Massenet Thais
There's an uncompromising clarity to Blu-ray audio and video that really does bring the splendour of grand opera right into the living room. So it's all the more frustrating to get a compromised production as the final product. Jules Massenet's 1894 tragedy about a sex goddess humbled by an insistent Cenobite monk isn't produced very often, because of a demanding lead role and some difficult staging issues. But the music is gorgeous from beginning to end. When you have a great diva at centre stage, the three acts go by in a flash.
Cast
Barbara Frittoli
as Thais
Lado Ataneli
as Athanael
Alessandro Liberatore
as Nicias
Maurizio Lo Piccolo
as Palemon
Nadezhda Serdjuk
as Albine
Eleonora Buratto
as Crobyle
Ketevan Kemoklidze
as Myrtale
Gianandrea Noseda
as Conductor
