DVD Videos

In the feature film Offenbachs's Secret, Academy Award winning director István Szabó throws new light on the timeless interplay between power, helplessness, courage and conformity in his character studies of two of the most scintillating personalities of France's Deuxième Empire: the affable composer-entrepreneur Jacques Offenbach, and his aristocratic patron Charles de Morny.

István Szabó recreates a memorable night at the theatre in turbulent 1860`s Paris. Showcasing eccentrically staged performances of two Offenbach short operas, István Szabó brings to the life the composer Offenbach and his contemporaries in a delightful political satire.

Bonus: The missing manuscript of "The Tales of Hoffmann" by Gérald Caillat: This documentary recounts the history of the missing manuscript showing the roles of all involved in this "musical detective story": score owners, music publishers, musicologists, opera directors, conductors, stage directors, etc, from Paris to New York via Hamburg and Burgundy.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound format DVD: STEREO, DD 2.0

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Original Language: English, Hungarian

Subtitles: English, German, French

Running time: 139 mins (87 mins + 52 mins Bonus)

Music by Ravel, Offenbach, Chabrier, Fauré, Debussy, Saint-Saëns and Godard

Stage Design by PAOLO PIVA

Costum Designe by JEAN-CHARLES DE CASTELBAJAC

A superficial view may regard Offenbach’s lightweight masterpiece, La belle Hélène, as „merely“ an opera buffa. But closer scrutiny of this charming, imaginative firework of intrigue makes one thing clear: the story of the Greek queen who started off the Trojan war is, in this version, a humorous and satirical caricature of the vulgar, decadent Parisian upper classes of Offenbach’s own day.

Who better suited to produce a modern rendering of this work than the now highly acclaimed Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who also ensured the work’s historical accuracy? Employing a small string section, shining, colourful brass and richly varied percussion, the opera still strikes one as exceptionally modern. This impression is also enhanced by the designers of the production, recorded at the Zurich Opera House: no less a figure than the fashion designer Jean–Charles de Castelbajac was responsible for the humorously expansive costumes; and the highly subtle stage–set was the work of Paolo Pivas.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtile Languages: DE (Original Language), GB, NL, GR, JP

Running Time: 124 mins

FSK: 0

Arthaus presents an Offenbach Box Set (Orphée aux Enfers & La belle Hélène) featuring Marc Minkowski – the preeminent Offenbach conductor of our day but also a team of wonderful singer-actors (Natalie Dessay & Felicity Lott).

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: 2 x DVD 9 / NTSC

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

Running Time: 250 mins + 26 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

A star-studded benefit concert to celebrate Ioan Holender’s farewell after 19 years as the director of one of the world’s leading and most famous opera houses. The highly acclaimed cast was headed by brilliant singers such as Diana Damrau, Natalie Dessay, Angelika Kirchschlager, Waltraud Meier, Anna Netrebko, Pjotr Beczala, Plácido Domingo, Thomas Hampson, Leo Nucci, Thomas Quasthoff, Ramon Vargas and many others. No fewer than twelve conductors including Marco Armiliato, Bertrand de Billy, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano and Franz Welser-Möst led the way through a program lasting over four hours at the fully-packed Wiener Staastoper.

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese

The annual New Year’s Concert from Vienna, seen by millions on TV worldwide, is the best-known classical concert in the world.

Georges Prêtre returns to Vienna’s illustrious Musikverein to conduct a compelling programme that combines adored classics with no less than four intriguing premieres. Idolized in Vienna, the legendary French maestro, Georges Prêtre (who first came to eminence for his recordings with the great Maria Callas) is a leading expert on and interpreter of the music of the Strauss family.

New edition by Walter Felsenstein, using the same-named play by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré (1851).

Feature Film (coloured), produced in the DEFA-Studio, Babelsberg 1970.

Script and Direction Walter Felsenstein, Georg Mielke, Set Design Reinhart Zimmermann (Following The Set Design By Rudolf Heinrich) & Costume Design Helga Scherff

Walter Felsenstein (1901–1975), founder and general director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, was one of the twentieth century’s greatest creative theatre directors, who played a hugely important role in the revival of opera as a theatrical art form. A brilliant artist who directed over 190 productions during the course of his career, he was equally committed to the works, their creators, the ensemble and the audience.

Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, opéra fantastique, is an unfinished work – its state of source material remains obscure. Even today, important manuscripts in Offenbach’s hand are still turning up, including, as recently as 1987, the original libretto submitted to the censors. It is the unfinished aspect of Tales of Hoffmann that has continued to exercise the imaginations of generations of theatrical producers. In Berlin, all five acts of the work were played at the opening night of Hans Gregor’s Komische Oper at Weidendammer Brücke in 1905 and ran for an incredible 500 performances; it was produced at Otto Klemperer’s Kroll Oper at the Platz der Republik in 1929; and, in 1931 Max Reinhardt tried an opulent interpretation of the work that enjoyed a successive run of 175 performances. When Felsenstein decided to produce Hoffmann, there was little source material to go on. However, not even he could have guessed that preparatory work on that opera would take over a year. He asked the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris to prepare copies of the original piano score of the first performance, the libretto from the first performance by Jules Barbier (Calmann-Lévy Éditeurs) and the five-act play of the same name, a drame fantastique, by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. Using this material as a starting point, Felsenstein created his own German five-act version based on the five-act play – the work he considered closest to Offenbach’s intentions. In this version, the recitatives added by Ernest Guiraud have been completely eliminated to allow the text of play to be developed more fully. Referring back to material dating from the first performance, Felsenstein found himself in complete agreement with Offenbach, who sought “a dramatically convincing sequence of spoken word, music and song, and not a through-composed opera.”

