For me as a classical music enthusiast the laserdisc fills the video gap of the pre-DVD era, when such music and opera productions either on film (such as done by Bernstein or Karajan in the 1970s) or for television were issued on LD, some even in the European PAL format. A considerable number has been produced in Austria. The Mozart year 1991 provided a good opportunity to distribute performances on LD. Actually, the Mozart operas directed by Peter Sellars were produced by Austrian television!

At that time however, I hadn't been aware of this medium at all. It appears to have addressed only a very small number of really affluent classical music lovers in Europe so that such discs are much less common than movies which are still easy to get. Most classical LDs were also available as VHS videotape with Hifi sound, but a modest video picture.

I have acquired a Pioneer DVL 919E, and I am copying the LDs onto a Pioneer DVR 940HX HD/DVD recorder, as the upscaled DVD picture looks better than the video picture from the original, in particular with the PAL format. (PAL-to-NTSC converted DVDs are usually awful!) With EMI or Teldec LDs, there aren't any deterioration issues, but unfortunately, in particular many golden Polygram LDs (Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Decca) have already rotten beyond playability.

Heinz

Hello Heinz,
Nice to read this, I've always been shocked to see the lack of interest of Classical and Opera on LD that haven't made its way to other formats and
these discs still sell for reasonable prices for the fan of this type of programming.

I never got into collecting the classical or opera LDs but I do have a large collection of Classical CDs, just couldn't get another shelf of LDs.

From following sales over the years, classical/opera are a niche-within-a-niche collector's market.

Classical production jumped quickly to Digital Audio to increase dynamics and quality (noise, hiss, etc.).

The story is very similar to jazz releases.

Japan LD releases were either straight imports from USA/Europe (not many Operas recorded in Japan!).
But for some recordings, during Japan economic bubbles, they were able to purchase release rights of some rare materials/recordings that only got Japan release.

Currently showing up in searches:

Opera / Japan release => 450

(note that I made a timeline with matching searches here for Operas: https://www.lddb.com/opera.php)

Classical / Japan release => 541

But a LOT of these were released multiple times, so the actual count of distinct releases is much lower.

Ex #1 Teldec (Warner Classics): WPLP-xxxx => WPLS-xxxx



Ex #2 Pioneer Classics: SMxxx-xxxx => PILC-xxxx



Ex #3 Sony Classics: SRLM xxxx



Ex #4 Philips: xxVC-xxx => CDV-xxxx => PHLP-xxxx



Ex #5 Deutsche Grammophon: WxxZ xxxxx => POLG-xxxx



Etc.

Happy hunting!

Julien

I assume that the "Magic Flute" and the "Creation" were at least produced in the PAL video format - some PAL versions of LDs appear to be so rare that they haven't been entered yet. But it may also be likely that the PAL versions were just issued on VHS cassettes only.

European TV stations produced everything in PAL (except France in the compatible SECAM).

Some early LDs were issued with an analog sound, such as Mozart's concertos for 2 and 3 pianos with the German chancellor Helmut Schmidt as pianist (I will enter it, I promise), but most classical LDs have a digital audio track working properly with the error correction.

Welcome to the forum, Heinz!

Big Welcome, you are the first classical music Laserdisc enthusiast I ever met. This LD with Helmut Schmidt, that is a crazy information