Peter Dvorský

A Christmas Celebration: Send Round the Song

Plácido Domingo, Edita Gruberova

Tony Randall and some children, filmed in Connecticut, provide the framework of the history of some of the carols sung by opera stars.

Adriana Lecouvreur

Brian Large, Giulio Bertola

Mirella Freni, Peter Dvorský

Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur concerns a doomed love based on a real story about an actress involved in a famous love triangle. Mirella Freni sings the title part in this production that was broadcast on television originally in 1989. Gianandrea Gavazzeni conducts the orchestra. Live from La Scala, 1989

Rusalka

Petr Weigl

Magda Vášáryová, Milan Kňažko

Three arias from Antonín Dvořák´s fairytale opera Rusalka turned in to a movie, sung by Gabriela Beňačková (Rusalka), Libuše Márová (Witch), René Tuček (Hunter).

Madama Butterfly

Derek Bailey, Keita Asari

Yasuko Hayashi, Hak-Nam Kim

Opera at La Scala Milan

Werther

Peter Weigl

Brigitte Fassbaender, Peter Dvorský

Jules Massanet's lyrical opera is transformed into a superb film production by Petr Weigl, shot on location in Prague, with music conducted by Libor Pesek. First produced by the Vienna Opera in February 1892, "Werther" rapidly confirmed Massanet's position on the French opera scene and achieved enormous popularity outside France, notably in Italy, America and England. The tragic story tells of Werther's intense passion for Charlotte, who has married his best friend, Albert, fulfilling a pledge to her now deceased mother. But Werther's letters of love bring Charlotte to his side when he promises to take his own life.

Prodaná nevěsta

František Filip

Gabriela Beňačková, Richard Novák

Frantisek Filip film version of the Smetana opera.

Puccini: Madama Butterfly

Rodney Greenberg

Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Peter Dvorský

The Lyric Opera of Chicago's 1985 production of Puccini's opera, set in the late nineteenth century in the city of Nagasaki, about a young Japanese woman who weds an American naval officer who later abandons her and the child she bore him.