Massenet Thais (2008)

Director: Tiziano Mancini

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

Thais

Lado Ataneli

Athanael

Alessandro Liberatore

Nicias

Maurizio Lo Piccolo

Palemon

Nadezhda Serdjuk

Albine

Eleonora Buratto

Crobyle

Ketevan Kemoklidze

Myrtale

Gianandrea Noseda

Conductor