Distributed by
Pioneer Entertainment Europe

Cat.no: PDMM 60102

Cert: E

Running time: 90 minutes

Year: 1996

Pressing: 1998

Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)

Chapters: 13

Sound: LPCM 24bit/96kHz

Languages: Arias sung in respective languages

Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index, Lyrics

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Conductor:

Asher Fisch with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Leader:

Vasko Vassilev

Director:

Kriss Rusmanis

Audio Producer:

Simon Woods

Cast:


Placido Domingo
Roberto Alagna
Dwayne Croft
Angela Gheorghiu
Susan Graham
Robert Lloyd
Leontina Vaduva
Veronica Villarroel
Lillian Watson

Placido Domingo, Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu, and a host of other operatic stars celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first performance given by the Covent Garden Opera Company in The Gold and Silver Gala.

The glittering evening was also a celebration for Domingo himself - it was the Silver Jubilee of his first performance as Covent Garden on 8th December 1971. Appropriately, he crowned the occasion by conducting Franz Lehar's famous waltz, Gold and Silver. Ealier, he was heard in his more familiar tenor guise singing arias along with other members of the stellar company. Besides the current golden couple of Alagna and Gheorghiu, they included Russian soprano young American baritone Dwayne Croft.

Among the composers represented in this feast of operatic music, familiar and unfamiliar, were Verdi, Gounod, Massenet and Charpentier. Asher Fisch conducted the orchestra of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

There are 13 chapters and the listing is as follows :

1. GOUNOD, Faust: Prologue 9:00
- Placido Domingo and Robert Lloyd

2. GOUNOD, Faust: Avant de quitter ces lieux 3:30
- Dwayne Croft

3. MASSENET, Le Cid: O Souverain 4:37
- Placido Domingo

4. BIZET, Carmen: Parle-moi de ma mere 9:14
- Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna

5. MOZART, Don Giovanni: La ci darem la mano 3:03
- Placido Domingo and Susan Graham

6. DONIZETTI, Don Pasquale: Quel guardo il cavaliere 5:58
- Leontina Vaduva

7. DONIZETTI, L'Elisir d'Amore: Caro elisir, sei mio 7:43
- Placido Domingo and Leontina Vaduva

8. HALEVY, La Juive: Rachel, quand du seigneur 5:52
- Roberto Alagna

9. GRIGORIU, Valurile Dunarii: Muzica 2:40
- Angela Gheorghiu

10. DE CURTIS: Tu ca nun chiagne 2:51
- Roberto Alagna

11. R. STRAUSS, Der Rosenkavalier: Presentation of the Silver Rose 7:15
- Susan Graham and Lilian Watson

12. MASCAGNI, L'amico Fritz: Cherry Duet 8:18
- Placido Domingo and Veronica Villarroel

13. LEHAR: The Gold and Silver Waltz 6:12
- The Orchestra of The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

The picture quality is excellent with no hint of artifacts and a very high average bitrate of 9.26Mb/s, which is good news given the high quality of sound to accompany it.

The sound format on this DVD is LPCM 24-bit 96Khz and it's the first region 2 DVD to use this standard. DVD's are about 50 - 70% more efficient when it comes to musical emphasis than a normal CD. They pick up a much improved harmonic and dynamic range, and the music will seem tighter and more precise - it's about 5Hz to 48000Hz instead of 20-20000Hz with 16-bit. Some audio CDs are being remastered in this format and it makes for a crisper, sharper sound with a the soundstage making the placement of instruments and voices more precise.

Thanks to Mark Wayt for the technical sound info.

The onscreen menu appears as soon as you play the disc and all menus on view respond quickly on this release with every selection taking you exactly where you need to.

Extras :

Chapters :

Languages and Subtitles :

The good news is that the lyrics, which can be toggled on or off, are available in all five languages. Note that a sixth, Romanian, is not included here as is wrongly indicated on their Website, but the enclosed booklet does contain Romanian lyrics to aria No.9, "Muzica".

Overall, opera and Placido Domingo fans will get a real kick out of this disc. While there's little in the way of extras, it's a rare DVD that has such a good picture and sound quality which VHS could never hope to manage and the fact that it's a dual-layer disc helps a great deal to make this work.

FILM 	 			: ***
PICTURE QUALITY			: *****
SOUND QUALITY 			: *****
EXTRAS				: *
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OVERALL				: ***½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.