Don Giovanni

Live 2001 production from the Zurich Opera House of the classic Mozart/Da Ponte opera, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting and directed for television and video by Brian Large.

The Line, the Cross & the Curve

A singer struggles to dance well in rehearsal with her band. A power outage leaves her alone in the studio, reviewing her life, when a mysterious woman appears through the mirror and gives her a pair of Red Shoes. The cursed shoes dance beautifully, but endlessly. The singer is drawn irresistibly into the fey world beyond the mirror, where she must redeem three magic symbols from the mysterious woman in order to obtain release from the cursed shoes.

A Night at the Opera

The Marx Brothers take on high society and the opera world to bring two lovers together. A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years

An exploration of the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on glam metal. It features concert footage and interviews of legendary heavy metal and hard rock bands and artists such as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne and W.A.S.P..

Punk's Not Dead

On the edge of the 30th anniversary of punk rock, Punk's Not Dead takes you into the sweaty underground clubs, backyard parties, recording studios, shopping malls and stadiums where punk rock music and culture continue to thrive.

James Taylor - Live at the Beacon Theatre

James Taylor: Live At The Beacon Theater is the documentation of an incredible live performance by soft rock singer-songwriter James Taylor. This live concert features many of Taylor’s greatest hits performed in front of an intense audience. These hits include, but are not limited to the songs Fire and Rain and Sweet Baby James from the many multiplatinum albums by this enduring artist. As a bonus in this film, Taylor also shares the stories behind his many songs and how he came to write them. He also talks candidly about his career in this fabulous performance, which is a testament to his great talent and creative abilities.

Bonus Track

George, a 16-year-old who believes he is a future star musician, can't believe his luck when the son of a famous duo takes an interest in his music. This new arrival helps him rehearse for a talent show and leads both boys to learn from each other and grow closer.

Lucia di Lammermoor

Diana Damrau’s reputation as the world’s leading coloratura soprano has been built on her extraordinary technical virtuosity, her sensitive musicianship and her acute psychological insight. In this DVD of Katie Mitchell’s sometimes radical production of Lucia di Lammermoor from London’s Royal Opera House, she is, as the Financial Times wrote, “brilliantly convincing”. The British award winning director Katie Mitchell – took a revisionist approach to the drama, updating the action to the mid-19th century and applying a feminist slant as she added new and unexpected elements. The Financial Times wrote: “Mitchell shows us on stage personal traumas that a self-respecting woman in the early 19th century was meant to keep to herself. It is a messy, bloody list — nocturnal sex trysts, a knife murder, a miscarriage, a suicide in the bath … In all this Damrau is brilliantly convincing. Her rebellious Lucia is a woman of modern attitudes stuck in a still feudal Victorian world.”

Werther

Filmed at the Vienna State Opera in 2005, Andrei Serban's production of Massenet's opera with a late 18th century setting pushes the action forwards to the 1950's,with the visuals exemplifying that decade with precision.With as much delicacy on display as naked passion,his(Alverez)morbid poet is outstandingly realised both vocally and dramatically. Together with Erod's dour Albert and Ileana Tonca's Sophie-clearly in love with Werther herself-the drama is set out with unusual clarity and realism.Philippe Jordan ensures that Massenet's pent-up emotion explodes exactly on cue,its expressive power providing impossible to resist.

Rameau Hippolyte et Aricie

Emmanuelle Haïm has established herself as one of the world’s leading performers, conductors and interpreters of Baroque repertoire, not only with Le Concert d’Astrée, the ensemble she founded in 2000, but with several of the world’s greatest orchestras. Known for her fresh and expressive approach to Baroque music, she has garnered critical acclaim and several international awards with her own ensemble, including Victoires de la Musique Classique, ECHOs, Gramophone Awards, and Grammy nominations.

