Edita Gruberova Movies

This performance of Vincenzo Bellini's opera I Puritani was recorded live at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona on February 8th, 2001. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

Gaetano Donizetti's three act melodrama is performed before an appreciative live audience at the Zurich Opera House in this 1996 performance featuring libretto by Gaetano Rossi after Adolphe Philippe Dennery and Gustav Lemoine and starring Edita Gruberova and Deon van der Walt. Conductor Adam Fischer leads the Orchestra and Chorus of the Zurich Opera House. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

This music performance video is a production of "Arabella", with Sir George Solti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and featuring Gundula Janowitz, Bernd Weikel, Rene Kollo, and Sona Ghazarian. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

Cosi fan tutte, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's bawdy 1790 dramma giocoso, recounts the randy tale of Ferrando and Guglielmo, two officers, stationed in Naples, who attempt to exchange fiancées in a wager. Fairly conventional for its time, Cosi failed to raise any eighteenth century eyebrows but (with its lasciviousness) became something of an ire-engendering piece in the more-conservative centuries to come. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle staged a production of Cosi at a Palladian villa in 1988, featuring musical accompaniment by the Nikolaus Harnoncourt-conducted Wiener Philharmoniker and the Wiener Staatsopernchor; a film of that production is now available in the home release, Cosi fan tutte. Luis Lima appears as Ferrando, Ferruccio Furlanetto as Guglielmo, Delores Ziegler as Dorabella and Edita Gruberova as Fiordiligi. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Richard Strauss' Arabella, set in Vienna during the 1860s, opens with Countess von Waldner asking a fortuneteller to help save her family from their enormous debts. The mystic assures the Countess that her daughter, Arabella will marry into extreme wealth. Soon after, a young officer named Matteo pleads with Zdenka, the Waldners' son (in fact, a girl brought up as a boy), to help him win Arabella; unbeknownst to Matteo, Zdenka secretly carries a torch for him herself. Zdenka pleads Matteo's case with her sister, but Arabella dismisses him, as she does all who have sought her hand. Meanwhile, the Count has sent a photograph of Arabella to the rich Mandryka, hoping to arrange a marriage. The rich man's nephew, who is also named Mandryka, has intercepted the letter and makes his interest in Arabella known to the Count. At a grand ball, Arabella meets her new suitor and is instantly taken with him, accepting his proposal. However, Mandryka overhears Zdenka hatching a plot to get Matteo into Arabella's bedroom and thinks the worst. In fact, Zdenka has tricked Matteo; in the darkness of the room, he believes he is seducing Arabella rather than Zdenka. Mandryka challenges Matteo to a duel, but Zdenka reveals the truth of her deception. Learning the truth, Matteo takes Zdenka as his own and Arabella and Mandryka pledge their troth. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

The complications and excesses in the highly melodramatic story of Rigoletto almost define the word "opera" for many people, and the name of this opera's composer, Giuseppi Verdi, is one to conjure with. Many cinematically inclined opera fans had high hopes for this 1983 production directed by the scenarist Jean-Pierre Ponelle and featuring the incomparable vocal gifts of Luciano Pavarotti. However, even in opera, and particularly when it is filmed, a minimum of believability and acting ability are desirable commodities. By all reports, this production failed on those two counts, though musically it is first-rate. Hard-core opera enthusiasts will still find much to enjoy, though the movie is not accessible to general audiences. The tragic story begins with Rigoletto (Ingvar Wixell), the hunchbacked court jester for the amorously inclined young Duke of Mantua (Pavrotti), showing callous disregard for a father's sensibilities when the Duke ruins the reputation of one of his courtier's daughters. When the girl's angry father is led away in chains, he curses the jester to suffer as he has suffered. Since Rigoletto has hidden away his beautiful daughter from the court, and the Duke has somehow managed to see her anyway, this curse soon becomes a reality. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This performance of Mozart's opera Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail was recorded in 1980 in Munich's National Theatre. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

The Wiener Philharmoniker mounted this stage production of Richard Strauss's opera Ariadne auf Naxos, starring Gundula Janowitz, René Kollo and Edita Gruberova. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Karl Böhm, provides symphonic accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi