Operas missing on DVD

[makropulos]

I think I'll stick my next out and suggest Riders to the Sea is VW's finest opera. Emotionally intense to the point of exhaustion.

I think you may well be right –it's a wonderfully engrossing drama told through some pretty spellbinding music. Still, speaking personally, Pilgrim's Prog is the one that moves me the most every time I hear/see it.

[bluestateprommer]

A great many years ago I directed a double bill of Holst's Savitri and Riders to the Sea. Riders to the Sea is a fabulously compact opera, and I think works really well. I'm surprised its not done more often.

I've long had the idea of an "English Trittico", for some enterprising opera company to stage (obviously not during a pandemic), that would go:
1. RVW: Riders to The Sea
2. Holst: Savitri
3. Walton: The Bear

I believe that The Bear is missing from DVD (though not audio recordings, of course). Another British opera that has a YT video, but hasn't been commercially out on a DVD (AFAICT), is Delius' Koanga. The YT video is from Wexford, 2015.

Tippett has been mentioned in this thread, where Birmingham Opera Company produced their warehouse-staged video of The Ice Break in 2015, so that a complete video recording does exist, just not in a commercial release. On The Knot Garden and especially New Year, the larger question, of course, is how stageworthy each is, and that would lead potentially to a DVD or at least a streaming video.

I think also that the only Alexander von Zemlinsky opera on DVD is Der Zwerg, which means that his other 7 (Eine florentinische Tragödie, etc.) would make makropulos' list. For DVD treatment, one on my list would be Erwin Schulhoff's Flammen, although an audio recording of that work already exists from the old Decca 'Entartete Musik' series. Also, the operas of Othmar Schoeck (e.g. Penthesilea) look to be completely missing from DVD (and even YT).

The larger question that makropulos implicitly raises, of course, is: is there any opera out there which has not been recorded in any form, audio or video, and which needs to be recorded? Or, by implication, has history done its work, and have all the worthy past operas throughout musical history already been exhumed? On the latter point, the answer is most probably "no", but I myself have no way to imagine what else from the past can be dug up. This excludes discussion of contemporary operas, to be sure, as contemporary composers are still at it. No doubt the pandemic itself will inform the creation of new music and new operas in years to come.

[LHC]

I've long had the idea of an "English Trittico", for some enterprising opera company to stage (obviously not during a pandemic), that would go:
1. RVW: Riders to The Sea
2. Holst: Savitri
3. Walton: The Bear

I believe that The Bear is missing from DVD (though not audio recordings, of course). Another British opera that has a YT video, but hasn't been commercially out on a DVD (AFAICT), is Delius' Koanga. The YT video is from Wexford, 2015.

Tippett has been mentioned in this thread, where Birmingham Opera Company produced their warehouse-staged video of The Ice Break in 2015, so that a complete video recording does exist, just not in a commercial release. On The Knot Garden and especially New Year, the larger question, of course, is how stageworthy each is, and that would lead potentially to a DVD or at least a streaming video.

I think also that the only Alexander von Zemlinsky opera on DVD is Der Zwerg, which means that his other 7 (Eine florentinische Tragödie, etc.) would make makropulos' list. For DVD treatment, one on my list would be Erwin Schulhoff's Flammen, although an audio recording of that work already exists from the old Decca 'Entartete Musik' series. Also, the operas of Othmar Schoeck (e.g. Penthesilea) look to be completely missing from DVD (and even YT).

The larger question that makropulos implicitly raises, of course, is: is there any opera out there which has not been recorded in any form, audio or video, and which needs to be recorded? Or, by implication, has history done its work, and have all the worthy past operas throughout musical history already been exhumed? On the latter point, the answer is most probably "no", but I myself have no way to imagine what else from the past can be dug up. This excludes discussion of contemporary operas, to be sure, as contemporary composers are still at it. No doubt the pandemic itself will inform the creation of new music and new operas in years to come.

As I recall, the Glyndebourne production of New Year was shown on TV, so a professional video recording must exist somewhere.

[Roslynmuse]

As I recall, the Glyndebourne production of New Year was shown on TV, so a professional video recording must exist somewhere.

Indeed - it was shown on BBC2 on 21st Sept 1991, 2110 - 2300.

[kuligin]

The larger question that makropulos implicitly raises, of course, is: is there any opera out there which has not been recorded in any form, audio or video, and which needs to be recorded? Or, by implication, has history done its work, and have all the worthy past operas throughout musical history already been exhumed? On the latter point, the answer is most probably "no", but I myself have no way to imagine what else from the past can be dug up. This excludes discussion of contemporary operas, to be sure, as contemporary composers are still at it. No doubt the pandemic itself will inform the creation of new music and new operas in years to come.[/QUOTE]

The only one I have actually seen recently and liked so much I wanted a recording was Campra’s Les Fetes Venitiennes. My wife kindly bought me Campra’s Le Carnaval de Venice which has been recorded by Niquet but is a different piece altogether.

[silvestrione]

Birtwistle's The Last Supper, (particularly), and The Io Passion.

[bluestateprommer]

Despite a 'making of' DVD, there is still no DVD or Glass's Akhnaten. I'm not that eager but it does seem strange that none of its productions has made it to DVD.

With Akhnaten, the Metropolitan Opera has finally filled that DVD gap:

https://www.metoperashop.org/shop/glass-akhnaten-met-live-in-hd-dvd-anthony-roth-costanzo-24390

Some other missing-from-DVD operas that just came to mind are:

1. Berthold Goldschmidt: Der gewaltige Hahnrei (little chance of a DVD ever appearing, IMHO, but I'd love to be wrong on that)
2. Martinu: Julietta
3. Poul Ruders: The Handmaid's Tale
4. Ethel Smyth: The Wreckers (but Glyndebourne may remedy that after this season)

[ARBurton]

Wagner - Die Feen!

[Bryn]

With Akhnaten, the Metropolitan Opera has finally filled that DVD gap:

https://www.metoperashop.org/shop/glass-akhnaten-met-live-in-hd-dvd-anthony-roth-costanzo-24390

Some other missing-from-DVD operas that just came to mind are:

1. Berthold Goldschmidt: Der gewaltige Hahnrei (little chance of a DVD ever appearing, IMHO, but I'd love to be wrong on that)
2. Martinu: Julietta
3. Poul Ruders: The Handmaid's Tale
4. Ethyl Smyth: The Wreckers (but Glyndebourne may remedy that after this season)

I see the Met production DVD is also available from other vendors. amazon.co.uk has it listed (new) twice, one at £22 and the other at £17 (but with no dispatch or delivery date for the latter. I am in no hurry, so have opted to wait and see what happens. Amazon also falsely claims it to be a Region 1 DVD. Their own illustration of the back cover clearly states that it is Region 0, i.e. worldwide.

[edashtav]

[…]

I saw Riders to the Sea at Buxton where it knocked Holst’s Wandering Scholar for 6.

Despite having seen 6 VW stagings I am not fully convinced that he was a natural opera composer but really they all deserve better than they have received from our Opera Companies.

Yes, indeed, I was at Buxton for the RVW/GH pairing, and agree, fully, with your assessment of the two works.

[ARBurton]

Wagner Die Feen (and yes I know I`ve already voted for that but it`s so important...

[LHC]

Wagner Die Feen (and yes I know I`ve already voted for that but it`s so important...

Bizarrely there is a version of Die Feen on DVD, but it’s a heavily truncated version which has been adapted as a ‘children’s opera’ by Marc-Aurel Floros for the Vienna State Opera which runs for just 48 minutes. Quite why this version was deemed worthy of a DVD release is a mystery, when there are so few recordings of Wagner’s opera.

One of the problems in arranging for a DVD release is that professional stagings are vanishingly rare, so finding one that can be filmed is going to be difficult.

