DVDs Page 7
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
Starring: Elizabeth Campbell, Gillian Sullivan, Eilene Hannan, Barry Ryan, Gary Rowley, State Orchestra Of Victoria
Conductor: Richard Mills
Composer: Richard Mills
Ray Lawler's classic Australian story unfolds dramatically in this operatic version.
Set in Melbourne in the summer of 1953, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is an emotional and dramatic tale which brilliantly captures the heart and soul of Australia.
"...a new and lovingly crafted piece of outstanding music theatre." The Australian
D4075
 $19.99
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Ermione
Starring: Anna Caterina Antonacci
Conductor: Andrew Davis
Composer: Rossini
Recorded at Glyndebourne’s superb new opera house, this lavishly praised production of Rossini’s forgotten and unusual tragic opera has proved to be an unequivocal success. Based on Racine’s Andromaque, this account of the Greek and Trojan love tangle has been set by Graham Vick in the classically-inspired auditorium of an Italian opera house, rather than in ancient Greece. The set designs, with their striking colours, forms and lighting are as if created especially for the small screen.
D2850
$19.99
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La Belle Helene
Starring: Dame Felicity Lott, Michel Senechal, Yann Beuron
Conductor: Marc Minkowski
Composer: Jacques Offenbach
Offenbach's parody of the origins of the Trojan War is a supreme manifestation of his comic genius. With clever visual humor and Laurent Pelly's staging and costume ideas, the viewer is placed in the imagination of a sex-starved, suburban housewife who dreams of being the most beautiful woman in the world. Dame Felicity Lott "adds an undeniable elegance and sings with 'Mozartian refinement'" (Herald Tribune).
Language: French. Subtitles: English
D2916
$19.99
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Un Ballo in Maschera
Starring: Leona Mitchell, Gillian Sullivan, Richard Greager, Malcolm Donnelly
Conductor: Jun'ichi Hirokami
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
King Gustav is being plotted against by Ribbing and Horn and is advised of this by his friend Anckarstroem. Gustav is also in love with Anckarstroem’s wife, Amelia. The gypsy, Ulrica, warns him of death at the hand of a friend. At the Masjked Ball Amelia tells Gustav to flee.
"Here, in one of his most shapely works, blending elegance and nobility of feeling with tragedy and passion and a rare vein of black humor, Verdi achieved a new fusion of music and drama which reaches Mozartean perfection." The Bulletin
"...the passion, the terror, the joy and the tragedy were all there in her (Leona Mitchell) huge, remarkably expressive, unbelievably dark and luscious soprano voice." The Australian
D4071
$19.99
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Don Carlo
Starring: Luis Lima, Ileana Cotrubas, Giorgio Zancanaro, Robert Lloyd
Conductor: Bernard Haitink
Composer: Verdi
Verdi classic highlights the political and aorous rivalry between Phillip II of Spain and his son, Don Carlo.
D2844
$19.99
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Il Trovatore
Starring: Fiorenza Cossotto, Rosalind Plowright
Conductor: Reynald Giovaninetti
The imposing grandeur of the Arena di Verona is the setting for Il Trovatore, one of Verdi’s greatest masterpieces, with stage designs by the distinguished sculptor Mario Ceroli. For many years Il Trovatore has been an opera of worldwide popularity and the cast in this production is worthy of the opera’s perennial success. It features the talents of the British soprano Rosalind Plowright in her Verona debut, a wealth of vocal experience from Fiorenza Cossotto as Azucena, matched with Giorgio Zancanaro’s strong portrayal of the Count and Franco Bonisolli in fine voice as Manrico, the troubadour.
D2839
$19.99
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Orphée et Eurydice
Starring: David Hobson, Amanda Thane, Miriam Gormley
Conductor: Marco Guidarini
Choreographer: Meryl Tankard
Composer: Christoph Willibald Gluck
The Greek legend of Orpheus has captured the imaginations of many creative artists over the centuries. In this adaptation Christoph Willibald Gluck transforms the original Italian opera into a refined French version.
