4/5 Omly about half of Gala
  by A. BOSS (Mountainside, NJ United States)
This should have been listed as excerts from Centenial Gala. I had assumed that, since it contained 2 DVDs and you can fit about 8 hours on 2 double layer DVDs, that it would contain the whole gala. But it only contains about half the gala, which is very dasappointing. It was a very good performance and, considering it was recorded 1983, both the video and audio are very good. Audio has been upgraded to dts5.1 in addition to stereo.

3/5 "New" MET CENTENIAL video
  by geok (MA USA)
This video is a disappointment because it merely takes the same material from the older versions single disk and spreads it over two disks. The original video had drastically edited the afternoon and evening performances of this gala. I bought this two dvd version assuming that more performances had been added when I saw that the original single disk had been expanded to two disks. If you have the single disk version, don't bother getting this one

4/5 The Metropolitan Oper Centennial Gala
  by Irwin Tallarico (SF bay area)
It's amazing that the Met is over 100 years old. Great singers, conductors and directors have helped it become the pre-eminent opera house in the world. All of the performances are excellent though I wish that they would look to their archives and show arias from past singers such as Beverly Sills , Jussi Bjorling, Lilly Pons, Rise Stevens. I know that they have video recordings but they see reluctant to release them.

5/5 Yes, disappointed!
  by Gustaaf Schippers (Helena, MT USA)
I have the "old" Pioneer Classics DVD version, lasting 231 minutes. The "new" DGG version lasts........231 minutes. So it must be the same coverage. I don't know why DGG went to the trouble of duplicating the existing version. Better picture? Better sound? I don't think I will spend money (although not too much for this DVD) to see whether picture and sound are any better(no complaints on the Pioneer DVD).
I have asked DGG whether they had any intention to issue a DVD-version of the "Metropolitan Opera Gala 1991 - 25th Anniversary at Lincoln Center", of which I have the VHS. That is the one with the 3 excerpts from RIGOLETTO, OTELLO and DIE FLEDERMAUS plus a number of arias. This is often mixed up with the "Metropolitan Opera Gala, celebrating James Levine's 25th Anniversary", which took place in 1996 (2 DGG DVDs). DGG said no intention. Unbelievable!

5/5 Okay, so it's NOT all of it...
  by Robert Sorrentino (Cherry Hill, N.J.)
...but, to quote Spencer Tracy's line from "Pat and Mike," "what's there, is cherce."

How can you pick highlights from highlights?: The final duet from "Chenier," sung by two of Spain's greatest gifts to the world of music, Caballe and Carerras? McCracken, returning to the Met after a five-year absence, to bring down the house with Otello's great "Dio mi potevi"? Freni and Domingo's "Otello" Duet? Price and Pav's from "Ballo"? The mind reels with a feast of the finest. This was the creme de la creme of the opera world, circa 1983.

Only a couple of minor cavils: Couldn't they have retained Osie Hawkins' introduction of the guests of honor in the second half (Rise Stevens and Marilyn Horne embracing after the latter's "Mon Ceur," Feruccio Tagliavini looking hopelessly bored during the "Faust" trio)? How about Moffo and Merrill's co-farewell to the house with "Will You Remember?"?

But this is comparitively minor. What remains is truly an operatic feast of the finest.