TRACKLISTING
PUCCINI : La Fanciulla del West

Premiered in 1991 to critical acclaim and filmed one year later, Giancarlo Del Monaco's classic Fanciulla production brought one of Puccini's lesser-known operas to the centre of attention.

October 2005 marks the 15th anniversary of Bernstein's death.

An exciting behind-the-scenes look at the 1984 Deutsche Grammophon recording of Bernstein's "West Side Story." This legendary recording features a cast of operatic stars headed by José Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa. It was the first time that Bernstein conducted his masterwork himself, 28 years after it was composed.

With the cameras being allowed full access, this film documents the creative process behind the recording and reveals the moods, triumphs, mistakes and vulnerability of everyone involved. It is a uniquely close-up view of one of the greatest musicians of the later 20th century. As Kiri Te Kanawa reports, 'The funniest thing of all was when he suddenly stopped conducting and said 'That's the tempo. That's it.' And I laughed, because it was like having Mozart with you; you were getting it from the master himself.'

'The result is terrific, not just musically, but as video vérité." - Variety

"A judiciously edited...intriguing....amusing glimpse of artistic temperaments at work." - The New York Times

ARTISTS
See individual operas for cast lists

TRACKLISTING
WAGNER :
Das Rheingold
Die Walkure
Siegfried
Götterdammerung

Premiered in 1976, exactly one hundred years after the first performance of the Ring as a cycle, this production has set new aesthetic standards in the interpretation of Wagner's gargantuan masterpiece. With young stage director Patrice Chéreau and musical modernist Pierre Boulez, Wolfgang Wagner had put together a dream team to find a new, modern yet timeless approach to his grandfather's work.

TRACKLISTING
WAGNER : Das Rheingold

In Patrice Chéreau's illuminating, violent Bayreuth production of Das Rheingold, Wotan wears the brocade coat of feudal times while the Rhine seems to be a reservoir with a modern power station - but, as Chéreau states, it 'could also be many other things...a menacing construction, a theatrical machine to produce a river, an allegorical shape that today generates energy: perhaps a mythological presence, the mythology of our time...The gods' ascent to Valhalla [is] a defiant flight into the future.'

This timeless production has been universally hailed as "a monument". (France-Soir)

TRACKLISTING
WAGNER : Siegfried

'The central part of the Ring tetralogy is precisely this: a hero has been created who would actually have had all the attributes of freedom, but nobody remembered to tell him...so Siegfried remains unaware and incomplete... Mime has to be both funny and tragic - a clown like Chaplin and pathetic like a downtrodden people' (Patrice Chéreau)

'One can only marvel at how enthrallingly Chéreau has made visible every ramification of this malignant idyll and bitter comedy. In its faithful service to this fabulously polished staging, Brian Large's video direction is a model' (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

TRACKLISTING
WAGNER : Götterdammerung

In 1976, French director Patrice Chéreau's centenary staging of Wagner's Ring cycle unleashed the greatest scandal in Bayreuth Festival history, yet by the end of its last performances in 1980, this epoch-making production was acclaimed with an hour and a half of deafening applause. Now it is the standard by which all others are judged. Chéreau: ' Götterdämmerung presents a world in which no values exist any more. The only refuge is in the past. By now Siegfried is a purely tragic figure...The beauty of the Ring is just as challenging today as when it was first performed.'

The partnership of Boulez, Chéreau and Peduzzi put Wagner's Ring back where it belonged, at the centre of controversy, when their vision was unveiled at Bayreuth in 1976 to mark the centenary of the first production. By the time it was last seen on the stage of the Festspielhaus in 1980, the production had taken its place as one of the historic achievements of the Bayreuth Festival. Working closely with video director Brian Large, Chéreau re-rehearsed his staging for the films taped at that time to recreate the experience on screen, and preserve career-defining performances from the original cast, headed by Donald McIntyre, Gwyneth Jones and Manfred Jung.

ARTISTS
Leontyne Price, soprano
Fiorenza Cossotto, mezzo
Luciano Pavarotti, tenor
Nikolai Ghiaurov, bass
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala
Herbert von Karajan

TRACKLISTING
VERDI : Messa da Requiem

TRACKLISTING
ADAM : Giselle

Giselle is the world's oldest repertoire ballet and is among the most famous still performed today. Based on a tale by Heinrich Heine and first performed in 1841 at the Paris Opera, Giselle was an immediate success with the audience as well as many leading ballerinas of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, who claimed Giselle to be their best tragic role. Italian ballerina Carla Fracci stars in the title role and is joined by Dane Erik Bruhn as Count Albrecht. Erik Bruhn himself described the strength of this well-balanced leading couple 'In dance man is force and woman is power. We too have found a balance between the two.'

This production was choreographed by David Blair for the American Ballet Theatre and was filmed by Hugo Niebeling in 1968.

TRACKLISTING
WAGNER: Siegfried

'The central part of the Ring tetralogy is precisely this: a hero has been created who would actually have had all the attributes of freedom, but nobody remembered to tell him...so Siegfried remains unaware and incomplete... Mime has to be both funny and tragic - a clown like Chaplin and pathetic like a downtrodden people' (Patrice Chéreau)

'One can only marvel at how enthrallingly Chéreau has made visible every ramification of this malignant idyll and bitter comedy. In its faithful service to this fabulously polished staging, Brian Large's video direction is a model' (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)