Decca: Rossini — Armida, Renée Fleming, The Metropolitan Opera (2-DVD Set)

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Product Details:

• Product Type: DVD (Video), 2 discs
• Brand / Label: Decca (The Metropolitan Opera HD Live)
• Catalog Number: 074 3416
• UPC: 044007434161
• Composer: Gioachino Rossini
• Opera: Armida
• Librettist: Giovanni Schmidt (after Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata)
• Conductor: Riccardo Frizza
• Production: Mary Zimmerman
• Orchestra: The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet
• Genre: Opera / Classical
• Language: Sung in Italian

Product Features

• Format: DVD × 2
• Region Code: 0 (worldwide / all regions)
• Picture: NTSC, Colour, 16:9
• Sound: LPCM Stereo / DTS 5.1 Surround
• Duration: 171 minutes (opera) + 12 minutes (bonus)
• Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese
• Bonus feature: Backstage at the Met with Deborah Voigt
• Menus: English; booklet enclosed
• Condition: Factory sealed (brand new)

Overview

Renée Fleming takes the title role in Rossini's rarely staged Armida, a fiendishly difficult diva showpiece captured live in high definition at the Metropolitan Opera. Set during the Crusades, the opera tells of a vengeful sorceress who lures and enthralls men on her enchanted island — a story Rossini drew from Tasso's epic Gerusalemme liberata.

The casting is built around bel canto fireworks. Fleming is surrounded by a small army of tenors — Lawrence Brownlee as Rinaldo, John Osborn as Goffredo, Barry Banks doubling Gernando and Carlo — in music that demands relentless agility and high notes. The critics responded in kind: Classics Today wrote that Fleming "tore the house down," while International Opera Review praised her lyric voice carrying the day.

Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman frames the action in Richard Hudson's vivid designs, with choreography by Graciela Daniele for the Met's ballet. Riccardo Frizza conducts. This 2-disc edition presents the complete Live in HD broadcast as seen in cinemas worldwide, plus a backstage bonus hosted by soprano Deborah Voigt.

Interesting Facts

• Rossini's Armida (1817) is famous for requiring as many as six virtuoso tenors, making it one of the hardest operas to cast in the entire repertoire.
• The Met had not staged Armida for decades before this Mary Zimmerman production; it was created as a star vehicle for Renée Fleming.
• The opera is based on the sorceress Armida from Torquato Tasso's 16th-century epic Gerusalemme liberata — the same character who inspired operas by Handel, Gluck, Haydn, and Dvořák.
• Tenor Lawrence Brownlee, who sings Rinaldo, is one of the leading bel canto specialists of his generation, celebrated for his high-flying coloratura.
• The video direction is by Gary Halvorson, with Peter Gelb as executive producer — the team behind the Met's groundbreaking Live in HD cinema series.
• The set includes a bonus "Backstage at the Met" segment with soprano Deborah Voigt, who hosted the live cinema transmissions.

Publishers

Released by Decca (Universal Music) in association with The Metropolitan Opera, 2010/2011. A Metropolitan Opera High-Definition production. Catalog 074 3416.

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