Special Features on DVD: “The Tales of Hoffmann” - 1958 newsreel footage, Scenes introductions from the script with a picture gallery.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

DVD Format: 1 x DVD 9 & DVD 5, NTSC

Picture Format: 4:3

Running Time: 131 mins Opera + Special Features

FSK: 0

Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES

Region Code: 0

Worldwide available

Set Design by Chantal Thomas & Costume Design by Michel Dussarat & Laurent Pelly

In the role of Eurydice, Natalie Dessay begins at once with a display of vocal and verbal pyrotechnics, which are then taken up by Yann Beuron as Orpheus. Together they give us an idea of the developments to follow. Dancers and singers melt into a unit. The stage setting and an unconventional choreography sparkle with inventiveness. When Pluto, for example, arrives on skis from the underworld onto Mt. Olympus and Offenbach quotes the famous can-can right in the middle of Pluto’s aria, it seems to be a parody of his own work. The production offers a wealth of material for modern interpretations of this operetta full to the brim with ironic sideswipes at morality and immorality. Thus we see a bored Eurydice lying on the sofa in her apartment as she zaps her way through the TV channels, constantly looking for diversion, showing us how timeless an opera buffa can really be. Sometimes she sings upside down, sometimes hopping around – a vocal masterpiece. Laurent Naouri also captivates in the role of Jupiter and, costumed as a fly, demonstrates his vocal and acting talent with Jacques Offenbach’s “Buzz” aria.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO,

DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Picture Format: 16:9

Running Time: 123 mins

FSK: 0

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

New German adaptation by WALTER FELSENSTEIN and HORST SEEGER based on the original score by HENRI MEILHAC and LUDOVIC HALÉVY.

Feature Film (coloured), produced in the DEFA-Studio, Babelsberg 1973.

A film production of the stage version by WALTER FELSENSTEIN.

Script and Direction WALTER FELSENSTEIN, GEORG MIELKE.

Arrangement and Musical Direction KARL-FRITZ VOIGTMANN.

Set Design PAUL LEHMANN.

Walter Felsenstein (1901–1975), founder and general director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, was one of the twentieth century’s greatest creative theatre directors, who played a hugely important role in the revival of opera as a theatrical art form. A brilliant artist who directed over 190 productions during the course of his career, he was equally committed to the works, their creators, the ensemble and the audience. After 163 performances Felsenstein decided to make a film version of Ritter Blaubart. This film can now be enjoyed in a carefully restored digital form. Felsenstein’s forceful work on the musical and visual language of the opera film continues to influence other productions creatively. Felsenstein’s Ritter Blaubart is accompanied by the music of French composer Jaques Offenbach and was performed to great critical acclaim in Paris in 1866. Opera reviewer Oscar Bie delightfully remarked: “How the music flourishes in soil like this. How the tragedy laughs, and how seriously the comedy takes itself. […] This is not opera, nor is it comedy, and only on occasions is it parody. No, this is something much more sublime altogether: it is that wonderfully shimmering realm, full of truth about life, which borders grand fates and all-conquering humour.” Felsenstein’s adaptation of this diversified opera affords countless opportunities for audiences to make associations, moments in which they are torn between laughter and abomination, but which all the while reveals an aptitude of theatrical magic one could only admire. The constant switching between comedy and tragedy is a fine balancing act that demands enormous self-discipline and ability from the performers. Felsenstein himself spoke of the “entirely new style of interpretation” the work required. This visionary theatre director, who played a hugely important role in the revival of opera as a theatrical art form, was exactly what this demanding opera needed.

Special Features on DVD: Script segments, sketches and drafts & performance segments, interviews, picture gallery.

"Arthaus’s scholarly and imposing ‘Walter Felsenstein Edition’ offers a fascinating glimpse of an important moment in operatic history now vanished." The New York Times

all zones, 16/9 PCM stereo, DTS 5.1

Subtitles: Fr, En, Ger, Spa

197 minutes

Bonus: After the show / interview with Oliver Py..…

Offenbach's masterpiece, based on three stories by the German author E.T.A. Hoffmann, is both a three-act opera and a trilogy of taut, individual dramas, all rolled into one.This Geneva production from 2002 features baritone Marc Laho in the tour-de-force triple villain roles, with three different standout sopranos as the tales' three heroines. French producer Olivier Py caused an uproar among Geneva operagoers with a staging of Tales of Hoffmann that features full-frontal male and female nudity and simulated on-stage lesbian and heterosexual sex.Audiences were left "gasping, giggling or reduced to stunned silence" by the production, which interprets the popular opera as an indictment of capitalist society. Py adds several simulated sex acts, including one between the poet Hoffman and the life-sized doll Olympia as she sings her main aria. Soprano Patricia Petitbon is a major tour de force as she sings Olympia wearing only a transparent body stocking in a Venetian bordello.