Here's info about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, performance art, and paintings. On our home page you see the latest stories. Go to the Alphalist (left navigation bar) to see our archives with hard-to-find critical reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.
June 1, 2024. After 14 years of working as weekend warrior on this website (2008 to 2022), my day job forced me to pause this project until I can retire and get back into my home theater. The website now has pretty solid coverage of Blu-ray discs of fine arts titles published thru the end of 2022. We remain the only website that slices the entertainment that way (best of the best). Our coverage is spotty for 2023 and nil for 2024.
After 2022, the publishers of fine-arts Blu-ray titles slowed down. The industry has covered most of the best stuff. For example, we now have reviews on 10 versions of Swan Lake from good ballet houses.
During the last 14 years we screened 2000+ Blu-ray title fine-arts recordings that might meet our high standards. We excluded nearly a third of these titles as “impostors” mostly for poor content or quality. We now have about 1450+ line items on the Alphalist. And we also have a list of titles we excluded for poor quality. And see our Special Stories for special recommendations about the best titles.
Finally, here a tip about reading our home page. Full reviews are at the top. The latest items are at the bottom. The current latest new item is the Bruckner 11 Box Set with the Vienna Phil conducted by Thielemann.
Hank McFadyen