"Actor: Alan Opie"

• Albert Herring - Glyndebourne Festival Opera | DVD | (05/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Set in an English market town at the turn of 20th century a gangling greengrocer's lad is crowded May King. The break with the tradition of choosing a girl is virtuous enough to May Queen... The comic opera at Glyndebourne was conducted by Bernard Haitink. 'A Vintage production with a vintage cast.' - Sunday Times.

• Peter Grimes - Benjamin Britten | DVD | (25/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Benjamin Britten's dour masterpiece Peter Grimes has been well-served in video recordings, yet this stark, intense production may become the top choice for most viewers. One of its major attractions is outstanding camerawork, under the direction of Barrie Gavin, powerfully reinforcing the shifting moods created by the music. The photography is notable in frequent close-ups, particularly those that focus on the ravaged, vulnerable and intensely expressive face of Philip Langridge in the title role. His interpretation is strikingly different from that of his chief video rival, Jon Vickers, who presents a more burly characterisation. The ambiguities in the role of Grimes make it possible to emphasise either strength or vulnerability in this story of an alienated fisherman, who stands virtually alone against a small (and small-minded society), vast forces of nature and a run of bad luck. His young apprentice has died (possibly because of his neglect or brutality); he is legally acquitted but found guilty by his neighbours and forbidden to take another boy as apprentice. He ignores that warning, the second boy dies accidentally, and he commits suicide under intense public pressure. Langridge gives a striking account of the role's psychological depth and complexity, aided by a well-chosen and directed cast. James Atherton conducts expertly. The chorus and orchestra are first-class, and the famous sea interludes, which have found a secure place in the concert repertoire, are visually enhanced by views of the ocean and shoreline. --Joe McLellan

• The Rape Of Lucretia - Britten | DVD | (12/01/2005) from £19.12   |  Saving you £5.87 (30.70%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The English National Opera Orchestra provide sumptuous musical accompaniment to this moving interpretation of 'The Rape Of Lucretia'. The story evokes strong passionate themes as one would expect from a thrilling combination of opera and Greek tragedy. Anthony Rolfe Johnson Jean Rigby Russell Smythe and Kathryn Harries infuse the lead roles with just the right amount of tension and passion making this a fascinating spectacle for the enthralled audience present and now for viewers at home as well.

• Britten: Death In Venice | DVD | (28/02/2001) from £22.15   |  Saving you £2.84 (12.82%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Britten's last opera, Death in Venice will always be associated with the two voices for which the major parts in it were written. It is the achievement of Robert Tear and Alan Opie, in this magisterial performance by Graeme Jenkins with the Glyndebourne touring company, to produce telling performances that are entirely separate from our memories. Tear's Aschenbach is more bull-like than Peter Pears' moralist dreamer; his drift into sentimental eroticisation of the boy Tadzio upsets him as much for the weakness it reveals as for the collapse of his virtue. Alan Opie is as much of a virtuoso as John Shirley-Quirk in the multiple roles that culminate in the corrupting voice of Dionysus--the hotelier who persuades Aschenbach to stay, the barber who gives him a toupee and paints his face, the street entertainer, the rake who flirts with sailors; the otherworldly counter-tenor of Michael Chance is spookily right as Apollo. The scenes for dancers manage to be at once dreams of the erotic and plausible adolescent sea-side wrestling; the direction by Stephen Lawless and Martha Clarke manages to capture the mistiness of the piece from which fate and strangeness suddenly emerge. On the DVD: The DVD has subtitles in German, French and Spanish, as well as an acoustic which brings out the subtleties of Britten's string, brass and percussion in this difficult work. --Roz Kaveney

• Benjamin Britten - Gloriana | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A classic ENO production of Britten's 1953 opera, which has only now received the critical acclaim it deserves.Gloriana came into being when Benjamin Britten was asked to compose an opera to celebrate the Coronation of HRH Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. He took as his starting point Lytton Strachey's Elizabeth and Essex, which had much interested him when he first read it.The opera traces the downfall of the Earl of Essex who, presuming upon his privilege as the Queen's favourite, forces a tragedy upon them both.

• Peter Grimes - Benjamin Britten (Wide Screen) | DVD | (17/10/2006) from £22.97   |  Saving you £2.02 (8.79%)   |  RRP £24.99

  From The English National Opera At The London Coliseum.Benjamin Britten.Peter Grimes.Words by Montagu Slater after the poem by George Crabble.

• Rigoletto | Blu Ray | (03/01/2012) from £32.38   |  Saving you £-2.39 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £29.99

• Verdi - Simon Boccanegra | DVD | (10/09/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Sir Georg Solti - Verdi: Simon Boccanegra