Volume 1 of this three volume set recorded at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris with Yuri Temirkanov conducting the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra includes Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 (1875) with acclaimed soloist Denis Matsuev, and Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1878).

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Founded in Tel-Aviv in 1964, the Batsheva Dance Company has been headed since 1990 by Ohad Naharin: an incredible dancer with musical training, who has a true passion for movement. Through his “Gaga” technique, a choreographic vocabulary that explores the sensations and the availability of the bodies, he made his mark on the dance world and offered the company its finest hours. In 2015, Tomer Heymann’s documentary “Mr. Gaga” paid tribute to the Naharin phenomenon, its influence on the contemporary dance scene and in pop culture. This diptych aims to broaden the Batsheva videography by, as a showcase of Naharin’s aesthetics and demanding technique, featuring two of the most emblematic works in the company’s current repertoire, both filmed in Paris: Naharin’s Virus and Last Work. A collective creation, Naharin’s Virus is, in a way, a dialogue between Naharin’s choreographic style and the Batsheva dancers’. Its starting point is the text Publikumsbeschimpfung (Offending the Audience) by the Austrian playwright Peter Handke. An aesthetic manifesto, it is also a political piece: it is worth noting, for instance, that it features traditional music written by a Palestinian composer… A carefully negotiated balance between frenzy and meditation, a frail and unstable whole saturated with an enigmatic opacity and symbolism, Last Work is also a politically committed, ethically-charged piece reflecting on war, peace, oppression and coercion. While dance is stretched up to its limits, Naharin’s choreographic gesture calls for a new outlook on our contemporary world, its violence, its possibilities, its future.

Mozart was not yet seventeen when Lucio Silla was created in Milan one December evening of 1772, yet we can still distinguish in this youthful composition some of the elements that established the exceptionally-gifted child musician as the greatest composer of all times. Indeed, with Lucio Silla, although a neoclassical "opera seria" in every way, it seems that Mozart was already learning to deconstruct and to free the traditional forms of musical drama from archaic conventions. We can also identify in this work an aesthetic premise that Mozart didn't formulate until ten years later: it falls to music only to express and to reveal the psychological depths of the characters; and the poetry in the libretto should only be it's "obedient daughter". The opera is centered around the love Roman dictator Lucio Silla bears for his enemy's daughter Giunia, who favors the exiled senator Cecilio as the object of her affection. After many twists and turns, the lovers are united in marriage and Silla renounces his crown. Tenor Kurt Streit is Lucio Silla, and soprano Patricia Petibon is Giunia for the last time, after having gained international recognition thanks to her numerous performances in this role, while mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro Santafe is the ardent Cecilio. In this monumental production, Claus Guth finds a way to respect both the classical setting and the formal innovations that make the opera so interesting. Ivor Bolton conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real.

In 2005 it was over 30 years since the Zurich Opera House had seen a performance of probably the world’s best-loved ballet, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. The Zurich Ballet, which has become one of the world’s leading dance ensembles under Heinz Spoerli’s direction, raised this famed work from its slumber with a dream team to tackle this classic anew. Zurich Ballet Director and choreographer Spoerli has long been confirmed as a master storyteller and an imaginative renewer of the genre: with the support of set designer Erich Wonder and costumier Florence von Gerkan he has devised a new and contemporary version of this classic dance tale that has been eagerly awaited by ballet enthusiasts all over the world, in this his third production of Swan Lake. Top Russian conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev ensures an evening of musical excellence, too.

Region: All

Founded in Tel-Aviv in 1964, the Batsheva Dance Company was headed from 1990 to 2018 by Ohad Naharin, an incredible dancer with a musical training, and a true passion for movement. Through his "Gaga" technique, a choreographic vocabulary that explores the sensations and the availability of the bodies, he made his mark on the dance world and offered the company it's finest hours. In 2015, Tomer Heymann's documentary "Mr. Gaga" paid tribute to the Naharin phenomenon, it's influence on the contemporary dance scene and in pop culture. The collection 'The Art of Ohad Naharin' is a showcase of Naharin's aesthetics and demanding technique: after a first volume featuring Naharin's Virus and Last Work, two of the most emblematic works in the company's current repertoire, this new release presents Sadeh21, created in 2011 in collaboration with the dancers, and interpreted by the 'junior' branch of Batsheva - The Young Ensemble. Transmission is a fundamental element of Naharin's philosophy. It is not surprising that Batsheva - The Young Ensemble was created the same year that the choreographer took over the Israeli company, on the contrary, it shows the choreographer's desire to nurture young dancers and help them develop their creative process, but also to deepen his own choreographic language by getting an outside look on his own work. This is what happens with Sadeh21: upon seeing it danced by the Young Ensemble, Naharin even said it felt like seeing it for the first time. This 'choreographic odyssee', this 'epic-dance expedition', with it's strong contrasting effects and it's bare simplicity, presents the essence of movement, stripped of all tricks or devices, and thus underscores the extraordinary emotional powers of dance. Rejuvenated by a new generation of interprets from all over the world, the choreography becomes incandescent and resembles an explosion of sensuality, radiant, dangerous and exciting.

