The centenary of Benjamin Britten is marked with a new study by the multi-award-winning director Tony Palmer. It is a dark coda to Palmer's four other Italia-Prize-winning films with and about Britten, whom many now regard as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. This extraordinary film explores Britten's uneasy relationship to the wider world. The bloodiest century in history profoundly affected Britten, not just because he was a committed pacifist, but on a much deeper level. What is the role of the artist in such a troubled world? What are his responsibilities? What is the nature of creativity itself? What is it's function? Does it have a function? Man's inhumanity to Man now, and always. This is the subject matter which preoccupied Britten and that is the subject of this film.

NORMA

Starring Dimitra Theodossiou, Daniela Barcellona & Carlo Ventre. From the Macerata Festival, Italy, 2007. 2 DVDs. (165 min)

150 minute DVD starring Joan Sutherland and Tatiana Troyanos in a complete live 1981 performance of Bellini's "bel canto" masterpiece.

Montserrat Caballe, Jon Vickers and Josephine Veasey are the featured singers in Bellini's masterpiece. Giuseppe Patane conducts the orchestra of Teatro Regio di Torino.

A group that effortlessly straddles the gap between avant-garde improvisation and accessible groove-based jazz, Medeski, Martin & Wood have simultaneously earned standing as relentlessly innovative musicians and as an enormously popular act. Emerging out of the New York downtown scene in the early '90s, MMW soon set out on endless cross-country tours before returning home to Manhattan to further refine their sound through myriad influential experimentations. Each of the musicians - keyboardist John Medeski, drummer/percussionist Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood - had crossed paths throughout the '80s, playing with the likes of John Lurie, John Zorn, and Martin mentor Bob Moses. In 1991, the trio officially convened for an engagement at New York's Village Gate. Soon, the group was rehearsing in Martin's loft, writing, and then recording 1992's self-released Notes from the Underground. As the group began to tour, escaping the supportive though insular New York music community, Medeski - a former child prodigy - switched to a Hammond B-3 organ rather than a grand piano. TRACK LISTING: #1. Think #2. Night Marchers #3. Bubblehouse #4. Chubb Sub #5. Night Marchers #6. Chubb Sub

This is an intensely personal, painfully revealing portrait of one of jazz's greatest alto saxophonist, Art Pepper. A remarkable expressive soloist and composer who alos was an addict, thief, womanizer and wildman. In candid interviews, he recounts his troubled marriages, dependence on drugs, prison terms, and luck in meeting his last wife, an articulate, compassionate defender of her errant husband. Year 1982. 50 minutes.

Disenchanted with the daily drudge of crushing rocks on a prison farm in Mississippi, the dapper, silver-tongued Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney, THE PERFECT STORM) busts loose. Except he's still shackled to his own chain-mates from the chain gang - bad-tempered Pete (John Turturro, SUMMER OF SAM), and sweet, dimwitted Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson, HAMLET). with nothing to lose and buried loot to regain - before it's lost forever in a flood - the three embark on the adventure of a lifetime in this hilarious offbeat road picture. Populated with strange characters, including a blind prophet, sexy sirens, and a one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman, COYOTE UGLY), it's an odyssey filled with chases, close calls, near misses, and betrayal that will leave you laughing at every outrageous and surprising twist and turn.

Acclaimed director Laurent Pelly is one of the most renowned and prolific interpreters of Offenbach’s brilliantly inventive operettas, including several productions for the Opéra de Lyon. The composer’s satirical and hilarious opéra bouffe version of Charles Perrault’s 17th century tale of the serial wife-murdering Bluebeard (in which no-one actually gets murdered!), deftly walks the line between humour and cruelty, with a stellar performance from Yann Beuron in the title role. This special release also includes a 50-minute documentary - Tales of Offenbach – created by the distinguished film-maker, Reiner E.Moritz. Narrated by Dame Felicity Lott, the film includes interviews with the cast and creatives of this sparkling production.

Poet E.T.A. Hoffmann (200th anniversary of death in 2022) as the protagonist of his own fantastic tales: In his encounter with three women - Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta - he searches in vain for love and for himself. Will he draw strength for art from his failure in life? Or will he fail in himself, drown in alcohol? Like in a kaleidoscope appear ever-new constellations and shimmering colours of German romanticism and French esprit. Stage director Daniele Finzi Pasca brings an enchanting, fairy-tale-like spectacle to the stage with all the colourful means of theatrical magic. French star tenor Benjamin Bernheim shines in his role debut of Hoffmann: "Benjamin Bernheim's art of orchestrating timbre will continue to cause emotional turmoil for days to come for those who were able to experience this operatic bliss" (S�ddeutsche Zeitung).

Aquiles Machdo, Konstantin Gorny, Katharine Goedner, Maria Bayo, Valentina Kutzarova, and Milagros Poblador star in this Bilbao Opera production of the Offenbach opera directed by Giancarlo Del Monaco and conducted by Alain Guingal.

