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John Copley’s enduring production of one of the most famously melodious and popular of all operas is a classic of the Royal Opera repertory. With historically accurate designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman and an excellent cast headed by Hibla Gerzmava and Teodor Ilincai, this 2009 revival, in which conductor Andris Nelsons makes a distinguished Royal Opera House debut, does full justice to Puccini’s masterpiece. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true surround sound.

"[Ilincai] gave a thoroughly assured and engaging performance. ... Sumptuously sung, Gerzmava’s portrayal was sensitive and well-rounded – timid yet warm and attractive in her first scene with Rodolfo, intimate rather than melodramatic in her final death-bed moments." Classical Source

Extra features:

Cast gallery

Interview with Jonathan Copley

Interview with Andris Nelsons

Running time 121 mins

Region code All regions

Video codec: AVC/MPEG-4

Disc size: BD50

Picture format 1080i High Definition / 16:9

Sound format 2.0 LPCM & 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

Menu language EN

Subtitles EN/FR/DE/ES/IT

GIACOMO PUCCINI’s immortal opera is brought to life in a lavish new feature-film version directed by Academy Award nominee ROBERT DORNHELM (The Children of Theatre Street), produced by Jan Mojto's Unitel, one of the largest producers of audiovisual classical music films in the world, and starring the opera world's “dream team”, soprano ANNA NETREBKO and tenor ROLANDO VILLAZÓN.

Features two of opera’s biggest superstars, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón, in the roles they have performed to live audiences all over the world;

Comprehensive and successful commercial run in cinemas, screening in all major towns and cities across the UK and Ireland, and opening in London’s Barbican Centre and Apollo West End to excellent figures, and outstanding success on DVD (released 2nd March 2009)

Exclusive bonus features, including in-depth interviews with stars Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón and director Robert Dornhelm, “The Making of La Bohème”, stills gallery, trailer and limited edition collector’s booklet.

“Succulently dramatic… a tribute to the stars’ power” The Times

“breathtakingly dramatic and emotional… full to the brim with some of the best vocal talents of today” Opera Now

“beautifully sung all round” Philip French, The Observer

“the world’s finest soprano-tenor team… Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón don’t only sing with beauty and power; they can also act” The Evening Standard

Audio: DD2.0 & DTS-HD MA 5.1

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Feature Running Time: 100 mins

Italian with optional English subtitles

La bohème remains one of the most popular of all operas with its stark contrasts of lively humour and poignant tragedy. This new production by Jonathan Miller for English National Opera, filmed at the London Coliseum in February 2009, also features a brand new English translation by Amanda Holden. Miller and designer Isabella Bywater have set Puccini’s opera in the Paris of the 1930s, the era of the Depression. Together they have created an un-romanticised view of bohemian life drawing inspiration from the realism and atmosphere caught in the films and sepia-tinted photos of the period. The young British tenor Alfie Boe takes the role of the struggling poet Rodolfo and US soprano Melody Moore is his tragic lover Mimí. They are joined by US soprano Hanan Alattar as Musetta, Roland Wood as Marcello, Pauls Putninš as Colline, and David Stout as Schaunard.

Peruvian conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya is the conductor, making his ENO debut with this passionate and unforgettable score.

“...Miller...observes human behaviour in ways that can be immensely telling” INDEPENDENT

“Miguel Harth-Bedoya draws a superb account of the score from the ENO orchestra: passionate yet supple, evoking the crackle of fire in the garret one minute and the stirrings of love the next” EVENING STANDARD

“Alfie Boe's slightly earnest, boyish charm was through and through honest, from start to tragic finish.....the intensity and truthfulness he communicates is irresistible” INDEPENDENT

“..Amanda Holden’s fresh, skilled new translation…” OBSERVER

Approx Duration: 120 mins

Picture format: NTSC 16:9

Colour

Region Code: All regions

Audio:

L-PCM Stereo & Dolby Digital 5.1

Surround

Subtitles:

English (also sung in English)

Set Design: Brian Thomson

Costume Design: Julie Lynch

Lighting: John Rayment

This sensational new productin of La boheme, the inspired concept of director Gale Edwards, is set in early 1930s Berlin, a city of liberal indulgence, glittering Spiegeltents and glitzy cabaret clubs, where no excess is considered too much.

