Image To Release 50 Titles
Including Performances By
Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti,
Dame Joan Sutherland And
The World’s Pre-eminent Classical
Artists; Andre Previn’s
New Opera, A Streetcar Named Desire,
Also Planned For Release

Image Entertainment, Inc., a leading licensee and distributor of optical
disc programming, today announced the signing of an exclusive license
agreement with
England’s RM (Reiner Moritz) Associates that will see the company releasing
50 classical music programs to DVD in the coming year.

RM Associates has long been recognized as having one of the world’s most
impressive libraries of classical music, dance and visual arts programming
ever
committed to video. Amongst the RM Associates programming that Image plans
DVD releases for, are a production of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin, starring
Placido Domingo with the Vienna State Opera, Bizet’s Carmen from London’s
Covent Garden, Dame Joan Sutherland starring in Donizetti’s Lucia Di
Lammermoor, Baz Luhrman’s highly acclaimed Australian production of
Puccini’s La Boheme, and various other productions featuring the talents of
Claudio
Abbado, King’s College Cambridge Choir, Dawn Upshaw, Thomas Allen, Cheryl
Studer, Jennifer Larmore, Waltraud Meier, June Anderson, Samuel Ramey and
many others.

In addition to RM Associates’ classical performance programming, Image
will release some of the company’s special interest programming featuring
such
luminaries as Marilyn Horne, Maria Callas, David Hockney, Jackson Pollock
and Margot Fonteyn.

The opera programming to be released on DVD will take full advantage of
DVD’s technological abilities. Viewers will have the option to select
subtitles to aid in
viewing, or elect to watch the programming in its original language without
the presence of imposed text on the screen.

Martin W. Greenwald, Image’s President and CEO said, “We are honored to
have been chosen to bring this prestigious line of programming to DVD. This
agreement continues to emphasize Image’s commitment to DVD and to our
aggressive and expanding stance on music licensing.”

“Image has, to date, released nearly 50 music DVDs with a dozen more
slated for release in March alone,” Greenwald continued. “The addition of
programs
from the famed RM Associates collection brings Image to the forefront when
it comes to satisfying the demand for a broad range of DVD music
programming.”

Neil Mundy, Director of Programs for RM Associates, commenting on the
agreement stated, “We have selected Image Entertainment to bring the first
selection
from our fine line of programming to DVD in America because they have
clearly taken the lead in distributing a vast collection of music to the DVD
medium. Their
sales and marketing efforts on behalf of the new format have been exemplary
and we look forward to their promotion of these initial titles from our
extensive
library of titles.”