The nuptials of eros and thanatos unveil their irresistible attraction in Alban Berg’s unfinished ‘Lulu’, based on the work of German playwright Frank Wedekind, considered one of the major works of the 20th c. in general, and of opera in particular. + Krzysztof Warlikowski delves the innermost depths of the human psyche and chooses to tackle "Lulu" as a deeply moving requiem ‘to the memory of an angel’. + Featured in the title role is Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan. + Paul Daniel conducts the Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie. + “…a genuinely fresh take on Alban Berg’s work.” (Financial Times)

Directed by Ching-Lien Wu, Don Kent, Jean-Marie Blanchard. Starring Romaric Braun, Patrizia Ciofi, Evelino Pido.

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Ballet in three acts
Music : Ludwig Minkus (1826-1917)
Libretto : Marius Petipa / Sergei Khudekov
Redaction : Yuri Grigorovich

With : Svetlana Zakharova, Vladislav Lantratov, Maria Alexandrova, Alexey Loparevich, Andrey Sitnikov

The Bolshoi Ballet
The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra
Conductor : Pavel Sorokin
Choreography : Marius Petipa
New version : Yuri Grigorovich

Marius Petipa’s exotic ballet, set in legendary and mysterious India, is a story of love, death and vengeful judgement. Yuri Grigorovich’s sumptuous recreation of Petipa’s choreography, with breathtaking sets and costumes designed by Nikolay Sharonov, stars Svetlana Zakharova as the Bayadère Nikiya, Vladislav Lantratov as Solor and Maria Alexandrova as Gamzatti whose alluring presence challenges Solor’s love for Nikiya.

Length: 125 min
Image: NTSC, colour, 16:9
Audio: PCM Stereo, 5.1 Dolby Digital
Zones: All Zones

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Although posthumous, 'The Tales of Hoffmann' is considered as the masterpiece of Jacques Offenbach’s work and mixes love, pain and whim. The intrigue settles around three stories about a broken love. Told by Hoffmann, narrator and hero, these tales paint a portrait of three feminine figures: Olympia the automaton, Antonia the dying opera singer and Giulietta the courtesan. This triptych allows the development of very different universes, and colour. It’s also a declension of the image of woman and of evil.

Christoph Marthaler signed this creation for the Teatro Real. This was Gerard Mortier’s last commission for this stage: the Swiss director has proven his ease in many different registers. An essential capacity needed for a work as rich and subtle as 'The Tales of Hoffmann'. Music is conducted by Sylvain Cambreling and the cast includes Eric Cutler, Anne Sofie von Otter, Measha Brueggergosman and Jean-Philippe Lafont.

Running time: 193 minutes
Subtitles: French, German, English, Spanish
Format: 16/9, NTSC, Sound Dolby digital 2.0/5.1

Susan Gritton, Sylvie Brunet, Soile Isokoski, Susanne Resmark, Helene Guilmette, Bernard Richter, and Alain Vernhes star in this Bayreuth production of the Poulenc opera conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

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Choreographer Mark Morris garnered international fame for "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato", considered a landmark achievement, and set to Handel's Baroque masterpiece, in which a colorful array of dancers embody the ecstasy of art that transforms. "L'Allegro" was Mark Morris's premiere work as Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium in 1988, and in the intervening years, has been performed to critical and audience acclaim all over the world. Winner of numerous awards including a Laurence Olivier Award, "L'Allegro" uses Milton's text and features sets inspired by William Blake's later watercolors. Founded in NYC in 1980, the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) is considered one of the preeminent modern dance companies, its members praised repeatedly for their technique and musicality. Live music and community engagement are vital components of the Dance Group, which has toured with its own musicians, the MMDG Music Ensemble, since 1996. Through Access/MMDG programming, the Dance Group provides educational opportunities in dance and music to people of all ages and abilities while on tour internationally and at home at the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, NY. The performance was filmed July 2014 at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain.

