*** This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD or HD DVD players. ***



MORENO TORROBA Luisa Fernanda & • Jesús López-Cobos, cond; Nancy Herrera ( Luisa Fernanda ); Mariola Cantarero ( Duchess Carolina ); José Bros ( Javier Moreno ); Plácido Domingo ( Vidal Hernando ); Raquel Pierotti ( Mariana ); Teatro Real O & Ch • BBC/OPUS ARTE 969 (Blu-ray: 132:00) Live: Madrid 7/14,16/2006


& Interviews with Domingo, Sagi, and López-Cobos; illustrated synopsis; cast gallery


Alan Swanson covered the earlier DVD release of this production in Fanfare 31:2; hie thee to our online archive for details. This is a highly engaging work from 1932 about a love triangle during an anti-royalist uprising in 19th-century Spain; the musical style is Spanish Puccini with even catchier tunes (by which I mean the melodies are built from short, memorable phrases rather than long operatic lines). You need only see and hear Nancy Herrera for a few seconds to think, “What a perfect Carmen she’d be.” Indeed, she has sung that role many times. Here, she’s not a dangerous Gypsy vamp but an ordinary middle-class woman torn between two lovers: a brash, womanizing, ambitious royalist and military man (sung ringingly by José Bros) and an earnest and stable country gentleman who falls in with the rebels (the superb Plácido Domingo, venturing into high baritone territory). In every respect—composition, singing, orchestral management by Jesús López-Cobos, stage direction, and set design by Emilio Sagi, everything—the production is a delight.


The high-definition video format is perfect for keeping the deep blacks and bright whites in balance, never allowing the light colors to flare or bloom or the dark patches to turn the overall picture murky. As usual with Opus Arte, the audio options are limited to stereo and 5.0 PCM. Extras include a narrated synopsis, and good interviews with Domingo and the stage director and conductor. This is an endearing work, lovingly presented.


FANFARE: James Reel
Vidal Hernando – Plácido Domingo
Luisa Fernanda – Nancy Herrera
Javier Moreno – José Bros
Duchess Carolina – Mariola Cantarero
Mariana – Raquel Pierotti
Aníbal – Javier Ferrer
Rosita – Sabina Puértolas
Don Florito Fernández – José Antonio Ferrer
Don Luís Nogales – Federico Gallar
Bizco Porras – David Rubiera
Emilio Sagi, Stage Director
Recorded live at the Teatro Real, Madrid in July 2006
Bonus:
- Interviews with Plácido Domingo, Emilio Sagi and Jesús López Cobos
- Illustrated Synopsis / Cast Gallery

Region code: 0 (All Regions)
Picture: 16:9; 1080i
Sound: PCM 2.0 and 5.1
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian