# Marriage Of Figaro (Haitink, 1994) announced for Blu-ray!?



## Bruce Morrison (Mar 8, 2010)

I've just seen that the Haitink Marriage Of Figaro (dating from 1994) is to be released on Blu-ray by NVC Arts in May.

However, I'm somewhat puzzled. I'd assumed this would have been shot on SD video rather than on film - as far as I know, most DVDs of opera productions have been based on video masters. If that is true for Figaro, then there would be no benefit regarding the image quality from remastering for Blu-ray. I suppose the only benefit would be in terms of the sound quality (not unimportant of course), but all the same it seems rather a strange choice for a BD release when there are already some excellent recent performances available on BD that were shot on HD video or film.

I recently bought the Barenboim/Bayreuth version of Wagner's Ring cycle on BD, and that is clearly based on a SD video (and not very good video at that!). It's worth keeping for some of the singing and for Barenboim's magnificent conducting, but I probably won't bother to switch the TV on for it!


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## sharik (Jan 23, 2013)

Bruce Morrison said:


> Marriage Of Figaro (Haitink, 1994) announced for Blu-ray!?


- must be another con because they had figured out that people buy anything if its a bluray or has DTS 5.1 and so on.


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## Ebab (Mar 9, 2013)

Bruce Morrison said:


> I recently bought the Barenboim/Bayreuth version of Wagner's Ring cycle on BD, and that is clearly based on a SD video (and not very good video at that!).


According to the review on blu-ray.com, the Barenboim/Kupfer ring was recorded on analog tape with 1250 lines resolution, which is in fact HD video, if in its infancy. The reviewer agrees though that the result cannot compare with the HD quality of today.

I don't own the Barenboim/Kupfer ring yet, and may get the Blu-Ray at some point. For people who already have the DVDs, the increase in quality probably won't warrant an upgrade.

It's possible that the 1994 Figaro was taped in HD as well, but the quality of the Blu-Ray has yet to be seen.


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