The Blu-ray Experience: Opera & Ballet (2008)

Ghost Rider 2 Goes Wild

Experience high speed chases and unbelievable motorcycle mastery. Ghost Rider returns for more incredible high speed antics on the streets and freeways of Stockholm Sweden. With real police chases, crazy stunts, and close calls that make even the most experienced riders flinch. He even rides a snowmobile with no tracks down a snow-less street at high speed. A radical motorcycle video that gets your adrenaline pumping and satisfies your need for speed.If you haven't seen Ghost Rider in action before then make sure you also pick up Ghost Rider - The Final Ride. You will be in awe of the speed and technique of this motorcycle master.

Casting Couch

Desperate to meet new girls, six down-on-their-luck guys come up with the ultimate plan to hook up - cast a fake movie. When tons of hot chicks show up for the audition, it's a matter of who's willing to go the farthest to get the part.

Broad Street Bullies

The HBO Sports documentary Broad Street Bullies, a look at one of pro sport’s most polarizing teams, the legendary Philadelphia Flyers Stanley Cup championship squads of the 1970s. This exclusive presentation tells the backstories of these engaging and colorful athletes, who won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975 with a bold, aggressive style that sparked controversy and criticism.

Salka Valka

A coming of age story about young Salka Valka who lives in the small fishing village of Íseyri. She is doing well for herself as a partner in a small fishing boat, but people believe she is financed by her deceased mother's former fiance, Steinthór, who disappeared on their wedding day many years ago. Salka becomes infatuated with the idealistic Arnaldur who wants to start a workers union, much to the opposition of local entrepreneur Bogesen. The past comes to haunt her in the return of Steinthór but Salka fends off his advances only to lose the restless Arnaldur away. http://www.icelandicfilmcentre.is

Survive The Night

On their way home from Brooklyn, psychiatrist Vic, daughter Julie and sister Stacey run short of gas. They leave the highway to search for a petrol station - but end up erring around in South Bronx. A youth gang led by the sadistic Ice stops their car and starts terrorizing them. Without fuel, the 3 women soon have to flee by foot and defend their life with all means possible.

Pintakasi

About a young painter who arrives at an island made of garbage. He uses the island and its denizens as his canvas and fights to protect the island from forces that threaten it.

Rosa de Areia

Marking a stylistically and philosophically turn away from the earlier features, The Sand Rose is Reis and Cordeiro’s most abstract, conceptual and literary work. The film’s collage structure gathers texts from multiple sources – including Kafka and Montaigne – and crafts a world of theatrical artifice far from the documentary inspired naturalism of Ana and Trás-os-Montes. Reis and Cordeiro’s least known film has lingered in obscurity and never recovered from the unfairly negative reviews that resulted in its severely limited release. Reis died less than two years later, just as he and Cordeiro were about to begin an ambitious adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Parámo. - Harvard Film Archive

The Doc

Two unsuspecting travelers encounter a mysterious dwarf in the woods in this horror short.

Beneath the Green

A wayward astronaut finds himself trapped inside the collective consciousness of a planet that seeks to teach us how to conquer our past to move forward with the present.

Sümela'nın Şifresi 3: Cünyor Temel

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De blaa drenge

Sylvia Grøn bliver fyret som lærerinde. I stedet slår hun sig sammen med sin store beundrer, skuespilleren Herman Sander. Sylvia Grøn lægger sine sparepenge i hans rejsende teater, men det går dårligt for teatret. Billedet af Herman Sander falmer også efterhånden som tiden går. Sylvias gamle elev, Eva Kristoffersen, søger tilflugt i teatertruppen. Hun er hemmeligt forelsket i komponisten Henrik Brandt. Lige inden nøglen må drejes om for teatergruppen får Sylvia en ide. Henrik Brandt har skrevet et teaterstykke og det vil hun sætte op.

The Atomic Adventure

Algeria desert, 1961. France just detonated an atomic bomb. A patrol of seven soldiers is sent to ground zero to take samples and measure the current radioactivity. The more they advance, the more they perceive that they are entering a dangerous uncharted territory: the future…

Litchi Hikari Club Stage Play

This is a theatrical play adaptation of the popular comic series "Lychee Light Club."

