“LA VIDA BREVE” – Manuel de Falla

DVD_Vidabreve_Valencia

DVD “C Major” 2012
Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia

Conductor : Lorin Maazel
Production and set : Giancarlo del Monaco
Costum : Jesùs Ruiz

Salud : Cristina Gallardo-Domâs
Paco : Jorge de Leon
Abuela : Maria Luisa Corbacho
Tio Sarvaor : Felipe Bou
Comunitat Valenciana Orchestra
Generalitat Valenciana Chorus

“Presented here for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, Manuel de Falla’s “La vida breve” is arguably the greatest opera in the entire Spanish repertoire, a tragic Zarzuela, a mix of Verismo, local Andalusian colour and French Impressionism. Staged by the brilliant Giancarlo del Monaco (Metropolitan Opera, La Scala) with legendary music director Lorin Maazel and a cast of Zarzuela specialists of the highest order, this performance from Valencia was hailed triumphant. “Simply a stroke of genius,” wrote Spain’s Opera Viva about del Monaco’s austere, minimalist staging at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia. Maestro Maazel, whom El Pais hailed as the “triunfador” of the evening, led an exquisite array of soloists headed by Chilean soprano Cristina Gallardo-Domas, Jorge de Leon and Maria Luisa Corbacho.”

“SIMON BOCCANEGRA” – Giuseppe Verdi

DVD_Boccanegra_Met 2010

DVD “Sony Classical” – 2010
The Metropolitan Opera – New York
Conductor : James levine
Production : Giancarlo del Monaco
Set and costum : Michael Scott

Simon Boccanegra : Plácido Domingo Maria Boccanegra : Adrianne Pieczonca
Gabriele Adorno : Marcello Giordani
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

« Un Blu-ray s’imposerait ici tant les détails de cette production signée Giancarlo del Monaco méritent d’être mis en valeur, de la beauté toscane (bien que l’action se déroule à Gênes) des jardins du palais Grimaldi, à la magnificence de la salle du conseil du palais du Doge où les peintures inspirées de Michel-Ange le disputent aux marbres multicolores du sol, tandis que le costume et l’attitude de Simon Boccanegra en siège n’est pas sans rappeler le Napoléon d’Ingres».
Jean-Claude Lanot – “Tutti magazine”

“LA BOHEME” – Giacomo Puccini

DVD_Bohème_Madrid

DVD “Opus Arte”
Teatro Real – Madrid
Conductor : Jesús López Cobos
Production : Giancarlo del Monaco
Mimi : Inva Mula
Rodolfo : Aquiles Machado
The Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus

Top 2008 Classics List – Review by Alan Rich
Puccini, “La Boheme” (Opus Arte DVD).
Lista Bloomberg :
“La Bohème”  migliore DVD 2008

“Possibly the world doesn’t need a new go-around of Puccini’s eye-moistener, but this one really gets to you, a performance of cinematic realism in Madrid’s Teatro Real staged by Giancarlo del Monaco, led by Jesus Lopez-Cobos. Inva Mula and Aquiles Machado are the lovers, and the surround miking sets their tragedy up close and personal; resistance is futile”.
Alan Rich, Bloomberg News – Los Angeles, December 23, 2008

“CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA” – Pietro Mascagni & I PAGLIACCI” – Ruggero Leoncavallo

DVD_Cavalleria-PagliacciDVD “Opus Arte” 2007
Teatro Real – Madrid
Conductor : Jesús López Cobos
Production : Giancarlo del Monaco
Set : Johannes Leiacker
Costume : Birgit Wentsch
Lighting design : Wolfgang von Zoubek
Santuzza : Violeta Urmana
Turiddu : Vincenzo La Scola
Canio : Vladimir Galouzine
Nedda : Maria Bayo
Tonio : Carlo Guelfi
The Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus
“Il fascino di questo spettacolo consiste tutto nel geniale allestimento di Giancarlo del Monaco. All’inizio si ascolta il Prologo dei Pagliacci, che Carlo Guelfi canta in platea vestito come se fosse une dei personaggi di “Sei personage in cerca d’autore” di Pirandello, chiamando così l’opera di Leoncavallo ad una vocazione novecentesca.
“Cavalleria” si recita in uno scenario fatto di blocchi massicci che rimandono subito all’iconografia del dramma wagneriano secondo le più moderne definizioni. Il bianco accecante dà alla scena un aspetto straniante e toglie all’azione ogni connotazione crudamente realistica e soprattutto salva “Cavelleria” da ogni tentazione folklorista ed oleografica. Il muoversi lento delle comparse, il contrasto dei costumi tradizionali di colore scuro immerge tutta l’azione in una dimensione mitica, indovinando che il segreto di questo teatro è nulla ritualità di una sorta di sacra rapprensatazione, dove il delitto di Turiddu e il sacrificio di
Santuzza, coincidono con la Pasqua cristiana.

Poi si passa ai “Pagliacci” e di colpo ci troviamo su di un palcoscenico scuro, dominato da un sinistro teatrino, quello che ospiterà la commedia dei pagliacci ambulanti. Il clima è quello dell’espressionismo tedesco, crudo e tagliente. E un mondo brutto e volgare, esasperato e cencioso nei costumi : è un’umanità lacero contusa, dove nessuno si salva. Del Monaco sacrifica ogni riferimento realistico all’Italia del Sud, allontana da Nedda la patina zingaresca, quell’anelito gitano che le fa guardare gli uccelli e chiamarli, con immagine ardita e felice, i boemi del cielo. Quello che si perde è compensato nella rivelazione della dimensione novecentesca di un dramma che diventa lo specchio di un mondo di violenza”.

