This Pirates of Penzance is primarily a historical document, part of the Broadway Theater Archive television series. It presents, with some inevitable, tiny technical shortcomings, a live 1980 performance in Central Park, not the 1983 movie of the same name that also starred Linda Ronstadt and...
This production from Covent Garden is set in Stockholm, and not Boston. With Reri Grist (Oscar), Placido Domingo (Gustavus), Katia Ricciarelli (Amelia), Piero Cappucili (Renato), Patricia Payne (? - the booklet or DVD fails to credit the singer) (Ulrica) and Claudio Abbado in the pit: all at their...
A history of rock music during the 1960s, covering everything from the British Invasion that began with the Beatles to the psychedelic sound from San Francisco.
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
51982HD
The powerful tales of seven diverse African-American women are woven together in this 1982 performance of Ntozake Shange's Obie Award-winning landmark play. A breakthrough portrayal of black women's experiences in America, the story combines music, poetry and dance to celebrate their unique culture...
Debuting on Broadway in 1980, Tintypes is a musical review featuring songs from the early twentieth century providing the audience with a look into that turbulent time in American history. Nominated for three Tony Awards, and winner of several Obie Awards, this production stars Carolyn Mignini,...
Filmed over two years in India and the USA, Mark Kidel's award-winning documentary brings together archive footage spanning seven decades of Ravi Shankar's performing life, and provides a definitive account of the late sitar maestro's unique musical career.
La Fanciulla del West, Puccini's penultimate opera is based on a play by David Belasco set at the height of the notorious California gold rush. The composer took three years to complete the work, which, for him, marked a new stylish departure. With more modern harmonic combinations and local...
Stiffelio is considered "early Verdi" to musiclogists who classify things, but, in reality, it is a final transition between the maestro's earlier (but most enjoyable) works, and the mature craftsmanship of Rigoletto. Preceded by Luisa Miller (q.v.), there is more dramatic intensity and story line...
Combining a concert film with a making-of documentary, this presentation provides a dramatization of Franz Schubert's famed song cycle along with a unique look at the collaborative process in bringing the production to the screen. Tenor Ian Bostridge vocalizes the part of the wanderer from Wilhelm...
It truly is an historic performance. Domingo looking and singing like a god pouring out golden tones; Renato Bruson sounds, like the sublime Verdian Baritone that he was at that time; Nicolai Ghiaurov proves again that he was one of the greatest "Verdi Basses"; Mirella Freni shows that there was...
Sir Peter Wright’s 1984 version of The Nutcracker for The Royal Ballet, still performed by the Company, stays close to Hoffmann’s original tale. It emphasises Drosselmeyer’s mission to find a young girl – Clara – who can break the curse imposed by the Mouse King on his nephew Hans Peter...
Cinderella is helped to the ball by her fairy godmother in The Royal Ballet's version of the classic fairy tale, using Sergei Prokofiev's music and Frederick Ashton's choreography in a comic ballet.
The Louisiana Hayride was a radio show that gave fresh talent a chance to perfect their distinct performance styles before a weekly live audience. During its heyday, between 1948-1958 "the hayride" rivaled even Nashville's famed Grand Ole Opry in the number of listen-ship.
Albert Rosen conducts the Wexford Festival Opera's production of the classic Antonín Dvorák tale about a young woman who defies her parents by insisting on dancing even if it means she must dance with the devil. Anne-Marie Owens plays Kate, who's dismayed to discover that her spontaneous outburst...
This historic film captures the legendary pianist Artur Rubinstein in rare performance film footage. The first portion of the program features Rubinstein playing solo works. The next segment of the program takes us into his home, with the master playing a program of Chopin. The concluding portion...
Le Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr.
Director Bruno Monsaingeon stages this live musical journey into the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, featuring virtuoso Marie-Claire Alain playing organs hand-selected to best represent Bach's Baroque style. The tour incorporates venues at which the maestro himself would have performed, such as...
Nina Ananiashvili dances the dual roles of Mlada and Cleopatra in this acclaimed production of composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Mlada," directed by Boris Pokrovsky and choreographed by Andrei Petrov. Voislava, the daughter of a scheming prince, is forced to present his rival's bride with a...