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A brand new production of ‘Tannhäuser’ from the Staatsoper Berlin, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, staged and choreographed by Sasha Waltz, who has brought to the stage this Romantic Wagner opera with a star cast of some of today's best Wagnerian singers: Peter Seiffert in the title role, Réne Pape as Landgraf and Peter Mattei as Wolfram, Ann Petersen sings Elisabeth and Marina Prudenskaya is Venus.

HD recording: Staatsoper im Schiller Theater, Berlin – 04/2014
BLURAY Running time: 192 min.
Booklet: French / English / German, Subtitles: French / English / German
16/9, Full HD, Audio:PCM 2.0, DTS HD Master Audio

Recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in June 2004, this Marriage of Figaro was unanimously acclaimed by public and critics alike as a Mozart opera landmark. Director Jean-Louis Martinoty brings an elegantly intelligent narrative sense to an interpretation in which the protagonists, against a backdrop of magnificent canvases of 18th-century inspiration, are dressed by Sylvie de Segonzac in a palette in which every shade is perfect. Hans Schavernoch's set suggests an elitist society that is coming apart at the seams. René Jacobs conducting of the Concerto Köln is meticulous and perfectly balanced, offering a ravishing use of tonal colour and orchestral dynamics. A veteran Almaviva, the excellent Pietro Spagnoli plays opposite Annette Dasch's beauteous Countesss. As Figaro and Susanna, Luca Pisaroni and Rosemary Joshua are a truly sparkling couple, while mezzo Angelika Kirchschlager embodies the most divine troubling of Cherubino.

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The purity of classical dance meets the opulent exoticism of the Maharajas’ India in this 150-year-old ballet, glorified by Nacho Duato for the Mikhailovsky Ballet. Of Ancient India, composer Ludwig Minkus made in his La Bayadère the shiny background of the tragic love story between a priestess and a warrior, unable to get together in this world or in the next. For this new production with the Mikhailovsky Ballet, of which he is the artistic director, Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato created a new version extremely respectful of Marius Petipa’s original, preserving the traditional synopsis and the great coups de théâtre of the libretto, and keeping the original choreography for the most famous scenes. But at the same time, he liberates the ballet from the weight of its own anachronism, removes the episodes of pointless pantomime, and relocates it in an extravagant, lavish and colorful set. Before working on La Bayadère, Duato had already tackled some of the great classics of the Russian classical ballet school: his original versions of Sleeping Beauty (BAC131 BAC431) and The Nutcracker, both commissioned by the Mikhailovsky, have since then toured in the whole world and were met with tremendous success – from Milan and Berlin to Novossibirsk. For this new project, he surrounds himself with the excellent Principals Angelina Vorontsova and Victor Lebedev, but also with Andrea Laššáková, outstanding in the role of Gamzatti.

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The purity of classical dance meets the opulent exoticism of the Maharajas’ India in this 150-year-old ballet, glorified by Nacho Duato for the Mikhailovsky Ballet. Of Ancient India, composer Ludwig Minkus made in his La Bayadère the shiny background of the tragic love story between a priestess and a warrior, unable to get together in this world or in the next. For this new production with the Mikhailovsky Ballet, of which he is the artistic director, Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato created a new version extremely respectful of Marius Petipa’s original, preserving the traditional synopsis and the great coups de théâtre of the libretto, and keeping the original choreography for the most famous scenes. But at the same time, he liberates the ballet from the weight of its own anachronism, removes the episodes of pointless pantomime, and relocates it in a extravagant, lavish and colorful set. Before working on La Bayadère, Duato had already tackled some of the great classics of the Russian classical ballet school: his original versions of Sleeping Beauty (BAC131 BAC431) and The Nutcracker, both commissioned by the Mikhailovsky, have since then toured in the whole world and were met with tremendous success – from Milan and Berlin to Novossibirsk. For this new project, he surrounds himself with the excellent Principals Angelina Vorontsova and Victor Lebedev, but also with Andrea Laššáková, outstanding in the role of Gamzatti.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

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The Paris Opera Ballet, though historically and famously a classical ensemble, proved over the years to be perfectly at ease with the demands and the subtilities of the contemporary repertoire. A tribute to its dazzling technique and unique style, this collector box-set features three milestones in the recent history of the French company : Pina Bausch’s Orpheus und Eurydike, a "Tribute to Jerome Robbins," ten years after his passing, and Anne Teresa de Keersmaker’s Rain. All these programs were filmed at the Palais Garnier, a world-reknowned temple of classical ballet : a way to insure the continuity between the masterpieces of yesterday, and those of today.

