Artists: Shirley Verrett, Placido Domingo, Ruth Ann Swenson, Justino Diaz, Michael Devlin, Philip Skinner, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Maurizio Arena

Eugène Scribe had already submitted the libretto for L'africaine (The African Woman) - a grand opéra in five acts - to the composer in 1838, together with the libretto for Le prophète. The premiere on April 28, 1865 in the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra became the outstanding social event of the Second Empire. L'africaine was first performed at the San Francisco Opera on November 3, 1972; this recording in the original French version reproduces the new production of the Grande opéra which the opera house put on the program in September 1988. Directed by Lotfi Mansouri, with stage design by Wolfram Skalicki and costumes by Amrei Skalicki, a top-class cast of star singers (Shirley Verrett, Plácido Domingo, Justino Diaz and others) ensured the musical quality and tremendous success of the production of Giacomo Meyerbeer's little-known stage work. The musical direction was in the hands of the experienced Italian conductor Maurizio Arena.

Listening to a recording as it sounded live in the concert hall without having to downsample frequencies is something every music lover should be happy about. Because this is exactly what the new High Resolution Audio titles offer, with which Arthaus Musik brings analog recordings directly to your home in their original sound quality. For the first time, in addition to HD video recordings, high-resolution sounds in perfect quality, or High Resolution Audio for short, are also available on Blu-ray. A technical achievement that is only possible thanks to the enormous storage capacity of Blu-ray.