Also available on Blu-ray

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

Pat Martino. A guitarist's guitarist. A musician's musician. Jazz legend. Open Road is a documentary of Pat Martino. It is the story of the difficult road back from a brain aneurysm that nearly killed and left him without memory or the ability to play his guitar. Les Paul remarked upon hearing the 11 year old Martino, "that he was tempted to ask Pat for lessons." George Benson upon first arriving in New York and hearing Pat at Small's Paradise said, "they came to a break in the music, and this guitar leaped out of nowhere, playing some of the most incredible lines I had ever heard. It had everything in it: great tone, great articulation and the whole crowd - it was a black audience - they went crazy. And I said to myself, 'If this (playing) is a sample of what New York is like, I'm getting out of here.'" The road takes us to exciting performances at Ethel's Place and to Pat's comeback gig at New York's Bottom Line. Martino is captured giving a guitar lesson; working in the studio recording new music; philosophizing about music and life; providing an in-depth glimpse into the creative genius of this jazz guitar legend. Open Road covers the whole road: The complete Martino. Also included is a bonus guitar lesson with the master and additional interviews with George Benson, Steve Khan and the late Michael Hedges and Emily Remler. NTSC all region, 120 minutes.

The three operas-comiques in this set epitomise the glamour, vivacity and zest of the quintessentially French genre and are among their composers' most admired works. Adolphe Adam's "Le Postillon de Lonjumeau" exudes rococo Parisian charm, Reynaldo Hahn's elegant and refined "Ciboulette" is one of the last masterpieces of French operetta, and Jacques Offenbach's "La Perichole" is an opera-bouffe of scintillating colour and vivacious dances. These acclaimed productions from the famous stage of the Opera Comique in Paris feature world-class performers, superb directors, and, in the Adam, costumes by the iconic French fashion designer, Christian Lacroix. “[A] delightful collection…Florie Valiquette shows a lively stage presence as Madelaine...All in all this is an enjoyable outing.” --MusicWeb International

The Opera Comique in Paris has a long tradition of giving stylish performances dating back to the 18th century. Five imaginative and critically acclaimed productions are featured in this collection of French operatic masterpieces. Bizet's 'Carmen', which received it's premiere at the Opera Comique in 1875, is performed on period instruments conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Ambroise Thomas's 'Hamlet' features the stellar French baritone Stephane Degout in the title role. Messager exemplifies the spirit of La Belle epoch in 'Fortunio'; Gounod fuses Romanticism with the supernatural in 'La Nonne sanglante'; and the outstanding French soprano Sabine Devieilhe takes the lead role in Delibes's tragic tale of passion and loyalty, 'Lakme' - one of the jewels of the Opera Comique.

Also available on Blu-ray

This box set contains four exceptional and star-studded opera and operetta recordings from the Opernhaus Zürich: Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi, Berg’s Wozzeck, Massenet’s Werther, and Lehar’s Das Land des Lachelns. Philharmonia Zurich is the orchestra of Zurich Opera. As an independent body of 116 contract players, it has existed since 1985 under the name of Zurich Opera Orchestra. It was renamed in 2012 with the appointment of director Andreas Homoki and general music director Fabio Luisi. The Choir of the Zurich Opera House, with its 60 permanent members and the participation of up to 160 performances per season, forms an essential cornerstone of the artistic ensemble at the Zurich Opera House. Under the umbrella of the most traditional Swiss opera house, it unites singers on the highest professional level, whose musical and stylistic versatility is combined with the power of acting and spontaneity. On a regular basis, the members also prove their artistic format as soloists. The choir reflects the claim and the radiance of the Zurich Opera in its international composition, which have been proven by numerous DVD recordings and were awarded the “Opera Company of the Year” in 2014.

Excerpts of reviews of previously released volumes in this set:

Berg: Wozzeck

This is a finely honed production that follows its premise to an absurdist conclusion with slick theatricality and dispassionate zeal. All sentimentalism is banished here. So, largely, is the opera’s plea for justice and compassion. It is left to Christian Gerhaher’s Wozzeck to fight that battle, which he does with formidable diction and great lyrical beauty, offering, where he can, a still centre in the tumult.

– Gramophone (DVD/Blu-ray of the Month, November 2016)

Massenet: Werther

Director Tatjana Gürbaca and designer Klaus Grünberg have transformed Massenet’s masterpiece into a compelling drama that glues you to the edge of your seat from start to finish. Flórez gives the performance of his career as a hero who knows that death is where passion is fulfilled. Anna Stéphany’s Charlotte, by turns terrified, tender and tearful, is with him all the way.