Charismatic Ji-Min Park gives a stunning performance as Rodolfo, the poet who falls in love with Mimi, played by Takesha Meshe Kizart, who delivers a dazzling version of the impoverished working girl.

Renowned conductor Shao-Chia Lu draws from the orchestra and chorus a magnificent performance of Puccini's lush score.

Set & Costume Designer Heike Scheele

Lighting Designer Anders Poll

Dramaturgy Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach

Stefan Herheim, one of the worlds’ most sought after operatic directors, superimposes the modern over the traditional in this dramatic and thought provoking new version of Puccini’s La bohème.

Freedom, love, and even death all demand a price that must be paid and the opera opens with Mimì (Marita Sølberg) dying of cancer in a modern intensive care unit; the overture begins just after the ECG machine displays its unmistakable flat green line.

With Norway’s internationally renowned Eivind Gullberg Jensen conducting, the production reaches superb heights of operatic drama.

The incomparable Anna Netrebko follows Deutsche Grammophon’s acclaimed, best-selling 2008 audio release of La Bohème.

This BD is a new production of the Puccini favourite, staged at Salzburg 2012. Tenor Piotr Beczala rocks as Rodolfo, Mimì’s lover. Massimo Cavalletti sings Rodolfo’s friend Marcello with uncommon finesse and beauty of tone. Nino Machaidze is a moving Musetta.

The robust orchestration of this popular opera verges on the ethereal as Mimì’s life slips away. Throughout his reading, conductor Daniele Gatti strikes the perfect balance between sentiment and sentimentality, vigour and fragility, the specter of untimely death and the quick and young it haunts.

The New York Times wrote, “You don’t often hear Mimì sung with such vivid character and sheer charisma.”

Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s Hollywood-style production updates this Wild West story to the capitalist culture of Wall Street, perfectly reflecting Puccini’s innovatory spirit. In a new angle on the age-old love triangle theme, corrupt Sheriff Jack Rance (Lucio Gallo) and charismatic criminal Dick Johnson (Zoran Todorovich) vie for the love of glamorous blonde and devout Christian Minnie (Eva-Maria Westbroek), finding her way in a man’s world. Carlo Rizzi’s idiomatic conducting draws excellent singing from the large cast and fine playing from The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true surround sound.

Extra features:

Cast gallery

Documentary on Eva-Maria Westbroek

"...a high-powered show throughout..." The Financial Times

"...The Netherlands Opera’s spirited and inventive new production..." New York Times

Running time 160 mins

Region code All regions

Video codec AVC/MPEG-4

Disc size BD50

Picture format 1080i

Sound format 2.0 LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS digital surround

Menu language EN

Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/ES/IT/NL

Set Design by Peter J. Davison & Costume Design by Sue Wilmington.

Venice 2008. This year’s schedule at La Fenice includes a special treat for opera-goers: a production of Puccini’s seldom-performed opera: “La Rondine” (The Swallow). And now this rarity can also be rediscovered on Blu-Ray. The score of the operetta-like threeact “lyrical comedy”, which tells the story of the love between Magda and Ruggero, must be one of Puccini’s most subtle creations. The light, bubbling music reveals levels of artistry and complexity that few composers have ever matched. Milan-born conductor Carlo Rizzi has worked with the world’s leading orchestras since 1982 – from Los Angeles and Chicago to Zurich, Milan and Salzburg, where he conducted a much-acclaimed production of “La Traviata” with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón in 2005. Graham Vick, a highly experienced opera director, has directed who also is something of a “Britpop” enthusiast, has directed productions at the New York Met, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera and the Royal Opera House, London. In Glyndebourne, where he was director of productions from 1994 to 2000, he was responsible, amongst other things, for staging “Così fan tutte”, “Don Giovanni” and “Pélleas et Mélisande”.