This posting is about Netflix, a word I did not want to put in the
Subject line for fear of being nailed by Dave's spam filters. [Heck,
if I did that, how would I get my email from them? -Dave] Hmm, "on DVD"
might be vulnerable as well. Anyway, I have no relationship with Netflix
other than mostly satisfied customer. Background: A few years ago I
went into my local Blockbuster and asked, "Do you have an opera section?"
The clerk said, "Do you mean Oprah?"
Back in December, my daughter got us a trial subscription to Netflix.
Since then, when I can get a disc in edgewise amid the family's, ahem,
more popular, choices, I have been happily exploring classical music on
DVD, discs that Blockbuster or Hollywood wouldn't dream of touching. So
far I've seen a good Mahler 5 by Barenboim/Chicago, Abbado's Mahler 9
at Lucerne, a documentary called Conducting Mahler, and two versions of
Tosca. Tonight it'll be a combined Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von
der Erde, and tomorrow I'm due to receive a Winterreise DVD. My local
Blockbuster doesn't carry any of these (he said, winning the Understatement
of the Year award).
I just did a search on the word "opera," which resulted in 166 hits.
True, the first one is Phantom of the Opera, followed by Opera Stars
Sing Broadway. But there are many, many serious opera discs that are
simply unavailable in that mass market out there.
I was skeptical of the Netflix business model but now I'm a big fan.
I will definitely keep my subscription going when this trial period
runs out.
Mitch Friedfeld
[As a near charter member of this service, I too recommend them
heartily. There's an even easier way to see all their classical
music offerings. From the home page (www.netflix.com) click on
Genres at the top and choose Music & Musicals. Then from that
page, on the righthand side click on the Classical subgenre.
There are probably a couple of thousands DVDs listed. You can
see ratings, read reviews, etc. The big problem with Netflix is
having too many choices, and not enough time. -Dave]
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