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Glyndebourne's celebrated production of Nikolaus Lehnhoff's Tristan und Isolde is gravely beautiful, haunting and meditative. Nina Stemme's Isolde and Robert Gambill's Tristan are matched by a superb performancce from Rene Pape.

Filmed at the spiritual home of Wagner's work, Christoph Marthaler's landmark production which opened the 2009 Bayreuth Festival brings together the rich talent of American tenor Robert Dean Smith with that of Swedish soprano Iréne Theorin. The renowned Wagner conductor Peter Schneider conducts the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus in a performance tipped to remain a collectors' benchmark for years to come. Filmed in High Definition and with true surround sound.

After Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s great success with Parsifal, Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde this is his highly acclaimed Tannhäuser co-produced with De Nederlandse Opera and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s production is based on the Paris version by Richard Wagner with an extended Venusberg scene and a ballet very surprisingly choreographed by Amir Hosseinpour and Jonathan Lunn. The minimalist staging and Raimund Bauer’s ingenious sets make this a Tannhäuser for our time. The cast as always with Lehnhoff has nothing to match these days. An extra feature entitled “Tannhäuser – The Revolutionary” includes interviews with stage director, conductor and cast as well as backstage material.

The legendary Bayreuth Centenary production of Wagner's Ring is distinguished by Patrice Chéreau's once-shocking production, which has acquired the status of the most trenchant modern interpretation of the cycle. Das Rheingold is the opening of the four Ring operas, setting the scene with the theft of the Rhine gold, first by Alberich and then by the giants on behalf of Wotan on a train of greed that will inexorably lead to the demise of the gods. Supported by Pierre Boulez's typically penetrating interpretation, the cast is magnificently led by Donald McIntyre as Wotan.

The second part of Patrice Chreau's epoch-making Bayreuth Ring is a radical re-imagining of Die Walkre, unprecedented in its psychological penetration. "This Wagnerian drama," says Chreau, "which is at once classical theatre and domestic comedy, enables us to interpret the myths in terms that are both anecdotal and sublime...With Wagner one is dealing with a drama turned virtually white-hot by the music." "Nothing ever seen before on television has given better insight into Wagner's genius" (The New York Times).

The third opera in Richard Wagner's epic Ring cycle, Siegfried follows the adventures of the son of demigods Siegmund and Sieglinde as he conquers his enemies and rescues the beauteous Brunnhilde with the help of his magic sword. This video preserves the controversial 1976 Bayreuth Centenary production, with Pierre Boulez leading the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. Manfred Jung leads the cast as Siegfried, with Gwyneth Jones as Brunnhilde, Donald McIntyre as the Wanderer, and Hermann Becht as Alberich.

The legendary Bayreuth Centenary production of Wagner's Ring is distinguished by Patrice Chéreau's once-shocking production, which has acquired the status of the most trenchant modern interpretation of the cycle. Götterdämmerung is the fourth and final Ring opera. Brünnhilde now has the Ring, given to her by the hero Siegfried. But the evil Hagen dupes Siegfried into betraying his love for Brünnhilde, and the Ring is returned to Siegfried. On the banks of the Rhine, Hagen murders Siegfried. A distraught Brünnhilde takes the Ring from her dead lover and rides into her funeral pyre. Hagen snatches the Ring but is drowned in the flooding Rhine, and the Ring is returned to the river. Meanwhile, Valhalla burns, marking the end of the reign of the gods. Pierre Boulez's penetrating interpretation supports a cast led by the powerful Siegfried of Manfred Jung and Gwyneth Jones's magnificent Brünnhilde.

Ten of the world's greatest directors produce one unforgettable film in this sumptuous visual and musical feast based on the most famous arias in the history of opera. Erotic, violent, thought-provoking, funny, and moving, this critically-hailed milestone features the electrifyingly erotic film debut of Briget Fonda, a revealing appearance by supermodel Elizabeth Hurley (Austin Powers), and unforgettable performances from John Hurt (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), Tilda Swinton (The Deep End), Beverly D'Angelo (Vacation), Theresa Russell (Wild Things), and many more! Segments directed by Robert Altman (Gosford Park), Bruce Beresford (Double Jeopardy), Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard (Contempt), Derek Jarman (Edward II), Franc Roddam (Quadrophenia), Nicolas Roeg (Performance), Ken Russell (Tommy), Charles Sturridge (Longitude), Julien Temple (The Filth and the Fury).

The most famous, the most performed, the most thrilling, and the most recorded opera cycle in music history. Filmed at the world-famous Metropolitan Opera House in New York, in high definition – the award winning Robert Lepage production. Featuring Bryn Terfel as Wotan – universally recognized as the finest bass-baritone – and Wotan – of his generation. Also starring Deborah Voigt as Brunnhilde, and star tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Siegmund

The most famous, the most performed, the most thrilling, and the most recorded opera cycle in music history. Filmed at the world-famous Metropolitan Opera House in New York, in high definition – the award winning Robert Lepage production. Featuring Bryn Terfel as Wotan – universally recognized as the finest bass-baritone – and Wotan – of his generation. Also starring Deborah Voigt as Brunnhilde, and star tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Siegmund. This award-winning and ground-breaking production has been seen by over 150,000 people at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and subsequently by a remarkable 800,000 people in cinemas and movie-theatres around the globe. Features some of the most remarkable and memorable music of all time – including “The Ride of the Valkyries” and “Siegfried’s Funeral March”, as heard in countless Hollywood blockbusters and global TV commercials over the last forty years. “Kaufmann and Westbroek project the right kind of sexual and emotional intensity to carry the drama in the very bare setting that they're in, a tension matched elsewhere only by Waltraud Meier's masterclass of a Waltraute...Elsewhere there is solid singing from the 'baddie' basses...and much evidently enjoyed hard work from Deborah Voigt's Brünnhilde” (Gramophone Magazine)

In Volume 2 (Rhythm), we see how music in the West freed itself form the dominance of melody and explores the richness of musical pulse for its own sake. Starting with the driving power of Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps, Sir Simon Rattle takes viewers on a vibrant sensory Journey. Written and presented by Sir Simon Rattle, the foremost British conductor of our day, this series forms a fascinating introduction to, and overview of, the music of the 20th century. Each of the seven programmes features over thirty minutes of specially-shot music in performance, with Rattle conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Simon Rattle leads viewers on an exhilarating journey through the music of our time, explaining the chief musical developments from Mahler to the present day. Each programme is illustrated with evocative imagery, archive film and photographs and the featured music is set within the broader context of artistic and social change.

Written and presented by Sir Simon Rattle, this series forms a fascinating intro to, and overview of, the music of the twentieth century. Each program is illustrated with evocative imagery, archive film, and photographes, and the featured music is set within the broader context of artistic and social chenge. This first episode describes a great musical culture in decline in turn-of-the-century Veinna. From that decline erupted a musical revolution whose reverberations have continued to this day. Featured are the workds of Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg.

"There is much to admire in Mr. Girard’s thoughtful and intrepid staging, full of striking imagery. The blocking of the chorus, extras and dancers is theatrical and elegant. ... The Met has assembled about the best 'Parsifal' cast available today: the charismatic tenor Jonas Kaufmann sings the title role; the great bass René Pape is the veteran knight Gurnemanz, a role he owns; and the baritone Peter Mattei as Amfortas, in terrific voice, dares to bring out the rashness and inner desires of this stricken leader. The conductor Daniele Gatti draws diaphanous playing from the great Met orchestra and captures the shifting currents of this richly chromatic and complex score," The New York Times.

Outside Germany, the name Weimar tends to evoke mixed feelings and pictures of German history of the last hundred years. Within Germany, Weimar means a town in the state of Thuringia arguably saturated with the “Deutsche Kultur” of the “Weimarer Klassik”, the legendary Bauhaus, and finally the life and work of Franz Liszt and his son in law Richard Wagner. In Weimar Richard Wagner began composing the first part of his RING-cycle, “Das Rheingold”. In 2008 the Nationaltheater Weimar started a new production of this unique tetralogy. The conductor is Carl St.Clair, a former student of Leonard Bernstein. With Michael Schulz’ fine and highly intelligent staging this new “Ring” production on DVD and Blu-Ray becomes an outstanding document of contemporary opera theatre.

Richard Jones’s radical new production of Lohengrin was the talk of the 2009 Munich Festival. It was also a triumph for Jonas Kaufmann in the title role — “the finest heldentenor since Jon Vickers” (La Scena Musicale). Die Welt added that they “could not think of any cast more perfectly matched, so youthfully enthralling, in short: so wonderful ...”. With striking costumes and designs by Ultz —and directed by Maestro Kent Nagano — it represents a bold new Lohengrin for today’s world.

One of the most acclaimed Wagner productions of the postwar period, this electrifying, revolutionary Bayreuth staging of "The Flying Dutchman" catapulted the German director Harry Kupfer to international fame. Kupfer's psychologically actue production presents the entire story as a hallucination, in which Senta's yearning of the eternally wandering Dutchman sends her into a trance-like state. Senta is sung by Danish soprano Lisbeth Balslev, the American bass-baritone Sinom Estas portraits the Dutchman, while the Finnish bass Matti Salminen is Darland.

In memory of the great Richard Wagner and mindful of their own Wagner tradition, the Staatskapelle Dresden staged this glittering gala concert in the Semperoper on the eve of Richard Wagner’s bicentenary. They were directed by their principal conductor Christian Thielemann, indisputably one of the great Wagner conductors of our time, and he was joined by the hottest young heroic tenor of recent years, Jonas Kaufmann. The programme features the overtures to the Wagner operas written and premiered in Dresden – 1842 Rienzi, 1843 The Flying Dutchman and 1845 Tannhäuser – as well as great tenor scenes from Rienzi, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. “Star tenor Jonas Kaufmann was celebrated with bravos and tumultuous applause – as were the musicians and Thielemann.” (Focus)

It's no surprise that the second opera in Wagner's epic Ring cycle, Die Walküre, is the one Deutsche Grammophon released first on DVD: it's by far the most popular of the four parts of The Ring, from the thrilling Act I love duet for its brother and sister lovers, Siegmund and Sieglinde, to the spectacular finale of the "Magic Fire Music," as the god Wotan puts his beloved but disobedient daughter Brünnhilde into a deep sleep (no jokes, please!), over four hours later. This 1990 Metropolitan Opera production, originally broadcast on PBS to great acclaim, has been stunningly transferred to digital disc.