AMERICANS: THE GOLDEN AGE OF SINGING

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.

Anna Netrebko and John Del Carlo star in this Metropolitan Opera production of the Donizetti opera conducted by James Levine and directed by Otto Schenk.

LA TRAVITA

The master of musical parody, Professor Peter Schickele, brings US a complete opera by P.D.Q. Bach, a man who has been called a "pimple on the face of music", "the worst musician ever to have trod organ pedals", and "the most dangerous musician since Nero".

The legendary soprano Anna Moffo stars in this expansive 1971 film of the opera, directed by Mario Lanfranchi, and lavishly filmed in authentic locales and castles.

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

This performance was captured live in 1976 as part of the Wolf Trap Festival and includes the cast Henry Price and Richard Fredricks. Conducted by Julius Rudel.

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.

In this 1975 production from the Wolf Trap Festival, Beverly Sills is joined by John Alexander, Susanne Marsee, and Richard Fredericks in a stunning live performance.

SCHUMANN'S GENOVEVA - A MODERN-DAY DRAMA OF THE SOULOn 25th June 1850, Schumann, Robert's only opera, Genoveva, received it's first performance at Leipzig State Theatre. It was a much-awaited event, as Schumann, widely regarded as the leading German instr

Packed with Adventures on the High Seas, This Comic Swashbuckling Pirate Tale Was Originally Produced in the 1980's As Part of the Old Opera Series of Gilbert and Sullivan Works. As Several Pirates Wait for Their Favorite Apprentice, Frederick, to Come of Age-And Become Legally Able to Leave Their Nefarious Band-Frederick Struggles with the Clash Between His Loyalty to the Group and His Desire to Do Something with His Life Besides Pirating. When the Pirates Run Into a Group of Young Beach Beauties and Frederick Falls Madly in Love with the Beauteous Mabel, Things Get Quite Out of Hand, and the Results Include a Full-Blown Fight with the Members of the Local Police Constabulary. Special Features: Full Frame Format 115 Minutes.

Anna Moffo, Franco Bonisolli, Gino Bechi are featured soloists in Verdi's great opera. Giuseppe Patane conducts the Rome Opera House Orchestra.

Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Florez, and Zeljko Lucic star in this 2008 Metropolitan Opera production of the Verdi opera conducted by Fabio Luisi and directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff.

Joyce DiDonato, Eglise Guttierez, Alice Coote, Ewa Podles, and Jean-Philippe Latiort star in this Royal Opera production of the Massenet opera conducted by Bertrand de Billy and directed by Laurent Pelly.

Live 1974 performance from the Wolfe Trap Festival starring Beverly Sills in her first complete operatic telecast. Directed by Lotfi Mansouri, with sets designed by Beni Montresor.

Franco Corelli, Lucille Udovich, Renata Mattioli, Plinio Clabassi star in this production with RAI Orchestra & Chorus, Fernando Previtali conducting.

Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni's incomparable partnership as Rodolfo and Mimi, the tragic lovers in Puccini's much-loved bittersweet opera, is captured for posterity in this live recording from the San Francisco Opera. Francesca Zambello's production

When Canadian opera director Robert Carsen produced his intense and cogent staging of Poulenc, Francis's compelling opera Les Dialogues des Carmelites at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam in 2001, it impressed audiences and critics alike, and also gained

LADIES & GENTLEMEN MISS RENEE FLEMING

CARMEN

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE

Luciano Pavarotti -"Pavarotti: The Lost Concert - Live at Llangollen 1995" [Blu-ray] Marking the 40th anniversary of winning a singing competition as part of a choir from his hometown of Modena in 1955, Luciano Pavarotti returns to North Wales to give a special gala concert at the 1995 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Joining him that evening is the BBC Philharmonic, the modern-day Corale Gioachino Rossini, Modena and, for the finale, Japanese soprano Atzuko Kawahara. The program combines popular operatic arias & choruses, Neapolitan songs, one of Pavarotti's own compositions, orchestral overtures & interludes, and a special duet for the finale. The final moments of an unforgettable event are made even more emotional by the singer's departing words. "You don't know what this is for me, what it is for me to try to concentrate for myself tonight, in what I am doing, with my music - while a million of memories come to my mind. For forty years, I was looking for this day... thank you for the beautiful night that you gave to me." Blu-ray with 20-page booklet.