Bel Air Classiques presents Petipa's extravaganza ''The Pharaoh's Daughter'', in a stunning production by Pierre Lacotte. Recreating the spectacular sumptuousness of the original, the ballet tells the tale of a young Englishman who dreams he elopes with a Pharaoh's daugher. Despite a desert storm, a lion hunt and an attempted suicide, the couple finally wins the Pharaoh's blessing to their marriage. From its creation in 1862, Petipa's grandiose ballet was a sensational success; its stupendous costumes and striking scenery, its exotica, romanticism and drama appealing to audiences as much as the virtuoso choreography. The Bolshoi Ballet and the two soloists Svetlana Zakharova and Serguei Filin are at their best in spite of the difficulty of Pierre Lacotte's choreography.

The Norwegian National Ballet's Hedda Gabler is Henrik Ibsen's drama retold in a way you've never seen it before. After the premiere in 2017, both Norwegian and international critics praised director Marit Moum Aune's dance production, set to music by Nils Petter Molv�r. Hedda is furious, on the verge of being consumed with disappointment. After a six-month honeymoon in Europe she has returned home to set up home with her husband, J�rgen - but nothing has turned out the way she intended. And when her former lover Eilert L�vborg enters the picture, she reacts in a way that proves perilous for everyone - including herself. Hedda Gabler is one of world theatre's most well-known characters - an icon created by Henrik Ibsen. Is she cowardly or brave? Spoilt or stuck? Wicked or desperate? Our greatest actors have always found new ways to interpret this psychologically complex role. Now the talented dancers of the Norwegian National Ballet provide their own interpretation, adding another dimension to the drama. While the original play is an intense chamber play in which a lot is left unsaid, Moum Aune paints with a broad brush. Hedda's world opens up as we delve deeper into her relationships and background. We get to see major scenes that are only hinted at in Ibsen's text. The dancers in the eight central roles have all contributed to their own choreography, with each movement crucial in the telling of this intense story. Hedda Gabler is the follow-up to Moum Aune's first success with Ibsen as dance, in which she directed and choreographed Ibsen's Ghosts together with Cina Espejord. Both productions are among the Norwegian National Ballet's greatest successes, and are in high demand around the world. BONUS : Hedda Gabler, The Other Side A 52 min. Documentary behind the scenes of the Norwegian National Opera

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Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore, based on the eponymous play by Spanish playwright Antonio García Gutiérrez, takes us to 15th c. northern Spain to witness the tragic destiny of those under the control of Azucena, who is seeking to avenge the death of his mother. + The first percussion notes are solemn, setting the tone for Verdi’s masterpiece, whose main themes include abandonment, passion, power, love for one’s parents and vengeance. + This production marked the debut of Russian stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov at La Monnaie and the first Verdi interpretation by Marc Minkowski.

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Death is never far away in Leoš Janácek’s work: in The Cunning Little Vixen, the main character falls under the fire of a hunter, Katia Kabanova kills herself, Emilia Marty in The Makropulos Case has to deal with the hard consequences of eternal youth. From the House of the Dead makes no exception, especially since the composer knew he was living out his final days when he decided to adapt into an opera Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s eponymous novel, a literary work inspired by the time the novelist spent in a Siberian prison. This painful feeling of ineluctability pervades through his disillusioned and savage score, that recounts the hopeless life of the convicts of a Soviet concentration camp. In this place where life has already drawn out, in this no man’s land forsaken by civilization, Janácek portrays the anonymous and daily sufferings, the abuses, the corporal punishments, but also evokes fragments from the prisoners’ past, bringing them back to life for the duration of a game or of a story. Against this background that contrasts the empathic solidarity of simple men with the horrific brutality of the prison guards, stage director Frank Castorf - who created a memorable Ring Cycle in Bayreuth for the Wagner Bicentennial in 2013 - embraces the aesthetics of grotesque and absurd suggested by Janácek’s score, and chooses to crudely display, with stark realism, the physical and psychological violence at the heart of the opera. In the pit, conducting the house orchestra, Simone Young underlines the power plays and the overwhelming lyricism unleashed by Janácek’s music. As the main protagonists, Peter Rose, Charles Workman and Bo Skhovus, all familiar with Janácek’s subtleties, bring back to life these agonizing anti-heroic characters forsaken by God and men.

