Douglas J Fisher enquired:

>I see that many operas which have been available on VHS are now also
>on DVD. Has anyone invested in this technology? It seems that both the
>picture and sound quality should be superior to VHS, with sound quality
>similar to audio CD's, and that the cost of an opera on one DVD would be
>comparable to that of a multi-CD audio set.
>
>Any comments?

I invested in a DVD player recently and have received a number of opera
and other musical DVDs from their distributors.  The picture and sound
quality, of course, are no better than their original filmings or tapings
and, in many cases, this isn't saying much.  But yes, I'd say that there
is at least some advantage in audio and video quality.  There are some
additional advantages, the most obvious being that you can go to whatever
part of the opera you want with no more inconvenience than if you were
playing a CD.  That's a big plus, of course.  You can also change the
language of the subtitles, though not all of them have subtitles in any
language, oddly enough.

I can't think of any disadvantages specific to the DVD format.  (There are
problems with the entire opera-on-film concept that haven't been entirely
addressed.) As you ventured, the cost is about the same as for audio-only
versions of the operas.  Indeed, if one has a DVD player hooked into a
good sound system, it would hardly make sense to purchace a CD of a given
performance if the DVD is also available.  After all, you can leave the
TV monitor turned off.  Unfortunately, there are only a few dozen opera
recordings on DVD at this moment.

Richard, who invites you to visit his music, outdoors and other Web sites at
http://www.magi.com/~richard/