Carmina Burana: Dancing in Defiance

Ryan and Kevin and their crew from Los Angeles are hired by U.S. Interpol to be matched up against the notorious Gambler Crew from South Korea, known to the b-boy world as the best of the best. Their mission is to gather information about Tony Kai, an "ex yakuza" member who controls the Asian underworld in the United States. Tony Kai is in South Korea planning a worldwide monopoly on drugs, sex, and gambling. Ryan and Kevin struggle as they go deeper into the Asian underworld. Ryan falls for a beautiful Korean girl named Esther who happens to be the sister of "Kicker", the leader of the mafia-run Gamblers crew. Their love is put to the test as the rivalry between the two crews escalate. As reality sets in, the crew from LA is no match against the world champion Gamblers crew in the Mach 1 competition. Ryan, Kevin and the crew go into hiding where they meet an underground b-boy legend...

Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule, touring European princess Ann takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, however, she falls asleep on a park bench and is found by an American reporter, Joe Bradley, who takes her back to his apartment for safety. At work the next morning, Joe finds out Ann's regal identity and bets his editor he can get exclusive interview with her, but romance soon gets in the way.

Arabella, Op. 79, is a lyric comedy or opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration.

In Rigoletto, the deformed figure of the hunchbacked jester at the Mantuan court acts as a foil to his cynical and powerful master, an unscrupulous philanderer contrasted with his cruel and unforgiving fool. Rigoletto encourages and welcomes the Duke's conquests, pitilessly mocking his victims until he discovers that the Duke has abducted the one person he genuinely loves, his own daughter. As a result, the character of the court jester is transformed into a tragic figure who, in spite of his evident immorality and malice, allows us to sense the devotion he feels for his daughter and his horror at being destroyed by the same despotic world as that which he himself has helped to create.

Lucia di Lammermoor, dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848). Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, after Walter Scott's 'The Bride of Lammermoor'. First performance in Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 26 September 1835 Recording: December 23 2015 - Gran Teatre del Liceu | Barcelona Director: Fabrice Castanier Conductor: Marco Armiliato Orchestra & Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu

From the sweaty basement bars of 70s New York to the glittering peak of the global charts, how disco conquered the world - its origins, its triumphs, its fall and its legacy.

CARMEN is the classic tale of forbidden passion between a young man and a spoken-for woman, Carmen. From ORF and TDK Music, this release features a live performance of Georges Bizet's 19th century operatic masterwork Carmen. Directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli, the production was shot on December 9, 1978, at the Wiener Straatsoper. Starring Elena Obraztsova in the titular role, the orchestra is conducted by Carlos Kleiber.

Just as a young woman is about to marry her sweetheart, she is discovered—by the entire village, to say nothing of her fiancé—asleep in the bedroom of a stranger. It takes the young man two acts to figure out that sleepwalking is to blame, and everything ends happily. Natalie Dessay as Amina and Juan Diego Flórez as Elvino deliver bel canto magic and vocal fireworks in Mary Zimmerman’s 2009 production. The Tony award-winning director transfers Bellini’s bucolic tale to a rehearsal room in contemporary New York, where an opera company rehearses La Sonnambula—and where the singers are truly in love with each other.

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.

A village hires a priestess to pray for the safety of their pearl fishermen, but long lost love gets in the way.

José Cura sings and acts here with an inwardness and intensity which make a profound impression. So does Krassimira Stoyanova as Desdemona, not in the first flush of youth, but heartfelt and direct; while Lado Ataneli's Jago is a brilliantly understated study in jovial malevolence. With strong conducting from Antoni Ros-Marbà, the whole cast collaborate to give us the truth of this desperately upsetting work, as no other DVD and few live performances I've seen of it ever have.

The year is 1764. For over a year, Josef has been leading a precarious life in Venice. He hopes to become an opera composer. The city, full of talented and already-established composers, seems closed to him. Looking for work as a violinist, he comes into the orbit of a rich young woman. Thanks to her, he gets the opportunity to play at salons. But his real opportunity arises when he becomes the lover of a libertine marquise. She teaches him worldly manners, rids him of signs of a provincial upbringing and introduces him to a hedonistic existence free from religious intolerance. Thus transformed, Josef gets an incan incredible commission: to write an opera for the San Carlo, Europe's largest theatre.

A 1985 performance of Luchino Visconti's 1958 staging for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Bernard Haitink memorably directs a superb cast that includes Ileana Cotrubas at the height of her powers and Luis Lima, unequalled in his tortured introspection, in the title role. (5-act version, sung in Italian)

This superb 2006 production of the Los Angeles Opera's La Traviata stars Renée Fleming, who joins the ranks of the elite handful of sopranos whose vocal and acting talents make their portrayals memorable. Her Violetta Valéry is a vulnerable figure torn between self-indulgence and love, sacrificing personal happiness to become a victim of the social mores of mid-19th-century bourgeois France. Fleming's acting captures the complexity of the character and her vocalism is flawless. She negotiates the wild coloratura of Act One with aplomb, and is stunning in the lyric passages that pervade the opera, and touching in her scenes with her lover, Alfredo, and his father. Her singing is free of the mannerisms that have sometimes crept into her work and at the same time she brings countless personal touches to the role, phrasing and verbal emphases that shed fresh light on the character.

An Evening with the Dixie Chicks is a 2002 live music documentary featuring the Dixie Chicks and directed by Joel Gallen. It was filmed over two nights at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre and features songs from the band's albums Home, Fly and Wide Open Spaces.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold's "Die tote Stadt" in a Bayerische Staatsoper production from 2019, directed by Simon Stone. Kirill Petrenko is conducting Jonas Kaufmann and Marlis Petersen.

Mirella Freni, Placido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, and Robert Kerns star in this Jean-Pierre Ponnelle-directed version of the Puccini opera, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Madama Butterfly is a staple of the standard operatic repertoire for companies around the world, ranking 7th in the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.

Live performance from Zürich Opera House, 2001. “Vesselina Kasarova’s Rosina turned this Barber into a major event. Pearling coloratura, endless resources of vocal colour and nuance and phenomenal acting versatility became mere means to an end: that of making Rosina into a human being of flesh and blood, with heart, humour and considerable brains.

This delightful ballet tells the story of Dr Coppelius, an eccentric toymaker, who attempts to bring life to his beautiful doll Coppélia. He is foiled by the mischevious Swanilda, who masquerades as Coppélia and saves her love, Franz, from the Doctor's magic. Recorded live at the Sydney Opera House, this acclaimed production by Dame Peggy van Praagh, the founding Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet, is a triumph.

The stupendous climax to Wagner’s four-part Ring cycle is brilliantly realized by the Otto Schenk/Günther Schneider-Siemssen production and byJames Levine’s monumental conducting. The Met orchestra, chorus, and an all-star cast make this Götterdämmerung one that truly rises to the occasion. Hildegard Behrens’s Brünnhilde must be experienced to be believed, as does Matti Salminen’s richly sung, domineering Hagen. At the center of the drama is Siegfried Jerusalem as Siegfried, who does not realize he has been drawn into a plot of betrayal until it is too late. Christa Ludwig is magnetic as Waltraute and Ekkehard Wlaschiha is a compelling Alberich.