming power politics, set against a shimmering backdrop of the omnipresent sea. Two of Verdi's recurring themes - the beauty of family love and the impossibility of even the best-intentioned political power - are uinted in Simon Boccanegra, an opera whose tenderness and insight can only leave the listener uplifted. Boccanegra's great cry for peace and reconcilliation echoes round the world today as powerfully as it did in the divided Italy of his own lifetime. Starring Elena Prokina and Giancarlo Pasquetto. Performed at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, with Mark Elder conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Sung in Italian with subtitles available in English, German, and Spanish. Full Screen 4:3, Dolby Digital Sound. Roberto de Simone's production of Verdi's epic opera Nabucco opened the 1986-87 season at La Scala and marked Riccardo Muti's return as Music Director of Italy's greatest opera house. It was Nabucco that firmly established Verdi as the voice of the Italian people and in particular Va, pensiero, the great chorus of longing sung by the exiled Hebrews on the banks of the Euphrates. Starring Renato Bruson, Ghena Dimitrova, Paata Burchuladze, Bruno Beccaria, and Raquel Pierotti. Conducted by Riccardo Muti. Sung in Italian, with subtitles available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish. Full Screen 4:3, Dolby Digital Stereo. The production of Don Carlos from the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris "offers insights into Verdi's grand opera drama which no other...has begun to match" (Sunday Times). The original French version in 5 acts, starring Roberto Alagna, Thomas Hampson, Karita Mattila, José Van Dam, Waltraud Meier. Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestre de Paris. Sung in French. Subtitle selection: English, French, Spanish, Japanese. Anamorphic Widescreen. Dolby Digital Stereo/5.1 Dolby Surround.« less
