Dear Valued Customer,

Welcome to the VAI web site, where you can find great performances by some of the most cherished artists in the performing arts.

VAI has been described by Opera News as “one of the classiest of the classical home-entertainment companies.” We have been a major presence in home video for more than 25 years, researching the archives of the world’s broadcast and production facilities in order to bring to our customers a unique collection of music, dance, and theatrical programming.

On this site, you will find classic Mozart opera performances from the Salzburg Festival featuring some of the most prominent Mozartians of their time. From the archives of Russian television come rarely-performed operas by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov in idiomatic productions as well as performance compilations of such distinguished soloists as Emil Gilels, David Oistrakh and Van Cliburn (celebrated by adoring Russian audiences as one of their own). Russian ballet stars Maya Plisetskaya, Galina Ulanova, Vladimir Vasiliev, and Ekaterina Maximova are seen in some of their greatest roles at the peak of their powers.

The extensive archives of the Bell Telephone Hour television series (1959-1968) has yielded an extraordinary line-up of opera singers, instrumentalists, ballet greats, and stars of Broadway. Among the many illustrious performers featured in these programs are Claudio Arrau, Erik Bruhn, Barbara Cook, Franco Corelli, Jacques D’Amboise, Alfred Drake, Zino Francescatti, Melissa Hayden, Florence Henderson, Carol Lawrence, Ethel Merman, Anna Moffo, Birgit Nilsson, Rudolf Nureyev, Gregor Piatagorsky, Leontyne Price, Issac Stern, Joan Sutherland, and Renata Tebaldi.

Opera lovers can rejoice in the long-awaited release of complete operatic performances from Japan’s NHK network. Productions dating from the late 1950s into the early 1970s feature Carlo Bergonzi, Monserrat Caballé, Jose Carrerras, Fiorenza Cossotto, Mario del Monaco, Plácido Domingo, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Renata Scotto, Giulietta Simionato, Renata Tebaldi, and many others. The full listing can be found by clicking the “Opera and Highlights” link under “DVDs” on the home page of our site.

Fans of orchestral music will revel in our releases of televised concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Just click the “Conductors and Orchestras” link to see the complete catalog of concerts led by such renowned conductors as Sir John Barbirolli, Paul Hindemith, Erich Leinsdorf, Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch, Fritz Reiner, Leopold Stokowski, and George Szell.

Though VAI has concentrated on archival material, we have not neglected the current generation of star performers. In the orchestral realm, we have have a number of spectacular concerts led by the eminent maestro Neeme Järvi. And through our exclusive association with the Miami International Piano Festival, we have released DVDs by such rising stars as Ingrid Fliter, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Francesco Libetta, and Konstantin Lifschitz.

VAI’s audio releases have focused on major artists whose work has not been documented as extensively elsewhere. These include discs by such performers as Phyllis Curtin, Ida Haendel, Evelyn Lear, Eleanor Steber, Thomas Stewart, and Rosalyn Tureck. In addition, we have issued rare recordings by legendary artists otherwise well-represented on recordings, including Marian Anderson, Jussi Bjoerling, Sherrill Milnes, and Jon Vickers.

We are grateful for the support our customers have shown for the past two and a half decades. In turn, we will continue to seek out the best in performing arts video.

Best Wishes from the Staff of VAI

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