Following the death of his beloved wife, Eurydice, Orphée is given permission to descend into Hades to rescue her. He is warned that, if successful, he must not look at her until he has crossed to the world of the living.
“One of the most extraordinary achievements of this remarkable production is how Richard Gill’s magnificently singing chorus and Meryl Tankard’s extraordinary actor-dancers seem to melt into one dynamic group.” The Australian
“This is a production of exceptional power and range.” The Financial Review
D4058
$19.99
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La Bohème
Australian Opera. Starring: David Hobson, Cheryl Barker
Conductor: Julian Smith
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Puccini's heart-rending love story tells of high-spirited young bohemians who are strapped for cash but draw strength from each other, and the poet Rodolfo's deep love for the young seamstress, Mimì.
"This is surely one of the most engagingly inventive, thoughtfully witty and vital productions ever to enliven the Australian operatic stage." Sun Herald
"Tenor David Hobson and Soprano Cheryl Barker bring the lead roles thrillingly to life, playing on audience's heartstrings with their sweet duets and convincing acting." Telegraph Mirror
D4088
$19.99
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Salome
Deutsche Opera, Berlin
Starring: Catherine Malfitano, Simon Estes
Conductor: Giuseppe Sinopoli
Composer: Strauss
In Petr Weigl's production of Richard Strauss's powerful and erotic one-act opera, Catherine Malfitano produces a spellbinding performance as Salome, a role which demands the utmost physical and emotional commitment throughout the complex vocal passages and choreographed scenes..
D2839
$19.99
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Lakme
Starring: Joan Sutherland, Huguette Tourangeau, Henri Wilden
Conductor: Richard Bonynge
Composer: Leo Delibes
The story is set in India in the mid-19th century when the British were imposing a suppressive rule over the many religious sects.
Nilakantha, the leader of one of these forbidden sects, is secretly bringing up his daughter Lakmé as a priestess, to be worshipped as divine by his followers.
He keeps her isolated in a temple which he has surrounded with a bamboo stockade, declaring the temple and garden to be sacred ground.
"Lakmé was a warm affirmation that Joan Sutherland is not only a great star, but she is a sensitive and subtle artist..." The Financial Review
D0038
$19.99
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Albert Herring
Starring: John Graham-Hall, Patricia Johnson
Conductor: Bernard Haitnik
Composer: Benjamin Britten
Britten's Albert Herring, a comic opera in three acts, is a parody on life in an English market town at the turn of the century. Albert, a gullible, naïve green-grocer, is much to his embarrassment crowned village May King when Lady Billows realizes there are no longer any local girls with the necessary virtuous qualifications. The ensuing antics are brilliantly characterized by a strong cast in this Peter Hall production infused with freshness and limitless charm. John Graham-Hall's gangling Albert marvelously expresses the development of the young man's character, matched by performances of pure poetry by Alan Opie and Jean Rigby as Sid and Nancy and the total control of Patricia Kern's Mrs. Herring.
D1424
$19.99
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Hänsel und Gretel
Starring: Malin Hartelius, Liliana Nikiteanu
Conductor: Franz Welser-Möst
Composer: Adelheid Wettee, Engelbert Humperdinck’s first and most successful opera began life as a commission from his sister Adelheid Wette, who asked him to write music for a children’s play she had adapted from the Brothers Grimm tale, Hansel und Gretel. Humperdinck initially provided his sister with just four songs, but was soon convinced of the fable’s operatic potential and, three years later, came up with a work that Richard Strauss described as “a masterpiece of the highest quality…all of it original, new and so authentically German.” Strauss was not alone in seeing Hänsel und Gretel as the salvation of German opera, bringing relief from the murky Wagnerian depths of Teutonic myth.
D2940
$19.99
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The Rake's Progresse
Starring: Barbara Hendricks, Håken Hagegård
Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen
Composer: Stravinsky
This lavish, cinematic realisation of Stravinsky’s neo-classic masterpiece, performed in English, is filmed both in studio and on location. The imaginative richness in the music is complemented by costumes and sets which are, by turn, exquisitely garish and darkly grotesque to intoxicating effect.
