Wagners rarely performed early comic opera, based on Shakespeares Measure for Measure, enjoys its Spanish debut in a new production by director Kasper Holten. The lively score boasts clear Italian, French and Weberian influences that pre-date the composers mature voice, yet the music continually delights with the unmistakable emergence of Wagners precocious genius. His adaptation of the Bards play reflects the rebellious mood of a Revolutionary Germany, vindicating sensual love and attacking the fanatical repression of sexuality by a puritanical and hypocritical authority. Ivor Bolton conducts a vibrant cast featuring English baritone and Cardiff Singer of the World Lieder Prize-winner Christopher Maltman, Turkish-Viennese tenor and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Ilker Arcayrek and Germanys hottest Wagnerian leading lady, Manuela Uhl. Review Filmed for DVD, Kasper Holten's colourful production lifts the spirits and a hard-working cast is swept along --Ft,17/2/17 One huge set serves for all the scenes, but it does so with great versatility, and a special credit should go to Steffen Aarfing for his designs. The simplicity of Isabella's convent or the claustrophobia of Duke Friedrich's room sit alongside a gaudy carnival scene or, as seen on the DVD cover, an eye-poppingly gaudy red-light district for the opening scene...Musically, the cast is led by the ever-dependable Christopher Maltman, who gives a touch of magic to the rather archetypal figure of the wicked duke...The smaller soprano roles are well taken too, with Maria Miro proving a good foil to the heroically chaste Isabella. The finest heroes, however, are the orchestra, who play the score as though it were Meistersinger, sounding like gods right from the sparkling overture to the jolly resolution. Ivor Bolton can't ever have imagined himself conducting this score, but he takes to it like a duck to water and argues a very persuasive case for it. --Music Web International, Apr'17 3* Performance / 4* Picture & Sound It's well...performed here, especially by the splendidly full-voiced chorus. /// Bolton conducts with enthusiasm...There is obviously value in being able to access a performance of this relatively unexplored work on screen for the first time... --BBC Music Magazine, May'17/// Gramophone, April'17