As part of the M22 project to issue all of Mozart's operas and opera fragments in new DVD versions, Zaide: Adama looks like an interesting failure. On the other hand, Mojca Erdmann's sublime and innocent singing as Zaide may be considered worth the price of the whole two-DVD set. If you like your art politicized and Mozart used to sugar the pill of modernism, then it might just be your somewhat bitter cup of tea.
With Johann Strauss' boisterous, if silly, Die Fledermaus due in Taipei from the NSO at the end of the year, it's worth remembering the DVD of the 1990 Covent Garden production. It doubled as a farewell to Joan Sutherland who appears in the ball scene, along with Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne. They proceed to sing music of their own choice, and the minute Pavarotti launches magnificently into an aria from Cilea's L'Arlesiana, the Strauss is revealed as the froth it is. The DVD is really only worth seeing for this mini-concert and the virtual onstage party at the end. It's sung in English with Chinese and English subtitles.
Lastly, Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic are releasing a series of audio CDs featuring recent concerts, including one all-Strauss item (containing Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, The Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome, and the first Rosenkavalier Suite). All are from concerts given in 2005. The sound quality is spectacular, and though I have heard more heartfelt renditions of these popular works, there must be few that are as acoustically transparent.
An important feature of this series, DG Concerts, is that most items are offered as Internet downloads, with some also issued (as this Strauss program is) on disc. The New York Philharmonic will be visiting Taiwan in February, with concerts scheduled in Taipei and Kaohsiung
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