The ROH Live: Lucia di Lammermoor

Hamlet

From its sell-out run at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre comes a film version of this unique and critically acclaimed production of Hamlet with BAFTA-nominee Maxine Peake in the title role. This ground-breaking stage production, directed by Sarah Frankcom, was the Royal Exchange's fastest-selling show in a decade.

Phoelix

An aged art connoisseur (Beaumont) and his young female neighbour (Coles), who has a job posing naked in a club, meet and exist in fantasy and reality. Although this raises certain much-discussed questions about the nature of representation, and about the construction of narrative and daydreams in films, 'Phoelix' tends to treat these as just pretty and pertinent issues, opting instead for a mannered concentration on detail.

Going Going

Anna follows her absent Mother on her nightly ritual, as she walks round the family house, turning the house lamps on one by one. In the course of the lamp walk, Anna talks about being afraid of the dark and of the secrets that all families and lovers keep from one another.

The Case of Marcel Duchamp

A witty, feature-length drama-documentary in which Marcel Duchamp, who once compared his own mind to that of a master criminal, is investigated by Sherlock Holmes. Holmes comes out of retirement, and with the assistance of Dr. Watson, proceeds to delve into the mystery of Duchamp’s major work, the once-notorious Large Glass (The Bride Stripped Bare by the Bachelors, even) 1915-23.

Owen Wingrave

Margaret Williams directs this 2001 production of adaptation of Benjamin Britten's television opera based on a short story by Henry James. Performers featured include Gerald Finley, Peter Savidge and Josephine Barstow. The conductor is Kent Nagano. As pertinent now as then, OWEN WINGRAVE was composed by Benjamin Britten at the height of the Vietnam War. The opera poses the question: Is pacifism an act of cowardice? Or rather a desire to escape from the spiral of war and create world peace? To what extent do we determine our own futures? Should we let past events inform the decisions we make? Britten’s characters grapple with timeless issues in this gripping psychodrama.

Lucia di Lammermoor

Diana Damrau’s reputation as the world’s leading coloratura soprano has been built on her extraordinary technical virtuosity, her sensitive musicianship and her acute psychological insight. In this DVD of Katie Mitchell’s sometimes radical production of Lucia di Lammermoor from London’s Royal Opera House, she is, as the Financial Times wrote, “brilliantly convincing”. The British award winning director Katie Mitchell – took a revisionist approach to the drama, updating the action to the mid-19th century and applying a feminist slant as she added new and unexpected elements. The Financial Times wrote: “Mitchell shows us on stage personal traumas that a self-respecting woman in the early 19th century was meant to keep to herself. It is a messy, bloody list — nocturnal sex trysts, a knife murder, a miscarriage, a suicide in the bath … In all this Damrau is brilliantly convincing. Her rebellious Lucia is a woman of modern attitudes stuck in a still feudal Victorian world.”

Margaret Tait: Film Maker

A documentary about the life and works of Margaret Tait.

McGregor: Chroma / Infra / Limen

The diversity of Wayne McGregor's astonishing talent is demonstrated through Chroma, Infra and Limen, each created for The Royal Ballet, for whom he is resident choreographer. Intimate yet universal, light yet dark, frenetic yet lyrical, McGregor pursues his passion for exploring the inner workings of the human body and mind, his many-layered and beautiful dances providing visual, sensual and kinaesthetic stimulus for the viewer. Works: Chroma (Talbot; White III); Infra (Richter); Limen (Saariaho).

Elizabeth Maconchy

Documentary about the composer Elizabeth Maconchy, filmed during the rehearsal of a new composition

Jeff Keen Films

An engaging and enlightening documentary about Jeff Keen shown on Channel 4 in 1983. Features Keen performing in front of his film projections as well as talking about and showing his work in different media.

Powder Her Face

Penned by composer Thomas Ades, this contemporary opera is based on the life of the Duchess of Argyll (played by Mary Plazas), who's fallen on hard times in old age. A notoriously oversexed money-grubber in her younger days, the down-and-out duchess faces eviction from the hotel she calls home. Heather Buck, Daniel Norman and Graeme Broadbent also star in this uninhibited production, with Ades conducting the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Somewhere in Hackney

A community-based documentary following four local arts projects in the London Borough of Hackney.

Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh Beach

An open-air staging by Aldeburgh Music of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, on the beach that inspired the opera. A small seaside community struggles to accept a fisherman.