Don Quichotte

This May 2010 production of Massenet's 1910 opera "Don Quichotte" marked the opera's centenary and also Jose Van Dam's operatic farewell at the Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels. It is beautiful in every way--vocally, scenically, sonically, and visually--and a worthy record of Van Dam's farewell. Van Dam is just shy of 70 in this production, but you would never guess it from his singing or stage movements--a consummate artist. His is a noble portrayal and deeply moving. The Act V death scene is a model of beautiful singing and acting.

Verdi La Traviata

This set has Edita Gruberova singing in top form, all her scooping cast aside, which one finds in abundance in her Lucia under Richard Bonynge. Here, however, she makes ravishing use of those bits of tone that only she can produce: those instances of coloratura and dramatic legato with little asides and small florishes of style that suggest her intelligent approach and her high degree of musical involvement in this role. She does this in her I Puritani and her Anna Bolena, less so in Roberto Deveraux and Maria Stuarda(both sets). Listen to Addio del passato and the Sempre Libra...ravishing, yes, but there are again those nuances learned from Callas that she makes her own. A very singualr perform,ance, and extremely moving with its detail and cry for pity throughout..from the start even. Neil Schicoff is excellent, not an unworthy Alfredo at all! His is a great lyric tenor voice that should have been in the top line.

Mitridate Re Di Ponto

The definitive version of this rare opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The costume and set design is truly visionary and other worldly and gives a convincing insight into what staged operas must have looked like during the Baroque and Rococo period. Singers are all excellent and well cast in their respective roles. One of the most thrilling things I have seen, just wish I could see this live.

Parsifal - Teatro Massimo

I Vespri Siciliani

I Vespri Siciliani must me Verdi's most underrated masterpiece. Most people are put off by the fact that it has 5 acts, therefore they conclude that it must be incredibly long. It is long but not as long as some people may fear as most of the acts are under half an hour each. The total length of the DVD in question is 171 minutes, just under 3 hours, including titles at the beginning, applauses and curtain calls between the acts and at the end. The opera contains Verdi's most powerful overture and a number of very elegant arias, duets and ensembles for the principals.

Gianni Schicchi

Woody Allen's production of the Puccini comic opera at LA Opera in 2015

The Mikado

In a small Japanese town, Ko-Ko is appointed to the unenviable position of executioner. Knowing he must successfully perform before the appearance of the Mikado in a month's time, Ko-Ko finds a suitable victim in Nanki-Poo, who is distraught over his unrequited love for the maiden Yum-Yum. Nanki-Poo agrees to sacrifice his life if he is allowed to spend his remaining days with Yum-Yum, who is betrothed to Ko-Ko. Filmed live from the 1982 Stratford Festival in Ontario.

Rain Dance

Rain Dance is a four-minute animation produced by Hill while an undergraduate student at Harvard University from 1988-1992; the exact date of the production is currently unidentified. Although little known, the film is representative of both Hill’s do-it yourself approach – employing character cutouts, strong, yet playful colors, and a narrative and technical simplicity rich with charm – and her jovial demeanor and inquisitive approach to life. The film is dedicated to Elijah Aron, Hill’s boyfriend throughout college. Aron remained close friends with Helen and her husband Paul Gailiunas, and was the godfather of their son Francis.

Vessel

Inspired by a poem.

Lohengrin

After Tristan und Isolde (2016), Parsifal (2017) and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (2018) this is the fourth installment of the exclusive, multiyear partnership between Deutsche Grammophon and the Bayreuth Festival, in which the Yellow Label is the exclusive audiovisual partner of the mythical Wagner festival, releasing each edition's new production on Blu-ray. This year, we are proud to release on Blu-ray the celebrated production of Lohengrin which was premiered on 25 July 2018, featuring an illustrious cast including Piotr Beczala and Anja Harteros in their house debuts, as well as the acclaimed return of Waltraud Meier to the Bayreuth Festival. The New York Times praised Piotr Beczala’s Lohengrin as “outstanding”, Anja Harteros [making] her impressive Bayreuth debut” as Elsa, and Ortrud “played with dominant presence by the incomparable Waltraud Meier”.