Three-quarters of a century of uninterrupted creation, how can you take inventory of that? Nelly Kaplan, a writer and important figure in French film, asked that very question about the work of Picasso. She provided her own answer with Le Regard Picasso, a magnificent film that received the Golden Lion at the 1967 Venice Film Festival. Fr�meaux & Associ�s has made this work available to the public once again along with a second short film entitled � la Source la Femme Aim�e, which takes a look at the erotic drawings of Andr� Masson. The reissue of these cinematographic works provides a fresh overview of two of the greatest representatives of desire in art.

Trop souvent, les animaux, preserves pendant des millenaires par le permafrost, ce sol perpetuellement gele du Grand Nord Siberien, ont ete abîmes par l’alternance gel-degel des saisons et par les pratiques musclees – A la lance A incendie – de ceux qui les ont degages de leur gangue de glace. C’est pour eviter cela que Bernard Buigues, directeur de l’association francaise Cercles polaires expeditions, responsable de l’expedition Mammuthus, dont la direction scientifique est assuree par Yves Coppens, paleoanthropologue au College de France, a decide de maintenir une chaîne du froid autour de Jarkov. “Plutôt que d’envoyer des morceaux de ces animaux, seches ou decomposes, aux laboratoires etrangers, nous avons eu l’idee de le conserver sur place en bon etat, et de faire venir les chercheurs jusqu’A Khatanga”, precise Yves Coppens. » Christiane Galus, LE MONDE / « Un “Jurassic Park” A la mode mammouth? Les geneticiens, japonais et americains en tête, ont dejA clairement affiche leur souhait de tenter un clonage pour “fabriquer” un mammouth du XXIe siecle bien vivant! Pour se faire, il suffirait que la congelation de Jarkov ait permis une bonne conservation de cellules intactes. A partir de l’ADN retrouve, on peut imaginer que les chercheurs remplacent le code genetique d’un embryon d’elephant d’Asie par celui de Jarkov, avant de placer l’embryon qui en resultera dans l’uterus d’une elephante pour esperer faire naître un bebe mammouth... Un “Jurassic Park” A la mode mammouth ? » Jean-Marc Guilbert, LA DEPECHE

Directed by Anna Schmidt. Starring Julian Rachlin, Jonny Greenwood, Andrzej Wajda.

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The contemporary face of The Royal Ballet is shown in works from three of today's leading choreographers. Christopher Wheeldon's Within the Golden Hour is based around seven couples separating and intermingling, to music by Vivaldi and Ezio Bosso and lit with the rich colours suggested by sunset. In Flight Pattern, Crystal Pite combines Górecki's haunting “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” with a large dance ensemble to create a poignant and passionate reflection on migration. Between them, Medusa is new work inspired by the Greek myth, created for The Royal Ballet by the acclaimed choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, which juxtaposes Purcell arias with an electronic score by Olga Wojciechowska.

“Mahler, Live” is a dialogue between two outstanding ballets, the world premiere of “4” by Martin Schläpfer and Hans van Manen‘s icon of dance history “Live”. The new director of the Vienna State Ballet Martin Schläpfer not only presents his first own program at the Vienna State Opera with the premiere “Mahler, Live” but also introduce himself as choreographer with his world premiere “4” to Gustav Mahler‘s 4th Symphony. The result is a great ballet for the entire ensemble, which is preceded by an icon of dance history at the opening of the evening, with Hans van Manen‘s “Live”. Hans van Manen‘s “Live” is the first video ballet in dance history and a masterful puzzle game with the mechanisms of perception. First performed in Amsterdam in 1979, “Live” has so far been danced exclusively by Het Nationale Ballett. With this new production in Vienna, Hans van Manen entrusts his work to another company for the first time. “The ballet evening Mahler, live at the Vienna State Opera is already writing dance history” (Kurier) “A sensational start. The Viennese have undoubtedly drawn a lucky draw.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).

