The West is a Land of Infinite Beginnings (2021)

The Phantom of the Opera

The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.

The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast

A project assembled to musically support William Plomer's (1903-73) book of poems called 'The Butterfly Ball and Grasshoppers Feast'; in which Alan Aldridge had provided the illustrations. British Lion had secured the rights, and commissioned Glover, through Tony Edwards (the Deep Purple manager), to add the musical dimension that it required if it were to be made into a 26-part animated cartoon series, suitable for TV. (Discogs) This is the music video for the song Love Is All, performed by Ronnie James Dio.

Mozart: The Magic Flute

Since it's premiere in a tiny suburban theatre in Vienna, Die Zauberflote has delighted audiences young and old for over 200 years. Mozart's Singspiel seamlessly alternates seriousness and jollity, and combines philosophical ideas with a fairytale world of wondrous animals and magical musical instruments. Emanuel Schikaneder's original production was theatrically inventive, and this new interpretation from director Simon McBurney emulates that in fresh and current terms. Fusing music, technology and stagecraft, this exciting production gives Die Zauberflote a refreshing new treatment that is both thrilling and simple in it's approach. Following an overwhelming success on stage, McBurney's unique production received five-star reviews in the Dutch press: 'a feast for the eyes and the ears' (Het Parool) and 'Delicious!' (Trouw).

Maria Callas Sings Tosca, Act II

At the beginning of 1964, the music world experiences something completely unexpected. Maria Callas returns to the opera stage as the prima donna. Her “Tosca” at the Royal Opera House becomes a sensation. Maria Callas wants to show everyone once again that she deserves the title of “prima donna assoluta.” On the condition that star director Franco Zeffirelli take over the direction, the exceptional singer agrees to sing the role of Tosca. The BBC recorded the 2nd act of the opera for television. It is one of the most dramatic acts in opera history: in order to free the painter Cavaradossi from the hands of torturers, Tosca ends up murdering the police chief Scarpia. The film footage is one of the rare opportunities to see Maria Callas in an opera performance and to experience her highly emotional performance art and vocal abilities...

AMA

Ama is a silent film. It tells a story everyone can interpret in their own way, based on their own experience. There is no imposition, only suggestions. I wanted to share my biggest pain in this life with this film. For this is not too crude, I covered it with grace. To make it not too heavy, I plunged it into the water. I dedicate this film to all the women of the world.

Der Freischütz

Weber was at the forefront of the rise of German Romantic opera and sought to dethrone Rossini from his position as the leading operatic composer in Europe. In his breakthrough and most popular opera Der Freischütz (The Marksman) composed in 1821, he succeeded in his aim of establishing a truly German form. Turning to the folklore and folk songs of his native land he took a story of a marksman who makes a pact with the Devil, vesting it with powerful intensity not least in the famous Wolfs Glen scene and an astonishing control of orchestral color and atmosphere.

The Met — Il Trovatore

Soprano Anna Netrebko appears in her highly anticipated Met role debut as Leonora, the tortured heroine who sacrifices her own life for the love of the Gypsy troubadour. Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings Count di Luna, Yonghoon Lee is Manrico in his Met role debut as the title character, Dolora Zajick sings her signature role of the gypsy Azucena, and Štefan Kocán is Ferrando. Marco Armiliato conducts Sir David McVicar’s Goya-inspired production.

Die Walküre

The gorgeous and evocative Otto Schenk/Günther Schneider-Siemssen production continues with this second opera in Wagner’s Ring cycle. Hildegard Behrens brings deep empathy to Brünnhilde, the favorite daughter of the god Wotan (James Morris) who nevertheless defies him. Morris’s portrayal of Wotan is deservedly legendary, as is Christa Ludwig, as Fricka. Jessye Norman and Gary Lakes are Sieglinde and Siegmund, and Kurt Moll is the threatening Hunding. James Levine and the Met orchestra provide astonishing color and drama. (Performed April 8, 1989)

Siegfried

Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner.

Puccini: Manon Lescaut

All the throbbing eroticism—and ultimate heartbreak—of Puccini’s youthful score is unleashed by James Levine and his top-flight cast. Plácido Domingo is Des Grieux, the handsome, headstrong young aristocrat who falls head over heels for the enticing, impetuous Manon Lescaut (Renata Scotto). Manon returns his love, but her obsession with luxury ruins them both. Gian Carlo Menotti’s opulent production, with sets and costumes by Desmond Heeley, superbly captures the colorful world of 18th century France.

