CD-Charts Position 1

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Rusalka [2002]

starring: Renée Fleming, Sergej Larin, Larissa Diadkova, Franz Hawlata, Eva Urbanová
directed by: François Roussillon

Release Date February 17, 2004

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

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Dvorak: Rusalka -- Paris Opera/Conlon

starring: Renee Fleming, Eva Urbanova, Larissa Diadkova, Sergej Larin, Franz Hawlata
directed by: Robert Carsen

Release Date November 03, 2003
Musically this production is alright, but the production bears no relation to the opera of Dvorak. Anyone who wishes to see how it should be staged should watch either of the Czech productions, either the film which is a delight to the eye, or that staged in Prague opera house in 1998. The latter is excellent in every way, and has a very fine bass.

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

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Richard Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier [2004]

starring: Franz Hawlata, Adrianne Pieczonka
directed by: Brian Large

Release Date October 02, 2006
Salzburg Festival opera productions in the last few years have been infected with some of the worst of the Regietheater mystique and one comes to this DVD of a live performance at the 2004 production with some trepidation. But any concerns about how this opera could be Eurotrashed by the stage director are mostly set aside in the first two acts which, although updated to pre-World War I Vienna, have little to shock or unsettle the traditional opera fan. In the third act, though, we encounter some things that will upset some, amuse others. Instead of being set in the libretto's called-for 'inn', the act occurs in a brothel and there is a fair amount of frontal nudity and lascivious behavior to behold, although in fairness it is played for laughs and ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

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Mozart: Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail - Marc Minkowski/Salsburg Festival [1997] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

starring: Christine Schäfer, Malin Hartelius, Paul Groves, Andreas Conrad, Franz Hawlata
directed by: Alexandre Tarta

Release Date April 08, 2003
The production is well centred within the Mortier ideology during his reign as the Salzburg Fsetival's Director. For this 1997 production, not staged in the Festspielhaus but in the court of the Residenzhof, he hired Francois Abou-Salem as Director, who took full advantage of the opportunity and came out with a late-XX Century updating of the work that frontally addresses the everyday EU-Muslim controversy, with modern day clothing (both western and middle-eastern, depending on where the characters come from), middle eastern athmosphere dcors and ambience and considerable tinkering, mostly on the dialogue but also on the music: as for the dialogue, arabic texts are introduced in fair quantity along the modified german text (in which all reference to ... Read More: