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List Price: $45.98
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Puccini: La Boheme [Blu-ray]

Actors: Mula, Giordano, Capitanucci, Machado, Menendez
ASIN : B001B223TM
Sales Rank : 23224
Director : Lough, Lopez Cobos
Studio : BBC / Opus Arte
Region Code : 0
Format : Classical, Color
Binding : Blu-ray
EAN : 0809478070078
UPC : 809478070078
Number Of Discs : 1
Release Date : December 26, 2008
Publisher : BBC / Opus Arte
Manufacturer : BBC / Opus Arte
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : BBC / Opus Arte
Running Time : 148

Description

It seems hard to believe that even during the last century Puccini was greatly underrated by many as a classical composer and indeed his music was considered to be far too melodic. Fortunately today, Puccini's operas have found their rightful place in the repertoires of all the leading Opera companies around the world.

This production of La Bohème remains true to the period and the libretto of the original score. The director of music, Jesús López Cobos, is to be congratulated for not making changes for changes sake. The cinematic technique employed, particularly for close ups, brings the viewers into the story almost as participants whilst at the same time the opera is clearly being performed on stage as one would expect.

Inva Mula and Aquiles Machado give masterful performances as Mimi and Rodolfo, as do Laura Giordano, Fabio Maria Capitanucci and, indeed, the rest of the cast, bringing the characters to life and doing full justice to Puccini's magnificent score.

A well known anecdote has it that the late King George V, when talking to Sir Thomas Beecham, remarked that La Bohème was his favourite opera as it was the shortest one he knew of. It is not, of course, the shortest opera but the quality of the music with its wonderful arias certainly makes the time pass all too quickly.

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Blue Collar Comedy Tour

Actors: David Alan Grier, Heidi Klum, Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy
ASIN : B000P0J07E
Sales Rank : 8512
Director : C.B. Harding
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0085391163022
UPC : 085391163022
Release Date : December 15, 2007
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 106

Description

A feature film version of America's hit comedy concert tour, "Blue Collar Comedy Tour - The Movie" stars renowned comedians Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall and fellow Blue Collar comics Ron White and Larry The Cable Guy. The film features live stand-up performances filmed at Phoenix's Dodge Theater as well as behind-the-scenes sequences highlighting the individual comedians. The number one comedy tour of the last two years, The Blue Collar Comedy Tour has grossed more than $12 million to date and produced a best-selling live album, The Blue Collar Comedy Tour Live, released in November 2001.

Price: $14.99

Suicide Club (Suicide Circle)

Actor: Ryo Ishibashi; Akaji Maro; Masatoshi Nagase; Saya Hagiwara; Hideo Sako; Takashi Nomura (II); Tamao Satô; Mai Hosho; Yoko Kamon; Rolly; Kimiko Yo; Yuhei Okabe; Asami Hidaka; Miyu Sawada; Himeno Maeda; Harina Hata; Hiromi Eguchi; Kikuko Sakurai; Tatsuo Moriyasu; Seiko Hashimoto
ASIN : B0000CC885
Sales Rank : 20600
Director : Sion Sono
Brand : TLA RELEASING
Studio : TLA Releasing
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0807839000580
UPC : 807839000580
Release Date : December 18, 2003
Publisher : TLA Releasing
Manufacturer : TLA Releasing
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : TLA Releasing
Running Time : 94

Description

A wave of unexplainable suicides sweeps across Tokyo after 54 smiling high school girls join hands and throw themselves from a subway platform into an oncoming train. Are the jumpers part of a cult? What is the connection to the website that chronicles suicides...before they happen? And, what is the connection to the Japanese all-girl pop group "Desert?" Suicide Club is a stylish, bizarre thriller that examines pop culture and disaffected youth.

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Vincenzo Bellini - I Puritani

Actor: Ryo Ishibashi; Akaji Maro; Masatoshi Nagase; Saya Hagiwara; Hideo Sako; Takashi Nomura (II); Tamao Satô; Mai Hosho; Yoko Kamon; Rolly; Kimiko Yo; Yuhei Okabe; Asami Hidaka; Miyu Sawada; Himeno Maeda; Harina Hata; Hiromi Eguchi; Kikuko Sakurai; Tatsuo Moriyasu; Seiko Hashimoto
ASIN : B000Y9M09G
Sales Rank : 13079
Studio : Deutsche Grammophon
Region Code : 0
Format : Classical, NTSC, Color
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0044007344217
UPC : 044007344217
Number Of Discs : 2
Release Date : December 18, 2007
Publisher : Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer : Deutsche Grammophon
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Deutsche Grammophon
Running Time : 149

Description

Live from The Metropolitan Opera, international sensation Anna Netrebko sings Elvira Walton (and her famous mad scene) in I Puritani, a spectacular production revived especially for Ms. Netrebko. The stellar cast includes tenor Eric Cutler as Arturo, Franco Vassallo as Riccardo, and John Relyea as Giorgio. The Music Director of the Houston Grand Opera, Patrick Summers, conducts the magnificent Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Included is a bonus DVD containing revealing conversations between Anna Netrebko and Renée Fleming, as well as the late Beverly Sills. The stunning performance on this DVD has been adored by millions of people already through its live transmission in high-definition to movie theatres in the US, Canada and Europe, and broadcasted live on Metropolitan Opera Radio and on Sirius Satellite radio channel 85.

Amazon.com

It's hard to imagine a video opera collection without this superbly sung MET production of Bellini's I Puritani. Not that it's perfect by any means, but its excellences--most especially Anna Netrebko's electrifying singing and acting of Elvira--banish carping about other aspects of this memorable night at the opera. Netrebko is fragile from the start, her facial expressions and hand movements immediately conveying the girl's vulnerability. She has a mad scene in each act; the first when she realizes her fiancé has disappeared with another woman, the third, in the final act, a brief relapse when her returned fiancé is taken by the army to be executed. But it's in the second act that the real fireworks occur, with a Mad Scene that rivals Donizetti's Lucia for bel canto primacy. Here, Elvira is first heard off-stage, after the chorus has informed us that she's deranged. She enters wearing her wedding gown and begins Qui la voce in a voice as frail as her psyche. Netrebko is gripping here, wandering up and down the central staircase, a lost, pathetic creature. Later in the scene she delivers a spectacular display of theatrics as well as fearless vocalism by singing a florid coloratura passage while lying on her back, her head dangling into the orchestra pit.

Tenor Eric Cutler is her fiancé, Arturo, who helps the Stuart Queen escape from the Puritan stronghold, not a wise move in Cromwell's England, not to mention unhinging Elvira. Bellini gives Arturo one of the most cruelly taxing entrance arias in opera, A te o cara, which Cutler delivers with aplomb. His singing throughout is ardent, well-tinted, and easeful. As Elvira's uncle, bass John Relyea is in excellent voice, his big Act III aria especially well done. Franco Vassallo, as Riccardo, Arturo's rival, is more generic, his baritone lacking the color and shading to bring the character to life. Conductor Patrick Summers leads singers and the superb MET Orchestra in an idiomatic performance, allowing the long lines of Bellinian melody to ripen and expand while also generating excitement in the more dramatic scenes.

Visually Sandro Sequi's 30-year-old production with sets by Ming Cho Lee, is showing its age, but the lighting and video direction (by Gary Halvorson) manage to make it look better than it did in the house. Sharon Thomas' stage direction is largely limited to the stand-and-sing variety, the chorus composed into static formations that make for pretty still photos but lack life. Much of the acting is rudimentary, with the singers looking either bored or stiff or engaged in stock generic emoting. Only Netrebko surpasses this with acting that's on par with her singing--consumed by the character, intense and knowing in her subtle movements and reactions, conspiring with Bellini to make this a must-have. --Dan Davis

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Puccini - Manon Lescaut (The Metropolitan Opera HD Live Series)

Actors: Karita Mattila, Marcello Giordani, Dwayne Croft, Dale Travis, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
ASIN : B001DHE9KQ
Sales Rank : 16936
Director : James Levine (Conductor)
Studio : Emi Classics
Region Code : 0
Format : Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 5099921742095
Number Of Discs : 1
Release Date : December 16, 2008
Publisher : Emi Classics
Manufacturer : Emi Classics
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Emi Classics
Running Time : 92

Product Description

The Metropolitan Opera's acclaimed Live in High-Definition series, which projects live performances into theaters across the globe, has met with unprecedented critical and commercial success and has made opera convenient and affordable to millions of viewers worldwide. Now, EMI Classics is proud to collaborate with The Met to release 6 new DVDs made from these broadcast performances.

Finnish soprano Karita Mattila gives a career-high performance- the New York Times called her "riveting" in Puccini's passionate opera. With an equally superlative performance by James Levine and the Met Orchestra, this is unparalleled music making at its finest.

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Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)/ Bartoli, G. Quilico, Kuebler, Feller, R. Lloyd; Ferro/Schwetzingen Festival

Actors: Cecilia Bartoli, Carlos Feller, David Kuebler, Gino Quilco, Robert Lloyd
ASIN : B00009MGK3
Sales Rank : 19972
Director : Michael Hampe, Claus Viller
Studio : Arthaus Musik
Region Code : 1
Format : Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0807280009194
UPC : 807280009194
Number Of Discs : 1
Release Date : December 15, 2003
Publisher : Arthaus Musik
Manufacturer : Arthaus Musik
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Arthaus Musik
Running Time : 157

Description

Rossini was 24 years old when in 1816 he wrote his seventeenth opera and most renowned "buffa", The Barber of Seville, in barely three weeks. The accompanying recording is from the 1988 Schwetzinger Festspiele. The production by Michael Hampe, director of the Cologne Opera at that time, is distinguished by humorous direction of movement which never degenerated into slapstick. It aimed for a high tempo and abandoned the alienation effect to allow for an increasing exuberance in performance by the protagonists. Ezio Frigerios’s stage settings are equally as appealing to the eye as Mauro Pagano’s costumes, whose design consciously strengthens the comic impact of the characters. Resounding from the orchestra pit is an exceptionally defined, coherent and graceful performance of Rossini’s composition. Gabriele Ferro appreciates how to effect subtle differentiations and in so doing strikes an ideal balance between the orchestra and the stage. The choir ensemble is first class, led by an irresistible Cecilia Bartoli.

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Natalie Dessay - Greatest Moments on Stage

Actors: Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri, Marc Minkowski, William Christie, Michel Plasson
ASIN : B000F3T3BO
Sales Rank : 22361
Studio : Virgin Classics
Region Code : 0
Format : Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0094636333991
UPC : 094636333991
Number Of Discs : 1
Release Date : December 16, 2007
Publisher : Virgin Classics
Manufacturer : Virgin Classics
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Virgin Classics
Running Time : 135

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The Pavarotti & Friends Collection: The Complete Concerts, 1992-2000

Actor: Luciano Pavarotti
ASIN : B000077VOW
Sales Rank : 16600
Studio : Decca
Region Code : 0
Format : Box set, Classical, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0044007416099
UPC : 044007416099
Number Of Discs : 4
Release Date : December 12, 2002
Publisher : Decca
Manufacturer : Decca
Label : Decca
Running Time : 758

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Sarah Brightman - Harem Desert Fantasy

Actor: Sarah Brightman
ASIN : B0001C9YRC
Sales Rank : 14811
Studio : Angel Records
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0724349094994
UPC : 724349094994
Release Date : December 24, 2004
Publisher : Angel Records
Manufacturer : Angel Records
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Angel Records

