Experience Opera & Ballet Highlights [Blu-ray] [Import]

An appealing, tantalizing (that's the idea) collection of balletic and operatic chestuts, as professionally performed and smartly filmed as one might dare hope for. BUT--there's a major caveat. Many of the selections are awkwardly terminated at mid-chorus--in a couple of instances, simply a "fade-out" rather than anything resembling a cadence or final chord. Whether a sampler such as this is more irritating than titillating to the neophyte Blu-Ray discoverer is perhaps a tough, highly personal call (reminds me of the first "stereophonic" recordings, with canons coming from two channels during the "1812 Overture" followed by ping-pong balls bouncing from one side of the room to the other and a parade of drummers soon to follow).

What irks me is that, despite the 13 excerpts, there's space for much more on the DVD, whether in the form of complete selections (preferably) or more of same. Although these are not the international stars whose artistry and charisma enabled them to cross genre boundaries (a la Domingo and Pavarotti), each is good enough to make you wonder why the artist in question isn't a household word. Perhaps the most absorbing, thoroughly delightful performance is the Cecilia & Bryn duet "Pa-pa-pa-pa" from Mozart's "Die Zauberflote." There's only one other performer who strikes me as capable of equaling the performance included here: Danny Kaye. (On the other hand, I defy Cecilia and/or Bryn to match Kaye on Cole Porter's "Let's Not Talk About Love" which, as performed by Kaye, is practically a toccata tour de force beyond the reach of anything human.)

All the same, a collection such as this should be going for no more than five bucks.

This is an interesting disc in several respects; the first one for me being the audio options available to the listener. On the opening screen one is given the option of choosing between PCM Stereo, PCM Surround, DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD Surround. That alone is worth the price of admission as it could help address the never-ending question about which audio format sounds best in your system. I am not personally aware of any other disc which provides this opportunity.

Moving on, the music and performances cover a wide variety from Puccini's comic opera "Gianni Schicchi" to the rather stilted and strange work by Rameau, "Zoroastre." A friend of mine who appreciates music has several times asked to hear this disc again, so it definitely exhibits a charm.

I'm a ballet fan and have a high level of respect for the Paris Opera Ballet, their selection from Act 2 of Swan Lake is beautifully done as I would have expected. I was a little surprised with the staging in the selection from Il Trovatore where in the famous "Anvil Chorus" scene they show some action with a prisoner being saved from being shot while the chorus is singing instead of the anvil scene with sparks flying.

On the whole there is more to like than to dislike and I'm glad I added it to my collection.

This Blu-Ray contains "the good bits" from popular Opera and Ballet.....and the performances are from the world's most famous companies.
The price is low and the sound "mind bending". Here in Bandung Java Indonesia only few Blu-Ray discs are available, and there is no FTA terrestrial digital HDTV. My favourite track on this "sampler" DVD is from a Straus Opera....all tracks are absolutely beautiful. It is very tempting now to order the complete versions.
Stephen Fleay Bandung Java Indonesia