"Actor: Alice Coote"

• Humperkinck: Hansel and Gretel | DVD | (15/09/2008) from £13.48   |  Saving you £-1.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  Christine Sch''fer Alice Coote and Vladimir Jurowski triumph in Humperdinck's first and most successful opera - filmed live at the Metropolitan Opera in Hi-Definition. This irresistibly delicious new English-language production of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel is the first 'Metropolitan Opera : Live in High-Definition series' release following EMI Classic's recent collaboration with the Met. The Brothers Grimm fairy tale a timeless children's favourite features a sophisticated score and this intriguing new staging will appeal to audiences of all ages. Alice Coote and Christine Sch''fer are charming as Hansel and Gretel. The role of the Witch written for a mezzo-soprano is sometimes sung by a tenor - as is the case in this production - with Philip Langridge in the role. Vladimir Jurowski one of the world's most sought-after conductors leads Germany's dearest opera with a sensitive account of Humperdinck's enchanting score. Hansel and Gretel is considered by many as the salvation of German opera bringing relief from the murky Wagnerian depths of Teutonic myth and initiating a return to the shimmering world of the fairy tale. In 1923 Hansel and Gretel became the first complete opera to be broadcast on radio from Covent Garden ; Eight years later it was the first to be broadcast from the New York Met. It is significant therefore that this is one of the eight operas chosen to be in this season's Met HD transmissions. Beautifully staged by Richard Jones and moodily designed by John Macfarlane this dark and eccentric production is tough and dark sparse and savage an exploration of deprivation cruelty and gluttony in a contemporary always-always-land. (Financial Times)

• Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia (Euroarts: 2072454) | Blu Ray | (30/12/2011) from £14.75   |  Saving you £15.24 (103.32%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Lucrezia Borgia

• Handel: Alcina | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £14.98   |  Saving you £10.01 (66.82%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Produced with the cast of a year-2000 Stuttgart stage version, this performance of Handel's 1735 opera Alcina has been specially shot for home viewing without the audience present (though applause is heard during the closing credits). Director Janos Darvas enhances the usual low theatre illumination with stronger television-friendly lighting to provide more detail, and he also takes his cameras much closer to the artists than live performance permits, offering film-style close-ups that greatly enhance the drama. With just eight performers and an essentially static set--though some intriguing interesting things are done with a large "mirror"--this intimate approach proves an enormous advantage. Handel's complex tale of intense romantic entanglement on the island of the enchantress Alcina focuses as much on high-voltage acting as powerful music-making. The 20th-century costumes are initially disconcerting, but soon become part of a psychologically intense world where time seems out of joint and charged with otherwise-unimaginable emotional possibilities. As Alcina, Catherine Naglestad gives an extraordinary performance, both strikingly passionate and deeply sensual, her revealing costuming being just the most obvious sign of a production intent on the erotic. Though Naglestad dominates, each performer offers memorable characterisation and fine singing. On the DVD: Alcina comes to disc with an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 picture that is clear and detailed, while the PCM stereo audio is natural and is recorded with good presence. Other than various optional subtitles, including English, extras are entirely absent. Within the booklet is a brief biography of Handel, background notes on Alcina and a synopsis, but nothing on the artists or performance. --Gary S Dalkin