This concert recording from 1961 is one of the last recordings with two outstanding musicians from Basie’s band, Joe Williams and Joe Newman, who both departed from the band in 1961 to pursue solo careers. Joe Williams, known for having a deeper and…

The trained pianist and occasional organist, Sarah Vaughan ranks among the Big Four of female jazz singers, alongside Bessie Smith , Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald . Her early formal education on the piano has influenced her vocal technique…

There was probably no other artist, who was involved creatively in so many stages of the development of Jazz music as Duke Ellington . His sonic individuality originated in his peculiar style of composing and arranging, in which he was interweaving…

Alfred Brendel is arguably the most outstanding modern exponent of Schubert's piano music currently before the public. He is capable of bringing not only the verve of this music but also its poetic intensity and intellectual depth to life with a…

Claus Guth’s celebrated Mozart-Da Ponte opera trilogy at the Salzburg Festival for the first time in one DVD box set! These new, excitingly original productions feature superb orchestral playing and world-class conductors as well as outstanding casts…

This film is based on Jan Schmidt-Garre's acclaimed stage production of Beethoven's "Fidelio". The producers carefully filmed and edited several performances. By using additional footage of Jacquelyn Wagner as Leonore the stage production is…

Rossini was 24 years old when he wrote his seventeenth opera and most renowned "buffa", The Barber of Seville, in barely three weeks. This recording is from the 1988 Schwetzinger Festspiele. The production by Michael Hampe is distinguished by a…

Iolanta and Perséphone - A double bill consisting of two stage works that “represent an ideal of beauty, poetry and hope” forms this production in Madrid from the Teatro Real. In both works the progression from darkness to light acts as an initiation…

From the opening notes of the overture to the final curtain, Emilio Sagi’s classic, triumphant production brings to life all the elegant wit and theatricality of Mozart’s comic masterpiece Le nozze di Figaro. Leading baritone Ludovic Tézier shines as…

For the Easter Festival 2017 in Baden-Baden, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker draw their inspiration from Tosca , the most brilliant of all the Puccini operas. And that is deservedly so, since Tosca is not merely a work of art, but…