In the imposing Arena di Verona, soprano Sonya Yoncheva and tenor Vittorio Grigolo present with dramatic and passionate synergy an evening of the most beautiful operatic love arias and duets in opera history. Passion that burns, consumes and sometimes kills is the central theme of this concert including arias from Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod as well as from Puccini´s Tosca, La bohème, Madama Butterfly and Verdi´s La traviata, all conducted by Plácido Domingo. Sonya Yoncheva has the full and vibrant timbre of a true lyrical soprano while Vittorio Grigolo, like Cavaradossi and Rodolfo, plays the cards of ardor and passion, with sweet and affectionate colors. An overall successful evening.

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The “striking interpretation” (Neue Musikzeitung) of Jules Massenet’s operatic rarity Don Quichotte at Bregenz Festival, received an "unanimous jubilation for director Mariame Clément, her outfitter Julia Hansen and the entire stage team: a typical Bregenz Festival orchid flourished!“ (Neue Musikzeitung Online). But this opera is also a musical discovery, not least because of the outstanding cast: “the balsamic sound of well-being of Gábor Bretz, David Stouts mobile Sancho Panza is also wonderfully shaded (Salzburger Nachrichten) and “Anna Goryachova impresses as Dulcinée with vocal clarity and scenic presence”. (Wiener Zeitung) “The Bregenz Festival discovers a dreamlike operatic beauty full of melancholy and farewell” (Salzburger Nachrichten)

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Indeed, it was to La Scala in 1966 that Rudolf Nureyev entrusted the debut of “his” Sleeping Beauty, and now, twelve years after its last performance, his masterpiece returns to the stage with the magnificent sets created by Oscar winner Franca Squarciapino at La Scala in 1993, and Felix Korobov conducting the extraordinary score by Tchaikovsky. Florence Clerc is in charge of the choreographic revival, and the result is nothing short of extraordinary. “Timofej Andrijashenko had a great debut with the Désiré of Nureyev. Polina Semionova was an amazing Aurora” (Strata Gemmi) “A great production, a success thanks to a superlative and thrilling ballet company.” (LUUK)

The concerts that occur each year at the Salzburg Festival are undoubtedly some of the finest performances in the world. Established in 1920, the Festival is held each summer in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In addition to the various concerts that are performed each year, operas and plays are presented as well. This unique and extensive release features six concerts from the Salzburg Festival that were recorded between 2007 and 2013. The fine orchestras featured include the Wiener Philharmoniker, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and the National Children’s Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela under the batons of Pierre Boulez, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Daniel Barenboim, and Sir Simon Rattle.

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

Also available on standard DVD

The Belgian dancer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui interprets Gluck’s late Baroque opera Alceste as an impressive symbiosis between dance and music. The opera “can be experienced here in all its existential power.“ (SZ) It is here performed in the revised Paris version from 1776 where Gluck has revalued especially the ballet music. Cherkaoui – director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders – has worked with top artists across disciplines like superstar Beyoncé. The superb dancers of the Belgian Compagnie Eastman, Antwerp perform Gluck’s score physically, creating a fine and stringent aesthetics of “beautiful images” (Opernwelt). Dorothea Röschmann with her “inimitable charisma” (Financial Times) and Charles Castronovo deliver a brilliant performance in the roles of the self-sacrificing royal couple. “Musically impressive.“ (NMZ)

Falstaff is Verdi’s masterpiece of comic opera, in which the behavior of the ageing Sir John Falstaff, a devious freeloader and would-be ladykiller, causes uproar in the petty-bourgeois household of the Windsor’s. In this performance stage and film director Mario Martone updates the action to the present day and shows Falstaff as ageing rebel in dodgy sideburns and leather jacket. Among the “exquisit vocal cast” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Michael Volle gives his debut in the title role “with masterly dynamic shadings” (Financial Times) and “as if he had been preparing for this role for a lifetime.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) while “Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin are tickling out all the wit and all the momentum from this score.” (Online Merker)

Wagner's rarely performed early comic opera, based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, enjoys its Spanish debut in a new production by director Kasper HOlten. The lively score boasts clear Italian, French and Weberian influences that pre-date the composer's mature voice, yet the music continually delights with the unmistakable emergence of Wagner's precocious genius. His adaptation of the Bard's play reflects the rebellious modd of a Revolutionary Germany, vindicating sensual love and attacking the fanatical repression of sexuality by a puritanical and hypocritical authority. Ivor Bolton conducts a vibrant cast featuring English baritone and Cardiff Singer of the World Lieder Prize-winner Christoph Maltman, Turkish-Viennese tenor and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Ilker Arcayurek and Germany's htotest Wagnerian leading lady, Manuela Uhl.

