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Leading Chopin interpreter Nelson Freire is the soloist in Chopin’s lyrical and brilliant Second Piano Concerto. On the podium the young French conductor Lionel Bringuier makes his Proms debut conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and gives a sizzling performance of Roussel’s Symphony No.3 and of Ravel’s score for the ballet 'Daphnis et Chloé' - Suite No 2.

Chopin wrote his concerto at the age of 19 while crazily in love with an opera singer, but it's the work itself which is the object of adoration for soloist Nelson Freire who describes himself as having something of a 'crush' on the piece after first hearing it as a teenager.

The three other works on the programme chart French music over a century of changing musical tastes, beginning in 1844 with Berlioz's vivid evocation of a swashbuckling pirate adventure in his overture 'Le corsaire'. By 1912 the tides of modernism influenced Ravel's lavishly scored, pastoral ballet Daphnis and Chloë, with its famous opening soundscape of dawn breaking over the forest canopy, and by the 1930s Roussel's Third Symphony reflected the trends of neo-classicism.

"It was around the beginning of the second movement of Albert Roussel's Third Symphony that the playing of the BBC Symphony Orchestra – under the outstanding 23-year-old French conductor Lionel Bringuier, making his Prom debut – moved into top gear. From that point on, the orchestra's awareness of its own sound, collectively and individually, became heightened to an unusually compelling degree. The playing stayed on this exalted level until the end of the concert, which closed with Ravel's second Daphnis and Chloé suite...shaped with a certainty of direction that never compromised the music's inherent sensuousness. It provided a sensational climax to the evening."

George Hall, The Guardian 13/8/2010

Recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall, 08/2010, Running time 95 min.

Booklet: French, German, English

Image 1BD25, Colour 16/9, 1080i Full HD

Sound PCM Stereo, DTS HD Master Audio 5.1

Written in 1797, Cherubini's faithful version of Euripides' ancient tragedy is one of the most savage and powerful works of the opera repertoire, relating the cruel vengeance of a wounded woman for whom infanticide seems to be the only solution to her humiliation in love. As a continuation of Gluck's music, Cherubini's work is of boundless emotion, at once a refined, terrifying and desperate portent of a tragic outcome.

Three years after the creation of 'Médée', Krzysztof Warlikowski and Christophe Rousset were reunited at La Monnaie for this memorable production. The spoken dialogue, has been modernised here in the Polish stage director's interpretation: dialogues being rewritten in contemporary French and with contemporary candour. Warlikowski reconstructs Médée as a contemporary, postmodern patchwork in which the 18th century musical numbers are just one element among others in a nearly-new work. As usual with Warlikowski, there are videos: 50s and 60s home videos of happy marriages, happy families, happy schoolkids accompanied by pop songs of the period – Oh Carol, (I am but a fool) being an example. The chorus are the period bourgeoisie, in superbly reproduced 60s costumes and hairstyles. Médée and Jason are strictly contemporary: she, at first as Amy Winehouse: the signature black hair, tattoos, eyeliner, black patent dress),he with long, heavy dreadlocks bunched down the back of his dinner jacket (and tattoos, once he is down to his vest).

The themes are marriage and separation, motherhood and children, the symbols are Médée as a dangerous, unconventional outsider (Amy Winehouse); as the Virgin Mary: as a weary modern mother folding her sons’ bloodstained pyjamas and putting them in a drawer at the end before, in absolute silence, walking off and slamming the metal door behind her.

Choreography by Yuri Grigorovich, Nov 2011

Sets Designed by Ezio Frigerio

Costumes Designed by Franca Squarciapino

Classical ballet release event for this year!

Tchaikovsky’s ballet in a new production for the reopening of the historic Bolshoi Ballet stage. It also celebrates superstar David Hallberg's Bolshoi debut, the first American principal soloist ever to be hired by the Bolshoi Ballet. The choreographer, Yuri Grigorovich presents a new version of his most famous choreography for a breath taking experience in splendid sets designed by Ezio Frigerio and more than 400 new costumes designed by Franca Squarciapino.

The American superstar dancer David Hallberg is Prince Désiré. Hallberg is the first main american soloist ever to be hired by the Bolshoi Ballet. Princess Aurora is danced by the principal Svetlana Zakharova, well known to Parisian audiences thanks to her many performances at the Palais Garnier. She is also the soloist on the best seller 'Pharaoh's daughter' DVD released by Bel Air Classiques in 2004. They are joined by a great cast : Maria Allash (Lilac Fairy) , Artem Ovcharenko (Bluebird) and Nina Kaptsova (Princess Florine). The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra is conducted by Vassily Sinaisky.

Stage direction and lighting design: Giorgio Strehler

The legendary production by Giorgio Strehler filmed at the Paris Opera with a cast that unites the finest Mozartians of our time.

A revival of Strehler's 'Marriage of Figaro' is always an event. In 2010, 37 years after its creation, it rose again in triumph at the Opera Bastille with a new generation of performers: Ludovic Tézier (Count Almaviva), Barbara Frittoli (Countess), Ekaterina Siurina (Susanna), Luca Pisaroni (Figaro) and Karine Deshayes (Cherubino).

