A BETTER SELECTION OF OPERAS IN NOVEMBER

Opera buffs constantly grouse about the poor selection of operas on home video and the poor quality of the sound and unimaginative camera work that go along with them. Shoddy packaging and the absence of program notes and cast lists are other gripes.

The entrance of Paramount Home Video into the field, which only includes about 11 companies, may make a difference, some say.

The company has formed a fine-arts subsidiary, Bel Canto, which is debuting next month with the release of four operas that are part of a package of 18 culled from the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live at the Met� PBS television series.

Paramount had 60 to 80 productions to choose from, said senior vice president Tim Clott, explaining how the company selected the 18. “We were looking for operas that weren’t already on the market and we were looking for operas with stars. They seem to be the most marketable.�

The company plans to release a couple of cassettes every few months. On Nov. 13 the first four will be in the stores. Verdi’s “Don Carlo,� with Grace Bumbry, taped in March, 1983, is a double cassette selling for $79.95. “The Centennial Gala,� also a $79.95 double cassette, was taped on Oct. 22, 1983, featuring selections by singers such as Birgit Nilsson, Leontyne Price and Luciano Pavarotti. The single cassettes, at $59.95, are a February, 1980, performance of Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera,� with Pavarotti, and the Franco Zeffirelli production of “La Boheme,� taped in January, 1982.

All cassettes in this series are subtitled, in stereo, feature digitally enhanced sound and come with informative brochures.

For many opera buffs, cassettes are the only alternative. If they don’t live in or near a city blessed with an opera company and aren’t inclined to travel just to see opera, the best way to see it is on home video.

Video companies love an audience like this--a basically affluent crowd that buys rather than rents cassettes (video companies get no revenues from rentals). The audience is small but dedicated. It will grow as video technology improves, making better audio and visuals possible. It will also grow as companies offer a better selection of productions.

The product does need improving, and there’s one obvious way to do it. Now video companies don’t tape operas or concerts but merely buy the rights to American and European fine arts TV specials and remaster them for video. Video companies could start taping their own productions, insuring higher quality, instead of buying rights to TV shows. But for now buying rights is cheaper and easier.

MAIL-ORDER VIDEO: If you live in a small town far from a major urban area and you want an old or fairly obscure cassette that your local store doesn’t have and can’t get, what do you do? The answer is to find a mail-order catalogue. There are a few around now, and, as the home video boom continues, there may be lot more.

New Video, which has three stores in New York City, has a sizable catalogue that includes a few thousand titles. Videotheque, with stores in Beverly Hills and Westwood, offers one twice as large.

Mail-order companies advertise their service nationally, primarily in magazines, often those aimed at film buffs. These catalogues, by the way, are for buying, not renting.

Videotheque’s Meir Hed explained how the mail-order business works: “You write the company for a catalogue, and then you order from the catalogue. A catalogue is great for film buffs in out-the-way places because they find a lot of films they didn’t know were available on cassette.�

But selling through mail order, Hed observed, does have its headaches: “The big problem is organizing. The system has to be well-organized and efficient or it won’t work. Setting it up isn’t easy.

“Distributors are another problem. Sometimes people order titles that the distributors don’t have and are very slow to find. The distributors can slow things down. We have about 10,000 titles, so we can handle most of the orders from our general stock.�

Surprisingly, ordering by catalogue isn’t that expensive. The only extra charge is about $5 for shipping and handling.

ODDS ‘N’ ENDS: The VCR price plunge continues. In some stores, for about $190, you can find VHS machines equipped with wired-remote. How low will prices go? Maybe, some retailers speculate, VHS machines made by lesser-known companies will drop to $160 at the peak of the holiday season. The best time for VCR shopping? Retailers usually offer their lowest prices in first two weeks in December and during the January clearance sales.

Vestron is capitalizing on the wrestling video craze with the release of “Ringmasters--The Great American Bash,� at $59.95, the week before Christmas. Among the grunting stars are Ivan and Nikita Koloff and Kamala the Ugandan Giant.

No, Hulk Hogan isn’t in this one.

You won’t find a serious racquet- ball player who hasn’t dreamed of taking lessons from three-time world champion Marty Hogan. Now can you get personal instruction from the Great One--by video, of course. “Marty Hogan: Power Racquetball,� featuring six lessons in the basics, will be out in early December. This half-hour Pacific Arts cassette costs $19.95.

OLD MOVIES: Here are some famous old movies you can’t find on cassette because they’ve been withdrawn from release: “The Misfits� (1961), the Marilyn Monroe-Clark Gable modern-day Western, and two James Cagney classics, “Public Enemy� (1931) and “White Heat� (1949). Unless your local video store has some in the stock room, you’ll have to wait until they’re re-released.

Bargains: Beginning this week, you can buy “Splash,� the Darryl Hannah-Tom Hanks comedy, and “Country,� the farm drama starring Jessica Lange, at the reduced price of $29.95. Both, on Touchstone Video, are normally $79.95 and will revert to that price after the holiday season.

Westerns: Sam Peckinpah’s “The Ballad of Cable Hogue� (1970) will be released in December on Warner Video at $59.95. Co-starring Jason Robards Jr. and David Warner, this is Peckinpah at his most subtle. The full-length American version of Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch�(1969), which many consider the best Western ever made, will be available next week at half price, $29.98, on Warner Video. That reduced price will only be in effect until Nov. 21.

NEW AND COMING MOVIES: “Ghostbusters� (RCA/Columbia, $79.95) is here. Reportedly 400,000 copies were shipped to distributors, instantly bringing RCA/Columbia more than $20 million in wholesale revenues.

“Beverly Hills Cop� (Paramount, $29.95) starring Eddie Murphy, will make its debut in the middle of next week. According to reports, a million copies have been shipped.

On Nov. 7, “Brewster’s Millions,� the Richard Pryor-John Candy comedy will be out on MCA. The Chuck Norris thriller “Code of Silence� is scheduled for mid-November release along with “Perfect,� starring John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis.

December releases: Clint Eastwood’s “Pale Rider� and the Chevy Chase comedy “Fletch.�

“Prizzi’s Honor� and “Rambo: First Blood Part II� are the major January releases. “Return of the Jedi,� the third episode of the “Star Wars� series, debuts Feb. 25.

TOP CASSETTES, RENTALS

1--�The Breakfast Club� (MCA). 2--�Amadeus� (Thorn/EMI/HBO). 3--�The Killing Fields� (Warner Video). 4--�Desperately Seeking Susan� (Thorn/EMI/HBO). 5--�Missing in Action 2: The Beginning� (MGM/UA). 6--�Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment� (Warner Video). 7--�The Sure Thing� (Embassy). 8--�The Karate Kid� (RCA/Columbia). 9--�A Passage to India� (RCA/Columbia). 10--�A Solider’s Story� (RCA/Columbia). TOP CASSETTES, SALES 1--�Jane Fonda’s Workout� (Karl Lorimar). 2--�Amadeus� (Thorn/EMI/HBO). 3--�Prime Time� (Karl Lorimar). 4--�Prince and the Revolution Live� (Warner Music). 5--�Desperately Seeking Susan� (Thorn/EMI/HBO). 6--�The Breakfast Club� (MCA). 7--�Wrestlemania� (Coliseum). 8--�We Are the World: The Video Event� (MusicVision). 9--�Pinocchio� (Disney). 10--�Wham! The Video� (CBS-Fox).