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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Music in the AirA History of Classical Music on Television
Featuring Glenn Gould, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Anna Netrebko, Igor Stravinsky, Arturo Toscanini, Pierre Boulez, Sergiu Celibidache, Francis Poulenc, Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Jonas Kaufmann, Franz Welser-Möst and the fi rst television images ever of a regular service by the BBC in 1936. A film by REINER E. MORITZ Music on television has come in various guises over the last 50 years. It was already part of the programme mix at the very beginning and is still around, more sophisticated than ever, live and event driven and at it’s best reaching millions – at any rate more people than those experiencing music in opera houses, concert halls or other venues. Television has been instrumental in popularizing music, preserving precious moments of music making and helping to create music and performances which would not exist without it. “When music lovers like you lean back today and enjoy a live broadcast from La Scala in Milan, a “Last Night of the Proms”, a “New Year´s Concert” from Vienna or any other Gala they benefit from enormous technical developments over the last fifty years or so and a breed of practitioners who are as virtuosic in handling today´s audiovisual recording equipment as the artists they sort of immortalize for you. While technology advances content ends to get more popular because of the ratings game. In any event television has played a significant role in popularizing classical music since it started. And think about the value of its archives, unless they have been destroyed by penny pinching executives. Isn´t it wonderful that we can watch the very first images of a regular television service in 1936, a Toscanini performing, a Leonard Bernstein with his knowledge and charisma attracting young people to classical music or a Stravinsky conducting his own “Firebird”? And that we have become used to expressive close-ups, behind the scenes material and cameras used like a “fly on the wall”? Even if staging for the camera is more or less out, we do enjoy every bit of live music on the box which slowly turns into your home cinema. And for us practitioners, television still remains a bit of an adventure.” Reiner E. Moritz “perhaps the more interesting television is found in the rarer moments of observation: of Stravinsky using facial expressions to conduct his Petrushka, or Yan Pascal Tortelier totally immersing himself in an Elgar masterclass.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2013 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Production: Franco Zeffirelli Zeffirelli´s legendary 1981 Met staging with an allstar cast led by Teresa Stratas and José Carreras under the baton of Maestro James Levine “With her fragile frame, cameo face and exquisitely modulated soprano, Stratas makes an ideal Mimi.” (The New York Times) “One of the grandest, most richly textured productions of an opera to be seen anywhere”, wrote Christian Science Monitor, while New York Magazine lauded “Theresa Stratas´ potency as a dramatic presence and the sensitively refined artistry of her vocal performance…a true musician as well as an astute operatic actress.” The DVD includes two features: "Zeffirelli on La Bohème" and "Puccini in America" (documentary) “Zeffirelli's Met production is unashamedly a spectacular but in its 1982 staging the cast is a remarkable one, led by Teresa Stratas, Renata Scotto and José Carreras.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2009 **** “Zeffirelli's production puts half of Paris onstage but, despite lush conducting, lacks vital intimacy and warmth. Carreras offers a subdued Rodolfo and Stratas a vocally undernourished Mimì.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2010 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala
Beethoven: | Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b | Debussy: | L'annee en vain...Cependent les soirs (from L'enfant Prodigue) Ileana Cotrubas | Donizetti: | Chi mi frena in tal momento? (from Lucia di Lammermoor) Una furtiva lagrima (from L'elisir d'amore) Nicolai Gedda | Giordano, U: | Vicino a te (from Andrea Chénier) Jose Carreras, Montserrat Caballé | Gounod: | Va! je t'ai pardonné (from Roméo et Juliette) Catherine Malfitano, Alfredo Kraus Alerte, alerte! (from Faust) Katia Ricciarelli, William Lewis, Nicolai Ghiaurov | Mascagni: | Son io! Son io la Vita! (from Iris) | Mozart: | E Susanna non vien! … Dove sono i bei momenti (from Le nozze di Figaro) Kiri Te Kanawa | Puccini: | In questa reggia (from Turandot) Eva Marton Viene la sera (from Madama Butterfly) Giuliano Ciannella, Leona Mitchell | Rossini: | La calunnia è un venticello (from Il barbiere di Siviglia) Ruggero Raimondi Bel raggio lusinghier (from Semiramide) Joan Sutherland Pria di dividerci da voi, signore (from L'italiana in Algeri) | Saint-Saëns: | Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila Linda Gelinas, Ricardo Costa Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix (from Samson et Dalila) Marilyn Horne | Smetana: | The Bartered Bride Overture | Strauss, R: | Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren (from Der Rosenkavalier) Marie Theres'! ... Hab mir's gelobt (from Der Rosenkavalier) | trad.: | Fjorton år tror jag visst att jag var Birgit Nilsson | Verdi: | Dio, mi potevi scagliar tutti i mali (from Otello) James McCracken Surta è la notte...Ernani! Ernani, involami (from Ernani) Anna Tomowa-Sintow Giá nella notte densa (from Otello) Plácido Domingo, Mirella Freni Donna chi sei? (from Nabucco) Renato Bruson, Grace Bumbry Teco io sto (from Un ballo in maschera) Luciano Pavarotti, Leontyne Price | Wagner: | Wie lachend sie mir Lieder singen (from Tristan und Isolde) Birgit Nilsson |
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 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Stage Director: Elijah Moshinsky
Once regarded as Verdi's lost opera because of early censorship and controversy, Stiffelio has now established its rightful place in Verdi's canon. In this 1993 recording from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, José Carreras, as the Protestant minister whose faith is shattered when he discovers his wife's adulterous liaison with a family friend, leads a fine cast that includes Catherine Malfitano, Gregory Yurisich, Gwynne Howell and Robin Leggate under the baton of Edward Downes. Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 2nd & 6th February 1993.