Out of the Inkwell

In a tribute to the Fleischer brothers shorts of the '20s, a janitor hypnotizes Max Fleischer's pen to draw Betty Boop.

Old Stair

Based on a poem by I. Pivovorova

MP Da Last Don

Nino never wanted the life of a gangster, but when his father, Don Corleone is gunned down in the street, he must answer the call for revenge. Now Nino is Da Last Don and the family business is in his hands...a world of deceit, back room deals and crooked cops that threatens to destroy everything Nino loves.

The Art of Playing

Indie video game developers push games to new frontiers in storytelling, music, animation and design. Texas has the second largest concentration of game companies in the U.S. Along with major game developers like EA and Blizzard, there is a small but committed group of independent developers and artists working diligently on home computers.

Billy Elliot

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

Delibes: Coppélia

This interpretation of Coppélia is set in a cybernetic laboratory specialised in artificial intelligence, where Doctor Coppélius is attempting to create a female android that moves and acts like a human. Against a backdrop of futuristic sets the Víctor Ullate Ballet clothes this classic in a new, bouncy and colourful fairytale wardrobe. Recorded live at the Opera Royal du Chateau de Versailles, 2013.

7 Deaths of Maria Callas

A meditation on the female body as a source of both power and pain that focuses on the tragic figure of renowned American-Greek opera singer Maria Callas (1923-77), whose stunning soprano voice captivated audiences around the world in the mid-20th century while her life was wracked by scandal and personal suffering.

Dancer

Sergei Polunin is a breathtaking ballet talent who questions his existence and his commitment to dance just as he is about to become a legend.

Bolshoi Ballet: Spartacus

The Bolshoi’s grandiose epic Spartacus recounts the story of a Roman slave’s fight for freedom. With its famous Khachaturian score, since the 1960s it has been considered one of the greatest ballets in the Bolshoi repertoire. The choreography by Yuri Grigorovich fills the Bolshoi stage with dynamic scenes of tension and conflict, and gives full expression to the virility and strength for which Russia’s male dancers are renowned.

The Firebird

Italian singer Mario Vanni visits the Royal Opera in Stockholm and fall in love with ballet dancer Linda Corina.

Massenet: Thaïs

When the most voluptuous, sought-after courtesan in the world meets an ascetic monk whose life is devoted to God, you know erotic sparks are going to fly. And when the clash takes place in a glorious, but rarely performed, opera by Massenet, it’s a delight to the ear just as much as to the eye. Renée Fleming is every inch the glamorous Thaïs, swathed in elegant gowns designed by Christian Lacroix. Thomas Hampson is Athanaël, the tortured man of God. This production by John Cox, which premiered in December 2008, brilliantly sets the stage for a confrontation as old as civilization itself.

Benvenuto Cellini

Live performance from Salzburg Festival Opera, August 2007. The story tells of Cellini's love for Teresa, daughter of the Papal Treasurer Balducci. His rival, the Papal Sculptor Fieramosca, overhears Cellini plotting to run away with Teresa during the carnival.

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail

The prestigious Gran Teatre del Liceu from Barcelona presents Mozart's beloved opera in an elegant, dramatic twist with a sparkling cast of world-class stars, led by coloratura soprano Diana Damrau as Constance and rising star Olga Peretyatko as Blonda. Director Christophe Loy has created a thought-provoking and surprisingly original script in which both Constance and Blonda feel respect, admiration and even deep love for their captors. As a result of this tantalizing, torturous approach, traditional norms and concepts of good and evil were turned upside down.

Center Stage

A group of 12 teenagers from various backgrounds enroll at the American Ballet Academy in New York to make it as ballet dancers and each one deals with the problems and stress of training and getting ahead in the world of dance.

Ariodante

At Salzburg Festival, Cecilia Bartoli shines as Ariodante with her dazzling coloratura in a highly acclaimed new production by the German director Christoph Loy, who is known for his clever psychological stagings. Loy turns Handel's splendid baroque opera into an exciting and differentiated reflection on gender roles.

