DVD Videos

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 1DVD9, Colour 16/9, NTSC

Sound: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1

Two late and baleful tragedies by Euripides focus on the ill-starred daughter of the Greek King, Agamemnon. Will he sacrifice Iphigenia in order to secure fair winds for his voyage to Troy? In Aulis, the drama rages until she is spared. Having escaped to Tauris, Iphigenia finds herself compelled to kill her own brother before, once more, the fickle gods intervene.

Gluck's operatic settings are very rarely staged together, but Pierre Audi's production makes a darkly compelling case for their dramatic unity. All the lead performers here are experienced exponents of Gluck, and together they present a powerfully idiomatic experience.

First ever release together on DVD/Blu-ray.

Iphigénie en Aulide has never been issued before on DVD/Blu-ray.

Top international cast includes Véronique Gens as Iphigénie and Anne Sofie von Otter as Clytemnestre.

Marc Minkowski & Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble have been widely acclaimed for their Gluck performances.

Running time: 267 minutes

Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/DU/KO

Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS

Staged by La Fura dels Baus

Another fantastic staging by La Fura dels Baus. Recorded at the 25th Peralada Festival, Spain, 2011.

A splendid cast as well as an avant-garde production that makes extensive use of large projection screens and includes members of the orchestra as actors onstage result in one of the most exciting opera performances in recent years.

Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPqcM6PWsyc

Running Time Total: 110 minutes

Picture 16:9, HD

DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Subtitles Italian (original language), English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean

Stage & Costumes by CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT

Gluck‘s wonderful but neglected 1774 opera, inspired by the Greek legend, is treated with forceful and convincing simplicity in Klaus Guth‘s revolutionary production staged in at the Opernhaus Zürich.

The psychological drama in a tense atmosphere of fears and traumas is underlined by Guth‘s use of huge masks and enclosed spaces. As Guth himself puts it: “I have often used such a system of masked figures to give visual expression to the inner psychological state of the individuals concerned.“ “When we look on what he (Gluck) was trying to reform, it means simplicity. It means essentially getting rid of things“, explains conductor William Christie. His typically transparent but never cold orchestral sound perfectly matches the descriptive elements in Gluck’s score, while the cast gives a winning and deeply-felt performance of the tragedy.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: FR (Original Language), GB, DE, ES, JP

Running Time: 108 mins

FSK: 0

Recorded at Tokyo Bunkamura Orchard Hall, 15th June 1996

World première recording.

This 1996 Tokyo recital is a celebration of the distinguished Spanish tenor Alfredo Kraus’s 40 year career.

After warming his voice with two classical arias transcribed by Parisotti, Kraus launches into an anthology of music from the French, Spanish and Italian repertoires. The recital includes a duet from the first act of Lucia di Lammermoor and the famous aria "Pourquoi me réveiller?" from Massenet's Werther, an opera in which Kraus was considered an outstanding interpreter of the title role.

Each and every piece is managed with extreme elegance, noble aplomb and ease, qualities that he attained through a formidable technique and a careful career pacing. At sixty nine Kraus sings without any apparent effort and with that aristocratic nonchalance that was one of the most charming aspects of his style.

Picture Format: 4:3

Sound Format: LPCM 2.0

Region Code: 0 – All regions

Running Time: 55 Min

Notes: ITA - ENG - GER - FRE

Subtitles: ITA - ENG - GER - FRE – SPA

Available Worldwide

A spectacular television production of the 1774 French version of the opera, with a tenor Orpheus. As produced by the Montreal studios of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the cast stars Léopold Simoneau (Orphée), Pierrette Alarie (Eurydice), and Claire Gagnier (Amour). Designed, staged, and choreographed by Ludmilla Chiriaeff in the style of the French 18th century, and featuring dancers of the Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. The Chorus and Orchestre de Radio-Canada is under the direction of Otto-Werner Mueller. 88 minutes, Black & White, optional subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. All Regions.

Libretto Pierre-Louis Moline

Theatrical and musical adaptation in one prologue and three acts by David Alagna

Filmed in High Definition at the Bologna Opera, January 2008

THE PERFORMANCE: Roberto Alagna as Orpheus in his brother David's new version of Gluck’s masterpiece. A major event recorded in Bologna.

Opting for the French-language version of Orpheus, David Alagna was faced with the task of achieving an appropriately subtle adaptation. In a plot transposed to the present day, Eurydice dies in a car accident on the day of her wedding and Orpheus's quest for his beloved is a dream beginning and ending at the cemetery. No happy ending in this interpretation, but a new approach to characterisation:Amore, sung by a baritone, becomes a funeral parlour employee and Orpheus' guide. Orpheus, of course, loses his loved one forever by turning to look back. World famous tenor Roberto Alagna throws himself body and soul into this production. His incredible vitality, flawless timbre and diction make him a great Orpheus. His partner, young Italian soprano Serena Gamberoni, is simply stunning as Eurydice, while French baritone Marc Barrard is suitably terrifying as the guide to the Underworld. The orchestra is conducted by Giampaolo Bisanti, who masterfully brings out all Gluck's poetry, romantic melancholy and depth.

Colour, 16/9, NTSC - PCM STEREO, DOLBY

DIGITAL 5.1, DTS 5.1

Opera 104 minutes, Bonus : Backstage & interviews

Subtitles : FR, ENG, DE, SP, IT

Illustrated booklet: FR, ENG, IT

Choreography and Stage Direction: Pina Bausch

Set, costume and lighting designs: Rolf Borzik

Filmed in HD at the Palais Garnier February 2008 Orpheus and Eurydice is Pina Bausch's masterpiece and the ultimate symbol of the genius of this German choreographer, who died last June, five days after being diagnosed with cancer. Bausch was the artistic director of the Tanztheater Wuppertal, which she founded in 1973. She had a formidable international reputation as one of modern dance's greatest innovators. Her dance-theatre works include the melancholic Café Müller (1978), in which dancers stumble around the stage crashing into tables and chairs, and a thrilling Rite of Spring (1975), which required the stage to be completely covered with soil. Excerpts from Bausch's Café Müller and another of her works, Masurca Fogo, reached a wider audience when they were featured in Pedro Almodóvar's film Talk to Her (2002). Bausch also appeared in Federico Fellini's 1983 film And the Ship Sails On. In recent months, she had been preparing a 3-D cinema project with Wim Wenders; shooting was slated to commence in September. Bausch continued to perform as a dancer throughout her 60s. Her company last visited the UK in 2008 for a sold-out series of performances, drawing long queues for returns at Sadler's Wells in London.

Guardian critic Judith Mackrell gave the show a five-star review, praising Bausch's ability to "combine movement of shocking visceral intensity with stage visions of often hallucinogenic strangeness".

"She was an artist of the kind that the world is only blessed with from time to time. Her repertoire of works has inspired generations of audiences and artists with an impact that is hard to overestimate." Alistair Spalding, artistic director, Sadler's Wells

Color, 16/9, NTSC - PCM STEREO, DOLBY

DIGITAL 5.1, DTS 5.1

Montserrat Caballe gave this concert in Madrid in 1983. Accompanied by Miguel Zanetti on piano, she sang arias and songs by Vivaldi, Giordano, Galuppi, Gluck, Bellini and Ravel. Being as there is so little of Caballe available on DVD these two releases will delight every fan of this remarkable soprano.