DVD Videos

Set Design by Paul Brown

In their series of celebrated opera productions from the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Arthaus presents a staging of Rigoletto, one of Verdi’s most popular operas. The tragic opera about the Duke of Mantua, the court jester Rigoletto and his daughter Gilda forms part of the composer’s trilogia popolare together with La Traviata and Il Trovatore. It is full of melodious arias, expressive duets and highly dramatic orchestration.

With the brilliant Marcelo Álvarez singing the Duke of Mantua and baritone Carlos Álvarez, whose Rigoletto has been hailed as the perfect embodiment of Verdi‘s court jester, appearing in the title role, this production presents international stars in two of the leading roles. The dramatic requirements of this well-conceived and convincing interpretation are both musically and visually extremely well met by the leading male singers and Inva Mula’s Gilda. She is a Verdi soprano par excellence. The remarkable ensemble, orchestra and chorus of Barcelona’s Liceu under the experienced baton of Jesús López Cobos prove the opera house’s international standing once again. Graham Vick’s production and Paul Brown’s sets and costumes aim to convey the essence of the drama conceptually rather than literally which makes for a captivating performance.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 130 mins

FSK: 0

Arthaus presents the quintessence of operetta Die Fledermaus in a lavish staging from the theatre where it is most at home: the Vienna State Opera. Under the direction of theatrical living legend Otto Schenk, a dream-team of perfectly matched singers made this a memorable night in true Viennese style. The premiere of this 1979 staging was greeted enthusiastically by the audience, and a legend was created, one that has spread beyond Viennese opera-going circles. This prompted Austrian Television to broadcast Die Fledermaus live from the Opera a year later. Now released on DVD, the show is as fresh as ever, reveling in that particularly sparkling New Year’s Eve spirit.

The cast of this unforgettable Fledermaus gathered some of the best operatic singer-actors of the 1980s: The wonderful Lucia Popp, who died much too early in 1993, creates a bourgoise Rosalinde with her own charm. Edita Gruberova is a brilliant Adele, and with her magnificient vocal prowess she is a far cry from the typical cliched soubrette. Bernd Weikl’s Eisenstein and Walter Berry’s Falke add an ironic touch to the operetta happiness and Brigitte Fassbaender is of course the incarnation of Prince Orlofsky – a mezzo with a perfectly ”male” bearing, portrayed by both her acting and her looks.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 169 mins

FSK: 0

Set Design by Stefan Mayer.

One of the lesser known works by Giuseppe Verdi, Simon Boccanegra is regarded by most opera lovers as one of his finest. The action takes place in the 14th century and deals with the political and personal rivalry between the corsair Simon Boccanegra, who has been elected Doge of Genoa with the help of the plebeian vote, and the local nobleman, Jacopo Fiesco.

Arthaus presents a „visually alert, musically sensitive and disturbingly coherent“ (Der Standard) production of the piece on DVD. The staging was directed by one of the giants of the European theatre, Peter Stein. His fondness for atmospherically dense spaces in which the characters can fully develop is particularly well brought out in his Vienna production, not least because he had at his disposal two remarkable singing actors for the principal male roles, Thomas Hampson and Ferruccio Furlanetto. The Vienna State Opera’s Simon Boccanegra was a great event in the house’s history, and the beauties of this unique work to blossomed under Daniele Gatti’s care.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD, 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 137 mins

FSK: 0

Set against the magnificent backdrop of Lake Constance, every production at the Bregenz Festival faces strong natural competitors. But with this first-ever production of Verdi’s “Aida” (in an abridged version) on the lakeside stage, it is easy to overlook the beauty of the surrounding nature. Stage director Graham Vick and set designer Paul Brown conjure up an “open-air spectacle of superlatives” (Die Zeit) that throws a bridge between ancient Egypt and today’s U.S. The stage effects are stunning: ruins of the Statue of Liberty pieced together with the help of giant cranes, boats carrying priestesses and prisoners – parts of the opera even take place in the lake itself! And in the Grand March – one of the most famous marches in opera – a golden elephant comes sailing into view on a barge¿ Under Carlo Rizzi, the Wiener Symphoniker brilliantly support the chorus and soloists, among whom Iano Tamar (Amneris) and Tatiana Serjan (Aida) stand out. Drawing capacity crowds of over 200,000 spectators in just one season, “Aida” is the festival’s most successful opera to date, even more successful than the “Tosca” production, which has been immortalized in the James Bond film “Quantum of Solace”.

In this production from 2009, stage director Graham Vick and set designer Paul Brown conjure up an “open-air spectacle of superlatives” (Die Zeit). Photos of the stage went to all over the world.

Bregenz Festival´s lakeside stage is known from the James Bond film “Quantum of Solace”

Aida is Bregenz Festival´s most successful opera ever!

