DVD + Blu-Ray:
Arrigo Boito: Mefistofele

“The exceptional solistic cast” (ORF) features René Pape, Joseph Calleja, Kristine Opolais and Karine Babajanyan

Best-known today as the librettist of Verdi’s final Shakespearean masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff, the multitalented Arrigo Boito was also a fine composer in his own right. Hugely ambitious in scope, and some 20 years in the making, his first (and only completed) opera, Mefistofele, sets out to encompass nothing less than the whole of Goethe’s vast poetic drama Faust (part I and II), and is considered the very central work of his phase between Verdi and Puccini. Making his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper, director Roland Schwab (a protégé of the legendary Ruth Berghaus) plays devil’s advocate by setting the opera in a nightmarish atmosphere. Singing “with clear, strong bass lines” (Deutschlandradio Kultur), René Pape plays Mefistofele as the sardonic leader of a satanic cult. As Faust, his slave, Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja “hits his high notes with formidable vigour” (Financial Times). Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais’s Margherita “shines with understated Grace Kelly elegance” (Opera Today), while as Elena – the fabled Helen of Troy – Armenian soprano Karine Babajanyan “shines with heroic high notes” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Finally, in the pit, Israeli conductor Omer Meir Wellber “holds all the musical textures together with admirable control” (BR Klassik).

English title Arrigo Boito: Mefistofele
Genre Opera
Recording location Bayerische Staatsoper
Duration 140 minsProduction Company A production of UNITEL CLASSICA in cooperation with Bayerische Staatsoper
Composer Arrigo Boito
Orchestra / Band Bayerisches Staatsorchester
Conductor Omer Meir Wellber
Choir Chorus and Children's Chorus of the Bayerische Staatsoper
Stage Director Roland Schwab
Soloist René Pape, Joseph Calleja, Kristine Opolais, Karine Babajanyan