Olga Busuioc's 'performance of sustained dramatic intensity and vocal brilliance... brings direction and shape to the Miskimmon "concept"' (The Arts Desk), in a Festival-premiere Butterfly revived from the 2016 tour. The Guardian lauds her reading's 'perception of clarity... dispassionate... yet full of heart... sensuously and expertly played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the eagerly responsive baton of Omer Meir Wellber' with praise for Guerrero's 'Pinkerton, sung with soaring, willful, preening grace' and a 'Sharpless, richly and sympathetically portrayed by Micael Sumuel'. 'Elizabeth DeShong's Suzuki was more striking - a rock of sanity and compassion, with a voice of superb authority' and 'the chorus under it's new master Nicholas Jenkins sounded luminous in it's humming serenade' (Telegraph)

Olga Busuioc's 'performance of sustained dramatic intensity and vocal brilliance... brings direction and shape to the Miskimmon "concept"' (The Arts Desk), in a Festival-premiere Butterfly revived from the 2016 tour. The Guardian lauds her reading's 'perception of clarity... dispassionate... yet full of heart... sensuously and expertly played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the eagerly responsive baton of Omer Meir Wellber' with praise for Guerrero's 'Pinkerton, sung with soaring, willful, preening grace' and a 'Sharpless, richly and sympathetically portrayed by Micael Sumuel'. 'Elizabeth DeShong's Suzuki was more striking - a rock of sanity and compassion, with a voice of superb authority' and 'the chorus under it's new master Nicholas Jenkins sounded luminous in it's humming serenade' (Telegraph)

Three masterworks by Kader Belarbi shine in these stunning Ballet du Capitole productions. Hailed by Le Figaro as ''simply magnificent: a miracle in two acts'', Le Corsaire is a bold reinvention of a 19th-century classic. La Bete et la Belle - a compelling reimagining of the classic fiary tale Beauty and the Beast - had its place affirmed among hte best of modern ballets by Belarbi's much-lauded production for Theatre du Capitole. La Reine morte, based on Montherlant's play of the same name and set to an enchanting score by Tchaikovsky, tells the tragic story of King Peter I of Portugal's devotion to his beloved Ines.

Wagner's rarely performed early comic opera, based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, enjoys its Spanish debut in a new production by director Kasper HOlten. The lively score boasts clear Italian, French and Weberian influences that pre-date the composer's mature voice, yet the music continually delights with the unmistakable emergence of Wagner's precocious genius. His adaptation of the Bard's play reflects the rebellious modd of a Revolutionary Germany, vindicating sensual love and attacking the fanatical repression of sexuality by a puritanical and hypocritical authority. Ivor Bolton conducts a vibrant cast featuring English baritone and Cardiff Singer of the World Lieder Prize-winner Christoph Maltman, Turkish-Viennese tenor and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Ilker Arcayurek and Germany's htotest Wagnerian leading lady, Manuela Uhl.

Royal Ballet Principals Federico Bonelli, Laura Morera and Steven McRae dance the lead roles in Liam Scarlett's new ballet, based on the world's most famous work of horror fiction, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This ambitious theatrical collaboration brings the novel to life with spectacular period sets and costumes by John Macfarlane and a newly commissioned score by Lowell Liebermann. Scarlett's choreography draws out the emotional power of this classic story. Passionate encounters between Victor, Elizabeth and the Creature express their torment, regret, anger, yearning and love.

Originally released in 2006. Directed by David Bickerstaff, Phil Grabsky. Starring Francine Brody, Juliet Stevenson, David Threlfall.

This film by Joan Grossman and Paul Rosdy features music by John Zorn. In the years 1938041 nearly 20,000 European Jewish refugees fled to Shanghai, China, where most would spend almost a decade in exile.

Originally released in 2013.