Antonio Pappano - Il Trittico - BLU-RAY

In the halls of Cambridge during the Edwardian Era, ambitious student Clive Durham (Hugh Grant) faced a crushing personal choice between his attraction to headstrong classmate Maurice Hall (James Wilby) and the expectations of polite society. E.M. Forster's long-suppressed novel of homosexual love receives a superb rendition from Merchant/Ivory; Rupert Graves, Denholm Elliott, Simon Callow, and Ben Kingsley also star. 140 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack English; audio commentary; featurettes; deleted scenes; theatrical trailers.

This is the Royal Opera's first complete presentation of Puccini's Il trittico since 1965. Leading director Richard Jones staged his witty, darkly comic realization of Gianni Schicchi for the Royal Opera in 2007, and here he completes the trio. Antonio Pappano conducts an acclaimed cast including Eva-Maria Westbroek, Ermonela Jaho, Lucio Gallo, Elena Zilio and rising star Francesco Demuro in these three one-act works, which were broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and went to cinemas world-wide in February 2012. 'A marathon production of Puccini's triptych is a master class in taut, nuanced drama, '- Guardian 'Can think of few operatic treats greater than a good performance of Puccini's unique trilogy of one-acters, Il trittico, and, whatever my reservations, I can't recommend this new Royal Opera production (the first for nearly half a century) too highly.' - the Telegraph.

Their dialogue zings with Pre-Code sauciness, their barbed glee skewers social norms and their creativity includes daffy flights of song and dance. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, from their feature debut in 1929 until 1937, tickled fans with a steady skein of comedy madness. Peach-O-Reno has the duo as Reno divorce lawyers eager to spring paying customers from the holy bonds. At night, the law office becomes a casino, a gamble of a st