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Because they are highly visual, operas and ballets are naturals for DVD, but instrumental music is selling strongly too. "In today's times," says Dennis Hedlund, chairman of Kultur International Films, "because of TV, the computer, all the technology, people would rather see their favorite artists perform." What can be seen has grown more interesting as well. Many of the video releases of 20 or 30 years ago were shot with a single, fixed camera and suffered from grainy images and muddy sound. They were also more expensive than audio recordings. Today's DVDs--often drawn from elaborate television productions...
...DVD producers shrink from a whopping price tag if the material is strong enough. Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, a series that was a milestone of cultural-TV programming between 1958 and 1973, has been released by Kultur as a nine-disc, 25-hr.-long set. Price: $149.95. It's selling "phenomenally," says Hedlund...
...that usually make up the bonus material on DVDs are scarce if not nonexistent. The producers are reduced to offering such extras as "photo galleries." No matter; the releases sell anyway. The performers' names and mystique are enough. Almost two decades after Du Pré's death in 1987, a DVD titled Jacqueline du Pré in Portraitis one of the best-selling offerings from BBC/Opus Arte...
Among living performers, the Three Tenors, singer Andrea Bocelli, Levine with his many Metropolitan Opera productions and the vivacious soprano Cecilia Bartoli are just a few of the leading DVD sellers. Cases in point: Levine's two-disc version of Tristan and Isoldewith the Met, featuring tenor Ben Heppner and soprano Jane Eaglen, on Deutsche Grammophon ($39.98), and Cecilia Bartoli Sings Mozart and Haydn, a two-disc set with the Concentus Musicus Wien conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, on BBC/Opus Arte...
Disney's new Personal DVD Player is one of the first portable movie players made just for kids. Priced at $120 and equipped with a 3.5-in. screen, it comes in five designs, from Disney Princess to Power Rangers. TIME's kid tester, Melissa, 9, says, "It feels good to hold. I really like it." --By Anita Hamilton