Giordano: Andrea Chernier

“Kaufmann is performing the title role for the first time, and it’s hard to imagine him bettered. His striking looks make him very much the Romantic and romanticised outsider of Giordano’s vision. His voice, with its dark, liquid tone, soars through the music with refined ease and intensity: all those grand declarations of passion, whether political or erotic, hit home with terrific immediacy.” – The Guardian Presented in its Covent Garden premiere in January 2015, this staging – directed by David McVicar and conducted by the Royal Opera’s Music Director, Sir Antonio Pappano – shows a bloody tricolour daubed with the words “Even Plato banned poets from his Republic” – written by Robespierre on the death warrant of the historical Chénier, a poet and journalist sent to the guillotine in 1794 for criticising France’s post-revolutionary government.

Freydís and Gudrid

A group of merchants and vikings navigate dramatic events both within and without in this epic musical based on the Icelandic Vinland sagas. As secrets are exposed, two women (Freydís and Gudrid) have a reckoning.

Owen Wingrave

Margaret Williams directs this 2001 production of adaptation of Benjamin Britten's television opera based on a short story by Henry James. Performers featured include Gerald Finley, Peter Savidge and Josephine Barstow. The conductor is Kent Nagano. As pertinent now as then, OWEN WINGRAVE was composed by Benjamin Britten at the height of the Vietnam War. The opera poses the question: Is pacifism an act of cowardice? Or rather a desire to escape from the spiral of war and create world peace? To what extent do we determine our own futures? Should we let past events inform the decisions we make? Britten’s characters grapple with timeless issues in this gripping psychodrama.

The Metropolitan Opera: Boris Godunov

Stephen Wadsworth’s production of Mussorgsky’s epic masterpiece brilliantly captures the suffering and ambition of the Russian people at a critical time in their nation’s history. René Pape is riveting as the Tsar of the title, giving a commanding and charismatic performance of one of the greatest bass roles in the repertoire—his Boris is dominating, tortured, flawed and utterly unforgettable. The extraordinary cast and the Met Orchestra and Chorus are led by Russian maestro Valery Gergiev, the foremost Mussorgsky interpreter of our time.

Don Giovanni

The impulsive and charismatic Don Giovanni travels through Europe seducing women, accompanied by his long-suffering servant Leporello. But when Don Giovanni commits murder, he unleashes a dark power beyond his control. Kasper Holten’s production is rich in both colourful comedy and exhilarating drama. Set designs by Es Devlin (Les Troyens) and costume designs by Anja Vang Kragh (Stella McCartney, John Galliano for Christian Dior), with video projections by Luke Halls and choreography by Signe Fabricius, portray the visually entrancing world of Don Giovanni. At the heart of the production are the beauty and invention of Mozart’s dazzling score, which ranges from gorgeous arias and dramatic duets to the brilliant layering of dance melodies that bring Act I to a virtuoso close.

Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes

The Red Shoes is a tale of obsession, possession and one girl's dream to be the greatest dancer in the world. Victoria Page lives to dance but her ambitions become a battleground between the two men who inspire her passion. Matthew Bourne’s magical adaptation of the classic Powell and Pressburger film is set to the achingly romantic music of golden-age Hollywood composer Bernard Herrmann, the production is orchestrated by Terry Davies, with stunning designs by Lez Brotherston, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Paul Groothuis and projection design by Duncan McLean. Filmed live at Sadler’s Wells in London especially for cinemas.

La Gioconda - Opera Bruxelles

Conspiracies and regattas form the backdrop to the fortunes of a young singer. Harassed by a heartless spy, she sacrifices everything to save the man she loves and the woman he prefers over her. Ponchielli based his flamboyant opera on Victor Hugo’s play Angelo, tyrant of Padua. An expert on Hugo, director Olivier Py offers us a dream-like version of this dark Romantic tragedy, presided over by sex and death. Paolo Carignani conducts an exceptional cast in the six demanding main roles.

