DVD Videos

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

A “double bill” of two Russian operatic masterpieces. Legendary bass Evgeny Nesterenko stars in the title role of Aleko (1892), an early work of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), written the composer was still a student at the Moscow Conservatory. Strongly influenced by the Italian verismo school (the plot is a close relation to that of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci), the score is full of colorful evocations of Gypsy life and passionate emotional outpourings. The cast of this expansive 1986 film version, directed by Victor Okuntsov, includes members of Gypsy folk ensembles, adding to the production’s striking authenticity. The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and Gosteleradio Chorus are under the direction of Dimitri Kitayenko.

By contrast, Kashchey the Immortal (sometimes called Kashchey the Deathless) is very much a mature work of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908); it was the composer’s twelfth opera, and premiered in 1902. Moreover, its mythic setting and magical storyline (drawn from the same Russian folk tale that inspired Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird) are worlds away from Aleko’s gritty realism. This 1987 Russian film version stars the great singing actor Konstantin Pluzhnikov in the title role (Pluzhnikov is also the Kaschey in the acclaimed CD recording conducted by Valery Gergiev). Directed by Oleg Yeryshev, the film goes far beyond what could be achieved in a stage production, adding clarity, depth, and spectacle to this poignant fairy tale.

124 minutes, Color, 4:3, Mono, All regions

Subtitles in English and Russian

Recorded live in Helsinki, Finnish National Opera, May 2008

Directed for video by Aarno Cronvall

This new DVD features the première recording for video of the two-act opera The Red Line (1978) by Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen (b. 1935).

Opera magazine called The Red Line “a work of both national and universal significance.” Its story centers on the fate of a poor woodsman, Topi, and his wife, Riika, and deals with the Finnish quest for social justice at the first free elections in 1907.

Legendary baritone Jorma Hynninen headed the Finnish National Opera ensemble in the work’s world première and subsequent tour performances to great acclaim: “Sallinen’s Red Line is the best new opera I have heard in many a year (...) it proved as gripping in its way as Wozzeck or Jenufa” The New York Times

This release pays tribute to Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen on the occasion of his 75th birthday in 2010. Sallinen started a new wave of Finnish opera in the 1970s, and The Red Line played a fundamental part in establishing Finnish contemporary music on the international scene.

EXTRAS: Interviews with Aulis Sallinen, Pekka Milonoff, Mikko Franck, Jorma Hynninen

DVD Video [115’ • 44’ Extras]

Subtitles: Finnish / English

NTSC colour • 16:9

5.1 Dolby Digital Surround / PCM Stereo

Region Code 0 • English Menu

Worldwide Available

Directed & Set Design by Franco Zeffirelli

This DVD combines a number of operatic highlights: Puccini’s Madama Butterfly - the composer’s self-proclaimed favourite work and certainly one of the most beloved operas in the repertoire - is brought to life at the world famous Arena di Verona. This opulent production, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, is sung by a cast of excellent singer-actors and conducted by long-established Arena di Verona conductor Daniel Oren with all the splendour that a Puccini opera demands.

The opera is staged in front of the imposing Roman backdrop of the “Arena di Verona” and directed by respected film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli. Fiorenza Cedolins is a sought after Butterfly singer and her Pinkerton is played by the renowned tenor Marcello Giordani. The performance is lead by Daniel Oren who has worked with the opera festival for more than two decades. The sum of all this is a gloriously sung musical experience.

Sound Format: LPCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 142 mins

FSK: 0

Set Design & Costumes by Frank Philipp Schlössmann

Arthaus presents a staging of Jenůfa sung in the original Czech language. The production was directed by French-Austrian opera director Olivier Tambosi. For Janáček, opera was a vehicle for describing reality, and he pushed this idea to the point of fashioning a new theory about verismo. Its basis was that the two major strands, music and drama, were to be linked indivisibly in his operas. Olivier Tambosi takes up the challenge in a Jenůfa that is realistic, clear and direct in its exposition of the characters’ feelings. Yet he is also concerned to make key motifs in the work visible through symbolic elements on stage.