“Bregenz Festival opens with visually stunning Aida” Agence France-Presse, Paris

“... you sit open-mouthed, enthralled and overwhelmed by the force of the massive operatic images coming together before your eyes.” Die Welt

“Everything is impressive and the singers are all fantastic.” Ö1 - ORF, Vienna

Running Time 135 minutes

Picture 16:9, color

Sound PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

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

Packaging Amaray DVD

Booklet English, German, French

Set Design by Gerhard Hruby

Verdi’s opera Othello in a sympathetic studio recording from the early years of television. The camera’s roving eye lends Otto Schenk’s production an intimacy which inspires a vocal and dramatic tour de force from Wolfgang Windgassen and Sena Jurinac in the roles of the tragic lovers Othello and Desdemona. Musical direction is in the hands of the great Verdi conductor Argeo Quadri. For unlike with other opera films, the producers in Vienna did not use playback but recorded each scene live. A further drawback was the fact that the television studios were too small to accommodate a full-size opera orchestra. The musicians and conductor were situated in an acoustically appropriate but geographically separate hall, linked to the film studio only by cables and monitors. This arrangement called for utmost concentration from all parties. The scenes were recorded live; editing technology as we know it today did not exist, so the work involved filming lengthy passages and repeating them as necessary.

The very particular value of this video, now available to all fans of opera for the first time on DVD, is that it documents in convincing fashion the great German Verdi tradition – a tradition in which Othello has always maintained a leading position.

Sound Format: PCM Mono

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 134 mins

FSK: 0

Set Design by Nicola Rubertelli

It is said even Giuseppe Verdi briefly gave consideration to writing an opera based on this whodunit, when Cilea decided to set the material to music in 1899. The opera’s world premiere in Milan in 1902 was a triumph, due in no small measure to a stellar cast of singers that included Enrico Caruso as Maurizio. For a decade the work was performed regularly throughout Europe and America; thereafter it increasingly disappeared from the repertoire. After revisions to the score and plot and the introduction of significant cuts, Adriana Lecouvreur made a successful comeback and established a presence once again on the international stage. The premiere of the defi nitive version took place in Naples in 1930. Since this time the three main roles of Arturo Colautti’s libretto have regularly been filmed by great artists.

In the present stylised production by Lorenzo Mariani, which features reduced décor but magnifi cent rococo costumes, the “violet-perfumed murderess” is taken by mezzo-soprano Marianne Cornetti, one of the most in-demand representatives of her vocal category. Opposite her, in the role of Adriana, is a soprano who as a Verdi and verismo specialist also appears regularly at all the major international opera houses, Micaela Carosi. The “cock-of-the-walk” role is sung by the world-class tenor Marcelo Álvarez. His timbre, velvety smooth yet robustly virile, is ideally suited to a vocal characterisation of the idolised Maurizio. Conductor Renato Palumbo is very much at home with Cilea’s operatic masterpiece, since the Italian Romantic and verismo periods are at the core of his extensive repertoire.

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

Production - John Cox

Video Director - Brian Large

Set Designer - Robin Wagner

Costume Designer - Patricia Zipprodt

Lighting Designer - Gil Wechsler

The stellar cast of this popular opera includes superb singers as well as excellent actors like Kathleen Battle, Leo Nucci, Rockwell Blake, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Enza Dara

Critical praise for this production: “One of [the Met’s] most ingenious stagings in recent years…made to order for a great Rossini ensemble” (New York Times ) – and for this ensemble: “Battle’s coloratura flowed with astonishing ease and grace, beautifully varied in color” (New York Times). “Alongside Battle’s stunning Rosina, the cast is close to ideal…Blake’s Almaviva is extraordinary…Nucci is a remarkable Figaro…Furlanetto makes a formidable Basilio, Dara an irresistible Bartolo” (Répertoire )

Jonas Kaufmann’s sensational role debut as Wagner’s Lohengrin was the talk of the 2009 Munich Festival.

Filmed in high-def widescreen, Jonas Kaufmann’s bow as Lohengrin is a logical follow-up to the success of his German arias album (4781463), described by Hugh Canning in International Record Review as “one of the vocal records of the year [2009], if not the decade”

His sound, a unique combination of torrid sensuality and radiant, crystalline purity, serves a musico-dramatic intelligence that makes a unity of Lohengrin’s often difficult to reconcile heroic and lyric elements. No wonder La Scena Musicale saluted Jonas Kaufmann “. . . the finest Heldentenor since Jon Vickers . . .”

Partnered by Anja Harteros – per The Opera Critic, “an exceptional Elsa” – Kaufmann heads a stellar cast conducted by Kent Nagano

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates 25 years at Lincoln Center.

The cast-list for the evening reads like a Who's Who of 20th-century opera.

Thrill to “hours and hours of glorious opera...A triumphant celebration of virtuosity (Toronto Globe and Mail) as New York’s legendary opera company celebrates its first quarter century at Lincoln Center with “one of the most exquisitely refined and extravagant assemblages of vocal artistry the Met stage has yet hosted” (New York Times). “Not just another night at the opera” (Los Angeles Times), this extraordinary gala features complete acts from three favorite works, starring dozens of the world’s greatest singers, all conducted by Met music director James Levine.

Doris Dörrie (staging)

Doris Dörrie, long established and successful director of the German cinema scene, produced a sensational orchestration of Mozart’s Opera to celebrate her debut as stage director. The outstanding performance of the artists met with great interest.

The ensemble with Dorothea Röschmann, Katharina Kammerloher, Daniela Bruera, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Werner Güra and Roman Trekel act youthfully and expressive at the same time.The whole presentation caused a furore.

In front of a capacity audience, Dörrie staged her Così in a spectacular hippie style of the 1970s - bedecked with giant flowers and clothing as colourful as the music, directed by musical conductor Daniel Barenboim, provides the background.

"Outstanding Dorothea Röschmann as Fiordiligi […]" Neue Züricher Zeitung, 2001

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

Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French

Running time: 179 mins

Audience: all