DVD Videos

Set Design by Nicola Rubertelli

Following the sensational success of his one-act opera Cavalleria rusticana at Rome’s Teatro Costanzi on 17 May 1890, Mascagni left no stone unturned in his attempt to ensure that his star remained in the ascendant. But neither his Cavalleria remake, Silvano (1895), nor his Romantic reworking of the Lady Godiva legend, Isabeau, has survived the passing years.

This Cavalleria rusticana has left the traditional opera house far behind it and been staged in an open-air theatre once associated with the Emperor Nero. The site in question is the legendary Roman baths in the port of Baia not far from Naples, arguably the most famous resort in classical antiquity and at the same time a byword in luxury and vice. Although some of the baths have vanished in the course of the last two millennia, the remains form a unique backdrop with their high walls and galleries poised between heaven and earth. A World Heritage Site, this was the setting for a production of Cavalleria rusticana by the visiting San Carlo company from Naples.

BONUS: Behind the scenes

Sound Formats: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9 anamorphic

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 78 mins + 31 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

As is now customary, the first part of the 2012 New Year‘s Concert from Teatro La Fenice is exclusively orchestral, with Symphony No.5 by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The second part, with soloists Jessica Pratt, Walter Fraccaro and Alex Esposito as well as the choir, is dedicated to melodrama, ending with the traditional chorus “Va pensiero” from Nabucco and the toast “Libiam ne lieti calici” from La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi.

The twenty-seven year old conductor and violinist Diego Matheuz is a graduate of the internationally known Venezuelan Sistema and is already widely known as one of the most promising developing talents from the Americas. In 2005 he began studying conducting and soon attracted the attention of Sir Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado, with whom he worked in Caracas, Lucerne and Bologna.

In September 2011 he was appointed as Principal Conductor of the Teatro La Fenice.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i High Definition

Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 108 mins + 27 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

Region Code: 0 (DVD)

Worldwide available

Recorded live in 1978

This unique DVD package includes excerpts from the operas by Verdi, Rossini and Ponchielli from the successful New Year’s Day Concert in the Teatro La Fenice in 2004. Eight years after a huge f re burned down the grand opera house of Venice in 1996 the reopening was celebrated with a series of amazing concerts. The highlight was certainly the final concert which was broadcasted live by the Italian state television channel RAI and is now eternalized on this DVD. During the programme of great opera choruses and arias, orchestral music and ballet scenes the audience can not only admire the delightful music but also the restored glorious interior decoration.

Throughout the world, international opera stages have recently discovered the sheer talent of Italian soprano Stefania Bonfadelli and tenor Roberto Aronica who both contribute to the concert’s distinctive atmosphere. Ballet stars Greta Hodgkinson and Roberto Bolle glamorously supported the event through their beautifully expressive dancing. Besides the amazing performances of the singers and dancers, Lorin Maazel’s delectable conducting is highly enjoyable and makes this concert an unforgettable event.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

DVD Format: DVD 5, NTSC

Picture Format: 4:3

Running Time: 59 mins

FSK: 0

Since 2004 Venice‘s rebuilt Teatro La Fenice has welcomed each New Year with a celebration of opera and symphonic music. Since that date, the Venetian concert has become a regular and increasingly popular fixture with television audiences, taking over the lead from the Viennese New Year’s Concert with its all-waltzes programme. Venice instead of Vienna that means opera instead of waltzes – a variety of highlights from Rossini, Verdi, Bellini, Paganini and Mascagni too. The choice of performers is made each year from the ranks of great conductors and acclaimed soloists, people who can rouse an audience and touch its emotions in the space of a few moments. As for the repertoire, the pieces chosen – arias, choruses and opera overtures – are almost always short, familiar and well-loved, all of them among the most-requested operatic gems, presented with the intention of keeping the memory of musical theatre, its stories and characters, alive.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 95 mins

FSK: 0

Set Design by Luigi Perego.

Two timeless stories of love, honour, justice and violence, captured on just one DVD – a highlight for every opera lover.

Pietro Mascagni‘s “Cavalleria rusticana” and Ruggero Leoncavallo‘s “Pagliacci” speak to one‘s heart and soul. They are regarded as the most absorbing tragedies of Italian music theater. Adultery, jealousy and betrayal are leading to passionate conflicts that jointly connect both operas. The impressively embellished stage waives exaggerated decoration to underline the unflattering realistic brutality. Both operas are supported by a musical variety of great arias, short duets and amazing choir passages that add to the unveiled expression of feelings. As a special guest the Argentinian Tenor José Cura stands out with his fascinating singing and acting performance. Besides him Soprano Paoletta Marrocu with her expressive interpretation of Santuzza, Carlo Guelfi as Tonio or Fiorenza Cedolins as Nedda can convince the audience with their great voices. These atmospheric performances directed by Grischa Asagaroff and conducted by Stefano Ranzani are capable to fascinate every opera lover.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 151 mins

FSK: 0

The extraordinary atmosphere of this Open Air venue is the imagination of this production. More than 20,000 people attended the yearly Open Air Concert of the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Waldbühne in Berlin. The atmosphere is as unique as the Night of the Proms Concert.

This is a full programme of musical showpieces and some of the most popular pieces of classical music like Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker, Mascagni Intermezzo, Paganini Il carnevale die Venezia and Sibelius Valse triste.

The famous violinist Vadim Repin is clearly happy to indulge, performing here with all the appropriate showmanship and artistry alongside the first-class Berliner Philharmoniker and Mariss Jansons. This isn´t only a production for core classical lovers – this is a night for a wide audience.

“Repin’s playing of the Paganini has to be watched to be believed, and the audience, quite justifiably, go wild at the end, causing him to repeat the piece, this time modified for even greater effect, enchanting all present including orchestra and conductor. " John Phillips, MusicWeb International

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 116 mins

Audience: all

Here are the greatest moments from the “ultimate in galas” (Opera), a “roof-rattling vocal display and the kind of cheering and free-flowing, heartfelt emotion on both sides of the footlights that opera evinces more than any other art form” - New York Times

The gala celebration immediately catches the attention with spectacular performances by stars such as Dame Joan Sutherland, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Mirella Freni, Marilyn Horne, Birgit Nilsson, Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Nicolai Gedda, Alfredo Kraus and many others

“The world's most famous opera singers [in] a dazzling sequence of performances” - New York Times

“It's always a privilege to sing at the Met, but this is something very special. I don't think there's ever been anything this grand in the history of opera” - Luciano Pavarotti

This product features an awesome roster of international star conducters: from James Levine, Leonard Bernstein and Thomas Fulton to Jeffrey Tate, Richard Bonynge

2 DVDs LIVE from the Met from October 22, 1983

A rarely performed or recorded opera, Amica’s extravagant scenic and vocal demands contributed to the opera’s neglect until now.

Set in the Savoy mountains around 1900, Amica is a ‘dramatic poem in two acts’ involving two brothers, Giorgio and Rinaldo, whose love for the eponymous Amica culminates in tragedy.

While today numbering amongst his least performed works, Amica was initially a triumph, praised for its ‘passionate accent’ and ‘impulsive sincerity’ by a contemporary critic, and deemed ‘most worthy of re-revaluation’ according to the composer’s biographer.