PICTURE FORMAT: 4:3
LENGTH: 122 Mins
SOUND: PCM 2.0
SUBTITLES: EN
“Elijah Moshinsky's handsome Stiffelio was one of Covent Garden's greatest triumphs under a previous regime. José Carreras and Catherine Malfitano lead a fine cast.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2009 **** “In 2007 Stiffelio was reported sinking under the weight of a lavish production at the Metropolitan.
At Covent Garden, the production team, led by Elijah Moshinsky, had much more the right idea and, in one decision of casting, the visual element is transformed. The opera has only one female among the principals, and, rather as in Otello, the action turns on her largely passive character. She is Lina, wife of the minister of a Protestant community where the way of life is simple and biblical law is strictly upheld.
At the Met she is played by Sharon Sweet whose ample form and golden curls suggest (however unjustly) an ungodly allowance of worldly pleasure.
In her husband's absence she has 'fallen', and Catherine Malfitano (the Lina at Covent Garden) is attractive enough to make that seem plausible while remaining in figure and demeanour one of the devout, and a 'pure' woman at heart.
The other major difference in production is one of scale. At the Metropolitan everything has gone up in the world. The minister's house is palatial, the modest gathering to celebrate his return a full-scale ambassador's dinner party.
Lina's father is decked out in full military grandeur, while at Covent Garden he is clad in simple civilian dignity. Covent Garden's graveyard is a matter of plain stones and crosses; the Met's sports elaborate and (surely) abhorred images.
In every respect the London production is better, with unostentatious care taken over furnishings and each member of the chorus provided with an identity.
The Stiffelio is Carreras in what was probably the finest achievement among roles following his serious illness. Gregory Yurisich sings magnificently as the father. Gwynne Howell is a pillar of sonorous authority, and Robin Leggate, having played Cassio so often, fits in perfectly as his guilty counterpart. Edward Downes conducts with a sure and thoughtful touch.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Monday's performance was beyond any but nit-picking criticism. Downes's conducting confirmed him as one of the (if not the) world's leading Verdians - grandeur, sweep, energy, allied to extraordinary delicacy. Elijah Moshinsky's production spared us nothing in rawness and immediacy, and indeed, dramatic truth… This Stiffelio is a great event: move mountains to see it.” The Times | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | (A unique documentary about Bernstein’s most beloved masterpiece, made available in time for Bernstein’s anniversary year)
“Christopher Swann's 1985 film of the sessions for a new recording of West Side Story repays repeated viewing. Bernstein, conducting his musical for the first time, alternates between thunderclouds and sunshine as he whips his top-flight scratch band into shape and exuberantly encourages his unlikely cast of singers to new heights.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2008 “A judiciously edited…intriguing….amusing glimpse of artistic temperaments at work.” New York Times | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | The Three Tenors Christmas
Join the Three Tenors for their first ever Christmas concert, which features live performances of old-time favorite Christmas carols. Songs performed include: "O Holy Night", "White Christmas", "Ave Maria", "Jingle Bells", "I'll Be Home for Christmas", "Let It Snow", "Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle", "Adeste Fideles", "Amazing Grace", and many more. ~ Laura Mahnken, Rovi | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Three Tenors - Live in Paris 1998
| | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Live Recording from The Wiener Staatsoper, 1983
Set Design & Costumes by TIMOTHY O’BRIEN, TAZEENA FIRTH From the Vienna State Opera Arthaus presents a timeless document of great opera. Lorin Maazel and a dream cast of distinguished singers, among them the young Eva Marton and José Carreras in his mid-thirties, perform a celebrated staging of Puccini’s Turandot. Puccini’s last opera tells the story of the battle of the sexes against an exotic backdrop. The work tells the story of the beguilingly beautiful and cold yet seductive Chinese princess, Turandot. The opera is characterized by the tension it creates between the denial of love and secret affection, between self-sacrifice and obsession with sacrificial victims, and between cold cruelty and pure love. The performance was received with unanimous enthusiasm. Lorin Maazel scored a great personal success with audience and critics alike with passion, authority and brilliance in his conducting. The applause at the end of the performance lasted three-quarters of an hour and was directed not only at Maazel, but also at the team of wonderful singer-actors. The Hungarian soprano Eva Marton brought to the title role what one critic described as “a voice of gleaming metal in which one senses the beautiful woman lying in wait to defeat her opponent but is also aware of her fears of man in general.” Appearing alongside her as Calaf was José Carreras whose “unprecedented intensity” and “priceless tenor voice” were once again at the fore. Katia Ricciarelli was no less acclaimed in her role as “the best of all possible Liùs”. Sound Format: PCM Stereo Picture Format: 4:3 DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES, IT, JP Running Time: 139 mins FSK: 0 “The production...is exotically telling, with the set equally theatrical...Marton was surely born to take the part of the heroine, singing with great power...Carreras also sings gloriously...Ricciarelli is a very touching Liu, her voice creamily beautiful...and the orchestra play with the utmost vividness under Maazel's thrilling direction...Very highly recommended.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | The 3 Tenors In Concert 19941DVD & 1CD