Conductor, Philippe Jordan directs the Orchestra and Chorus of the Paris Opera.

Also in this bonus edition, there is an interview with Humbert Camerlo who has worked extensively with Giorgio Strehler and achieved this staging for the revival, which continues from September 15 to October 25, 2012 at the Opera Bastille for 14 special performances.

The Bolshoi Ballet troupe in Yuri Grigorovich’s version of the romantic masterpiece 'Giselle', at last available in HD. First performed in 1841, 'Giselle' was an immediate hit. With music by Adolphe Adam and a libretto by Théophile Gautier and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, the ballet touches on the great romantic themes: local colour, a pastoral love affair doomed to end in tragedy, a plunge into fantasy and redemption through the power of love. Learning that Albrecht, her beloved, is in fact a nobleman engaged to be married to a princess, the naive peasant girl Giselle dies. The Queen of the Wilis – the spirits of deceased young virgins– decides that Albrecht should follow Giselle to the grave, and condemns him to dance until he dies of exhaustion. But Giselle’s spirit dances with him and saves him. Composer Adolphe Adam owes his reputation to this archetypal, richly melodic Romantic ballet. As Giselle, Svetlana Lunkina is simply sensational. Her Albrecht is the iconically noble dancer Dmitri Gudanov. And the cast is perfectly rounded off by Maria Allash as the Queen of the Wilis. The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra is conducted by Pavel Klinichev.

Choreography: Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa

Choreographic version Yuri Grigorovich

Designer Simon Virsaladze

Choreography by Yuri Grigorovich

Set and costume designs Simon Virsaladze

Lighting design Mikhail Sokolov

A masterpiece of classical dance, and a Christmas favourite with audiences everywhere, this Nutcracker is a magical version of the score by Tchaikovsky filmed at the Bolshoi Theatre. Since its première in Saint-Petersburg in 1892, The Nutcracker has been one of the most successful classical ballets and Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions. Yuri Grigorovich deals with Hoffmann’s fantastic imagery and takes ideas from Marius Petipa’s scenario: battle of the mice, snowflakes flurry, character dances executed by the dolls that came to life…

The most talented soloists of the Bolshoi Ballet appear in this production including Nina Kaptsova (Marie) and Artem Ovcharenko (the Nutcracker Prince) and Denis Savin (Drosselmeyer).

Stage direction Alex Ollé, Carlus Padrissa – La Fura dels Baus

Scenography Alfons Flores, Costumes Lluc Castells, Lighting Urs Schönebaum

High Definition recording : Teatro Real - Madrid: 09/2010

Bel Air present the hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Catalan collective, La Fura dels Baus, from the Teatro Real de Madrid. Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism in a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. In 20 scenes the authors tell the story of a city lost in the middle of a desert and run by three thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling and violence rule supreme.

The production, by Alex Ollé and Carlus Padrissa of La Fura dels Baus, combines enormous inventiveness, joy and energy with awe-inspiring ferocity.

Perfect casting brings together a group of singers – Measha Brueggergosman, Michael König, Jane Henschel and Willard White – who are also marvellous actors. The Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus are directed by young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, who received the “El Ojo Crítico” prize in 2010, awarded annually to Spain’s most outstanding artists.

La Fura was founded in 1979 as a Catalan street theatre group. Key features of the ‘Furan’ language were already apparent: interaction with the audience, the use of unusual spaces and the adaptation of the show to the characteristics of each space. Their work for the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Mediterráneo, mar olímpico brought La Fura dels Baus to an audience of billions throughout the world. Their first foray into opera was with La Atlántida, with frequent collaborator Jaume Plensa, and has developed as far as Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Boris Godunov, a daring reflection on the problem of terrorism, its limits and the manipulation it generates.

Stunning images and more information on www.lafura.com

1080i HD, 16:9, PCM Stereo, 5.1

DTS HD Master Audio

Total timing : 138 minutes

Subtitles : Fr, Eng, Ger, Spa

Turandot from the Verona Arena: Franco Zeffirelli’s epic production of Puccini’s masterpiece.

In its 88th year, the prestigious Verona Arena Festival honoured the legendary Italian stage director Franco Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli delivered an opulent staging af the fairy-tale story of the Chinese Princess Turandot, who will only marry a prince capable of solving her riddles.

The Russian soprano Maria Guleghina proved a brilliant Turandot, whilst tenor Salvatore Licitra’s trump card is his imposingly radiant voice of which he remains in sovereign control even in the role’s muchfeared tessitura. The soprano Tamar Iveri is a beautiful and sensitive Liù. The Orchestra and Chorus of the Verona Arena are conducted by Maestro Giuliano Carella.

Sound: PCM Stereo, 5.1 DTS HD Master

Audio, Subtitles : Fr, Eng, Ger, It, Sp, Jap

2h 8min

Filmed in HD, August 2010