Opera's Route To DVDs Has Been A Slow One

29-Jun-01

As DVD counters swelled with movies over the past few years, classical fans wondered: Where are the operas? DVDs' promise of better sound and hours of storage seems perfect for capturing the sights and sounds of Verdi, Mozart, Wagner, Puccini and Strauss. But the major record labels, wary of soft demand, have largely held off until the past several months, when they slowly began issuing DVDs of operas in their catalogues. ""We wanted to look at the acceptance of the titles that were being launched,"" says Kevin Gore, president of Universal Classics. ""We've seen some encouraging sales year to year, which is a sign the format is gaining greater acceptance. With laserdiscs (issued in the 1990s), there was big enthusiasm for it, but the result was certainly lower than we had hoped. We have to measure the demand."" Classical music's market is tiny compared with pop. CD titles can sell just a few thousand units a week and make the top 10, and the DVD market is even smaller. Vivendi Universal, which owns the Deutsche Grammophon, Decca and Philips labels, didn't release its first classical DVDs until December. Then it put out three ballet DVDs, including Giselle and Nutcracker, and four operas from the Metropolitan Opera conducted by James Levine: Carmen with Agnes Baltsa and Jose Carreras; Aida with Aprile Millo and Placido Domingo; Il Trovatore with Luciano Pavarotti, Eva Marton and Dolora Zajick; and the David Hockney Magic Flute production with Kathleen Battle and Kurt Moll. ""It's steadily growing,"" Sarah Fuerstenau, music business manager of Pioneer Entertainment, says of the classical DVD market. ""We have been focusing on the Metropolitan Opera. There are very strong program titles featuring Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. We're focusing on one a month, perhaps (in) certain months, two. Probably 15 in 2001."" It's hard to judge how well Universal's first DVD releases sold, but Gore says ""We're encouraged with the sales growth over the last six months."" The label has announced seven releases this month: The Royal Opera's La Traviata, with Sir Georg Solti conducting Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna; the 1974 film of Otello with Herbert von Karajan conducting Jon Vickers, Mirella Freni and Jose van Dam; and Die Walkuere from the Met with Levine, James Morris and Hilgedarde Behrens. There is also Arabella from the Met, with Christian Thielemann conducting Kiri Te Kanawa and Natalie Dessay; the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle film of Rigoletto with Pavarotti and Riccardo Chailly leading the Vienna Philharmonic; and Carlos Kleiber conducting Der Rosenkavalier and Die Fledermaus. Ray Edwards, U.S. national classical manager of Tower Records, says opera DVDs have ""been doing pretty well."" ""There's not that much out there yet,"" says Edwards. ""Some of the better-selling titles on VHS, they've been moving over to DVD. As VHS titles have been deleted or not repressed, DVD is taking over."" With movies, studios have included add-ons in DVD releases: scenes that were cut, commentaries from directors, choice of regular or wide-screen formats. Not so with operas, which dominate the classical releases. The DVDs are pretty much what aired when the operas originally were televised. Also, there have been few releases from the last five years. Record labels have had an increasingly difficult time negotiating deals with orchestra unions. Among other DVDs, Pioneer has just released Elektra with Birgit Nilsson and plans to put out Don Carlo and Les Troyens with Domingo. EMI's plans include Porgy and Bess conducted by Simon Rattle. Classical companies aren't looking for quick paybacks. ""It's a market tending to be more upscale and older,"" Fuerstenau says. ""It's very steady. It's not like a newly released movie that's a flash in the pan and goes away.""