Ordo Virtutum Hildegard of Bingen BBC/Opus Arte OA 0874D [4 hours 10 minutes: 16:9] Hildegard von Bingen's remarkable and inspiring story (she defies the unfeeling rigidity of her Abbot and departs to found a convent of her own) is given, and fairly plausibly illustrated, in the BBC documentary, and there is another from Washington. With videoed lectures and analyses of a gallery of her images of mystic visions, this double DVD provides what many may find overkill; its genesis is described persuasively by Ferenc van Damme of www.opusarte.com in a fascinating article, The Making of a DVD, in the November issue of BBC Music Magazine. Its core Ordo Virtuum, given here in a semistaged English production, is virtually an opera and must be one of the first. It has an involving text, and we have a compellingly sinister Devil in evening dress for allegorical struggle and the singers, with many individual parts, are committed and good to watch. The singing cast is led by Ansy Boothroyd and Evelyn Tubb and I felt its 70 minutes were well spent, and remain haunting afterwards. The full text is reproduced with translation in the illustrated booklet.
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