"Actor: Berlin"

• Wagner: Lohengrin | Blu Ray | (20/04/2009) from £28.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (20.70%)   |  RRP £34.99

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• The X Files: Season 6 | DVD | (17/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  The sixth series of The X-Files picks up after the events of the big-screen movie. So it is that "The Beginning" attempts to fit the film into the TV chronology before moving on to tackle plot points left dangling from series five's "The End" (note the guard asleep at the nuclear power plant console is named Homer!). Between story arc threads are several pleasing one-off excursions: time travel to a Bermuda Triangle boatload of Nazis ("Triangle"); further temporal escapades akin to Groundhog Day ("Monday"); a demonic baby case featuring genre stalwart Bruce Campbell ("Terms of Endearment"); and "The Dreamland, Parts 1 and 2", in which David Duchovny gets to play someone else via personality switching. Back in the conspiracy scheme of things, Mulder chases "S.R. 819", a Senate resolution tying conspiracies together; "Two Fathers" and "One Son" indicates that the abductee experiments are intended to cure the black oil disease; and the year finishes with "BioGenesis", in which a beach-buried UFO has Scully and the audience wondering if we are from Mars. --Paul Tonks

• Wonderful Town - Bernstein | DVD | (04/12/2006) from £29.68   |  Saving you £-4.69 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Musical Comedy in Two ActsRecorded live at the Philharmonia Berlin 30-31 December 2002.

• Mahler-Symphony 5/Ades-Asyla | DVD | (03/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Simon Rattle conducts the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 5: Ades-Aslya.

• X Files Season 4 Boxset | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £89.99

  In Season 4 of The X-Files, Scully is a bit upset by her on-off terminal cancer and Mulder is supposed to shoot himself in the season finale (did anyone believe that?), but in episode after episode the characters still plod dutifully around atrocity sites tossing off wry witticisms in that bland investigative demeanour out of fashion among TV cops since Dragnet. Perhaps the best achievement of this season is "Home", the most unpleasant horror story ever presented on prime-time US TV. It's not a comfortable show--confronted with this ghastly parade of incest, inbreeding, infanticide and mutilation, you'd think M & S would drop the jokes for once--but shows a willingness to expand the envelope. By contrast, ventures into golem, reincarnation, witchcraft and Invisible Man territory throw up run-of-the-mill body counts, spotlighting another recurrent problem. For heroes, M & S rarely do anything positive: they work out what is happening after all the killer's intended victims have been snuffed ("Kaddish"), let the monster get away ("Sanguinarium") and cause tragedies ("The Field Where I Died"). No wonder they're stuck in the FBI basement where they can do the least damage. The series has settled enough to play variations on earlier hits: following the liver vampire, we have a melanin vampire ("Teliko") and a cancer vampire ("Leonard Betts"), and return engagements for the oily contact lens aliens and the weasely ex-Agent Krycek ("Tunguska"/"Terma"). Occasional detours into send-up or post-modernism are indulged, yielding both the season's best episode ("Small Potatoes") and its most disappointing ("Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man"). "Small Potatoes", with the mimic mutant who tries out Mulder's life and realises what a loser he is (how many other pin-up series heroes get answerphone messages from their favourite phone-sex lines?), works as a genuine sci-fi mystery--for once featuring a mutant who doesn't have to kill people to live--and as character insight. --Kim Newman

• Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust | DVD | (15/05/2000) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This imaginative staging of Berlioz's dramatic symphony for chorus, soloists and orchestra relies heavily on the moving of massed choirs across a large stage. It has vivid lighting effects--rather too many of them using strobes--and monolithic multi-purpose sets, in particular a revolving glass drum which functions both as cinema screen and rostrum for singers, so that the final ride to Hell, for example, is sung by Mephistopheles and Faust above a cavalcade of projected horses, like the inside of a zoetrope. The three main soloists have voices on a scale that can compete with these flashy production values--White and Kasarova, in particular, sing at a level of intensity that would swamp anything less; the climactic seduction trio has rarely been sung so well or with such an overpoweringly polymorphous eroticism. Cambreling marshals his forces effectively, giving full rein to the work's showstoppers like the "Hungarian March" but not neglecting the subtler less kinetic Gluckian side of Berlioz's vocal writing. The DVD has subtitles in English, German and Dutch, and menus in those languages, as well as French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish. --Roz Kaveney

• Die Gezeichneten - Schreker | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Franz Schreker's Die Gezeichneten a performance from the Salzburger Festspiele recorded live at the Felsenreitschule 26 July 2005.

• Parsifal - Wagner | DVD | (29/03/2005) from £41.65   |  Saving you £-5.40 (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Nikolaus Lehnoff's visionary staging of Wagner's opera for ENO.

• Cunning Little Vixen, The - Janacek | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £16.37   |  Saving you £3.62 (18.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Janacek - The Cunning Little Vixen (Nagano Deutsches SO)

• Carmina Burana: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra | Blu Ray | (03/02/2014) from £14.65   |  Saving you £15.34 (104.71%)   |  RRP £29.99

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• Various Composers - Scheherazade (Jarvi) | DVD | (04/05/2007) from £18.88   |  Saving you £6.11 (24.40%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Sheherazade An Oriental Night

• Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots | DVD | (26/01/2001) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  As grand opera goes, few examples of the form have the inherent grandeur of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. The dramatic backdrop is Mérimée's account of the 16th-century St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of thousands of French Calvinists under the Catholic regime. The trick, insofar as there is one, is the way in which the attendant upheaval is reflected in the smallest detail of the lives of the main protagonists. This Berlin Opera production of 1991 carries this process several stages further, embedding--and there really is no other word to describe the thoroughness of the process--the narrative into an indeterminate, hyper-condensed 20th-century setting. While this approach has its own pitfalls, such as the silent "pre-overture" which proposes an unsubtle comparison between the oppression of the Catholics and the persecution of the Jews in wartime Germany, it would be churlish to let them detract from what is a robust and highly memorable performance of this sometimes unfashionable opera. The usual trailer for other Arthaus DVDs is appended. --Roger Thomas

• Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) -- Berlin/Barenboim | DVD | (05/04/2000) from £22.97   |  Saving you £2.02 (8.10%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A massive success from its premiere on May 3, 1786, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro ("The Marriage of Figaro") downplays the social satire in Beaumarchais' original tale of romantic intrigue and revenge between the classes, instead emphasising the psychological dimensions. Here in a live production from the Staatsoper, Berlin, director Alexandre Tarta employs simple sets, focusing all attention on a very fine cast as they spin-out the farcical ironies. The result is one of the most acclaimed interpretations of recent years, with soprano Dorethea Röschmann reprising her star-making 1995 Salzburg debut as the sensual and flirtatious Susanna. Rene Papé makes a fine Figaro, and there are no weak links, with not just the singing but the performances uniformly excellent. The humour on show makes the sorrow all the more genuinely affecting. Of course Mozart's music is marvellous, packed with great arias and duets, and under Daniel Barenboim the State Opera Choir Berlin "Staatskapelle Berlin" are on splendid form.On the DVD: With the opera lasting 190 minutes the only other feature on the disc is a plot synopsis. However, the subtitles can be switched on or off. The booklet also provides a synopsis, together with some background on the opera and the performers. Filming a live production with theatre lights is never going to result in the most detailed images, and under these circumstances the anamorphically enhanced picture fares well, being far superior to VHS. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is realistic, detailed and absorbing without ever being unnecessarily showy. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Spanish Night | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Plácido Domingo is no stranger to stadium events, though in the old days it was as a singer with his pals, Pavarotti and Carreras. In Spanish Night with baton in hand he has an appealingly avuncular manner, and he couldn't hope for a better class of orchestra than the Berlin Philharmonic, here playing in their annual open-air concert given at the city's Waldbühne. It's a real crowd-pleaser of a programme (and the audience's enthusiasm is immediately apparent and increasingly boisterous as the evening wears on). None of the works stretches the concentration unreasonably, and the views of Spain come not only from home-grown composers (Sarasate, Torroba, Serrano and Vives) but also as viewed through other eyes: Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnole, Chabrier's España and Johann Strauss II's Spanish March. A pair of soloists increase the sequin quotient of the evening: the consummately poised violinist Sarah Chang (who has been round for so long it's difficult to believe she's still only 20) and the full-voiced soprano Ana María Martínez, winner of the Plácido Domingo Vocal Competition in Barcelona. Given the visual limitations of such events, the camerawork is imaginative without being distracting, and the sound, if a little boxy, is perfectly acceptable. Above all there's a great sense of fun to the occasion, and in the final number, Lincke's Berliner Lufte, Domingo is unable to resist seizing the microphone and leading the singing. On the DVD Sound options are either Dolby Digital 5.1 or PCM stereo and the picture is formatted for 16:9 TVs. A variety of goodies have been added to the concert itself, including interviews with Domingo and Sarah Chang, footage of flamenco dancing in Berlin (which is vaguely relevant) and a behind-the-scenes documentary.--Harriet Smith

• The Red Baron - 2 DVD BOX | DVD | (15/12/2009) from £15.39   |  Saving you £4.60 (29.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Manfred Von Richthofen, more famously known as The Red Baron, is arguably the most famous and widely recognised German fighter pilot to ever take to the skies in the history of warfare.During his flying career in the First World War, Richthofen was officially credited with 80 enemy kills, a number which dwarfs other famous pilots such as Douglas Bader who scored 22 enemy kills. Originally a cavelryman, Richthofen transferred to the Air Service in 1915 where his skills as a pilot were quickly recognised.By 1918 he was regarded as a national hero in Germany and his death in April rocked the nation. This documentary tells the true story of Manfred von Richthofen, using sensational original footage shot during the First World War. It covers his life through it's entirety, from his birth in Schlesien through to the flying exploits of this astonishing German hero, including the dogfights of June 1917 in Flandern.In the air at this time, the Allies securely maintained air superiority and all available German hunter squadrons were thrown in to the battle in order to subdue their opponents. Richthofen and his fellow pilots mastered the tasks given to them brilliantly and performed truly astounding feats in the air. The four hunter squadrons of the JG1 took over the airspace within a time frame of just two weeks, achieving a staggering 40 aeriel victories.

• The Cunning Little Vixen - Janacek | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £26.13   |  Saving you £-4.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Leos Janacek's opera inspired by the 1920s cartoon strip 'Vixen Sharpears' returns to its roots in the hands of innovative animator Geoff Dunbar. With a soundtrack recorded by Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and singers from the European Opera Centre the story of Sharpears unfolds a tale of love death and rebirth which will appeal to audiences of all ages.

• Herbert Von Karajan - New Year's Concert 1988 | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

• Waldbuhne Concert 2002 - A Night Of Encores | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Vadim Repin in concert performing encores. Featuring Wieniawski's Polonaise Op. 4.

• Adam - Giselle (American Ballet Theatre) | DVD | (20/11/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Adolphe Adam's ballet 'Giselle' performed by the American Ballet Theatre and the Berlin Orchestra and Choir. Conducted by John Lanchbery. Directed by Hugo Niebeling and David Blair. Dancers include Carla Fracci and Erik Bruhn.

• Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem | DVD | (01/04/2004) from £5.73   |  Saving you £15.52 (347.20%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A performance to mark the centenary of Brahms' death in the Musikverein Vienna on the 3rd April 1997.