I have used the same principle here as with the CD Discography: only DVD:s that are available today (at the time of writing) are listed. This filmography is probably not complete. I welcome any suggestion for additions. An asterisk after the title means that I have it in my collection. But of course I have them all!
NB: Read the information regarding DVD formats on the bottom of this page before you buy any DVD.
Music: Francesco Cilea
Libretto: Arturo Colautti after Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé
Artists:
Adriana Lecouvreur - Mirella Freni
Maurizio, Conte di Sassonia - Peter Dvorsky
Il Principe de Buillon - Ivo Vinco
La Principessa de Buillon - Fiorenza Cossotto
L'Abate de Chasseuil - Ernesto Gavazzi
Michonnet - Alessandro Cassis
Quinault - Giuseppe Riva
Poisson (Fish) - Osvaldo di Credico
Md.lla Jouvenot - Patrizia Dordi
Md.lla Dangeville - Sara Mingardo
Conductor: Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Director: Brian Large
Record:
Opus Arte
LS3011D
Year of recording: 1989
Format: NTSC
Region: 0
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, after the
novel "Scènes de la vie de bohème" by Henri Murger
Artists:
Mimì - Mirella Freni
Musetta - Adriana Martino
Rodolfo - Gianni Raimondi
Marcello - Rolando Panerai
Schaunard - Gianni Maffeo
Colline - Ivo Vinco
Benoït - Carlo Badioli
Alcindoro - Carlo Badioli
Parpignol - Franco Ricciardi
Conductor: Herbert von Karajan
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Record:
Deutsche Grammophon
00440 073 4071
Year of recording: 1967
Format: NTSC
Region: 0
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, after the
novel "Scènes de la vie de bohème" by Henri Murger
Artists:
Mimì - Mirella Freni
Musetta - Sandra Pacetti
Rodolfo - Luciano Pavarotti
Marcello - Gino Quilico
Colline - Nicolai Ghiaurov
Schaunard - Stephen Dickson
Benoït - Italo Tajo
Alcindoro - Italo Tajo
Conductor: Tiziano Severini
Chorus and Orchestra of the San Francisco Opera
Director: Brian Large
Record:
Arthaus Musik
100 046
Year of recording: 1988
Format: PAL
Region: 0
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto: François-Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle,
after the play by Friedrich von Schiller
Artists:
Filippo II, Re di Spagna - Nicolai Ghiaurov
Don Carlo, Infante di Spagna - Plácido Domingo
Rodrigo, Marchese di Posa - Louis Quilico
Il Grande Inquisitore - Ferruccio Furlanetto
Un frate - Julien Robbins
Elisabetta di Valois - Mirella Freni
La Principessa Eboli - Grace Bumbry
Tebaldo - Betsy Norden
Una voce dal cielo - Marvis Martin
La Contessa d'Aremberg - Barbara Greene
La Conte di Lerma - John Gilmore
Un boscaioio - Peter Sliker
Conductor: James Levine
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Director: Brian Large
Record:
Deutsche Grammophon
00440 073 4085 (2 DVD)
Year of recording: 1983
Format: NTSC
Region: 0
Music: Georges Bizet
Libretto: Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, after the
novel by Prosper Mérimée
Artists:
Carmen - Grace Bumbry
Don José - Jon Vickers
Micaëla - Mirella Freni
Escamillo - Justino Diaz
Frasquita - Olivera Miljakovic
Mercédès - Julia Hamari
Moralès - Robert Kerns
Zuniga - Anton Diakov
Dancaïre - Kurt Equiluz
Remendado - Milen Paunov
Conductor: Herbert von Karajan
Wiener Staatsopernchor
Wiener Philharmoniker
Direcor: Herbert von Karajan
Record:
Deutsche Grammophon
00440 073 4032
Year of recording: 1967
Format: NTSC
Region: 0
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave, after the play by Victor Hugo
Artists:
Ernani - Plácido Domingo
Donna Elvira - Mirella Freni
Don Carlo - Renato Bruson
Don Ruy Gomez De Silva - Nicolai Ghiaurov
Don Riccardo - Gianfranco Manganotti
Iago - Alfredo Giacomotti
Giovanna - Jolanda Michieli
Conductor: Riccardo Muti
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Director: Preben Montell
Record:
NVC Arts/Warner Music Vision
4509 99213-2
Year of recording: 1982
Format: NTSC
Region: 0
Music: Umberto Giordano
Libretto: Arturo Colautti, after the play by Victorien Sardou
Fedora Romazoff - Mirella Freni
Olga Sukarev - Ainhoa Arteta
Loris Ipanov - Plácido Domingo
De Siriex - Vernon Hartman
Boleslao Lazinski - Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Lorek - Vernon Hartman
Desiré - Charles Anthony
Boroff - James Courtney
Cirillo - Yanni Yannissis
Grech - Stephen West
Conductor: Roberto Abbado
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Director: Brian Large
Record:
Deutsche Grammophon
00440 073 2329
Year of recording: 1997
Format: NTSC
Region: 0
Bonus material:
In the pause between acts II and III, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gives Mirella the key to New York.
She gives a very short speech, and says: "I still have to sing the third act".
