The Phantom of the Opera

The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.

Benvenuto Cellini

With his affinity for the 16th-century sculptor Benvenuto Cellini's advocacy of artistic and personal freedom, Hector Berlioz went straight for the grand gesture with his first completed opera. Returning to it years after initial production debacles, Berlioz stated that he would 'never again find such verve and Cellinian impetuosity, nor such a variety of ideas.' The plot revolves around Cellini's wooing of Teresa, a match frustrated at every opportunity by his rival, the cowardly Fieramosca. Benvenuto Cellini is a pithy work combining romance, excitement, violence, comedy and spectacle; the perfect stage for Terry Gilliam's stylishly colorful and larger than life directing.

Cosi Fan Tutte

An excellent performance of this delightful opera. The principals are superb, especially the sisters. Bruscantini as Don Alfonso is past his prime, but he knows and understands the role inside out, so one does not even notice his vocal limitations. Araiza is in top form as Ferrando, and Morris makes virile Guglielmo. The only disappointment is Battle as Despina. Unlike her partners, she does not have feel for the Mozart ensemble, and her vocal mannerisms are totally unbecoming. How the producers allowed that to happen is a mystery. Muti's conducting is terrific, much better than on his La Scala video, where he is uninvolved.

Billy Budd

A version of Benjamin Britten's opera based on the Melville story. Will the virtuous young sailor Billy Budd be hanged for murder?

Ermione

Recorded at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1995, this acclaimed presentation of composer Gioachino Rossini's epic opus ERMIONE is based on Jean Racine's play "Andromache." Set in Troy after the city fell to the Greeks, the production recounts the rancorous battle between widow Andromache and Helen of Troy's green-eyed daughter, Ermione for the love of Pyrrhus

Mefistofele

The director, Roland Schwab, has created his version of Hell. The set is like a high iron walled hanger and the stage is continually occupied with people who look like fugitives from Mad Max and who interact with Mefistofele. The orchestra and choir are wonderful. Rene Pape gives a nuanced interpretation with a certain amount of sardonic humour under the evil. His singing and acting are first rate, as is that of Kristine Opolais and Joseph Calleja.

Puccini: La bohème

"La Bohème" is one of Giacomo Puccini's most popular and timeless works and the second-most performed opera at New York's Metropolitan Opera. This production, directed by the legendary Franco Zeffirelli, features José Carreras, Teresa Stratas, Renata Scotto and Richard Stilwell. The opera is replete with extraordinary visual beauty as it presents the tragic story of young bohemians struggling to make it in the world.

Puccini: Gianni Schicchi

Opera in one act, libretto by G. Forzano based on Dante's Divine Comedy. Third part of his opera Triptych. The plot is based on canto XXX of "Inferno" from "The Divine Comedy", which are dedicated to the rogue and deceiver Gianni Schicchi, who was punished for his sins: he impersonated a dying rich man in order to make a forged will on his behalf. Gianni Schicchi is Puccini's only comic opera, a brilliant example of a modern opera buffa based on the tradition of Verdi's Falstaff. The most expressive recitative, bubbling melody, sharp character, impetuous tempo distinguish her music. Recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera House, Sussex, UK on 11 July 2004.

The Newspaper

The writer Dario Fo applies his inventive genius to Rossini's comic opera in its premiere DVD release. Recorded in 2005 under the musical direction of Maurizio Barbacini, Fo's production brings fresh vitality and colour to the story of Lisetta, and of her father Don Pomponio's increasingly ridiculous attempts to find a husband for her through an advertisement in the newspaper LA GAZZETTA. Filmed using high definition cameras with multitrack sound.

Parsifal - Teatro Massimo 2020

Richard Wagner's Parsifal, staged at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo in 2020, opened the opera season on January 26. The production, directed by Graham Vick and conducted by Omer Meir Wellber, featured staging with references to the imagery of war.

Maria

Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity and life.

Tosca

This live version of Puccini s superbly dramatic opera was recorded in Rome in the exact locations and at the precise times of day as Puccini had written into his score. The action opens in Rome's beautiful 16th-century church of Sant Andrea della Valle, where Cavaradossi (Plácido Domingo) is innocently painting, moves to the Farnese Palace where Tosca (Catherine Malfitano) dramatically stabs the lustful Scarpia (Ruggero Raimondi), and finally to the battlements of the Castle Sant Angelo at dawn the following day where Cavaradossi is cruelly killed, and Tosca takes her own life.

Verdi Otello

Desdemona in Verdi's Otello was a career role for soprano Renata Tebaldi, from her first operatic performance outside of Italy to her final appearance on the opera stage. Between those landmarks she performed the role nearly 100 times all over the world and made studio audio recordings that became reference recordings for the role. This 1962 production with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Giuseppe Patane was planned as a media event from the outset and blessedly captures a consummate artist in a signature role at the peak of her gifts.

Mefistofele

1989 recording of the San Francisco Opera production of Mefistofele: Boito's retelling of Goethe's Faust

The Metropolitan Opera - Puccini: Manon Lescaut

Kristine Opolais is the young woman whose conflicting desires for love and luxury lead to her tragic end, and Roberto Alagna plays the man who falls for her in Puccini’s early hit. Richard Eyre’s elegant production, which sets the action in 1940s occupied France, was one of the highlights of the Met’s 2015–16 season. Massimo Cavalletti as Manon’s brother and Brindley Sherratt as her aging admirer co-star, and Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium.

