DVD Videos

Set Design by Christoph Wagenknecht

Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) is an opera „Singspiel“ in three acts with spoken rather than sung dialogue. This DVD shows the impeccable performance of the majestic Teatro della Pergola Florence.

The tenors Rainer Trost (Belmonte) and Mehrzad Montazeri (Pedrillo) sing with convincing excellence. The most demanding parts are sung with effortless passion by Eva Mei (Constanze). Her aria ‘Martern aller Arten’ is overwhelming, with the singer’s voice fusing beautifully with the solo instruments. This Italian production is admirable with all its colourful decorations and costumes in an oriental style. The music of Die Entführung aus dem Serail includes some of the composer’s most spectacular and difficult arias. In most of the scenes it reaches huge emotional depth and complexity. The world famous conductor Zubin Mehta who is known for his flamboyant and forceful performance gives this production its special flair. Together with this excellent conductor and the fabulous singers, this concert promises to be an outstanding listening pleasure for the audience.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES, IT, CN

Running Time: 136 mins

FSK: 0

Zubin Mehta leads the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in this historic live 1967 Salzburg Festival performance of Giorgio Strehler’s legendary production. Cast features Ingeborg Hallstein, Reri Grist. Luigi Alva, Fernando Corena, Gerhard Unger, and actor Michael Heltau in the speaking role of Pasha Selim. Sung in German; subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. 134 minutes, Black & white, mono, 4:3, All regions.

Set & Costume Design by MAURO PAGANO

Arthaus presents a true Salzburg success story on DVD. Così fan tutte is the third most-frequently performed work at the festival after Le nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte. This DVD provides a closer look at a classical staging from the Salzburg Festival in the series of important opera productions seen at the festival in the last decades. Riccardo Muti had made a sensational Salzburg début in 1971 and this Così fan tutte was his first Mozart opera at the festival. It was acclaimed by both the general public and international critics, who were virtually unanimous in their praise of the aesthetic quality of the production. Muti was praised for his authoritative approach to Mozart’s music, while the remarkably homogeneous team of international soloists was equally applauded. The singers form an admirably cohesive ensemble and all of them are outstanding Mozart singers. The production became a staple at the Salzburg Festival and hugely popular with audiences. Muti gives both the musicians and the audience time to appreciate Mozart’s music in all its beauty, formal mastery and, above all, in the endless variety of its depiction of human foibles. The Vienna Philharmonic’s playing is well sprung and relaxed, but always imbued with great intensity.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: 2 DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: DE, GB, FR, IT, ES

Running Time: 188 mins

FSK: 0

A chamber opera play based on works of GIACOMO CASANOVA, LORENZO DA PONTE and WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

Written and directed by MICHAEL STURMINGER

Giacomo Casanova received a doctorate as jurist, scratched along as violinist in a theatre, dabbled in the role of a lieutenant and was cofounder of France’s lottery. As an adventurer and due to his reputation as lover of innumerable women and globetrotter, he became world famous. His memoirs from 1790, „Histoire de ma vie“, fascinate to date, and declare Casanova as symbol for the art of seduction! Michael Sturminger and Martin Haselböck adapt Casanova’s themes and create with their new chamber-opera play “The Giacomo-Variations” a dramatic and humorous rapprochement to a phenomenon. We meet Casanova – alternately played by Hollywood star John Malkovich and baritone Florian Boesch – in various exciting encounters, and are witness to his very personal retrospection on his life in the face of his approaching death. Somewhere in the midst of these encounters, bursting with desire and passion for numerous women, Casanova has to confront his biggest fear: to die, before discovering what he has lived for. The „Soundtrack“ for this exceptional play of human feelings is provided by Casanova’s contemporaries W.A. Mozart und Lorenzo Da Ponte, drawing on some of the most beautiful arias from their operatic collaborations.

BONUS: Inside THE GIACOMO VARIATIONS (documentary and interviews)

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES, IT, JP

Running Time: 139 mins + 34 mins (bonus)

FSK: 6

Recorded live at the Sydney opera House, this Blu-Ray, DVD and CD performance received the following review: “Stellar cast.....from the first bars of the overture you know you are in for a good time...a spectacular cast on every level....” The Daily Telegraph

The concerts on this DVD and Blu-ray had been recorded at the 2007 Salzburg Festival, during the orchestras Salzburg residency. The ensemble "proved its status as a first-class orchestra that has no need to shy from comparisons with the philharmonic 'top dogs' from Vienna or Berlin" (Munich's Abendzeitung).

The idea of uniting young musicians from Israel, Palestine and various Arab countries into a musical ensemble still seems incredible today. Yet such an orchestra has been flourishing since 1999, when Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

DVD: DTS 5.0, PCM Stereo

Total: 122 minutes

Claus Guth (staging)

Claus Guth’s celebrated Mozart-Da Ponte opera trilogy at the Salzburg Festival for the first time in one DVD box set!

Director Claus Guth’s widely acclaimed productions of the trilogy consolidates Guth’s international reputation as one of the most sought-afterstage directors of our time. Among his other major successes are Der fliegende Holländer in Bayreuth and Luisa Miller at the Bavarian State Opera.

This 6 DVD Box Set brings together all three Da Ponte Operas Così fan tutte ∙ Don Giovanni ∙ Le nozze di Figaro live from the Salzburg Festivals 2006 – 2009 with an extraordinary cast like Anna Netrebko and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo ∙ Patricia Petibon and Bo Skovhus ∙ Christopher Maltman and Erwin Schrott. The Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Adam Fischer, Bertrand de Billy, Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo, DTS 5.1 (DVD 1&2)PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.0, DTS 5.0 (DVD 3-6)

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Subtitles: Italiano, English, Deutsch, Français, Español, 日本語

Running time: DVD 1&2: 202 mins + 26 mins (Documentary), DVD 3&4: 177 mins, DVD 5&6: 191 mins

FSK: 6

Infamous womanizer Don Giovanni makes conquest after conquest, leaving seduced and abandoned women in his wake. When the ghost of a Commendatore he has killed appears, Giovanni is given a final chance to change his philandering ways or face the terrors of hell. Joseph Losey's hugely successful adaptation of Mozarts greatest opera features wonderful performances from an excellent cast and stunning cinematography.

Recorded live in 1999