The Metropolitan Opera: Don Giovanni

Simon Keenlyside smolders dangerously in the title role of Mozart’s version of the legend of Don Juan, creating a vivid portrait of a man who is a law unto himself, and all the more dangerous for his eternally seductive allure. Adam Plachetka is his occasionally unruly servant Leporello. It’s when Giovanni tangles with Donna Anna (Hibla Gerzmava) that things start to unravel, aided by the reappearance of Donna Elvira (Malin Byström), who is determined not to let her seducer go. With Paul Appleby as Don Ottavio, Donna Anna’s eternally steadfast fiancé. Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads the Met Orchestra and Chorus.

Così fan tutte

Who loves whom in Così fan tutte, Mozart’s and Da Ponte’s cruelly comic reflection on desire, fidelity and betrayal? Or have the confusions to which the main characters subject one another ensured that in spite of the heartfelt love duets and superficially fleetfooted comedy nothing will work any longer and that a sense of emotional erosion has replaced true feelings? Così fan tutte is a timeless work full of questions that affect us all. The Academy Award-winning director Michael Haneke once said that he was merely being precise and did not want to distort reality. In only his second opera production after Don Giovanni in 2006, he presents what ARTE described as a “disillusioned vision of love in an ice-cold, realistic interpretation”.

Amadeus

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Arena di Verona: Il Trovatore

It's an event that draws many thousands of music lovers to one of the most beautiful cities in the world every summer: the opera season at the ancient Arena di Verona. The 2,000-year-old roman amphiteatre with its gigantic stage dimensions is one of the largest and best preserved Roman construction of its kind, and with over 22,000 seats it is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular open-air venues of the world! The revered master of opera Franco Zeffirelli, who died shortly before the premiere of Il Trovatore, created a legendary scenery with groups of giant sized armoured knights, a fortress turning into a luminous cathedral, an enormous choir, horses, breathtaking fights: “his perhaps best arena production” (Opernglas). It brings Anna Netrebko to the Arena of Verona where she is giving her much-anticipated debut in one of Giuseppe Verdi’s most popular operas.

The Marriage Of Figaro - Grand Théâtre de Genève

The production bears the imprint of the conductor, Marko Letonja, and the director, Tobias Richter, whose understanding is ideal: both breathe a troupe spirit - specific to comedy - into this heterogeneous cast, which brings together young and old. Both give as much importance to recitatives as to arias and ensembles.

Puccini: Turandot

Franco Zeffirelli's magnificient staging of Puccini's final opera - a fairy tale set in a mythical China - is one of the most popular in the Met repertory. In this Live in HD production, Maria Guleghina takes on the title role and Marcello Giordani is Calaf, the unknown prince. Marina Poplavskaya and Samuel Ramey co-star, and Andris Nelsons conducts in his Met debut.

Cavalleria rusticana

Franco Zeffirelli directs these two legendary La Scala productions telling tragic tales of jealousy. Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana features performances by Elena Obraztsova, Plácido Domingo, and Renato Bruson. Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci stars Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, and Juan Pons. Both are conducted by George Pretre. This production of Pagliacci earned director Franco Zeffirelli the coveted Emmy as Best Director in the category of Classical Music Programming.

No Me Digas Wey

Plot unavailable

The Music of Regret

Simmons, best-known for her photographs of miniature rooms populated by dolls and of oversized objects—such as a house, birthday cake, and pistol—balanced on female legs, both human and fake, brings these characters to life in a three-act mini-musical. The film is inspired by three distinct periods of Simmons’s photographic work: vintage hand puppets, ventriloquist dummies and walking objects enact tales of ambition, disappointment, love, loss, and regret. Working with composer Michael Rohaytn ("Personal Velocity") and cameraman Ed Lachman ("The Virgin Suicides" and "Far From Heaven"), Simmons’s puppets come to life in miniature domestic scenes that echo real life.

Hell's Bells

The demons of hell play music for Satan, whose delight turns to wrath when an insubordinate refuses to become food for Cerberus.

Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man

A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.

The Buffalo Boy and His Flute

A young boy who likes to play the flute dreams that he has lost his water buffalo.

The Metropolitan Opera: Roméo et Juliette

Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo are opera’s classic lovers in Gounod’s lush Shakespeare adaptation. Director Bartlett Sher’s “brilliant and inspired new production … is a revelation” (Huffington Post), and has already won acclaim for its vivid 18th-century milieu and stunning costumes during runs at Salzburg and La Scala. Emmanuel Villaume conducts the sumptuous score.

