DESCRIPTION:

A mix of futurism à la ‘Metropolis,’ fantasy à la ‘Batman’ and quotes from Piranesi’s ‘Carceri,’ juxtaposed in the form of photo montages, enhanced with … robots, a helicopter, a shark and the winged vehicle of a pop star Pope,” effuses critic Marianne Zelger-Vogt (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). The object of her rapture is not a Broadway musical but a French opera written in the 1830s, Hector Berlioz’s “Benvenuto Cellini. The absence of the work in the operatic repertoire is certainly due in part to its musical excesses: the work is so complex, richly detailed and prolifically imaginative that Berlioz’s contemporaries considered it unplayable and unsingable.

This is resoundingly proven false in the 2007 Salzburg Festival production of director Philipp Stölzl, conductor Valery Gergiev (“the wild man of music”) and a high-caliber cast accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic and its chorus. Stölzl, above all, has poured his experience as director of music videos (for Madonna, Mick Jagger and others), commercials and films into this project, termed “science fiction for Grand Opera” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

CAST AND CREW:

Benvenuto Cellini: Burkhard Fritz
Teresa: Maija Kovalevska
Fieramosca: Laurent Naouri
Giacomo Balducci: Bridley Sherratt
Pope Clemens VII: Mikhail Petrenko
Ascanio: Kate Aldrich

Music: Hector Berlioz   Wikipedia
Libretto: Léon de Wailly and Henri Auguste Barbier
Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor
Orchestra de la Comunitat Valenciana
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Stage Director: Philipp Stölz
Video Director: Andreas Morell

Recorded live at the Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg, Austria, 5, 10 & 15 August 2007, as part of the 2007 Salzburg Festival.

Source………..: BD50 Retail
Distributor……: Naxos
BD Release Date..: 1 April 2011
Screen Format….: Widescreen 1.78:1
Program used…..: AnyDVD (Region Code Free)