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.

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.

La Vie parisienne

La Vie parisienne (Parisian life) is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, composed by Jacques Offenbach in 1866, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. This work was Offenbach's first full-length piece to portray contemporary Parisian life, unlike his earlier period pieces and mythological subjects. It became one of Offenbach's most popular operettas.

Macbeth

Carlos Álvarez takes the title role in the first of Verdi's Shakespearean operas, with Maria Guleghina as the manipulative wife whose desire to gain the Scottish throne drives her husband to murder and leaves both with blood on their hands. Bruno Campanella conducts the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in the 2004 recording of Phyllida Lloyd's powerful production, first staged at London's Royal Opera House.

Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser

Witness the Zurich Opera's stunning production of Richard Wagner's masterpiece "Tannhauser," conducted by Franz Welser-Most and featuring Peter Sieffert (Tannhauser), Solveig Kringelborn (Elisabeth) and Roman Trekel (von Eschenbach). Initially produced in Dresden in 1845, "Tannhauser" instilled a sense of wonder in a few of Strauss's ardent friends and admirers, among them Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt. Opera buffs will love it.

Riddle of the Sphinx

Soviet animation inspired by the ancient Egyptian paintings.

Ants in the Plants

A classic about an anteater who makes life rough for a colony of ants. In the ant community, the queen spreads warnings of their greatest enemy, the Anteater. "He's a menace, he's a brute, he will scoop you with his snoot." Their motto is "make him yell uncle," which they do when the anteater invades them.

O Aborto Não É um Crime

Polemical short documentary, produced by Cinequipe.

Skin of a Mandarin

The film delicately follows 25-year-old Anna, whose mother has died suddenly. She wants to send her Orthodox mother on her last journey according to customs, but she runs into bureaucratic rules that do not allow Anna to dress her departed mother herself. This conflict brings her together with Maria, a 45-year-old funeral home worker, who in this story represents the hidden fears of death and grief on a deep emotional level.

Four Jacks

Four guys plot revenge on the businessman who ripped them off.

Red Rebirth

The Peasants

A historical revolutionary film depicting the struggle of peasants and the Baku proletariat against landowners and Musavatists in 1919.

Mad, Mad, Mad Swords

The star in Mad Mad Mad swords is a common man with numerous weaknesses and a complete worthless student of a prestigious school. To the suprise of all, however, he manages to defeat a string of renowned swordsmen, including the one-armed swordsman and the blind swordsman, by tricks and luck.

Kelly Chen Paisley Galaxy Live In Concert Karaoke DVD

After earning numerous musical accolades in the early 2000s, Kelly Chen's confidence in her creativity and style truly shines on her Paisley Galaxy album. Kelly Chen Paisley Galaxy Live in Concert Karaoke DVD features a thrilling karaoke version of Kelly Chen's unforgettable performance at the Hong Kong Coliseum, allowing fans to sing along to her hit tracks and relive the excitement of the live show.

KL Menjerit

The film revolves around Shahrol, a 28 year-old bike enthusiast, who comes to Kuala Lumpur (KL) in search of a better life. It was there that he meets Ayu, a naive village girl, in search of her boyfriend. The two began to bear feelings for each other, but the road was not without thorns. Shahrol finds himself being challenge by Pit, who wants to upstage the one skill that Shahrol is passionate about... motor-racing.

Onihei: That Man, Hasegawa Heizou

Edo period, Heizo Hasegawa was feared by thieves and villains as "Heizo the Oni". A young man inspects Heizo's surroundings to find out more about him, visiting Kumehachi, Hikoju, and Omasa. Heizo's true colors as a person start to become apparent.

El Asesino del Zodiaco

Princess

Downbeat, documentary-style examination of a teenager facing a succession of disappointments.

Nevada

In this stop-motion animated comedy, a young couple's romantic weekend getaway is interrupted by a birth control mishap.

MIRÊ

Hlídač č. 47

A young village shopkeeper, Ferda Zuska, wants to jump in front of a train because his girlfriend has married someone else. At the last moment, he is saved by the railway guard Douša and his wife Anna. Ferda soon forgets his sadness and starts courting Anna. The unsuspecting Douša is the laughing stock of the whole village. Moreover, during Ferda's rescue, he slipped on the embankment, injured himself, and has had difficulty hearing since then. One day, he even discovers with horror that he has gone completely deaf and that he must therefore leave his job...

Evolution

Dagfinn Lyngbø is finally back with a new evolutionary stand-up show! The show has already sold over 140,000 tickets! Three years have passed since the acclaimed show "Ka e point?", Which was seen by over 110,000 people in approximately 300 performances. This time Dagfinn Lyngbø for his human development, the theme is Evolution. It's just to get ready for yet another laugh bomb!

Uli Hoeneß - Der Patriarch

Karel Zeman for Children

Seventy-year-old filmmaker Karel Zeman recapitulated his thirty years of work in the field of animated and trick films. The film Karel Zeman for Children includes excerpts from Baron Prášil, The Tale of Hansel and Gretel, Mr. Prokouk, King Lávra and Journey to the Prehistoric Times. The film is presented on the 100th anniversary of the birth of this important figure of Czech cinema.