–BBC Music Magazine

On May 21, 2016 at the Bonn Opera House in Germany, the fifth Opera Gala for the German AIDS Foundation took place. At this performance, some of the world’s most illustrious vocalists performed, such as Simone Kermes, Roberto De Biasio, Marina Prudenskaya, and Robin Johannsen. This release features all of the very best highlights of that outstanding evening. Conducted by Stefan Blunier, music from Mozart, Gounod, Beethoven, Verdi, Delibes, Donizetti, Offenbach, and Rossini is included. This production was filmed in high definition and mastered from an HD source, and includes over an hour of music. This is the next best thing to being present at the fantastic concert.

With Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana; one of the most popular pieces in music history and the most performed choral/orchestral work of the 20th century; Teatro La Fenice returns to the Piazza San Marco in Venice; in front of the magnificent façade of the Basilica di San Marco. Conducted by the great master Fabio Luisi; featuring the word-class singers Regula Mühlemann; Michael Schade and Markus Werba it was a magnificent event. "La Fenice’s orchestra and choir; in this case with the addition of the Piccoli cantori veneziani in the final part; have hit the mark“ (Il Gazzettino) with this concert and "it is noticeable overall the work made by the conductor Fabio Luisi; who managed to maintain the tension of the various historical pages with determination and energy." (Il Gazzettino)

Gluck's Orphee et Euridice is a masterpiece of the operatic canon, inspired by one of the most mysterious and cruel stories in Greek mythology. The gods allow Orpheus to descend into the underworld to revive his beloved wife Eurydice, but on condition that he must not look at her while returning. This production from Florence re-imagines this myth as a story for our times. It explores each character anew, highlighting the music and text as a more sophisticated psychological thriller than previously imagined, creating a moving and transformative narrative with which we can all identify.

Roberto Alagna (tenor), Serena Gamberoni (soprano) & Marc Barrard (baritone)
Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra, Giampaolo Bisanti
Libretto Pierre-Louis Moline
Subtitles: French, English, German, Spanish, Italian
Length: 104 minutes - Bonus: Backstage & Interviews
Colour 16/9 - PCM STEREO, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1

Theatrical and musical adaptation in one prologue and three acts by David Alagna
Filmed in High Definition at the Bologna Opera, January 2008
THE PERFORMANCE: Roberto Alagna as Orpheus in his brother David's new version of Gluck’s masterpiece. A major event recorded in Bologna.

Opting for the French-language version of Orpheus, David Alagna was faced with the task of achieving an appropriately subtle adaptation. In a plot transposed to the present day, Eurydice dies in a car accident on the day of her wedding and Orpheus's quest for his beloved is a dream beginning and ending at the cemetery. No happy ending in this interpretation, but a new approach to characterisation:Amore, sung by a baritone, becomes a funeral parlour employee and Orpheus' guide. Orpheus, of course, loses his loved one forever by turning to look back. World famous tenor Roberto Alagna throws himself body and soul into this production. His incredible vitality, flawless timbre and diction make him a great Orpheus. His partner, young Italian soprano Serena Gamberoni, is simply stunning as Eurydice, while French baritone Marc Barrard is suitably terrifying as the guide to the Underworld. The orchestra is conducted by Giampaolo Bisanti, who masterfully brings out all Gluck's poetry, romantic melancholy and depth.
A co-production with the Montpellier Opera.

Bill Evans was one of the most distinctive and influential jazz pianists of all time with a rich legacy that remains undiminished since his untimely death in 1980. He recorded over fifty albums as a leader, received thirty one Grammy nominations, and has had an inescapable impact on virtually every jazz piano player of prominences who came after him. This DVD brings together two Bill Evans Trio Concerts (1996 and 1980) that have never been on the market before, both featuring Evans in prime form. Bill Evans was a major side-man with Miles Davis and played and equal role with Miles in composing Kind of Blue the best selling jazz album in history. This DVD offers performances of Davis' tune 'Nardis,' along with standards and trademark favorites such as 'Stella by Starlight,' 'Autumn Leaves,' 'Days of Wine and Roses' and much more. A special bonus included on the DVD is an interview conducted after the 1980 concert where Evans discuses his music as well as the current jazz scene.

Mario Del Monaco, Gabriella Tucci, and Tito Gobbi, star in the Verdi opera with Alberto Erde conducting the NHK Symphony Orchestra, live Feb. 4, 1959.

Christopher Nupen presents a film about the man who made himself the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous, and the most successful classical solists that the world of music has ever known - Niccolo Paganini.

GIOVANNI PAISIELLO: Mirko Guadagnini; Donata Di Gioia; Sgefania Donzelli; Maurizio Lo Piccolo; Paolo Bordogna; Camillo Facchino; Graziano De Pace; Robert Recchia; Orchestra da Camera del Giovanni Paisiello Festival/Giovanni Di Stefano; Rosetta Cucchi, director; Live recording: No GIOVANNI PAISIELLO: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, drama buffo in due (quattro) atti.

PARSIFAL