DVD Videos

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 160mins

Region code All regions

Picture format 16:9 Anamorphic

Sound format 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS digital

Menu language EN

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

Luciano Pavarotti will always be associated with the role of the painter Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca. His interpretations of the arias 'Recondita armonia' and 'E lucevan le stelle' became two of his greatest hits, which he sang at all his stadium concerts

Specially restored and released for the first time on any format, this remarkable performance presents Luciano Pavarotti the opera star, at the very peak of his stage career.

Filmed live at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, on December 19th, 1978.

The production is by legendary baritone Tito Gobbi - best remembered as Scarpia opposite the Tosca of Maria Callas.

Pavarotti's co-stars are two internationally acclaimed American singers - soprano Shirley Verrett and baritone Cornell MacNeil.

Remarkable DVD bonus features - available for the first time

Unique footage of Luciano Pavarotti in a music rehearsal, with Shirley Verrett and Maestro James Conlon

A discussion between the greatest of all Baron Scarpias, Italian baritone Tito Gobbi, and the Scarpia of this production, baritone Cornell MacNeil

A discussion with conductor James Conlon and Metropolitan Opera Music Director, James Levine.

Released to mark the 75th anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti's birth on October 12th, 1935

Classification: Exempt

Region: 0

An evening of opera, zarzuela, and a wealth of other musical treats from the great Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo - joined by a host of special guests. Filmed in Seville before an excited audience, this concert brings together selections from great composers like Bizet, Puccini, and Gershwin; romantic zarzuelas like El Gato Montes and La Taberana del Puerta; classics of Spanish guitar like ‘Asturias’; and Latin pop hits like ‘El Grito de America.’ Joining Plácido for this musically varied event are the sultry American singer Julia Migenes - with whom the tenor appeared in the critically acclaimed film version of Carmen - as well as soprano Guadalupe Sanchez and the dazzling guitarist Ernesto Bitetti.

Plácido performs big arias, charming operetta numbers, and duets; he encores with Manuel Alejandro’s ‘El Grito de America,’ a contemporary work for ensemble and voices. A fascinating and satisfying concert from one of the great vocal artists of the age.

Set Design by Johan Engels

Costume Design by Marie-Jeanne Lecca

Puccini’s last opera “Turandot” stands out from the rest of his works. In the fairytale based upon Gozzi’s motif, the composer blends exoticism with psychology in a way that can not be imitated when telling the story of the men-hating Chinese princess who eventually finds love. In his music, Puccini also succeeds in merging foreign fl air with Italian melodramma while still staying tuned to his own unique musical language. In his production for the Salzburger Festspiele, David Pountney tries to give an account of the dominant feeling in

Puccini’s time: the fear of being alienated by mechanisation and totalitarianism. Both Turandot’s salvation and the happiness in the closing scene are also refl ected in the release of the other characters from the system in which they had to live. This gives rise to a new hope of a humane society. The opera is staged using Luciano Berio’s completion of Act III. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is masterly conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Picture Format: 16:9

Running Time: 125 mins & 16 mins (Bonus)

FSK: 12

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

Production by: Anthony Minghella

The Metropolitan Opera’s Peabody and Emmy Award®-winning series The Met: Live in HD has excited audiences around the globe. Four highly-requested productions from the past two years are now available on DVD for the first time. These four stunning releases contain recordings of recent acclaimed Metropolitan Opera productions, taken from state-of-the-art, high-definition transmissions broadcast live from the stage of the Met, and include backstage interviews with the cast and production crew.

TECHNICAL INFO:

Sound: PCM Stereo/ DTS Sound

Screen Format: 16:9

Region Code: 0 (All regions)

Subtitles: French, German, Spanish and English

Recording Date: March 7, 2009

Approximate Running Time: 2 Hrs 26 Min

Set Design by Hugo De Ana

A superlative staging of Puccini’s Tosca by Italian opera producer Hugo de Ana brought to you from the world-famous Arena di Verona and complete with all the splendour that a Puccini opera demands! The popular tragedy is sung by a dream team cast of excellent singer-actors and conducted by long-established Arena di Verona conductor Daniel Oren.

The recording captures one of those special Verona summer evenings, when the audience fi lls the historic circle in expectation of the enjoyment of an open-air opera performance. Verona’s amphitheatre, known as the ‘arena’, provides an atmospheric setting for the summer festival. To view an opera in the former amphitheatre, the second largest of its kind after the Colosseum in Rome, can truly be regarded as an impressive experience. The DVD, however, provides a closer look at the stage and the singers and brings this dramatic opera directly to the home viewer.

Sound Format: LPCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 119 mins

FSK: 0

Set Design & Costumes by TIMOTHY O’BRIEN, TAZEENA FIRTH

From the Vienna State Opera Arthaus presents a timeless document of great opera. Lorin Maazel and a dream cast of distinguished singers, among them the young Eva Marton and José Carreras in his mid-thirties, perform a celebrated staging of Puccini’s Turandot.

Puccini’s last opera tells the story of the battle of the sexes against an exotic backdrop. The work tells the story of the beguilingly beautiful and cold yet seductive Chinese princess, Turandot. The opera is characterized by the tension it creates between the denial of love and secret affection, between self-sacrifice and obsession with sacrificial victims, and between cold cruelty and pure love.

The performance was received with unanimous enthusiasm. Lorin Maazel scored a great personal success with audience and critics alike with passion, authority and brilliance in his conducting. The applause at the end of the performance lasted three-quarters of an hour and was directed not only at Maazel, but also at the team of wonderful singer-actors. The Hungarian soprano Eva Marton brought to the title role what one critic described as “a voice of gleaming metal in which one senses the beautiful woman lying in wait to defeat her opponent but is also aware of her fears of man in general.” Appearing alongside her as Calaf was José Carreras whose “unprecedented intensity” and “priceless tenor voice” were once again at the fore. Katia Ricciarelli was no less acclaimed in her role as “the best of all possible Liùs”.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 139 mins

FSK: 0

This is Jonas Kaufmann’s Tosca debut on DVD. It features him in a key role that he is performing to great critical acclaim all over the world. Mostly Opera Magazine reviewed that he is “the undisputed leading Cavaradossi of our day” and about Emily Magee, his Tosca, “sings the part better than anyone I can imagine today”.

The passion and tragedy of Tosca are dramatically highlighted in Robert Carsen’s “theatre-within-theatre” staging of Puccini’s great opera. Emily Magee plays opposite the charismatic Jonas Kaufmann and debonair Thomas Hampson (Scarpia); together they bring a rare intensity to this famous tale of love and revenge from beyond the grave.

In the production, filmed in 2009, Paolo Carignani conducts the Orchestra of the Opernhaus Zürich.

The star cast and great reviews of the performances make this product highly desirable for any opera lover.