Product Description

A DVD sampler that showcases no less than 21 top artists from Universal Classics' unique heritage. Tracks: Pres des remparts de Seville from "Carmen" (Bizet) - Baltsa & Carreras; Non piu andrai from "Le Nozze di Figaro" (Mozart) - Terfel; Di quella pira from "Il Trovatore" (Verdi) - Pavarotti; Ich lade gern from "Die Fledermaus" (Strauss) - Brendel, Fassbaender, Perry, Steinbeisser & Wechter; Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren from "Der Rosenkavalier" Op. 59 (Strauss) - Bonney & von Otter; Se quel guerrier io fossi... Celeste Aida from "Aida" (Verdi) - Domingo; Die Strahlen der Sonne from "Die Zauberflote" (Mozart) - Moll; Violin and Piano Sonata No. 5 in F major Op. 24 "Spring" (Beethoven) - Mutter & Orkis; Radetzky March Op. 228 (Strauss) - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Lacrymosa from "Requiem Mass in D" (Verdi) - Cossotto, Ghiaurov, Pavarotti & Price; Tonight from "West Side Story" (Bernstein) - Carreras, Ollmann, Te Kanawa & Troyanos; O Sole Mio (Di Capua) - Carreras, Domingo & Pavarotti; Nel volto estatico from "La Cenerentola" (Rossini) - Bartoli, Corbelli, Dara, Gimenez & Pertusi; Bella figlia dell'amore from "Rigoletto" (Verdi) - Gruberova, Pavarotti, Vergara & Wixell; Ancora un passo or via from "Madama Butterfly" (Puccini) - Domingo, Freni & Kerns; Libiamo ne lieti calici from "La Traviata" (Verdi) - Gheorghiu & Lopardo; Mehr gabst du, Wunderfrau from "Gotterdammerung" (Wagner) - Jones & Jung; Dance of the Mirlitons from "The Nutcracker" Op. 71 (Tchaikovsky) - Chmil, Miltseva & Pykhachev; Act II - Pas de deux from "Giselle" (Adam) - Bruhn & Fracci; Act IV - Pas de deux from "Swan Lake" Op. 20 (Tchaikovsky) - Fonteyn & Nureyev; Panis Angelicus (Franck) - Bocelli. 86 minutes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108257 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-12-11
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Cantonese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 86 minutes

Customer Reviews

For the price: A great sampler!
This disc has a great variety of classical music: opera, concerts, sonatas and ballet: i.e. something for everyone and every taste.

It features excerpts from many international stars such as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Bryn Terfel, Cecelia Bartoli, Leontyne Price, Anne Sophie Mutter, Rudolph Nureyev just to mention a few. Some of the composers and their (works) are Mozart (Le Nozze Di Figaro and Die Zauberflote), Bizet (Carmen), Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake and the Nutcracker) and Verdi (La Traviata, Rigoletto and Il Trovatore ).

All the selections are short and show just enough of a scene to give a hint as to what is to follow.

All in all, an enjoyable DVD. Probably an ideal starting point for anyone looking to get into classical music or ballet

Ups and Downs
This was a highly enjoyable sampler with a few flaws.
The first flaw is that you need a Doctorate to figure out how to work the tracks. This is overcomable though so I will not retract for poor production.
I own most of these dvd's and the sound quality is better on this sampler and is really quite excellent!
The performances are up and down. All three tenors are shown here in the twilight of theiir abilities on stage. Pavatotti looks kind of weird with blond hair and looks very old and immovable during a transposed "Di Quella Pira" (Which is too heavy for his voice anyway.) Carreras is pushing in the Carmen but Baltsa is not and sounds fabulous.
The other downer is including Panis Angelicus to this DVD which seems very out of place!
The best performance is given by Bryn Terfel in Non Piu Andrai. His interpretation is precious and you will watch it again and again. Domingo also shows up for buisness in the Celeste Aida despite looking a tad bit long in the tooth for the young Ramades. Also check out the Lacrymosa from Verdi's reqem to see a beardless Pavarotti!
The decca section presents treats like the famous O Sole Mio encore from the Three tenors and bella Figlia Dell Amore(but if you dont own those Dvd's already youre crazy!)
Overall this is a fun yet hard to use collection of favorites.

Look's Great, Sounds Great.
What can I say; Excellent selection of Singers; Excellent selection of songs; and the DVD look's and sounds Great.