Enter the Ballet School of the Opéra national de Paris and follow the young students’ dance lessons, taught by Danseurs Étoiles Élisabeth Platel and Charles Jude in the style of legendary ballet master Alexander Kalioujny. Alexander ‘Sasha’ Kalioujny, born in Prague on April 15th,1923, was a Czech dancer and ballet master. In 1947, he entered Serge Lifar’s Paris Opera Ballet as Danseur Étoile; and then following Rudolf Noureyev‘s request, he returned in 1970 as ballet master and devised a highly praised dance training that focused on technique, strength and movement mastery. This film is the living memory of his classes, reconstituted by his former students, Danseurs Étoiles Élisabeth Platel and Charles Jude, and performed by the young dancers of the Ballet School of the Opéra national de Paris. A fascinating testimony and an indispensable work tool for all classical dancers around the world.

This outstanding DVD release contains two magnificent, but rarely performed ballets: Gene Kelly’s Pas De Dieux, and Leo Staats’ Soir de Fete. Pas De Dieux tells the myth of Eros and Aphrodite who come to earth and land on the beach. The god and goddess seduce a lifeguard and his fiancée and enjoy the pleasures of their love. Just as the couples are dancing with their new suitor, Zeus comes to retrieve his wife and the deities ascend to Olympus, leaving the humans alone to their earthly loves. Pas De Dieux carefully follows George Gershwin’s Concerto in F. The ballet earned Kelly the Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur by the French Government. Leo Staats’ Soire de Fete was choreographed in 1925. The work is especially notable for its remarkable use of the male dancer, who is too frequently overshadowed by his female companion. This ballet includes the males moving freely alongside their female counterparts.

What are heroes made of and why do our societies need them so badly? At the Staatsoper Stuttgart, stage director Árpád Schilling tries to answer this mythological, political and existential question, lying at the core of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin. “A wonder! A miracle!”, the men and women of Brabant agreed when, against all expectations, someone stood up for Elsa and invalidated the allegations made by the plaintiff Telramund. And yet he does the most normal thing in the world: to help a person in distress. So why is there a need for this savior, surrounded by the aura of mystery, whose name and origin even his new wife Elsa cannot ask? Why does the collective body abdicates its moral and political responsibilities and surrenders them to a single individual? And when does the providential man stops being a savior and becomes a threat? For Hungarian stage director Árpád Schilling, a fierce enemy of the very idea of the cult of a personality, and he himself a political exile, these questions lie at the core of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin. For his new production at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the stage director recenters the opera on the expressivity of the direction, and strips the stage of all its ornamental or mythological elements. He creates a coming-of-age tale, pervaded by the themes of responsibility, trust, and the relationship between the individual and the collective. This powerful and ambitious proposition is mirrored in Maestro Cornelius Meister’s expressive and philosophical conducting, and in Michaël König, Simone Schneider, Martin Gantner, Okka von der Damerau’s profound singing.

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Leocadia Begbick - Jane Henschel
Fatty "the Bookkeeper" - Donald Kaasch
Trinity Moses - Willard White
Jenny Smith - Measha Brueggergosman
Jim Maclntyre - Michael König
O’Brien/Higgins - John Easterlin
Bank-Account Bill - Otto Katzameier
Alaska-Wolf Joe - Steven Humes

Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado
Stage Direction : Alex Ollé, Carlus Padrissa – La Fura dels Baus

A hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus at the Teatro Real de Madrid.

Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialisation of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. In twenty scenes the authors tell the story of a city lost in the middle of a desert and run by three thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling and violence rule supreme.

The production by Alex Ollé and Carlus Padrissa, both of La Fura dels Baus, combines enormous inventiveness, joy and energy with awe-inspiring ferocity.

Perfect casting brings together a group of singers – Measha Brueggergosman, Michael König, Jane Henschel and Willard White – who are also marvellous actors.

The Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus are directed by young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, who actually began his career at the Teatro Real. In November 2010, he received the “El Ojo Crítico” prize, awarded annually to Spain’s most outstanding artists in the classical music field.

Director: Andy Sommer
Length: 138 min
Subtitles: French / English / German / Spanish
Zones: All Zones - 1 disc