Tchaikovsky - Pique Dame / Gergiev, Grigorian, Leiferkus, Kiro

Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007] This set, filmed at the Metropolitan Opera's February 2007 performances of Tchaikovsky's most popular opera, has just about everything going for it: an all-star cast in peak form, a great orchestra led by today's leading Russian conductor, and a striking stage production whose mi...	Glinka - Ruslan and Lyudmila	Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov	Rimsky-Korsakov - Sadko / Vladimir Galouzine, Gegam Grigorian, Sergei Alexashkin, Larissa Diadkova, Nikolai Putilin, Valery Gergiev, Kirov Opera	Tchaikovsky - Mazeppa / Putilin, Aleksashkin, Diadkova, Loskutova, Lutsiuk, Gergiev, Kirov Opera
Puccini - Turandot / Franco Zeffirelli - Marton, Domingo, Mitchell, Plishka, Cuenod - James Levine, MET (1988)	Eugene Onegin This Soviet production filmed live at the Kirov conveys the full beauty of Tchaikovsky's vision. It is a poetically tender work which was confirmed by Tchaikovsky himself in 1878 when he said "I played the whole of Eugene Onegin, the author was the sole listener, the listener was...	Smetana - The Bartered Bride	Vincenzo Bellini - I Puritani It's hard to imagine a video opera collection without this superbly sung MET production of Bellini's I Puritani. Not that it's perfect by any means, but its excellences--most especially Anna Netrebko's electrifying singing and acting of Elvira--banish carping about other aspects...	Wagner - Tristan und Isolde

Pique Dame
Recently I bought some DVDs of Russian operas from Amazon. I have been quite happy with most of them; but there is something wrong with the DVD of Pique Dame. Apparently, act 1, scene 1 is damaged in my copy. Sometimes the music fades away, or there are jumps in the performance. This is not the case with the rest of the DVD, but here there are other technical failures. Sometimes, but not always, the picture and sound are not synchronized which clearly can be seen by the moving of the lips of the singers. Sometimes, but not always, the arias cannot be heard for the orchestra, so one has to make the sound louder just to be blown away when the chorus comes. I had for several reasons been looking forward to this DVD, and it has mostly been a disappointment, for technical reasons, not for the performance itself. For instance. the artist who plays Hermann, is doing a very good performance, and one has apparently chosen him for his resemblance of Pushkin, who wrote the original story, which to my opinion has been a good choice. And the conductor is excellent too.

Pretty good production
This is pretty good opera, considering that it was recorded over 10 years ago. Typical sets and singing manner of Russian vocal school of that era (and I grew up there). Of course, it is not comparable to any of the newer productions from Met or La Scala; however, considering that this opera is not a very popular choice for opera houses by some reason (although I truly think that this is one of the best operas by Thaikovsky), it is worth to buy.

Your positive reviews have convinced me to get this DVD.
Being a complete fan of all Peter I. Tchaikovsky works I will get this DVD. I have recently purchased "The Tchaikovsky Handbook, A Guide to the Man and His Music, Volume 1 by Alexander Poznansky. In this book it says that Tchaikovsky wrote 11 operas and that there were many, many more that were "unrealized" as Poznansky stated. I will get all the ones that Amazon offers. After all, the more Tchaikovsky tunes the merrier! I will never get bored with his music.

Not too bad but could have been much better
This is such a mediocre routine performance that I don't understand how it made to a DVD. The singers are good, but they sound ordinary and uninspired. The costumes are visibly old. Gegam Grigorian's gorgeous voice is the only highlight of this recording for me. If I were to choose I would have put on DVD a Kirov performance of this opera in Met with Gorchakova and Hvorostovski, although I would replace omnipresent Domingo with the best Hermann of our time Vladimir Galuzin.

Stunning production, but..
I completely agree with artlover's review, but I would like to add a correction and a complaint.Contrary to what the reviewer says, "Pique Dame" was not Tchaikovsky's last opera, but his next to last. "Iolanthe" (1891) was his last.I would like to warn possible purchasers that the level of recording is rather low, and one has to increase the volume to get a satisfactory reproduction.As for the cast and musical direction, there is not a word to add to artlover's review.