Katrin Wundsam reviews
Verdi: Rigoletto
Prague Philharmonic Choir; Vienna Symphony Orchestra/Enrique Mazzola, et al (C Major / DVD)
Die Walküre performed at Salzburg Festival 2017
This Salzburg production was billed as a recreation of Herbert von Karajan’s classic 1967 staging, but on this DVD ‘recreation’ acquires inverted commas – advisedly, because it’s nothing of the sort.
Marek Janowski conducts Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel
This box set is a trip down memory lane, with flexible and attractive packaging, and above all a full text in German and English, and a long and stimulating introductory essay. Marek Janowski presents Humperdinck’s masterpiece with a light touch, very much as he did his complete Wagner series, but much more appropriately. Tempos are on the rapid side, a welcome change from the heavy-handed efforts of some recent stagings and recordings of the opera.