D2853
$19.99
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Powder Her Face
Starring: Heather Buck, Daniel Norman and Graeme Broadbent
Conductor: Thomas Adès
Thomas Adès wrote the chamber opera Powder Her Face in 1995, at the age of 24, to a joint commission from London's Almeida Opera and the Cheltenham Festival. Its success, together with a string of other compositions, brought Adès real international recognition and resulted in him being hailed as the next Benjamin Britten. Since its première, it has been produced in America, Australia and throughout Europe.
To a libretto by Philip Hensher, the piece is based on the life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, a woman brazenly avaricious for money and sexual experience but whose story, Adès says, shows that “even horrible people are tragic”.
Adès’s brilliant score incorporates skewed imitations of the popular music of her prime: tangos, tea dances, and Cole Porteresque songs. The fifteen strong orchestra consists of clarinets, saxophones, brass, strings, accordion and percussion, an ensemble similar to the dance bands of yesteryear.
DC10002
$19.99
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Wiener Blut
Peter Matic; Herbert Lippert; Martina Serafin; Ulrike Steinsky; Teddy Podgorski; Ute Gfrerer; Alfred Pfeifer; Rainer Spechtl; Volker Wahl Ballet of the Slovak National Theatre. Choir of the Concert Union of the Wiener Volksoper Philharmonic Orchestra Bratislava/Johannes Wildner. Alexander Waechter, director; Rolf Langenfass, stage set & costumes; Susanne Kirnbauer, choreography
Viennese Blood is Johann Strauss’ last operetta and it is regarded as one of Strauss’ most popular works. The operetta is a compilation of older Strauss’ melodies completed by a new libretto. He gave his consent and started compiling the material but it was musically completed by the musical director of the “Theater an der Wien”, Adolf Müller. The libretto was contributed by Viktor Leon and Leo Stein. This is an open air staging from 1994, recorded in the “Mecca of Operetta”, the picturesque Austrian village Mörbisch. The DVD offers, besides the complete recording of the operetta, a documentary (ca. 50 min.) about Johann Strauss’ life and work..
51002
 $17.99
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The Bartered Bride
Gabriela Benacková; Peter Dvorský; Richard Novák; Miroslav Kopp; Marie Veselá; Jindrich Jindrák; Marie Mrázová; Jaroslav Horácek; Jana Jonášová; Alfréd Hampl
Prague National Theatre Ballet and Opera Chorus. Prague Philharmonic Chorus/Josef Veselka. Czech Philharmonic/Zdenek Kosler
1981 Television production. Subtitled in Czech, English, German, French.
What opera fan doesn’t know the famous opera arias “Our True Love”, “Make Up Your Mind, Marenka” or “I Know a Maiden Fair”, ageless classics from that treasure of Czech opera, Bedrich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride? We are pleased to bring this version, in which the featured singers also play their roles, to the modern audience..
7011
 $27.99
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I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Federico Sacchi; Patrizia Ciofi; Danilo Formaggia; Nicola Amodio. The Bratislava Chamber Chorus. Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia/Luciano Acocella
Denis Krief, director
Subtitled in Italian, English, French, German & Japanese
World Premiere DVD recording.!
This is the version made for La Scala, where it was first staged on 26th December 1830, featuring two female voices in the roles of Romeo and Juliet. This opera is usually performed with a tenor as Romeo, but at La Scala Bellini found a different singing troupe which obliged him to cast not the en travesti warrior of Rossinian manner but a wholly female Romeo, ardent and authoritative yet at the same time languid, sensual and soft. The choice of this Capuleti at the 2005 Martina Franca Festival was also dictated by the availability of Patrizia Ciofi. This great specialist of romantic belcanto had never been offered the role of Giulietta in Capuleti, a role, which is absolutely ideal for her vocal talents.
33504
 $29.99
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Don Giovanni
Starring Andrei Beschasny; Dalibor Jedlicka; Nadezhda Petrenko; Vladimír Doležal; Jirina Marková; Ludek Vele; Zdenek Harvánek; Alice Randová
Prague National Theatre Chorus and Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras.
7012
$29.99
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