Modest Mussorgsky’s music drama Boris Godunov was premiered in front of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, the same location where this 2014 performance takes place. Conceived by Plamen Kartaloff, director of the Sofia Opera, this production took place 90 years after the building’s consecreation, and was dedicated to the centennial anniversary of the birth of Boris Christoff and the 85th anniversary of the birth of Nicolai Ghiaurov, two vocalists who became famous for their performances as Boris. For this performance, the role of Boris is sung by Martin Tsonev.

Picture Format: 16:9
Sound Format: PCM 2.0
Region Code: 0 (Worldwide)

MY FIRST BALLET COLLECTION

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Valeriy Ovsyanikov, conductor

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Valeriy Ovsyanikov, conductor

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (excerpts)

San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet Orchestra
Martin West, conductor

Ferdinand Hérold: La Fille mal gardée (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Anthony Twiner, conductor

Felix Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream (excerpts)

Pacific Northwest Ballet
BBC Concert Orchestra
Stewart Kershaw, conductor

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Evgneny Svetlanov, conductor

Adolphe Adam: Giselle (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Boris Gruzin, conductor

Leo Delibes: Sylvia (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Graham Bond, conductor

Sergey Prokofiev: Cinderella (excerpts)

Paris National Opera Ballet
Paris National Opera Orchestra
Koen Kessels, conductor

Leo Delibes: Coppélia (excerpts)

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Nicolae Moldaveano, conductor

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Running time: 92 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD9)

A wonderfully dramatic showman, Tail Dragger also possesses one of the most authentic and distinct Chicago Blues voices ever. In 1998, his 'American People' (DMK #728) was described as 'tour de force Chicago Blues' by Art Tipaldi in Blues Revue.

NABUCCO

This series of DVDs features travel scenes accompanied by classical music.

This series of DVDs features travel scenes accompanied by classical music.

This series of DVDs features travel scenes accompanied by classical music.

The Places
The tour of London takes us to the best known parts of the British capital, with views of the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Hampton Court and down river to Greenwich.

The Music
The music for this tour of London is taken from the last two of Joseph Haydn's twelve London Symphonies, the last such works that he would write, composed specially for a series of concerts he gave in London in the 1790s, during two extended visits.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 60 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

This series of DVDs features travel scenes accompanied by classical music.

The Places

We explore the streets, palaces and parks of Madrid, the capital of Castile and of Spain, before turning south to La Mancha, the country of the immortal Don Quixote, and to Toledo, the home of Cervantes and of the great painter known as El Greco.

The Music

The music of Spain held an exotic attraction for composers from other lands. The Russians Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov found inspiration here, as did the French composers Lalo, Massenet and Ravel, who claimed Basque descent on his mother's side, and Bizet, whose opera Carmen is imbued with the spirit of the country. Spain provided Verdi with a narrative source, and another Italian, the demon violinist Paganini, was equally a master of the quintessential Spanish instrument, the guitar.

This series of DVDs features travel scenes accompanied by classical music.

The Places

Scenes from Moscow and the Golden Ring, the cluster of historic towns to the north-east of the city, including Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov and Zagorsk, show the historic heart of Russia in Winter and Summer.

The Music

The music here included ranges from folk-song and extracts from the Russian Orthodox liturgy to works by Russian nationalist composers of the later nineteenth century, including Balakirev, Arensky and the more cosmopolitan Tchaikovsky.

This series of DVDs features travel scenes accompanied by classical music.

The Places

Mozart’s father Leopold settled in Salzburg in 1737 and in 1744 entered the service of the city’s ruling Prince-Archbishop as a violinist. The city underwent various changes of regime in the first years of the nineteenth century, but in 1825 Schubert could express his wonder at the fine churches and palaces of the place.

The Music

The music includes movements directly connected with Salzburg, compositions for distinguished local families, members of the Mozarts’ social circle, and works resulting from his visit in 1777-78 to Mannheim. Other compositions come from the remarkable final decade of Mozart’s life, when he was living in Vienna, culminating in the Lacrimosa from the unfinished Requiem of 1791, a movement that he is said to have tried to sing, with his friends, on his death-bed.

This series of DVDs features travel scenes accompanied by classical music.

The Places
Our tour of Scotland takes us from Edinburgh, with its castle, Scott monument and Palace of Holyrood, to the highland and then to The Hebrides, recalling the journey undertaken by the young Mendelssohn.

The Music
In 1829 Mendelssohn visited England and, after the summer season, travelled north to Scotland, accompanied by his friend Karl Klingemann. In Edinburgh he visited the Palace of Holyrood, recalling the tragic story of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the murder there of her secretary David Rizzio. Further north he took the steamer to the island of Staffa, where he saw Fingal's Cave and in spite of sea-sickness immediately sketched the opening theme of his Hebrides Overture. It was not until 1842 that his Scottish Symphony was completed, a work inspired by memories of his visit to Scotland.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 52 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

This series of DVDs features travel scenes accompanied by classical music.

This series of DVDs features travel scenes accompanied by classical music.

The Places

St Petersburg, the former Russian capital, established in 1712 by Peter the Great, represented an era of modernisation. Built around the River Neva, which flows into the seas of the Gulf of Finland, its palaces, streets and parks, reflect the age of its construction and wider European influences to which the Tsar sought to direct his country.

The Music

The composers whose music is here included, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Liadov and Ippolitov-Ivanov, were themselves closely associated with Russian music of the later nineteenth century and, inevitably, with St Petersburg and its Conservatory.

