Orchestra E Coro Del Teatro Alla Scala
Claudio Abbado

Rossini's famous comic masterpiece was filmed in 1972 and is based on a production from La Scala. With star soprano Teresa Berganza as the cunning heroine Rosina and Hermann Prey in the title role, director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle has the perfect allies to unfold the full dramatic potential of Rossini's approach.

With Claudio Abbado conducting the Orchestra of La Scala and the strong cast of singers, most of them the foremost Rossini interpreters of their time, this production is a music highlight in the Rossini catalogue.

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Alla Scala
Georges Prêtre

These opera films by Franco Zeffirelli feature two timeless stories of love, honour, justice and violence, captured on just one DVD - a highlight for every opera lover.

Based on a production of these two seemingly inseparable operas at La Scala Milan from 1981, both movies were taped in 1982.

For Pagliacci, director Franco Zeffirelli was honoured with an Emmy as best director in the category of classical music programming in 1985.

Cavalleria Rusticana was filmed in the Sicilian village of Vizzini, the hometown of writer Giovanni Verga on whose original story the opera is based.

Both productions feature the brilliant Plácido Domingo at the very height of his vocal abilities - Teresa Stratas gives a captivating performance as his counterpart in Pagliacci. All of the power and passion of these deservedly popular operas is brought rivetingly to life by the magnificent casts and wonderfully theatrical and atmospheric productions.

Wiener Philharmoniker
Herbert Von Karajan

The film was created in Berlin in 1974 to a playback of Karajan's recording of the opera earlier that year.

For Madama Butterfly, director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle has adopted his most cinematic approach, using flash-backs, dream-sequences and having the characters 'think' certain lines instead of singing them.

Using all these tricks combined with a deep understanding for the struggles of the opera's sad heroine, Ponnelle's Butterfly is a thoughtful, genuine portrait of a woman lost between rival cultural worlds.

Mirella Freni gives the performance of her live in the title role, bringing 'poetic value... to every considered word, phrase and gesture', as the New York Times wrote.

Wiener Philharmoniker
Karl Böhm

Mozart's charming opera buffa about love, intrigue and the class struggle definitely ranges among the most beloved operas of all.

This exceptional production features an all-star cast with the likes of Hermann Prey, Mirella Freni, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. All have rarely been equalled, yet alone surpassed in their portrayals of these timeless characters.

With lifelong Mozart scholar Karl Böhm conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, this DVD can be called an ultimate Mozart interpretation.

Ponnelle's production with its imaginative camerawork brings out both the witty and the serious sides of this opera masterpiece, making this release a visually as well as musically enjoyable experience.

New Philharmonia Orchestra
Bruno Bartoletti

This gripping and visually stunning film has been universally hailed as one of the most satisfying of all versions of opera on celluloid.

Director Gianfranco de Bosio has given an extraordinary dimension of realism to this story of love, deception and murder by shooting it all in the original Roman locations.

Using diverse cinematic tricks and imaginative camerawork, this opera film is much more a visual interpretation of Puccini's music than a theatre piece filmed in original settings.

Bulgarian soprano Raina Kabaivanska sang the role of Tosca on more than 400 occasions, while Cavaradossi was one of Plácido Domingo's star roles in his earlier years and the role of his debuts in Hamburg and London.

Besides their musical mastery, all the singers display exceptional acting talent, which adds enormously to the atmospheric depths of De Bosio's production. This unique film is a moving and utterly theatrical account of one of the world's most thrilling musical dramas.

Wiener Staatsopernchor
Wiener Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan

This spectacular opera film was taped in 1967 and is based on the 1966 Salzburg Festival production directed by Herbert von Karajan himself, who also conducts the fabulous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

The production features the three greatest exponents of their respective roles at the time: Grace Bumbry's magnificently seductive-toned Carmen, Mirella Freni's ineffably lovely, touching Micaëla and Jon Vickers's thrillingly manic-depressive Don José. The chemistry between all three characters is so vividly conveyed by these performers that the viewer becomes completely immersed in the passion and drama of this timeless story.

On its release the film was hailed by Die Presse, (Vienna) as a 'unique artistic event', while Le Monde felt that Karajan's production brought 'a whole new dimension' to the opera, 'combined with a magisterial interpretation'.

A classical and utterly dramatic approach to probably the world's most beloved opera, Karajan's Carmen is as much a treat for opera fans as it is a perfect starter for newcomers.

Wiener Symphoniker
John Lanchbery

Definitely the most popular ballet ever written, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is well known even to the those who might never attend a ballet.

