This performance, and the film that documents it, is superb! From its comically vulgar opening in the Garter Inn, where we are introduced to a rotund (and slightly pathetic) Falstaff - in a richly nuanced performance by baritone Gabriel Bacquier cocooned in prosthetic girth (his face is too thin for the enormity to be real) - to the supremely beautiful nocturnal magic of the Finale in Windsor Park, Solti is lovingly accompanied by the sublime Vienna Philharmonic. They play with such delicacy and elan what is an undeniably delicate score, that I lost myself in the instrumentation, forgot it was Verdi, thought it was Mozart, and couldn't remember which Mozartean Opera this was. The woodwinds and strings are singled out for special praise: perfect intonation and phrasing doesn't begin to do them justice. They breathe life into this score, propel it forward, act as a Chorus commenting on the action.

A classic production from the Bayreuth Festival is made available here for the first time on DVD! Staged and directed by Richard Wagner’s grandson Wolfgang Wagner at the Bayreuther Festspiele in 1999, this production of Wagner’s only comic opera features an all-star cast and the Bayreuther Festspiele chorus and orchestra under the direction of Daniel Barenboim.

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is a movie about a group of talented opera singers who compete in a prestigious singing competition in Nuremberg. The story follows the struggles, triumphs, and rivalries among the contestants as they strive to win the title of Meistersinger.

Tristan und Isolde is a dramatic opera about the love affair between Tristan, a Knight of the Round Table, and Isolde, an Irish princess. Despite being bound by duty and circumstance, their forbidden love grows into an intense and passionate affair that ultimately leads to their tragic downfall.

Falstaff Gabriel Bacquier · Karan Armstrong Richard Stilwell · Max-René Cosotti · John Lanigan Wiener Philharmoniker Georg Solti Directed by Götz Friedrich