"Actor: Patricia Petibon"

• Gluck - Orphee Et Eurydice (Gardiner) | DVD | (24/11/2008) from £7.32   |  Saving you £2.93 (48.35%)   |  RRP £8.99

  When the historic Theatre du Chatelet in Paris re-opened after a period of extensive refurbishment the first two productions mounted in the theatre were Gluck''s Alceste and Orph''e et Eurydice. Both operas were sung in their French versions and were mounted and designed by Robert Wilson and conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. This was the first time Wilson and Gardiner had collaborated and their individual credentials combined to produce an exceptional result. American polymath Wilson was responsible for some of the most ambitious avant-garde performance projects of the 1970s and 80s.Since the mid-1980s he has increasingly brought his prodigious creativity to works fiom the standard dramatic and operatic repertoire transforming them into his own unmistakably minimalist yet grandiose visions. His styled classical interpretations of Alceste and Orph''e bear his trademarks of an uncluttered stage and the arresting use of colour and light. They are not so much timeless as in Robert Wilson''s words ''full of time''. With their minutely rehearsed gestures at once formal and poetic the singers have the grace and elegance of Balanchine or Martha Graham dancers. A key figure in the revival of Early Music John Eliot Gardiner has long been a champion of Gluck''s French operas and is a great Gluck conductor. He received enormous critical acclaim for his musical direction of both Orph''e and Alceste at the Chatelet as did his orchestras and chorus. He sought to rid the operas of any vestiges of remoteness or venerable respectability and to release the huge emotional charge that lies behind the beauty of Gluck''s classical sobriety. The stories are after all he says not only poignant and deeply moving they have an immediate and contemporary relevance: they portray two married couples striving to protect their union and their love plumbing the very depths of their emotional strength and summoning the courage to make huge personal sacrifices. ''If presented in a way that''s immediate and with tremendous intensity and truth of expression then all the dross and superficiality of the stage action falls away and you''re left with what''s actually a very visceral connection between two living people.'' Television''s top opera director Brian Large worked closely with Robert Wilson and John Eliot Gardiner to ensure that the translation of live performance to the small screen is of the highest artistic and techcal standard. John Eliot Gardiner chose to use Berlioz''s 1859 revision of Orphee which adapted the tenor role of Gluck''s 1774 score for the contralto voice of Pauline Viardot adjusting the register for a mezzo-soprano. Underlining his preference for this version he performed the opera with the nineteenth-century period instruments of his Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. His regular chorus the Monteverdi Choir excelled vocally and dramatically in its elegant contribution to the drama. The Greek legend of Orpheus has captured the imaginations of many creative artists over the centuries. In this recording Magdalena Kozena brings to the role expressiveness exceptional virtuosity and a rare emotion. Madeline Bender as Eurydice is possessed of a touching grace and beauty while Patricia Petibon is deliciously mischievous as Amour. All three of these young singers are among the cream of a new generation of operatic talent.

• Gluck - Orphée et Eurydice / Robert Wilson, John Eliot Gardiner, Théâtre du Châtelet | DVD | (22/11/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Gluck's 1762 opera Orphée et Eurydice was ground-breaking in its day and--as this 1999 performance from the Theatre Musical de Paris shows--it still lends itself to radical treatment. The composer's rejection of traditional flamboyant operatic bells and whistles led to a fresh form in which the lyrics hold court. The music provides the setting and emotional colour in a way that is almost physical in its intensity. Gluck's readiness to incorporate the influences of other art forms--poetry, ballet and drama--has always made this story of love rescued from the jaws of tragedy universally appealing. This production, directed by Robert Wilson and conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, is mesmerising. The all but ill-fated couple (Magdalena Kozena and Madeline Bender) move as if in a trance, their actions suggesting marionettes controlled by greater forces. Their faces are largely expressionless, leaving their voices to explore the force of the huge range of human emotions they must cover during the opera's 100 minutes. Only Cupid runs free. The performances are beautifully sung in French, Kozena bringing immense dignity to Orphée's lament, "J'ai perdu mon Eurydice". A powerful interpretation of an important work, fit for the 21st century. --Piers Ford

• Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites | DVD | (16/08/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Poulenc's late pious works for voice share the sprightliness of his early secular orchestral and chamber pieces; this is perhaps especially true of his 1952 work of devotion and martyrdom. Young aristocrat Blanche seeks refuge in the cloister from her fear of death only to find the Carmelites she joins the object of persecution by the Jacobin Revolution; she flees, but then comes back to share her sisters' death--a powerful scene in which a hymn is stripped down a voice at a time, and finally silenced when Blanche joins them on the guillotine. Anne Sophie Schmidt as Blanche is convincing both in her terror and her resignation; Patricia Petibon is delightful as her closest friend, the lively young nun Constance to whom fear is never especially an issue and who has sought death cheerfully from the start, praying that the dying Prioress might be saved and she taken in her place. The older women--the two Prioresses and Mere Marie who persuades the nuns to refuse compromise--are equally fine in their graver music. --Roz Kaveney

• Mozart Gala from Salzburg | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Critical acclaim for this high-point of Mozart Year 2006 - a microcosm of the Salzburg Festival's celebrations, with arias and orchestral works performed by some of the world's finest Mozart singers and the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Harding

• Mozart - Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail (Konig, Zurich Oo) | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  The opera Die Entfuhrung aus dem serail in three acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart