When New York theatrical producer Joseph Papp decided to bring Gilbert and Sullivan to Broadway, he added typically broad, bold strokes to make their singular operetta format meaningful to 1980s audiences. In The Pirates of Penzance, Papp had a story that offered a mixture of potential action and comedy that was less arcane than other G&S chestnuts, which Papp's production underlined by ...

Manufacturer: MCA Universal
Starring: Kevin Kline, Angela Lansbury, Linda Ronstadt, George Rose, Rex Smith
Directed By: Wilford Leach

Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Starring: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan, Elsa Lanchester, Douglass Dumbrille
Directed By: Robert Z. Leonard, W.S. Van Dyke

Manufacturer: Mca
Starring: Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, Cornell MacNeil, Allan Monk, Pina Cei
Directed By: Franco Zeffirelli

This 1966 film version of The Mikado from the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company exemplifies that group's approach to its resident gods. If you're familiar with the company's classic Gilbert and Sullivan recordings from the same period, you'll recognize the style (and many of the performers). Beautifully sung, articulated with lavish care, the production is so measured it suffocates the ...

Manufacturer: Video Artists Int'l
Starring: Donald Adams, Philip Potter, John Reed, Kenneth Sandford, Thomas Lawlor
Directed By: Stuart Burge

Offenbach's melodious extravaganza is essentially a celebration of Paris as a tourist trap, a background for attempted seductions, and a fertile source of routine flim-flams. This 1991 Opera National de Lyon production, emanating from one of Paris's chief rivals among French cities, focuses gleefully on the sordid aspects of the City of Lights, but its strongest appeal is in the quality of ...

Manufacturer: Kultur Video
Starring: Hélène Delavault, Claire Wauthion, Isabelle Mazin, Jean-Yves Chatelais, Jean-Francois Sivadier
Directed By: Pierre Cavassilas

Arrigo Boito's treatment of the Faust legend has never been as popular as Gounod's, but Boito was an imaginative composer and a great librettist (he wrote the words for Verdi's Otello and Falstaff, the two finest librettos in Italian opera). As the title suggests, his Mefistofele puts the spotlight on the diabolical villain of the story at least as much as its hapless hero. ...

Manufacturer: Kultur Video
Starring: Samuel Ramey, Gabriela Benacková, Dennis O'Neill, Judith Christin, Daniel Harper
Directed By: Brian Large

Manufacturer: Kultur Video
Starring: Joan Sutherland, Anson Austin, Sergei Baigildin, Stephen Bennett, Jennifer Bermingham
Directed By: Virginia Lumsden

Bel canto can be translated as "pretty singing," and that definition seems tailor-made for this production, which offers grace, charm, and a fine-tuned sense of style in abundance to compensate for its limited psychological and emotional impact. The four principal singers are all specialists in the bel canto style, and this opera has played a key role in building their substantial ...

Manufacturer: Kultur Video
Starring: June Anderson, Marilyn Horne, Stanford Olsen, Samuel Ramey, Young-Ok Shin
Directed By: Brian Large

Musically, this is a quite satisfactory Traviata. Visually and sonically, it has a few small problems (pre-digital sound, imperfect tape splices, moments of imprecise lip-synchronization), but it can be recommended for those who enjoy less-than-perfect historic recordings. Anna Moffo was an endearing Violetta, and her identification with the role is lovingly captured by director Mario ...

Manufacturer: Video Artists Int'l
Starring: Anna Moffo, Gino Bechi, Franco Bonisolli, Glauco Scarlini, Athos Cesarini
Directed By: Mario Lanfranchi

Rossini's treatment of the Cinderella story discards the magic elements and makes it a morality tale--no fairy godmother, pumpkin coach, or glass slipper, but a sweet, intelligent heroine, abused by a dysfunctional family, who triumphs over adversity. She meets and marries her Prince Charming as a just reward for her simple, spontaneous virtue, a plot that could easily become banal but ...

Manufacturer: Kultur Video
Starring: Angela Denning, Daphne Evangelatos, Walter Berry, Ann Murray, Francisco Araiza
Directed By: Claus Viller