Opera, Ballet and Classical Music discs

I just saw the Brandenburg Concerti BD today and loved it. The music is masterfully performed by a group from Bologna called Orchestra Mozart, conducted by Claudio Abbado.

The venue, a theater in Reggio Emilia, is spectacular.

All discs are done and look (technically) very good.

I hope artistic part is equally good and people will enjoy them


Andrew

The Giselle performance is one of the best ever captured on video --- that one is a bona fide artistic success, and I can't wait to see it on BD.

I got my copy of Amelia last night (we Americans lag by about a month for OA releases), and it looks good. There is more resolution than the DVD for sure (well, at least the film grain is smaller ). If you want to see how ballet is making itself relevant to contemporary times, this is worth checking out. The pointe technique and speed of execution is astounding, more so if you've ever seen La La La Human Steps live.

--Andre

Is Amelia in 1080p? In my experience, motion blur is very obvious when viewing ballet and other dance in HD. I'd like to know if disks mastered in 1080p correct this problem.

Motion blur is not a problem with Amelia (unlike, for example, Jewels) --- the motion is clear, and it looks like they used a variety of shutter speeds to get pretty crisp movement in some sequences. I believe that it is 1080p24, according to my PS3 and DVDO Edge.

I forgot to mention that there are a number of film artifacts, like big long scratches that are visible in some portions.

--Andre

Handel continues to do better on Blu-ray than just about anyone else. The next Arthaus Musik disc, released on DVD last September:

Handel: ORLANDO - Marijana Mijanovic, Martina Janková, Katharina Peetz, Christina Clark, Konstantin Wolff; Jens-Daniel Herzog (dir.); William Christie (cond.), Opernhaus Zürich, 2007

Yes- 24p, it was shot on Super 16mm. There is no problem with motion- they've done it very well- even pans are smooth. It's all about experienced crew. It's very grainy, but I think it's intentional. It was done from the same HD master, as SD version and does look better on BD.

Jewels is a different story- shot on 25p (not the best choice)+ conversion to 60i has introduced additional artefacts.

We're working on the firs "very bright" opera- Cosi fan Tutte- it look very good (strong lightening).


Andrew

We may be swaping to DTS-MA for surround soon

Andrew

Jewels is still very good, and this statement shouldn't deter anyone from getting this title. Some great dancing in this one....

Lee

+1. Seeing POB dance Emeralds was the first time I really got it, and Rubies, while not danced idiomatically American, has its own charm. I think Diamonds is really the only section that falls flat though the level of dancing technique throughout is very high.

For Amelia, I also forgot to mention that there is some telecine shake or whatever the technical term for that is. It looks like the whole screen is shifting up and down rapidly. This was visible on the DVD as well.

--Andre

Very glad to see this new thread. BD holds great promise for complex works like Opera. I hope we will see a number of quality releases in the next few years. I would also like to broaden the discussion to include ballet and symphonies. So, if anyone has a favortie "classical" BD release they would like to share with us, I'm interested!

marcus

U.S. release date for the following Blu-ray discs is April 1st, 2009:

GIULIO CESARE, TAMERLANO, and LUISA FERNANDA (Opus Arte); ORLANDO (Arthaus)

Cheers,

Bernal

Opera on DVD/Blu-ray Collector's List: http://stridonolassu.googlepages.com

I see where the Flemming/Villazon La Traviata from Los Angeles will be released in about 10 days. Weren't we also expecting the Netrebko/Villazon version that has long been out on DVD? Anyone know what happened to that release. It seems to have fallen off the radar.

Also, Lohengrin seems to have been delayed (or maybe I'm just a little over anxious). Andrew, do you have an update on that one?

-Rod

Don't know about the European market but at least here in the US we definitely won't be getting LOHENGRIN next month. We can hope for May. The Netrebko/Villazon TRAVIATA was announced as an upcoming release and I believe it has a set street date for Europe. Universal hasn't announced a specific US date for it yet. All I know for sure is that we won't be getting it or any of the other expected Universal titles (SEMELE, DON PASQUALE) before April 14th.

Barring a mid-to-late April release announcement from Universal or BelAir, it looks like those four posted earlier are all we're getting for April. I say "all we're getting" because there are at least 17 full-length opera videos coming out on DVD in the same month (20 if you count a repackaged box set, 21 if you count the TAMERLANO DVD version). Also, no ballet/symphonic/chamber works on BD next month but several on DVD.

