The Action

This DVD features a tribute concert for the legendary Buddy Holly. Recorded in Austin in 1987, it features Brian Setzer, John Fogerty, Carl Perkins, The Crickets and others.
Buddy Holly is perhaps the most anomalous legend of '50s rock & roll he had his share of hits, and he achieved major rock & roll stardom, but his importance transcends any sales figures or even the particulars of any one song (or group of songs) that he wrote or recorded. Holly was unique, his legendary status and his impact on popular music all the more extraordinary for having been achieved in barely 18 months.

Giuseppe Verdi - Il Trovatore [BluRay Untouched]
Marcello Alvarez / Sondra Radvanovsky / The Metropolitan Orchestra & Chorus / Marco Amiliato
MPEG-4 AVC, 1080p, 1.78:1 | DTS-HD MA 5.1, PCM Stereo @ 24Bit | Full Artwork: 193 MB
Label/Cat#: Deutsche Grammophon # 00440 073 4797 GH | Country/Year: Europe 2012 | Size: 45,01 GB | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Opera, Romantic, HiDef

…These performances come together brilliantly in this impressive recording. With the nicely balanced Met orchestra reproduced effectively here, the sound sometimes evokes the carefully voiced balances of studio recordings. Yet this is a live performance in which the musicians’ fine interactions add to the excitement. While some would hold that Il trovatore requires the finest principals for an effective performance, this recording also suggests that the sense of theatricality Verdi infused in this score affects the singers and drives them to give the intensely moving performances found in this exceptional release. More than that, the visual dimensions are enhanced with shots and angles that take the viewer to the stage. It is difficult not to become involved in this production through this well-crafted disc.

As James MacMillan celebrates his 50th birthday he here conducts his large-scale, complex work, The Quickening coupled with the symphonic suite The Sacrifice: Three Interludes, taken from his opera, The Sacrifice, a work based on a medieval Welsh tale and focusing on issues of love and conflict. Co-commissioned by the BBC Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Quickening sets poetry by MacMillan’s frequent collaborator Michael Symmons Roberts. Hailed as some of the most distinguished writing since that of Benjamin Britten, the powerfully imaginative score explores the themes of birth, new life and new impulses, but as MacMillan says, it also has its dark side out of which hope is glimpsed. Joining the BBC Philharmonic is the Hilliard Ensemble, who premiered the work at the BBC Proms, accompanied by the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and Youth Chorus.

In spring 2011, the first-ever performances at New York's Metropolitan Opera of Rossini's Le Comte Ory brought standing ovations and critical-acclaim. The spectacular trio of Juan Diego Florez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato ignited vocal and theatrical fireworks. Le Comte Ory tells the story of a libidinous and cunning nobleman who disguises himself first as a hermit and then as a nun ("Sister Colette") in order to gain access to the virtuous Countess Adele, whose brother is away at the Crusades. The 2011 Met production was directed by the Tony Award-winning Broadway director Bartlett Sher, who in recent years has also staged Il barbiere di Siviglia and Les Contes d'Hoffman for the Met. Sher presented the action as an opera within an opera, updated the action by a few centuries and giving the costume designer, Catherine Zuber, the opportunity to create some particularly extravagant headgear. Juan Diego Florez starred as the title role while Diana Damrau plays his love interest, Countess Adele, and Joyce DiDonato was in breeches as his pageboy Isolier. The trio had appeared in Sher's production of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Nuggets, Lenny Kaye's original 1972 compilation of garage and psych, loomed large in the record collectors consciousness, canonizing a portion of rock that was originally laughed off while setting the standard for reissues. Rhino's 1998 box set of the same name expanded the scope of that record, replicating most of the original while gloriously spilling forth over three additional discs – and, in doing so, it spurred a minor revolution, becoming one of the most talked-about reissues of the last half of the '90s…