This exciting Dynamic DVD features the complete recording of the critically acclaimed concert given by International superstars Franco Corelli and Renata Tebaldi at the NHK Auditorium in Tokyo on 21st November 1973. This concert includes no less than five encores.

This two-disc set documents the revival of Peter Gelb's inaugural production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, telecast in Times Square and in the plaza at Lincoln Center to the delight of thousands when it was brand new in 2006. It is exquisitely designed by Michael Levine and directed by the late film auteur Anthony Minghella. Since the director's death, his widow and the show's choreographer, Carolyn Choa, has been responsible for the stunning, evocative action. This performance was filmed in high-definition in March 2009.

Highly stylized and in bold, brilliant colors, our first visual is of a young Japanese woman approaching from the rear or the stage, trailing twenty-foot-long red scarves from her kimono; a sloping mirror rises from the rear of the stage multiplying the image and turning it into a kaleidoscopic event. Figures in black wearing veils — a repeated image throughout — circle her and wrap her in fabric. Only then does Puccini's music begin. The entire experience is practically tactile, and the rest of the production follows suit. Han Feng's costumes constantly surprise and please and Peter Mumford's lighting, making the most of the mirror that appears and disappears throughout, adds to the all-consuming physical enchantment. Butterfly enters wearing white against a sky of brilliant blue; her love duet with Pinkerton takes place amidst dozens of white lanterns and their reflections; later, curtains of flower petals fall from the sky. The stage is almost invariably empty of props; color and action take their place and we can focus on the singers. Minghella has minimized the singers' actions as well; there is no over-emoting. The sad story is allowed to speak for itself.

But Minghella's true coup-de-théâtre begins in the second act, when Butterfly, in her confrontation with Sharpless, shows him the child she has borne Pinkerton. The boy is played by a Bunraku puppet, operated by three veiled men in black. Yes, it startles and amuses at first, but as the opera continues we grow accustomed to it. The puppet is so effortlessly manipulated that even if our disbelief is never truly suspended, we are captivated by how real he seems and how touchingly Butterfly relates to him — and him to her. Look carefully at the face and you'll realize that it is emotionless; take a longer view and you'll feel that he's real. In the interlude before the last scene, a puppet Butterfly and male dancer enact the couple's upcoming tragic meeting. It is performed while the actual cast sits perfectly still; the effect is enchanting and troubling at once.

Patricia Racette's Butterfly is magnificent. Her full-bodied voice is imbued with a warm vibrato and her phrasing is natural and sharply musical. But just as crucially, she listens and reacts like a young girl and her movements are economical; her face registers her inner feelings — a remarkable portrayal. Marcello Giordani sings and plays Pinkerton with handsome tone and intelligence; his early swagger is offset by the realization of what he's done in the final scene. Dwayne Croft's Sharpless is sympathetic and Maria Zifchak's Suzuki is grandly sung and well-acted: her silent reaction to Cio-Cio-San's conversion to Christianity speaks volumes. Patrick Summers leads with intensity and great understanding.

Both sound and picture are splendid, as is Gary Halvorson's direction for the screen.

– Robert Levine, Listen [Spring 2011]

"In every dimension Ms. Racette’s effort was exceptional; hers is a performance not to be missed." – The New York Times

"Anthony Minghella’s sumptuous production of Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini’s heartbreaking tale of love and betrayal, offers viewers a rare visual treat...Minghella, who died unexpectedly in March 2008, marks his debut in opera with the re-staging of Madama Butterfly – this is also the first time in 20 years that a new production has opened at the Met. The New York Times described it as “a gorgeous cinematic spectacle.”...Madama Butterfly, conducted by Patrick Summers, features costumes by Han Feng, with sets by Michael Levine, lighting by Peter Mumford, choreography by Carolyn Choa, and puppetry by the Blind Summit Theater." – PBS.org

Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San, Marcello Giordani as American Navy Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton, Maria Zifchak as Suzuki and Dwayne Croft as Sharpless. Patrick Summers conducts the Metropolitan Opera and Chorus.

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