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER OVERTURE Bernstein Candide O SOUVERAIN, Ô JUGE, Ô PÈRE Massenet Le Cid José Carreras QUANDO LE SERE AL PLACIDO Verdi Luisa Miller Plácido Domingo POURQUOI ME RÉVEILLER Massenet Werther Luciano Pavarotti WITH A SONG IN MY HEART José Carreras Rodgers Spring is here, arr Newman & Darby, adap. Palmer GRANADA Lara, arr. Hayes Plácido Domingo NON TI SCORDAR DI ME De Curtis, arr. Mancini Luciano Pavarotti “A TRIBUTE TO HOLLYWOOD” The 3 Tenors Medley arranged & orchestrated by Lalo Schifrin My Way • Moon River • Because • Singin’ in the rain MARCHE HONGROISE (RÁKÓCZY) Berlioz La Damnation de Faust TU, CA NUN CHIAGNE De Curtis, arr. Lozi José Carreras AMOR, VIDA DE MI VIDA Moreno-Rottoba Maravilla Plácido Domingo AVE MARIA Schubert, arr. Schifrin Luciano Pavarotti E LUCEVAN LE STELLE Puccini Tosca José Carreras VESTI LA GIUBBA Leoncavallo Pagliacci Plácido Domingo NESSUN DORMA! Puccini Turandot Luciano Pavarotti “AROUND THE WORLD” The 3 Tenors Medley arranged & orchestrated by Lalo Schifrin America • All I ask of you • Funiculì, Funiculà • Sous les ponts de Paris Brazil • Be my love • Marechiare • Lippen schweigen Santa Lucia luntana • Those were the days • Te Quiero dijiste • Torna a Surrient ENCORES The 3 Tenors LA DONNA È MOBILE Verdi Rigoletto LIBIAMO NE’ LIETI CALICI (BRINDISI) Verdi La traviata NESSUN DORMA! Puccini Turandot CLOSING CREDITS
The legendary tenors José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, together with conductor Zubin Mehta, celebrated the finale to soccer’s 1994 World Cup with a live concert described as “probably the biggest single musical event in history”. Brought together for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, The 3 Tenors and Mehta joined forces again, this time in Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium on July 16th 1994 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Chorus, to perform a selection of operatic arias and international favourites specially orchestrated by composer/arranger Lalo Schifrin. The result is an outstanding album, reflecting a unique event, featuring three legendary performers who share a united passion for opera and football. Includes ‘Making Of…’ documentary not previously available on DVD. Approx Duration: Concert: 111 mins Bonus: 61 mins Colour Region Code: 2-5 Picture format: NTSC 4:3 FF Audio: Concert: Dolby 2.0 Stereo Dolby 5.1 Surround Making of.. Dolby 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: Concert: Lyrics in original languages | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Caballé - Beyond MusicA Film by Antonio Farré
A documentary featuring one of the finest Spanish voices of recent times.The film accompanies Montserrat Caballé on a trip through the most significant cities, historical performances and audio recordings of her life. We witness her in conversation, in numerous historic performances and, through the testimonies of friends and fellow musicians, gain a deeper understanding of Montserrat the person and Caballé the artist. Caballé Beyond Music includes an exclusive selection of legendary audiovisual archives, some of them unpublished, which constitute probably the best operatic moments in existence. This film is a complex and passionate portrait of a woman who can only be described as a myth.Yet the objective is to get the truth which lies beyond the myth of this extraordinary performer - her sensitivity and vitality underscore her uncontested place as one of the greatest communicators of the 20th Century. "Music is magic and it is a privilege to live with it. With this film I wish to share with you the most important moments in my career, which are also the best moments of my life." Montserrat Caballé harmonia NTSC 16:9, DD 2.0, DTS 5.1 Region code: 0,Audience: all Languages: Spanish, German Subtitles: English, French, Italian Running time: 98 mins “The Spanish diva's career and artistry are presented mainly in her own words, with valuable commentary from colleagues such as Marilyn Horne and Domingo. Plus superb singing by Caballé.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2010 ***** “Speaking to camera with disarming directness and charm, “Montse” comes across not just as an exceptional vocalist, floating fabulously high pianissimos, but also as a professional with feet on the ground and a fun personality.” Financial Times, 2nd January 2010 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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