Giancarlo Landini, “L’Opera”, marzo 2008
“Regia molto dinamica. Omaggio al lavoro scenico dei coristi e solisti, magnificamente diretti”.
Valéry Fleurquin, ” ResMusica.com” 11/12/2007

“MEFISTOFELE – Arrigo Boito

DVD_Mefistofele_PalermoDVD “Dynamic” 2008
Teatro Massimo di Palermo
Conductor : Stefano Ranzani
Production : Giancarlo del Monaco
Set : Carlo Centolavigna
Costume : Maria Filippi
Mefistofele : Ferruccio Furlanetto
Faust : Giuseppe Filianoti
Margherita / Elena : Dimitra Theodossiu
The Teatro Massimo Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet.

“Stage director of genius, del Monaco build a fascistic production”
Giancarlo Landini, L’Opera, settembre 2008

“SIMON BOCCANEGRA”, Giuseppe Verdi

DVD_Boccanegra_Met2007“Deusche Grammophon” – New edition 2007
The Metropolitan Opera – New York
Conductor : James Levine
Production : Giancarlo del Monaco
Set and costume : Michael Scott
Simon Boccanegra : Vladimir Chernov
Maria Boccanegra : Kiri Te Kanawa
Gabriele Adorno : Plácido Domingo
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Simon Boccanegra : “In the Metropolitan Opera’s 1995 production of Simon Boccanegra – the one seen in this DVD – director Giancarlo del Monaco and designer Michaël Scott successfully opted for a naturalistic approach. Strictly speaking, much of the décor (the celling paintings and furnishings in the Council Chamber scene, for instance) is more reminiscent of the high or even late Renaissance than the first half of the 14th century, when the real-life Boccanegra flourished. Nevertheless, the sets take us back to the era when Genoa, thanks to its domination of a substantial proportion of Mediterranean commercial routes, was one of the largest, wealthiest and most powerful city-states in Europe. Employing a straightforward, logical approach, del Monaco presents the protagonist as the troubled but fundamentally generous leader that the playwright Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez, the librettist Francesco Maria Piave, the poet Giuseppe Montanelli (many of whose textual changes Verdi imposed on Piave), the revised version’s librettist Arrigo Boito and, above all, Verdi himself, seem to have had in mind, and each of the other principal characters is also firmly and rationally delineated. There are some thought-provoking details, such as the toppling of a statue – a symbol of the plebeians gaining the upper hand against the patricians – at the end of the prologue, or the moment early in Simon’s first encounter with Maria / Amalia (before they realize that they are father and daughter) when he touches her in a way that strongly hints at erotic interest on his part. But del Monaco never goes out an interpretative limb or tries to impress us with his cleverness; in this day and age, such restraint is in itself praiseworthy – and a great relief.” Harvey Sachs

“STIFFELIO”, Giuseppe Verdi

DVD_Stiffelio_Met 2007“Deusche Grammophon” – New edition 2007
The Metropolitan Opera – New York
Conductor : James Levine
Production : Giancarlo del Monaco
Set and costume : Michael Scott
Stiffelio : Plácido Domingo
Lina : Sharon Sweet
Stankar : Vladimir Chernov
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Stiffelio : “This 1993 production of unfamiliar middle-period Verdi proved in fact to be one of the New York company’s most significant achievements of the decade.” Richard Evidon

“LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST”, Giacomo Puccini

DVD_Fanciulla_Met 2007“Deusche Grammophon” – New edition 2007
The Metropolitan Opera – New York
Conductor : Leonard Slatkin
Production : Giancarlo del Monaco
Set and costume : Michael Scott
Minnie : Barbara Daniels
Dick Johnson : Plácido Domingo
Jack Rance : Sherril Milnes
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

La Fanciulla del West : “launched at the Metropolitan on 10 December 1910… But amid a swell of interest in the last decade of the twentieth century, Giancarlo del Monaco’s production (1992) brought the opera back to its home at the MET in triumph”.
Kenneth Chalmers

“LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN” – Jacques Offenbach

DVD_Hoffmann_Bilbao2DVD « Opus Arte » 2006
Opera de Bilbao
Conductor : Alain Guingal
Production : Giancarlo del Monaco
Set and costume : Michael Scott

Hoffmann : Aquiles Machado
Olympia : Milagros Poblador
Giuletta : Valentina Kutzarova
Antonia : Maria Bayo
Lindorf : Konstantin Gorny
Nicklausse : Katharine Goeldner
The Opera de Bilbao Orchestra and Chorus

“ANDREA CHENIER” – Umberto Giordano

DVD_Chénier_Bologna2DVD « TDK » – 2006
Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Conductor : Carlo Rizzi
Production, set and costume : Giancarlo del Monaco
Lighting design : Wolfgang von Zoubek

Andrea Chénier : José Cura
Maddalena di Coigny : Maria Guleghina
Carlo Gérard : Carlo Guelfi
The Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra and Chorus