[ARBurton]

Bizarrely there is a version of Die Feen on DVD, but it’s a heavily truncated version which has been adapted as a ‘children’s opera’ by Marc-Aurel Floros for the Vienna State Opera which runs for just 48 minutes. Quite why this version was deemed worthy of a DVD release is a mystery, when there are so few recordings of Wagner’s opera.

One of the problems in arranging for a DVD release is that professional stagings are vanishingly rare, so finding one that can be filmed is going to be difficult.

Ah yes, I ordered that thing from a pirate dealer (before it was officially released) having been mightily excited to see its brief mention in their lists, only to be faced with a disappointment of (let`s face it) Wagnerian proportions. Frankly I think Dynamic missed a trick as they recorded Cagliari performances of Die Feen for CD, and Parsifal for CD and DVD.......if only....

[LHC]

Ah yes, I ordered that thing from a pirate dealer (before it was officially released) having been mightily excited to see its brief mention in their lists, only to be faced with a disappointment of (let`s face it) Wagnerian proportions. Frankly I think Dynamic missed a trick as they recorded Cagliari performances of Die Feen for CD, and Parsifal for CD and DVD.......if only....

I was very nearly caught out in the same manner. However, the video was available for a while on the Vienna State Opera streaming service when that first came on line, and I found out from there that it wasn’t really Die Feen at all.

As you say, Dynamic would have been better releasing Die Feen on DVD rather than yet another Parsifal. As far as I can see, there isn’t even a video recording available somewhere on line, apart from the Vienna bowdlerization.

[Master Jacques]

What an interesting - albeit frustrating! - thread. One opera mentioned in Makropulos's original list which has come out on a very good blu-ray / dvd is Mathis der Maler, with a splendid Vienna cast under Bertrand de Billy: highly recommended.

Some other random thoughts:

kuligin
I saw the Sir John in Love at ENO too, a poor adaption compared to Nicolai and Verdi but some good music but far too many characters.

This is quite right as to the number of characters - even more than in the original play - but we must remember that RVW was setting out to do something radically different from Falstaff, an opera he cordially detested, as his contribution to a fascinating 1951 symposium on Verdi in Opera magazine reveals (the other contributors were Bliss, Berkeley and Britten, by the way).

Sir John in Love is not trying to emulate Verdi's slimline Italian tonic, or Nicolai's lumbering Singspiel, which has more or less shot its bolt after the overture. RVW is putting a whole community onto the stage - townies and courtiers, rich and poor, wise and foolish - and he's particularly interested in showing their bantering attitude to 'outsiders', such as the Welsh parson and the French doctor. It is a wonderfully rich work musically and dramatically, which deepens on acquaintance - and a rattling good adaptation, I think, looked at through the right end of the telescope.

bluestateprommer
I believe that The Bear is missing from DVD (though not audio recordings, of course)

Indeed it is. Very sadly, I was told years ago by Lady Walton that BBC TV had managed to 'mislay' their wonderful c.1970 studio recording of The Bear, with Regina Resnik, Thomas Hemsley and Derek Hammond-Stroud, conducted by Walton himself. I have a rare audio-only version, but the BBC video was one of the best operatic things I ever saw on the network. Alas!

LHC
As I recall, the Glyndebourne production of New Year was shown on TV, so a professional video recording must exist somewhere.

A very unprofessional bootleg of the TV reworking can be bought online, from various outlets such as House of Opera. It's a bit dim, but conveys the production well enough. It's a national scandal that New Year remains unrecorded on CD, let alone DVD.

kuligin
The larger question that makropulos implicitly raises, of course, is: is there any opera out there which has not been recorded in any form, audio or video, and which needs to be recorded?

A very good extension! My own first choice would be Franz Schmidt's Fredegundis (1922) which is quite possibly the best opera never recorded complete. I know that Franz Welser-Möst has an even bigger thing about it than I do, and had actually planned a studio recording for EMI which mysteriously got ditched. It's a beautiful, brilliant and fully mature work of astonishing power.