Stage and television director Werner Herzog, one of the most highly acclaimed German film makers of all time, joins forces with the great Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly to effect a masterful rendition of this rarely-performed opera involving spectacular scenes of alternating light and dark, pageantry and intimacy. The production is further complemented by the great Italian baritone Renato Bruson as Giacomo, the American soprano Susan Dunn as Giovanna and the outstanding tenor Vincenzo La Scola as the Dauphin. The magnificent Teatro Comunale di Bologna provides an intimate yet ornate setting for this production of Verdi's seventh opera, the story of the Maid of Orleans.
The inaugural production of Riccardo Chailly’s era as La Scala’s music director, Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco stars Anna Netrebko “ablaze in the title role of warrior-saint” (The Observer) and features an imaginative production by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier. The first performance of the opera at La Scala in over 150 years.
Giovanna d’Arco is based on Friedrich Schiller’s tragedy The Maid of Orleans and deals with the life of Joan of Arc. But Verdi and his librettist Temistocle Solera departed from both Schiller and historical fact by turning Joan’s father into the opera’s powerful antagonist. Ever since its first performance in Milan in 1845, Giovanna d’Arco has been admired and loved for its emotionally affecting arias and thrilling choral writing.
With more than 50 years of experience as film director, Peter Greenaway (Nightwatching, Eisenstein in Guanajuato, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover) combines the worlds of film and opera at the Festival Verdi in Parma with an all new approach to Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco, staged and edited by himself and Saskia Boddeke. Turning the auditorium into part of the set, Greenaway includes the unique architecture of the Teatro Farnese into his staging. With the help of spectacular video and light installations, he creates a completely new opera experience, using a striking imagery that includes depictions of the Madonna, modern manga girls and the real faces of refugee children.
Decca proudly presents the Complete Works by Giuseppe Verdi in a single 75 CD box set. From the ever-popular “Aida” to the obscure “Alzira,” all 28 of Giuseppe Verdi's operas are here as well as his Sacred Works, Arias, Songs, Ballet Music, the String quartet and other rarities.
Conductor and pianist James Levine is one of the powerhouse figures of the classical music scene today. As a child he undertook both piano and violin; he was so accomplished on the violin that at the age of ten he played Mendelssohn's second violin concerto at a Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra youth concert. He studied piano at various summer music festivals before enrolling at New York's Juilliard School, where he took conducting courses with Jean Morel and continued piano studies with Rosina Lhevinne.