Gounod: Faust

Tenor Jonas Kaufmann is riveting as the title character of Gounod’s popular opera, seen in this Live in HD presentation of Des McAnuff’s thrilling 2011 production that places the mythical and timeless story in an early 20th-century setting. René Pape as Méphistophélès is menacing and elegant in equal measure, and Marina Poplavskaya delivers a searingly intense portrayal of the innocent Marguerite. Russell Braun as her brother, Valentin, shines in his Act II aria. On the podium, Yannick Nézet-Séguin brings out all the lyricism and drama of Gounod’s score.

Verdi: Otello

Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher’s bold new production probes the psychological underpinnings of Verdi’s dynamic setting of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. At the helm of this performance is riveting conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who brings out all the cascading emotions in Verdi’s turbulent score. Aleksandrs Antonenko is the Moor Otello, the triumphant general of the Venetian army who is ultimately brought down by the sly insinuations of his friend Iago (Željko Lučić). Sonya Yoncheva continues to win fans as Desdemona, Otello’s faithful and long-suffering wife. With Günther Groissböck as Lodovico and Dimitri Pittas as Cassio.

Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Audiences went wild for Bartlett Sher’s dynamic production, which found fresh and surprising ways to bring Rossini’s effervescent comedy closer to them than ever before. The stellar cast leapt to the challenge with irresistible energy and bravura vocalism. Juan Diego Flórez is Count Almaviva, who fires off showstopping coloratura as he woos Joyce DiDonato’s spirited Rosina—with assistance from Peter Mattei as the one and only Figaro, Seville’s beloved barber and man-about-town.

Rossini: Armida

It is a rare opera indeed that calls for one soprano diva and no fewer than six tenors. Mary Zimmerman’s fanciful production of Rossini’s drama, designed by Richard Hudson and with choreography by Graciela Daniele, provides the perfect setting for superstar Renée Fleming’s captivating performance of the title role. A beautiful but evil sorceress in the times of the Crusades, Armida sets out to regain the love of the Frankish knight Rinaldo (Lawrence Brownlee) by putting her magical spells on him. She at first succeeds to draw him into her web of sorcery, but ultimately divine intervention—and his fellow soldiers—free Rinaldo from his enchantment—much to the vengeful fury of Armida and her demons.

Farinelli

The life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time.

Bizet: The Pearl Fishers

Bizet’s rarely heard opera returned to the Met for the first time in a century on New Year’s Eve 2015, in Penny Woolcock’s acclaimed new production. Star soprano Diana Damrau sings Leïla, the virgin priestess at the center of the story. Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien are Nadir and Zurga, rivals for Leïla’s love who have sworn to renounce her to protect their friendship—and who get to sing one of opera’s most celebrated duets, “Au fond du temple saint.” Nicolas Testé is the high priest Nourabad and Gianandrea Noseda conducts Bizet’s supremely romantic score.

Norma: Live from the Royal Opera House

The priestess Norma loves Pollione, leader of the occupying force suppressing her people, and has borne two children by him. But Pollione’s love has withered, and he now loves Norma’s fellow priestess Adalgisa. Meanwhile, the people urgently look to Norma to lead their rebellion.

The Metropolitan Opera: Tristan und Isolde

Met audiences were fascinated by Mariusz Treliński’s gripping, visionary production of Wagner’s epic opera. In the daunting title roles of the doomed lovers, Nina Stemme and Stuart Skelton are passionate, overwhelming, and heartbreaking as they battle every obstacle that separates them from their true destiny. René Pape is King Marke, betrayed not only by Isolde but by Tristan, the man he most trusts and loves like a son. With Ekaterina Gubanova as Isolde’s confidante Brangäne and Evgeny Nikitin as Kurwenal, Tristan’s loyal lieutenant. Simon Rattle conducts a surging, shimmering account of Wagner’s monumental score.

A Delicate Balance

A Delicate Balance explores the life and dreams of young dancers at the dawn of adolescence. A tender and captivating documentary in which the students of the Quebec Superior Ballet School tell each other with candid lucidity.

Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence

Opera based on the story of Edward II and Piers Gaveston. Music by George Benjamin, libretto by Martin Crimp. BBC broadcast of the 2018 premiere at the Royal Opera House, the composer conducting, prefaced by commentary and interviews.