Verdi: Nabucco

The legendary Plácido Domingo brings another new baritone role to the Met under the baton of his longtime collaborator James Levine. Liudmyla Monastyrska is Abigaille, the warrior woman determined to rule empires, and Jamie Barton is the heroic Fenena. Dmitri Belosselskiy is the stentorian voice of the oppressed Hebrew people.

Sculpture

Video art of sculpture is the real life story of Rumi (Mevlana) and Shams Tabrizi. Rumi and Shams are well known international poets of Persian language. One day, Rumi invites Shams Tabrizi to his house, Shams throws the book into the pool of water and Rumi is worried and Shams returns the book to Rumi without any trace of water. The lost half of the sculpture in the film is a representation of the same concept, in which the dance of Sama, the sculptor's mind and the role of the face are visible. "Sculpture" has won more than 57 International Awards, third place (semi-final) in called Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (Academy Award ® Qualifying, BAFTA Qualifying, Canadian Screen Award Qualifying) , Crown Point International Film Festival(Chicago) ,Vegas Movie Awards,Global Shorts( Los Angeles),(US),Gold Star Movie Awards (US),One-Reeler Short Film Competition (US),Accolade Competition (US),Berlin International Art Film Festival and many other events.

The Conductor

Leonard Bernstein’s protégée Marin Alsop reveals how she smashed the glass ceiling to become an internationally renowned conductor.

Simon Boccanegra [The Metropolitan Opera]

When this sumptuous production by Giancarlo del Monaco opened in 1995, legendary tenor Plácido Domingo gave a riveting performance as the fiery revolutionary Gabriele Adorno, a tenor part. In the 2010 revival, he made history by taking on the baritone title role, one of Verdi’s most fascinating characters, and thrilling audiences with his multifaceted and gripping portrayal. Boccanegra is beset on all sides, juggling political adversaries bent on murder with his love for his long-lost daughter Amelia (Adrianne Pieczonka). James Levine’s conducting brings out all the color and surging emotion of Verdi’s magnificent score.

The Burden

A shopping center along a large highway is the scene of an apocalyptic musical. Animation with a strong sense of form set to auto-tuned music by Klungan. About liberation through great catastrophy.

The Doll Shop

Early Vitaphone short.

Poulenc's The Human Voice / Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle

Running through Bartók’s disenchanted tale, whose haunting music was initially condemned as unplayable, and the expression of despair in Poulenc’s monologue, the director Krzysztof Warlikowski perceives a shared dramatic thread, a shared feminine consciousness and a shared sense of imprisonment and suffocation: for the woman who penetrates the confines of Bluebeard’s castle and Elle, the woman who clings to a telephone conversation with a man as the only thing worth living for, are condemned to share the same fate. And this man she speaks to, does he really exist? Unless the director has interpreted Cocteau’s words to the letter and the telephone has become a “terrifying weapon that leaves no trace, makes no noise”…

Savant: Kali 47

Undead dark riders invade a wild west saloon, blasting away everyone in sight - now only a bad-ass Native American warrior can save the town.

The Metropolitan Opera - Puccini: Manon Lescaut

Kristine Opolais is the young woman whose conflicting desires for love and luxury lead to her tragic end, and Roberto Alagna plays the man who falls for her in Puccini’s early hit. Richard Eyre’s elegant production, which sets the action in 1940s occupied France, was one of the highlights of the Met’s 2015–16 season. Massimo Cavalletti as Manon’s brother and Brindley Sherratt as her aging admirer co-star, and Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium.

Baby Einstein: Baby Beethoven - Symphony of Fun

This DVD includes upbeat music for movement and active play, plus new activity modes: play, dance, and quiet-time modes; and new discovery cards: real-world animals and objects with sound effects.

One Man Band

With one coin to make a wish at the piazza fountain, a peasant girl encounters two competing street performers who'd prefer the coin find its way into their tip jars. The little girl, Tippy, is caught in the middle as a musical duel ensues between the one-man-bands.

Tosca

Non-musical account of Puccini's opera: Tosca and Cavaradossi are in love, but the tyrant Scarpia desires Tosca and oppresses Cavaradossi who is fighting for freedom.

Lucia di Lammermoor

This telecast offers a rare opportunity to see the legendary Joan Sutherland in the role that first catapulted her to international stardom. She drove audiences wild by the way her opulent voice caressed the music’s long phrases and sprinted effortlessly through the fiendish runs, trills, embellishments and stratospheric high notes. One of the glories of the operatic world, her portrayal of Donizetti’s hapless heroine is a multifaceted and moving characterization. The incomparable tenor Alfredo Kraus is Edgardo, the man Lucia loves but cannot have. (Performance taped November 13, 1982. Broadcasted September 28, 1983.)