Amazon.com

Theater star Sarah Brightman turns up the heat in this sexy, baroque DVD counterpart to her 2003 world music CD, Harem. Brightman's artistic purpose on that album--marrying the rhythms of the Middle East to her otherwordly pop sound (as opposed to her boomy, operatic sound)--aren't lost here, but don't expect to catch a glimpse of such exciting studio collaborators as violin star Nigel Kennedy amidst countless shots of the diva in various states of undress. The lavish visual production sets several songs in exotic recreations of fabled harems, where lust is tempered by decorum but sex is clearly on the menu. For a change, Brightman's ethereal version of "Stranger in Paradise" (from Kismet) is shot against a starkly beautiful, mountainous backdrop, and "What You Never Know," a song about the passage of time, includes touching images of children and old people. --Tom Keogh

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Verdi - Macbeth (The Metropolitan Opera HD Live Series)

Actors: Zeljko Lucic, Maria Guleghina, John Relyea, Dimitri Pittas, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
ASIN : B001D6OKUQ
Sales Rank : 15113
Director : James Levine (Conductor)
Studio : Emi Classics
Region Code : 0
Format : Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 5099920630492
Number Of Discs : 2
Release Date : December 16, 2008
Publisher : Emi Classics
Manufacturer : Emi Classics
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Emi Classics
Running Time : 157

Product Description

The Metropolitan Opera's acclaimed Live in High-Definition series, which projects live performances into theaters across the globe, has met with unprecedented critical and commercial success and has made opera convenient and affordable to millions of viewers worldwide. Now, EMI Classics is proud to collaborate with The Met to release 6 new DVDs made from these broadcast performances.

A new production of Verdi's haunting opera by English director Adrian Noble, conducted by James Levine, and starring Andrea Gruber, Roberto Aronica, and Lado Ataneli. Hailed by the New York Times as "stylistically eclectic, grimly effective and, at times, intriguingly playful."

Amazon.com

Verdi’s admiration for Shakespeare led to such masterpieces as Othello and Falstaff, and if the earlier Macbeth isn’t on their exalted level it’s still a powerfully dramatic opera that hews closely to the original’s story line. The MET’s production retains the dark aura of the opera while updating it to a vaguely post-modern context. So the witches are bag ladies in various stages of decrepitude, with children in tow. The Banquet Scene features lowered chandeliers, a plethora of chairs, and a slew of extras dressed in tuxedos and party gowns. Macbeth sports a leather coat, the soldiers are in drab brown uniforms and seem to have fingers on their triggers even when they’re supposed to be in non-threatening situations. Director Adrian Noble also has Lady Macbeth do an inordinate amount of writhing around and singing from a lying-down position, adding to the feeling that a less interventionist directorial hand might have generated more impact. Mark Thompson designed the sets and costumes, making a leafless forest an integral background to both outdoor and indoor scenes. Movable pillars contract or expand the spaces in which the action takes place. Video director Gary Halvorson keeps his cameras moving with plenty of close-ups and odd angles, which accentuate the weirdness of the situations and the entrapment of the main characters in their greed and murderous ambition.

The Macbeth couple offer some of the juiciest leading roles in all of opera. Lady Macbeth is well done by Maria Guleghina, whose big voice and stage presence are pluses here. If her intonation is sometimes dubious and her high notes occasionally curdle she does project the role well, especially when cajoling her indecisive husband to murder. He’s sung by Zeljko Lucic, whose sturdy baritone is sufficient to inhabit an acting and singing performance of considerable power. Banquo is sung beautifully by bass John Relyea, and Macduff is well done by tenor Dimtri Pittas. But the MET chorus and orchestra, under the fiery baton of James Levine, are the real heroes of the performance, their contributions enhanced by lively sound that distinguishes this High Definition DVD. Dan Davis

Macbeth is an all-regions HD disc in 16:9 ratio. Sound options include PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1 Surround. Extras include interview material with MET director Peter Gelb, conductor James Levine, and the principal singers and stage director Adrian Noble. Sung in Italian, subtitles include English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.