Thank you Mr. T - this thread has just crossed my consciousness-threshold. I am not a great opera fan, but now that I have watched the first two clips I find it a worthwhile experience which I can certainly recommend to others.
Since I am not at all familiar with the YouTube affair, it was necessary to jump through a few hoops before I could see the films, and it may assist other members if I list them here:
1) In my browser (Opera) there was at first a blank space below Mr. T's words "
very little notice." I had to go to the Tools menu - Quick preferences - Enable plug-ins, then hit Control-R to refresh the page. At that point the clip appears embedded in the page of this forum, waiting to be played.
2) To find the rest of the opera, beyond this first ten-minute chunk, I had to right-click on the clip, and select "Watch on YouTube."
3) Then on the right there is the phrase "
More From: Chudoconductor." Click on that, and you will see a list of - among other things - some more clips entitled
A.Berg Lulu Helikon-Opera.
4) Scroll down to the end of that list and click on "
See all 60 videos." At that point you will see a complete list of - among other things - all the separate Lulu clips in no particular order. I think, but am not sure, that there are eighteen of them in all, numbered from 1 to 18. There are all sorts of computerized sorting options to click on which become quite confusing.
5) Now it just so happens that I received to-day in the letter-box a computer magazine with a free programme that enables one to download YouTube videos at the best available quality and save them on one's hard disc, where they may be played at will when off-line. This is why Mr. T's post attracted my attention to-day.
Here it is - it is called
YouGrab. I installed it an hour ago and tried it with the first two Lulu clips, and it works well, giving a choice between saving an mp4 file or an flv file.
6) So the final step for an opera lover, after having downloaded all eighteen or however many clips, would be to stitch them all back together again. I am sure there will be programmes that do that, but have not yet investigated. Perhaps other members can assist.
Incidentally I have the complete libretto with German and English printed in adjacent columns; it came with the Boulez performance on four cassettes which I bought for £19.65 at Templar Records just twenty-five years ago. (Although the sound without the vision is not a great deal of use when listening to opera I now find.) If any one wants a scan of that libretto please ask - although it is probably available on the inter-net.