for classical music at BMG, explains, “We decid-
ed to do it because the format had become stan-
dard, and projected volume of hardware for last
Fall was so high. This was an elaborate joint
venture between various Bertlesmann compa-
nies. We were shooting it in high definition, with multiple
cameras, and a documentary was going to be made. It was an
opportunity to put a product on the market that we felt would
have the highest
Turandot has all available bells and whistles, including a
rate audio track, multiple languages for titles, to say nothing
of the standard indexing programs. “It really shows the capa-
bility of DVD, and what everyone should be thinking abut
when making decisions about doing it in future,” Kuehn says.
(See review, this issue.)
So far, BMG reports that the title is selling well – several
thousand copies – though it is moving more through internet
sales than conventional retail. Also helpful was the June PBS
broadcast, after which sales made a 40 percent jump. Kuehn
doesn’t think it’s necessarily selling to the people who plan to
play it on their computers, however. “My guess is this is more
of a dedicated DVD player audience. It’s a big, colorful spec-
tacle. Still, the market is going in the direction that will see
computer and TV combined.”
BMG Classics will be doing more DVDs. “Eventually,”
says Kuehn. “It more than doubles the production budget
from video, because the authoring costs are high. If we took
videos from the catalog and reissued them, we would have
to give them something special, such as interviews, docu-
mentary footage, opera libretti in three languages. The labor
that goes into that is expensive. We’ve earmarked some
items as good candidates. We could just take the four or five
them out to take advantage of the fall buying season. But if
we want to be able to market them properly, we have to give
the consumer something different. Just the higher defini-
tion is not enough – and most of them have been on
laserdisc.”
For new programs, Kuehn says, “our strategy is to reserve
DVD to those projects with the biggest commercial potential,
say, an event with a TV broadcast. We’re also doing more new
recordings now with future DVD audio in mind as well. Since
the format standard isn’t completely agreed upon, it’s a little
risky to release it now. Then in ten years, if we want to come
back and exploit the catalog, we won’t have to go back and
remaster.”
The Atlantic Warner classical labels – Teldec, Erato, and
Nonesuch – are also going slowly, according to Arthur Moor-
head, VP, Associated labels. The company is planning two or
possibly three titles for the fall. One will definitely be the
exotic Matthew Bourne Swan Lake – that’s the one with male
swans. Two documentaries Richter: The Enigma (about Svi-
atoslav Richter, the late Soviet pianist; review, The Absolute
Sound, Issue 115, page 144) and The Art of Singing (in which
households names in opera talk about vocal technnique and
performance) are also under consideration. “We’re still con-
quering technology issues,” Moorhead says. “Most of our
repertoire is from Europe, and it’s expensive to remaster it to
the US/Japanese standard. If these do well, we’ll do more. We
have a great video catalog.”
It doesn’t look as though Atlantic is going to be rushing to
market with classical concert videos, however. “It’s the age-
old conflict. Things intended for the stage, like theater, ballet,
and opera, are immediately interesting from a marketing
standpoint. Videos of people performing sonatas – that’s for a
special kind of consumer. It’s a struggle we had with VHS and
laserdisc, and it won’t change.”
Small, independent video labels are being careful, too. VAI
(Video Artists International) which has a large library of his-
torical classical video, is not even entering the market yet.
“The compressing and authoring costs to create a DVD are
not justifiable for our type of product,” says Ed Cardona, the
company’s general manager. “As with CD, the pricing will
have to come down to where it becomes reasonable, and we
can generate a profit after conversion. But now, with the num-
ber of units we typically move on a historical classical release,
which can be a few thousand to perhaps 10,000 to 15,000 over
the life of the program, it’s too high a number. We didn’t do
laserdisc for the same reason, and now we’re glad we didn’t
spend the money on it. It’s better to allow the majors and
Once it’s being done on a
that usually drives prices down low enough so that it becomes
reasonable to invest.”
Kultur, a New
classical videos with 1,200 performing arts titles now on the
market, thinks differently. Dennis Hedlund, chairman of the
company, reports, “We’ve been watching for two years, and
we’ve decided to go ahead this fall with 20 DVD titles,” he
says. Initial titles will focus on star names, such as Barysh-
nikov, Nureyev, Callas, Domingo, Pavarotti, and Leonard
Bernstein. “The profit margins have eroded even before we
got started, with some companies putting out product at
$14.95 and $19.95,” he says. “Our minimum price will have
to be $24.95 or $34.95, depending on if it’s one disc or two.
But we survived Beta and laserdisc. And because of the
compatibility with the computer, DVD is the future of the
world. I see Best Buy going to 50 percent DVD, 50 percent
VHS – the handwriting is on the wall. And since some cus-
tomers already have our whole collection, we’re honor
bound to make the product different, with additional
footage, bios, possibly adding an additional language. Some
titles we’re now acquiring might go straight to DVD – per-
haps some of our visual art titles, which have more applica-
tion for the
pens to the first titles between now and the end of the year.”
By that time, some of the
that the whole medium is too much fun to miss. For
starters, how about the outrageous Peter Sellars produc-
tions of Mozart operas (in unlikely modern settings) with
the addition of commentary from the director, as has been
done for films? Maybe then we’ll know what he was really
thinking.
Heidi Waleson writes about opera for The Wall Street Jour-
nal, and used to be a classical music columnist for Billboard.
