Dacapo label - All DVD & Blu-ray videos

Poul Ruders' opera Selma Jezková (sung in English) is based on Lars von Trier's film Dancer in the Dark and follows the heart-wrenching story of Selma, a poor factory worker with failing eyesight who sacrifices her life to ensure that her son receives an eye operation.

The opera is a dark and compelling story of fate; a highly evocative and epic performance yet also intensely distilled with a duration of just 70 minutes. In this DVD production of the 2010 Copenhagen première performance, the forces of the Royal Danish Opera are directed by Kasper Holten and framed by Christian Lemmerz' grand Gothic set design.

Conductor Michael Schønwandt commands the podium and the demanding title role is sung by Ylva Kihlberg, to whom Poul Ruders has dedicated the role.

Region Code: 0

Sung in English

Subtitles in English, German and Danish

Duration: c. 73 min + c.47 min bonus material

Bonus material: Documentary ‘From cradle to the grave’ - the making of Selma Jezková

Sound formats: Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1

Based on the bestselling novel by P.O. Enquist

Bo Holten's new opera The Visit of the Royal Physician, based on the best-selling novel by Per Olov Enquist, was a great success with both audience and critics after its premiere in 2009.

The opera is set in the 1770s, one of the most dramatic periods in Danish history, and is a story of tragic love, intrigue and a lust for power.

It tells the story of the young, idealistic doctor Struensee who dreams of creating a new and better world. He is given the chance to put his ideas into practice when, almost by coincidence, he becomes royal physician to the insane King Christian VII. Soon he is also the lover of the young Queen Caroline Mathilde. The result is a disaster for all those involved.

The performance was recorded at the Copenhagen Opera and is conducted by the composer.

Region Code: 0

Subtitles: English, German and French

Running Time: c. 154 min + 37 min bonus material

Bonus material: Interviews with Bo Holten, Eva Sommestad Holten, Johan Reuter, Elisabeth Jansson, Gert Henning-Jensen

A film by Bill Morrison

Music by Simon Christensen

Tributes-Pulse is an art movie created by the American filmmaker Bill Morrison (b. 1965) and the Danish composer and percussionist Simon Christensen (b. 1971) in close collaboration. Christensen originally conceived of the project as a tribute to four American composers, Charles Ives, Conlon Nancarrow, Steve Reich and Trent Reznor. Christensen explains, “I chose these composers because they have opened my ears to a particular way of dealing with pulse and they have all made music that really matters to me.” According to him, all four of them were pivotal in shaping his own musical aesthetic.

The project is comprised of four movements, respectively corresponding to each composer. The idea of “Pulse” is explored in both the music and the film. Using exquisitely deteriorating nitrate-based archival film, Morrison weaves a story from the remnants of disparate narratives. The four sections correspond visually to the four elements as a frontier for Man - Water, Earth, Fire and Air.

Genre: Art movie

Running Time: 65 minutes

Region code: 0

Region Code: ABC

Subtitles: English, German and French

Dacapo's very first Blu-ray production features Rued Langgaard's powerful vision of the coming of Antikrist in the spectacular co-production with the Royal Danish Opera and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) from 2002.

No punches are pulled as the composer's breathtaking revelation unfolds with its intriguing allegorical characters and its powerful statement about the moral decay of modern society.

The premiere production was a decided audience success and a more or less unanimous press acknowledged the music as original. “The first act works excellently. After this one would swear that Carl Nielsen was born to write opéra comique. So smooth, so dexterous, such a quick turn of phrase, such aptness in the dialogue, with fine phrases and droll ideas; equally felicitous in the treatment of the text, the singing roles, the instruments of the orchestra. In the craft of music, it is a fully-fledged master who holds the pen; one’s thoughts can only resort to Verdi in ‘Falstaff’ to find a parallel.” Nationaltidende (1906)

On This Planet transcends the limits of conventional opera and presents a new artistic idiom that is ideal for the DVD medium.

Anders Nordentoft’s past as a rock musician is combined with his classical training in a brand new musical universe where the concept of crossover is no longer adequate as a label. On This Planet is a new artistic idiom. Thomas Sandberg is well known in Scandinavia as an unusual mixture of performance artist, percussionist, clown and sound artist. Together with Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen he creates a symbiosis of the human voice and instrumental sound where texts by Anders Nordentoft and the West Indian poet Derek Walcott meet. With On This Planet we enter the same universe as Twin Peaks and Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom, where anything can happen and nothing is what it seems. This suspense-filled universe is given musical nerve by Anders Nordentoft in a mixture of rock, jazz, blues and modern composition music, and on stage Martin Tulinius has created a unique unity of video, computer graphics, sound and light – just as the music mixes different genres.