The director’s haunting dramaturgy is admirably brought to life by a cast of outstanding singer-actors. The result is a Jenůfa of immediately accessible emotions, with altogether physical characterization, explicit and more brutal than other stagings of the opera.

Sound Format: LPCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 127 mins

FSK: 0

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

Set Design and Costumes by Maurice Sendak.

Humperdinck‘s opera is steeped in the guileless world of folk-song: the children‘s songs and dances, the idyllic forest scenes, the supernatural material and the central thematic chorale are all rooted in German traditional music.

Frank Corsaro’s production for Zurich Opera was designed by Maurice Sendak. They have worked together on numerous highly-acclaimed opera stagings, all noted for their striking visual impact.

Sendak is renowned world-wide for his classic children’s books. His vivid, magical and often disturbing imagery is perfect for the fairy-tale world of Hänsel und Gretel. He expands the Witch’s gingerbread cottage into an entire farmyard of sweetmeats, complete with windmill. The house has a life of its own, with menacing, glowing eyes, which also dominate the stage during the ‘Witch’s Ride’ interlude.

This production of Humperdinck’s endearing and musically adroit opera will entrance adults and children alike.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 105 mins

FSK: 0

First Haydn Il Mondo della Luna (which has blissful Mozartian spirit) available on DVD and Blu-ray!

Live recording from Theatre an der Wien, 2009.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt created an interpretation in which Haydn’s work can become a veritable gem of opera literature.

Renowned actor and director Tobias Moretti relates the story as a light-footed, magical fairy tale infused with slapstick, witty details and fantasy costumes.

Bonus Interview with Harnoncourt (26 min.)

“Harnoncourt on top form” 4 star rating Financial Times

Running Time Total: 193 minutes (Opera ´167 + ´26 Bonus ´)

Picture 16:9, HD

Sound DVD/BD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Subtitles Italian, English, German, French

Booklet English, German, French

Stage Production Director: Peter Webster

Directed for Television by Brian Large

Based on Louisa May Alcott’s enduringly popular novel about the adventures of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy in civil-war era New England, Mark Adamo’s opera Little Women has been performed in more than 70 national and international engagements since its 1998 première by Houston Grand Opera and has achieved the status of an American classic.

This recording, with a superb cast expertly directed for television, vividly brings to life an opera that The New Yorker hailed as “A beautifully crafted work, brilliantly molding Alcott’s tale into operatic form,” and The New York Times dubbed a “masterpiece”.

Total Running Time: 114:53

NTSC: No Region Coding

Aspect Ratio: 16:9

Dual Layer Disc

PCM 2.0

Dolby Digital 5.1

DTS 5.1

Set Design by Ralph Funicello

The first fully-staged productions of the LA Opera House ground breaking Recovered Voices project, highlighting the works of composers affected by the Holocaust.

A double bill of one-act operas: Viktor Ullmann’s Der zerbrochene Krug, taken from a comedy by the Romantic German poet Heinrich von Kleist, and Alexander Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg, based on Oscar Wilde’s powerful tragedy The Birthday of the Infanta.

The music of Alexander Zemlinsky and Viktor Ullmann remained buried for decades in the wake of the destruction wrought by the policies of the Nazi regime. Dozens of composers and thousands of compositions are still largely unknown to musicians and lovers of classical music and opera.

“Full recognition of their works and genius still awaits Alexander Zemlinsky and Viktor Ullmann, more than sixty-five years after their deaths. Their works, in their very different ways, are powerful, vibrant, life-affirming and tragic in turn. They pulsate with the complexity of the human condition. Their lives and personal histories were tragic, but their music transcends it all. It is for us to appreciate their story in its full historic and artistic context.” James Conlon

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 122 mins

FSK: 0