Classical, Opera, Ballet on Blu-Ray

[bigshot]

I searched for a thread on this subject and couldn't find one, so here it is...

One of the greatest things about building my home theater was how it rekindled my interest in opera. I have a large collection of CDs of complete operas, but sitting with a libretto in my lap listening intently for hours at a time became something that I had trouble carving out time for. And watching opera on a normal sized TV set didn't feel the same as seeing a live performance.

Blu-ray has changed that. On my projection system, the scale of the stage on a ten foot screen is perfect. Surround sound, great singers and musicians, the best set design in the world... It's opened up my appreciation a lot. The same is true of ballet. I can see the whole stage laid out in front of me at full scale and understand the choreography better (as long as the camera stays wide enough and doesn't cut too often). Symphonic concerts benefit from the 5.1 sound, but I find that visually, they aren't as engaging. I'm open to suggestions though.

I'll open up looking for a recommendation...



For the past couple of years, I've been eyeing the Tutto Verdi set. It's 27 blu-rays of every one of Verdi's operas (along with the Requiem) in fairly traditional stagings with good performers and 5.1 sound. The individual operas have received uniformly good reviews. But the price was daunting. Recently, I discovered that the set has been released with simplified packaging at a much lower price... right now it's $115 at Amazon. I just received it and I'm eager to dig in.

Is anyone familiar with this set? Where should I start? It's going to take me a long time to work my way through 27 discs, so I want to start off with something really good. Suggestions?

Feel free to jump in and post about your favorite classical, opera or ballet discs.

Thanks!