BTW, I'm sure others who have seen the DVD will agree that the upcoming Opus Arte CESARE is a must-get.

Bernal

From your list, Bernal (and many thanks for your efforts to track this), it seems that DVD will be getting the lion's share of the new releases with fewer than half of the March-April output coming to BD. It's further disappointing to see such titles as Fidelio, Saint François d'Assise, Macbeth and War and Peace apparently excluded from BD entirely, at least for now.

I had high hopes for BelAir after the release of Die Walküre, which is quite spectacular despite the low production value and some uneven singing (see my (Gandharva) review at Amazon), but we have yet to see anything else. The Universal/Decca/DG conglomerate has enormous potential and made a good start with Manon, Onegin, Carmen and a few others, but they are unpredictable and refuse to comment on upcoming releases. Opus Arte has a strong catalogue and, fortunately for us, a BD champion who is responsive to our questions. They appear to be the most BD-friendly distributor right now even with a few delays in getting their product to market.

So I feel cautiously optimistic, but I guess like everyone else who loves opera, soon is just not soon enough.

Interesting juxtaposition of comments. BelAir has been doing some production work for Universal as noted in the small print of the liner notes.

BD releases for concerts are much less exciting than opera and ballet.

One more BD title for next month! The Decca DON PASQUALE is now officially scheduled for release in the U.S. on April 14th.

Except when they feature Anne-Sophie Mutter, such as the Herbert von Karajan Memorial Concert Blu-Ray disk released this month. Awesome.

My wife and I just finished watching the Decca BD of Il Barbiere Di Siviglia, and enjoyed it very much. However, we preferred the excellent rendition by the Metropolitan Opera we saw two years ago on PBS, which hopefully will make it to Blu-Ray soon.

Nevertheless, the audio quality was the best of any opera on Blu-Ray that we have seen. The DTS-HD Master 5.1 Audio made effective use of the surround channels, and was well engineered.

Juan Diego Florez as Lindoro (Count Almaviva) and Bruno Pratico as Don (Doctor) Bartolo were outstanding. Maria Bayo, as Rosina, has a superb soprano voice, but is a quirky beauty.

Our biggest problem was the lighting. Most of the lighting came from the overhead and sides, with little or no footlighting. This made Rosina appear to have black teeth. Anyone else notice this?

Thanks for the thumbs up. I spotted that before, and was wondering. Beethoven, IIRC. I'd like to finally "see" her play, since many years ago I scored 5 tickets, and IIRC Tchaik/Previn/Philly in Boston. My friend's car broke down on the way, and I ate my ticket! Anyhoo, mebbe I'll pick it up after all.

Another thumbs up here on the Brandenburgs, as well as the Pyongyang concert (Dvorak, Gershwin, etc). Unfortunately, I'm not a big opera or ballet guy. If it's opera, Mozart would be my choice.

I know this is the BD software forum, but if you guys are interested at all in buying CDs, the complete (existing) works of Bach is $130 for 155 cd's, and Zinman's cycle of the Beethoven symphonies is only $22. The Zinman SQ doesn't have that "high end air" so to speak, and easily have the fastest renditions I've ever heard (even faster than Gardiner), but the performances are marvelous, IMO. Certain mvmts are the most rhythmically interesting I've ever heard, and the secondary lines are transparent as heck. Well, those two sets were my latest additions.

Thanks for this thread.

Oops! Sorry, major correction here. I gave the date for something else and should have noticed since April 1st is a Wednesday. The correct US release date for the videos listed above is April 28th, 2009. No label/distributor changes here, just my mistake. My apologies.

Bernal

From scionfriar: "Just put in the new DG Roméo et Juliette with Villazón. The faster stage movements don't look smooth at all. They seem to stutter a bit. Is this a problem for anyone else? I haven't really noticed this with any other BDs. Thanks!"

scionfriar: I have this disk. Please give me the elapsed times for a few examples, and I'll give you my impression. Is this a 1080p recording?

Thanks for letting me know this. It's in my Netflix queue and Amazon wishlist.

However, the concert releases are still much fewer than operas and ballets. I'd like to see complete symphonies by Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, etc.