Shakespeare King & Country

Shakespeare King & Country Box Set. This box set includes the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of Richard II, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, and Henry V. All four titles are available individually on this website, and you can get more details by using the links provided:

Richard II. 2014. (Grade: A)
Henry IV Part I. 2015. (Grade: A+)
Henry IV Part II. 2015. (Grade: A)
Henry V. 2016. (Grade: A+)

This is one of the best boxes Opus Arte has put together. Everything is superb. In June 2020 the price for this in the US ran about $70, which is a real bargain. I remember watching some of this in about 1980 when the BBC put all of Shakespeare on SD TV. I didn't dream then that I would ever see the Henriad done so well as the discs in this set.

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Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.