This legendary performance starring the most famous classical dance partnership of all time, Rudolf Nureyev and Dame Margot Fonteyn, is a balletic experience of one's dreams. It is impossible to imagine two artists more different in their styles, but that was what made their pairing so fascinating and, ultimately, so moving. So convincing and so ineffably right are Nureyev and Fonteyn in their roles that it becomes difficult to imagine anyone else ever rivalling them.

Nureyev himself choreographed this production for the Vienna State Opera Ballet - the premiere in 1964 became a historic success with an unbelievable 89 curtain calls.

Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan

This film, directed by Herbert von Karajan himself and taped at a studio in Berlin in 1973, is based on a Salzburg Festival production.

Jon Vickers was hailed by the press for his Otello, many considering it to be his greatest role. As critic David Cairns puts it: 'Vickers commands both the notes and the moral grandeur of the part . . . And he has the aura of greatness- greatness of heart, of bearing, of musical and dramatic conception.'

Mirella Freni is a heartbreakingly lovely and fragile Desdemona, while English baritone Peter Glossop is an 'unusually powerful' Iago, The Times said.

ARTISTS
Igo Pogorelich, piano

TRACKLISTING
J.S. BACH : English Suite No. 2 in A minor · English Suite No. 3 in G minor
D. SCARLATTI : Sonatas Nos. 5, 17, 19, 35, 15 & 3
BEETHOVEN : Sonata No. 11 in B flat major
BEETHOVEN : 'Für Elise'

Ivo Pogorelich is certainly one of the world's most exciting pianists and has been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 1981.

He was thrust into the limelight when Martha Argerich resigned from the jury of the 1980 Warsaw International Chopin Competition in protest at his elimination and proclaimed: 'This man is a genius'.

Pogorelich has made triumphant appearances in all of the world's major concert halls and has repeatedly been compared by critics to Horowitz, Paderewski and Rachmaninov.

This production by Humphrey Burton features Pogorelich playing music by some composers with whom he is intimately associated: Bach, Scarlatti and Beethoven.

Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele
Woldemar Nelsson

One of the most acclaimed Wagner productions of the postwar period, Kupfer's staging was premiered in 1978 and was performed 36 times until 1985.

This electrifying, revolutionary Bayreuth staging of The Flying Dutchman catapulted the German director Harry Kupfer to international fame.

Kupfer's interpretation presents the entire story as the hallucination of a hypersensitive, hysterical Senta who stands in the very centre of it.

Danish soprano Lisbeth Balslev embodies this re-interpretated Senta with breathtaking intensity, while Simon Estes as the Dutchman and Matti Salminen as Daland form a fascinating supporting cast.

This Holländer definitely stands out as one of the best Wagner productions of the post-war era - a must-have for every dedicated Wagnerian.

ARTISTS
Mirella Freni, soprano
Grace Bumbry, mezzo soprano
Placido Domingo · Jon Vickers, tenors
Hermann Prey · Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritones
Simon Estes, bass
Igo Pogorelich, piano
Herbert von Karajan · Claudio Abbado · Karl Böhm · Bruno Bartoletti, conductors

TRACKLISTING
BIZET: Carmen 'L'amour est un oiseau rebelle' · 'La fleur que tu m'avais jetée'
LEONCAVALLO: Pagliacci 'Recitar! Mentre preso dal delirio'
MOZART: Le Nozze di Figaro 'Non più andrai' · 'Crudel! Perché finora'
PUCCINI: Madama Butterfly 'Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia' · 'Un bel di vedremo'
PUCCINI: Tosca 'E lucevan le stelle'
ROSSINI: Il barbiere di Siviglia 'Largo al factotum'
VERDI: Otello 'Ave Maria, piena di grazia'
WAGNER: Der fliegende Holländer 'Die Frist ist um' · 'Wie oft in Meeres tiefsten Schlund'
TCHAIKOVSKY: Swan Lake Pas de Deux (Act 3)
SCARLATTI: Sonata in C Major, K487
BEETHOVEN: 'Für Elise'

This ' Music to watch' sampler with a 60 minutes selection of highlights from the first 10 Unitel releases on Deutsche Grammophon is a perfect appetizer to the world of Unitel.

Featuring such most famous pieces like the Havanaise from Carmen, E lucevan le stelle from Tosca and Beethoven's Für Elise performed by stars like Grace Bumbry, Placido Domingo and Ivo Pogorelich this sampler is an ideal starter for both dedicated opera fans and newcomers.