DVD Videos

Ahead of next year’s Britten centenary, Tony Palmer’s 1967 classic film is made available again. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the Aldeburgh Festival, cofounded by Benjamin Britten along with singer Peter Pears and writer Eric Crozier, and the opening by The Queen of the new concert hall at Snape.

Sean Day-Lewis of The Daily Telegraph raved, "A superb film (which) may well achieve the status of a classic, repeated again and again over the years... the brilliant editing (was) of the highest quality, making a natural partnership of music and picture."

DVD specifications:

Region: 0 (All Regions)

Rating: E (Exempt from Certification)

Duration: 53 mins

Picture Format: NTSC (all regions)

Tony Palmer’s film of Benjamin Britten’s opera Death in Venice, shot on location, is released on DVD for the first time on the director’s own label. Based on Thomas Mann’s masterly novella - also the source for Visconti’s famous movie - it follows the last days of a writer, disillusioned, in despair and nearing death, in disease-ridden Venice. The cast includes Robert Gard as Gustav von Aschenbach, John Shirley-Quirk as The Traveller, James Bowman as The Voice of Apollo, Vincent Redman as Tadzio, the object of Aschenbach’s infatuation, and Deanne Bergsma as Tadzio’s Mother. Steuart Bedford conducts the English Chamber Orchestra, and Peter Pears makes a special appearance.

Death in Venice was to be Britten's last full-length opera, first performed at Snape Concert Hall on 16 June, 1973. The composer was already ill with heart problems, and completing the work at all had clearly been a struggle. But he was determined to write an opera and a leading part specifically for his long-time lover and inspiration, Peter Pears. And it was Pears who gave the triumphant American première in October the following year at his own debut in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. It was soon after Britten had died, in December 1976, that Pears first asked Tony Palmer to film the entire opera with all the original cast, if possible on location in Venice. After all, apart from Suffolk, Venice was the place which meant most to Britten. Despite a miniscule budget (less than £100,000), Palmer eventually managed to fulfil Pears' ambition in 1980 - but without the tenor himself as Aschenbach. By then, a couple of strokes had effectively ended his singing career, but the Australian tenor Robert Gard frequently looks (and sounds) almost more like Pears than Pears himself.

Director & editor: Tony Palmer

Photography: Nic Knowland

Sound: Brian Saunders

Costumes: Charles Knode

Choreographer: Ian Spink

Production Design: Kenneth E. Carey

DVD specifications:

Region: 0 (All Regions)

Rating: E (Exempt from Certification)

Duration: 131 minutes

Picture Format: NTSC (all regions)

Tony Palmer directs this prize-winning film about the great English composer Henry Purcell. Very little is known about his life, but the script - by Charles Wood and the late John Osborne - solves this problem by launching a group of actors in the 1960s on a voyage of discovery into the 1660s & late-17th century England, the extraordinary period in which Purcell lived. But it is Purcell’s music which is the driving force of the drama, with a stunning soundtrack conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.

Features an all-star cast with Simon Callow as Charles, Michael Ball as Henry Purcell, Letitia Dean as Barbara, Nina Young as Mrs Purcell, Corin Redgrave as William III, Lucy Speed as Nell, John Shrapnel as Pepys, Robert Stephens as Dryden, Murray Melvin as Shaftesbury, Terence Rigby as Cooke, Peter Woodthorpe as Kiffen, John Fortune as Clarendon, Edward Michie as young Harry and Bill Kenwright as Bill.

Subtitles included: English, German, Spanish and Italian

Tony Palmer directs this unique film drama about the great English composer Henry Purcell. Very little is known about his life, but the script, by Charles Wood and the late John Osborne, solves this problem by launching a group of actors in the 1960s on a voyage of discovery into the 1660s & late-17th century England, the extraordinary period in which Purcell lived.

The all-star cast includes Michael Ball, Simon Callow, Corin Redgrave, Letitia Dean, John Shrapnel, Robert Stephens and many other well-known names. But it is Purcell’s music which is the driving force of this dramatisation, with a stunning soundtrack performed by a line-up of superb artists such as Susan Graham, Stephen Varcoe, Lynne Dawson, Nancy Argenta, James Bowman and Michael Chance. The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.