3 important DVD releases

I am happy to see that Deutsche Oper Berlin reacted fast and the excellent production of  Rienzi, directed by Philipp Stölzl and with superb Torsten Kerl, Kate Aldrich, and very good Camilla Nylund, Ante Jerkunica, Krzysztof Szumanski, and especially with the World's best chorus (!), will soon appear on your Amazon: UK [end of August], Germany [early September], US-Canada and France [end of September]

I saw the show in February, and very much enjoyed the whole experience -- a clever staging in particular. A big question is how much of it they were able to properly capture on DVD, but in any case this is a DVD to have in your collection!

Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne

Tonight, July 23 at 18:00 (Paris time) via Medici TV we can all see --live from Glyndebourne-- new Don Giovanni, directed by Jonathan Kent. I loved his production of The Fairy Queen and hope this Don Giovanni is fine too. It is unfortunate that this broadcast comes less than 3 weeks after we saw the finest Don Giovanni ever, i.e. the one by Dmitrii Tcherniakov presented at the festival in Aix-en-Province. We will try and stay unbiased as much as possible ;)

From Jonathan Kent's production of Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne 2010

Musically it should be very good as Vladimir Jurowski will conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the cast includes: Anna Samuil (brilliant Donna Anna in Verbier last year!), Gerald Finley (always good!), Luca Pisaroni (is Luca the most talented singer of his generation?), Kate Royal, Anna Virovlansky, Guido Loconsolo, William Burden, and Alastair Miles.

Ed:  Tcherniakov's production is a century ahead from this half-baked bufoonery by Kent. I think the best is to pretend this actually never happened and move on (Anna, Luca, and Gerald were very good though)

Appended are two videos about the production...

Countdown to Черняков's Don Giovanni in Aix-en-Provence

You've certainly noticed that Dima Tcherniakov is one of my fave directors, so I obviously expect a lot from his new Don Giovanni which will be premiered in 4 days at Théâtre de l'Archevêché in Aix-en-Provence -- Thursday, July 1st

 Dmitri Tcherniakov during one of the rehearsals of his new production of Don Giovanni in Aix [photo by ArtComArt]

What do we know?

1. We know the cast and I think it's awesome: Bo Skovhus, Kyle Ketelsen, David Bizic, Colin Balzer, Marlis Petersen, Kristine Opolais, Kerstin Avemo, Anatoli Kotscherga, and an excellent conductor, Louis Langrée, will lead a very good Freiburger Barockorchester.
2. Here is a link to the gallery of more than 40 photos taken during the rehearsals [photos by ArtComArt] It looks promising... and I can tell the ultra-conservative French traditionalists will boo it [which is of course good! ;) ]
3.  I remind you that the third show will be live broadcast via Arte Live Web on Monday July 5. [embedded after the jump]