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Artists:
Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly) - Mirella Freni
B.F. Pinkerton - Plácido Domingo
Suzuki - Christa Ludwig
Sharpless - Robert Kerns
Goro - Michel Sénéchal
Lo zio Bonzo - Marius Rintzler
Kate Pinkerton - Elke Shary
Il principe Yamadori - Giorgio Stendoro
Il commisario imperiale - Hans Helm
Lo zio Yakusidè - Wolfgang Scheider
L'ufficiale del registro - Siegfried Rudolf Frese
La madre - Evamaria Hurdes
La zia - Erna Maria Mühlberger
La cugina - Martha Higi
Conductor: Herbert von Karajan
Wiener Staatsopernchor
Wiener Philharmoniker
Director: Jean-Pierre Ponelle
Record:
Deutsche Grammophon
00440 073 4037
Year of recording: 1974
Format: NTSC
Region: 0
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte, after the play by Pierre
Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
Artists:
Il Conte di Almaviva - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
La Contessa di Almaviva - Kiri Te Kanawa
Susanna - Mirella Freni
Figaro - Hermann Prey
Cherubino - Maria Ewing
Marcellina - Heather Begg
Bartolo - Paolo Montarsolo
Basilio - John van Kestern
Don Curzio - Willy Caron
Barbarina - Janet Perry
Antonio - Hans Kraemmer
Conductor: Karl Böhm
Wiener Philharmoniker
Director: Jean-Pierre Ponelle
Record:
Deutsche Grammophon
00440 073 4034 (2 DVD)
Year of recording: 1976
Format: NTSC
Region: 0
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto: Arrigo Boito, after the play by William Shakespeare
Artists:
Otello - Jon Vickers
Desdemona - Mirella Freni
Jago - Peter Glossop
Cassio - Aldo Bottion
Roderigo - Michel Sénéchal
Lodovico - José van Dam
Montano - Mario Machi
Un aroldo - Hans Helm
Emilia - Stefania Malagù
Conductor: Herbert von Karajan
Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Berliner Philharmoniker
Director: Herbert von Karajan
Record:
Deutsche Grammophon
073 404-0
Year of recording: 1974
Format: NTSC
Region: 0
This section only covers analogue systems. I wrote this because you must ensure that you buy a DVD that is playable on your DVD player. Some caution is needed, so you do not end up with a useless piece of plastic instead of the opera you expected!
There are three video formats:
The video signal comprises two components: luminance and chrominance.
The luminance component contains the black-and-white (or more accurately the grayscale) information, and from the start of television transmissions, that was the only component. The luminance is an amplitude modulated signal with the lower sideband incompletely suppressed (vestigial sideband modulation). When television was developed, the vestigial sideband was easier to implement than single-sideband modulation (SSB). Today there is no technical reason for it, but it is kept for compatibility reasons.
The chrominance component contains the colour information, and is transmitted on a suppressed subcarrier circa 4.43 MHz above the luminance carrier.
There are two ways to encode the chrominance: phase modulation or frequency modulation.
Both PAL and NTSC use phase modulation. The difference is that PAL has every second line 180° phase shifted, this makes it possible to compensate for phase shifts in the signal, which otherwise would change the colours to undesired values. NTSC however has no compensation for phase shift (that is why it is sometimes called "Never The Same Colour").
Phase shift can occur on long distances, like from the television transmitter to your television set. On the short distance between your DVD player and your television set there is no discernible phase shift. So in that respect it does not really matter if the DVD is in PAL or NTSC format. But since PAL usually has more lines per frame than NTSC, PAL has a sharper (and thus better) picture than NTSC.
SECAM on the other hand uses frequency modulation, which is better, because it is not sensitive to phase shifts. The downside is that SECAM needs the chrominance signal even for black-and-white pictures.
All DVD players sold in PAL territories are capable of playing both PAL and NTSC discs. Most DVD players will automatically display the picture output of discs in either format, so you should see pictures in full colour. However if you obtain audio and a stable black and white picture from a colour programme, you may only need to change a simple setting within the "Set up" menu of your DVD player. Read the operation manual of your player for how to do that.
Most modern PAL television sets can handle both PAL and NTSC, but you should read your television set's operation manual to be sure.
NTSC players and NTSC television sets may not be able to play PAL discs. Consult your operation manuals.
SECAM DVD:s can mostly not be played neither on PAL nor on NTSC television sets, but there are exceptions to this, where all three formats can be played. You will have to check the manual to see if this is the case.
DVD:s also have a region code, so your DVD player must be programmed for the same region code as the DVD, otherwise it will not play. Luckily enough most opera DVD:s have region code 0, which means no region code, and can be played on any region DVD player. However this is not always the case, so look out for region code before you buy a DVD.
There are six regions throughout the world:
There are also region free DVD players, that is to say they will play DVD:s coded for any region. However some DVD:s has "Regional Coding Enhancement" (RCE), used by Warner Bros, New Line and Columbia to stop region 1 DVD:s from playing on region-free DVD players.
If all this sounds confusing, it is because it is confusing. The recording industry as usual tries to make things as difficult as possible for us normal consumers. They assume everyone is a thief and a pirate. I think this is disgusting.
Explanation of the acronyms and other terms used here: