US TARIFFS UPDATE | August 2025 | No impact expected on your Presto orders | Read full details
Blu-Ray Video, Britten (composer)
-
Britten: Billy Budd
Jacques Imbrailo (Billy Budd), Toby Spence (Vere), Brindley Sherratt (Claggart), Thomas Oliemans (Redburn), David Soar (Flint), Torben Jürgens (Ratcliffe), Clive Bayley (Dansker), Duncan Rock (Donald), Francisco Vas (Squeak), Sam Furness (Novice); Ivor Bolton, Deborah Warner
The strength of the production is its universality…The acting works so well in close-up that it is possible to follow this performance almost like a film…[Imbrailo’s] warm, unforced singing... —
Awards:
-
Diapason d’Or de l’Année, 2018, Winner - Opéra
-
BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2019, Winner - DVD/Blu-ray
-
-
Britten: The Rape of Lucretia
RecommendedChristine Rice (Lucretia), Allan Clayton (Male Chorus), Kate Royal (Female Chorus), Duncan Rock (Tarquinius), Matthew Rose (Collatinus), Michael Sumuel (Junius), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Bianca) & Louise Alder (Lucia)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leo Hussain (conductor) & Fiona Shaw...
The production, set during an archaeological excavation, packs a punch —
Awards:
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 22nd July 2016
-
Gramophone Awards, 2017, Finalist - Opera
-
Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2017, DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
-
Opera, November 2016, Recording of the Month
-
-
Britten: The Rape of Lucretia
Sarah Connolly (Lucretia), Christopher Maltman (Tarquinius), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Bianca), Mary Nelson (Lucia), Leigh Melrose (Junius), Clive Bayley (Collatinus), Orla Boylan (Female Chorus) & John Mark Ainsley (Male Chorus)
English National Opera, Paul Daniel (conductor) & David McVicar...
The main cast delivers a superlative response from start to finish, headed by baritone Christopher Maltman's bull-like Tarquinius and mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly's harrowingly intense Lucretia...Top-flight... —
Awards:
-
Opera, April 2014, Recording of the Month
-
-
Britten: Death in Venice
RecommendedJohn Graham-Hall (Gustav von Aschenbach), Andrew Shore (Traveller/Elderly Fop/Gondolier/Barber/ Hotel Manager Player/Dionysus), Tim Mead (Apollo), Sam Zaldivar (Tadzio), Laura Caldow (The Polish Mother), Mia Angelina Mather/Xhuliana Shehu (Her Two Daughters), Joyce Henderson (The Governess), Marcio...
It's not often one can say a production is improved by viewing on a small screen but, for me, this one was...Graham-Hall is a real stage-animal, convincing us utterly of his descent into obsession...Above... —
Awards:
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2014
-
Gramophone Awards, 2015, Finalist - Opera
-
-
Special offer. Britten: Gloriana
Sarah Walker (Elizabeth I), Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Essex), Jean Rigby (Lady Essex), Richard van Allan (Raleigh), Elizabeth Vaughan (Lady Rich), Alan Opie (Cecil), Neil Howlett (Mountjoy), Malcolm Donnelly (Henry Cuffe)
English National Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Mark Elder (conductor) &...
-
Special offer. Britten: Peter Grimes
on Aldeburgh beach. Filmed at the Aldeburgh Festival, June 2013
Alan Oke (Grimes), Giselle Allen (Ellen), David Kempster (Balstrode), Gaynor Keeble (Auntie), Robert Murray (Bob Boles), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Mrs Sedley), Charles Rice (Ned Keene); Britten–Pears Orchestra, Steuart Bedford, Tim Albery (dir.)
In almost all respects the technical side of the operation is a near triumph. Having the singers perform live...to the accompaniment of a pre-recorded orchestra was a gamble but it has paid... —
-
Special offer. Elbphilharmonie Hamburg: Grand Opening Concert
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, 11.01.2017
Philippe Jaroussky, Sir Bryn Terfel, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Pavol Breslik, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Ensemble Praetorius, NDR Choir, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Thomas Hengelbrock
There are plenty of musical highlights – oboist Kalev Kuljus’s exquisite ‘Pan’, from Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid; a lithe, light-textured finale from Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony;... —
Awards:
-
Gramophone Magazine, September 2017, DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
-
-
Britten: Death in Venice
John Daszak (Aschenbach), Anthony Roth Costanzo (Apollo), Leigh Melrose (Traveller), Duncan Rock (English Clerk/Guide), Tomasz Borczyk (Tadzio)
Teatro Real Chorus and Orchestra, Alejo Pérez, Willy Decker
After so many disappointing productions, it’s exciting to watch one which casts a lurid new light on this disturbing opera and, more importantly, gives scope for two very fine singing actors…Daszak,... —
-
Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals
and works by Ravel, Prokofiev and Britten
Britten-Pears Orchestra, Marin Alsop (conductor/narrator)
[The Britten] is the best thing here – vivid, highly commendable playing from the youngsters in a performance that captures all the colour and exuberance of this deservedly popular score. Marin... —
-