The Tuscan region stretches from the Apennines to the Tyrrhenian Sea and includes, among its nine provinces, Pisa, Siena and Lucca. The music chosen for this tour of Tuscany is largely Italian, ranging from the sixteenth-century Milanese lutenist Francesco Canova da Milano to the Venetian Vivaldi, the Genoese-born violinist Paganini and the opera composers Donizetti, Verdi, Catalani and Puccini. Place is also found for appropriate music by the Italian-trained Gluck and from Mozart’s Italian opera Don Giovanni.

The prestigious concert will be conducted by Austrian conductor Franz Welser-M�st for the 3rd time (2011, 2013) The New Year's Concert live from Vienna is one of the world's most famous and spectacular classical music events. It will be broadcast on TV and radio and reaches over 90 countries around the world with more than 50 million viewers. The annual New Year's Day Concert in Vienna has been a major event for more than eight decades, since 1939. Conducted by world-famous maestros such as Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, Gustavo Dudamel and Christian Thielemann. The Vienna Philharmonic, as musical ambassadors of Austria, send people all over the world a New Year's greeting in the spirit of hope, friendship and peace with the lively and light-hearted and at the same time nostalgic and profound music from the vast repertoire of the family of Johann Strauss and it's contemporaries.

Few concerts in the world are awaited with as much excitement as the New Year's Concert from Vienna. Under the direction of Riccardo Muti, the Vienna Philharmonic ushers in the New Year with a concert in the magnificent Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. Marking his seventh time conducting this prestigious event, Riccardo Muti leads the orchestra in a program that celebrates the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II, exploring new perspectives on the musical world of the Strauss family. Riccardo Muti has played an exceptional role in the history of the Vienna Philharmonic for over 50 years. The artistic collaboration with Maestro Muti began in 1971. Since then, he has conducted over 500 concerts with the orchestra, including six New Year's concerts, Philharmonic subscription concerts, memorial concerts, annual orchestral concerts at the Salzburg Festival, guest performances and tours, and numerous opera productions. He has been an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic since 2011. The annual New Year's Day Concert in Vienna has been a major event for more than eight decades, since 1939, being broadcasted on TV and radio, and reaching millions of viewers in over 90 countries across the globe. The concert has previously been conducted by world-famous maestros such as Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, Zubin Mehta, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, Franz Welser-M�st, Gustavo Dudamel and others. The Vienna Philharmonic, as musical ambassadors of Austria, send people all over the world a New Year's greeting in the spirit of hope, friendship and peace with the lively and light-hearted and at the same time nostalgic and profound music from the vast repertoire of the family of Johann Strauss and it's contemporaries.

The annual New Year's Concert in Vienna has been a major event for more than eight decades, since 1939, broadcast on television and radio. The concert has so far been conducted by world-famous maestros such as Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, Franz Welser-M�st, Gustavo Dudamel, and others. As Austria's musical ambassadors, the Vienna Philharmonic sends people around the world a New Year's greeting in the spirit of hope, friendship, and peace - with lively and carefree yet nostalgic and profound music from the great repertoire of the Strauss family and their contemporaries.

Live at Slane Castle, Ireland was recorded this past August at Slane Castle in County Meath, Ireland, the home of Lord Henry Mount Charles a gorgeous location that has also hosted concerts by U2 and Bruce Springsteen. The 80-minute, 25-track concert draws on material from both their self-titled debut CD and a New Journey. Also included is a 20-minute 'making of' featured that takes viewers behind the scenes of Celtic Woman's elaborate production.

The Teatro La Fenice opened in 1792 and is one of the most renowned and most beautiful theaters in the world. "Amid mirrors, flowers and confetti, New Year's Eve at La Fenice is a ritual" (MusicPaper). The Teatro Fenice's Concerto di Capodanno - one of the world's most celebrated New Year's concerts - welcomes Daniel Harding back to the podium. After the monumental opening with Beethoven's Fifth, soloists Mariangela Sicilia and Francesco Demuro perform beloved arias by Rossini, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Wolf-Ferrari, Bizet, Gounod and Verdi. Interwoven with the concert are scenes of Aterballetto dancers, choreographed by Marcos Morau, performing in Venice's most iconic locations. The soloists' "perfect vocal blend" in Libiamo ne' lieti calici truly stands out (MusicPaper).

The Teatro La Fenice opened in 1792 and is one of the most renowned and most beautiful theaters in the world. First performed in 2004, the New Year's Concert at Venice's Teatro La Fenice celebrates it's 20th anniversary in 2024 with an extravagant program. Conducted by Maestro Fabio Luisi, this prestigious event features an exquisite blend of symphonic works and operatic masterpieces, including arias from operas such as Tosca, La traviata, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot. Accompanied by beautiful ballet interludes and a lively tribute to the 70th anniversary of Italian television, soprano Eleonora Buratto and tenor Fabio Sartori shine on stage and ring in the New Year with a burst of joyous brilliance.

Also available on Blu-ray

Ho, ho, ho boy, Christmas never looked like this before! In these four merry tales, Santa's got his work cut out for him, trying to convince the non-believers that he really does exist.

The performance of summer 2015 was again a huge success for the festival!

Njinga ruled 17th century Ndongo - now Angola - as 'king' because tribal custom forbade her to rule as a woman. Flowing freely between time periods, the play traces the diaspora of Njinga's people to Brazil and the United States.

Also available on Blu-ray

THE NOBEL PRIZE CONCERT 2010
Ludwig van Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 in C major, Op. 72b
Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82

Joshua Bell, violin
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor

Bonus:
- Interviews featuring Joshua Bell, Sakari Oramo, and Mario Vargas Llosa, the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 91 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)