Product Details

• Actors: Various
• Format: Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Italian
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Bbc / Opus
• DVD Release Date: November 18, 2008
• Run Time: 50 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001HBX91S
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,093 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #56 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Performing Arts

Editorial Reviews

EXPERIENCE:OPERA AND BALLET - Blu-Ray Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good way to show off your home theater, November 27, 2008

By 

Ben Frey (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Blu Ray Experience: Opera and Ballet Highlights [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Within the realm of classical performance arts, this is a wide-ranging and high-quality disc. It's a bit short, but video and audio quality on every selection are perfect. If nothing else, this makes a great show piece for your blu-ray player and HT setup. THese are some of the most popular moments from some of the best-known operas and ballets. You'll find that you know most of this music even if you don't "know" anything about classical music. And for less than 10 bucks, what's to lose? If you need something to get you over that Super Saver Shipping minimum, you could do much worse than this disc. Enjoy!

43 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pay for ray and too little play: fully valued, March 12, 2009

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Blu Ray Experience: Opera and Ballet Highlights [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Sampler, April 10, 2010

By 

David Bower (Houston, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Blu Ray Experience: Opera and Ballet Highlights [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

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.