"Actor: Elzbieta Szmytka"

• Falstaff - Giuseppe Verdi | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £13.24   |  Saving you £4.75 (35.88%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Verdi's last opera and the final peak of his career Falstaff is the culmination of Italian comic opera. The story is taken from Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives Of Windsor although the central character is much closer to the Falstaff of Henry IV. The roguish Sir John embroils himself in numerous plots and dupes of love and marriage until eventually the Merry Wives get their revenge on him and all plans are thwarted. Verdi's sparkling and witty opera is the perfect synthesis of mu

• Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito -- Glyndebourne | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £11.74   |  Saving you £14.51 (138.45%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Mozart's Clemenza di Tito ("The Clemency of Titus") makes for riveting viewing in this Glyndebourne performance directed by Nicholas Hytner and conducted by Andrew Davis staged in the composer's bicentenary in 1991. Mozart's last opera, Clemenza was for some time considered below par by his own exalted standards. He composed it in a rush, the recitatives are by a pupil and it had to be on an appropriate theme to please the new Hapsburg monarch, for whose enthronement it was designed. There's little character development and the musical style harks back to operatic conventions Mozart had done so much to overthrow. Watching this production one would scarcely credit that such reservations once held sway. Hytner and his team have put a contemporary angle on a story set in Rome AD 78 in which sets, props and the stage itself are constructed to different dimensions offering alternate perspectives on a static tale. A slanting pillar and a sloping corridor allude to the unhinged mind of the scheming Vitellia, the central character, who puts her confidant Sesto on an emotional roller coaster ride as she ensnares him to plot the downfall of Titus. The principals use their eyes to communicate to one another as well as the audience and in the imaginatively staged entrances and exits of the ensembles one senses Hytner's choreographic instincts coming to the fore. The superb cast sing magnificently and look stunning. Philip Langridge is an eloquent Titus, Diana Monatgue a sincere Sesto and Ashley Putnam brings a touch of Alexis Colby to her portrayal of Vitellia. The London Philharmonic are all fired up under conductor Andrew Davis' fervent direction. The performance (the "Overture" accompanied by a visual montage of artefacts of Ancient Rome) is played on modern instruments yet articulated and reproduced with the clarity and definition associated with period ones. On the DVD: La Clemenza di Tito has no special features save for the obligatory subtitles. The picture quality is outstanding with the imaginative and colourful production design caught, like the music, with exceptional fidelity. The high drama at the conclusion of Act 1 justifies running on without a break into Act 2. This is a must for all lovers of opera. --Adrian Edwards

• Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro / Jean-Pierre Vincent, Paolo Olmi, Opéra de Lyon | DVD | (23/05/2003) from £9.97   |  Saving you £15.02 (60.10%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Popular performance of Mozart's famous Opera recorded at the Mozart Festival of the German State Opera conducted by Paolo Olmi.