"Actor: Fedora Barbieri"

• Cavalleria Rusticana - Mascagni / Pagliacci - Leoncavallo | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £9.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (40.04%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The great Italian stage and screen director Franco Zeffirelli made these widely acclaimed films both starring Placido Domingo with Georges Pretre conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala. Pagliacci which co-stars the great singing actress Teresa Stratas brought Zeffirelli the coveted Emmy as Best Director in the category of Classical Music Programming. Cavalleria was filmed on location in Sicily which adds immeasurably to the power and atmosphere of this timeless story of love honour justice and violence.

• Verdi - Rigoletto | DVD | (12/06/2006) from £16.05   |  Saving you £0.94 (5.86%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Filmed on location in Italian Renaissance landmarks including the Castello di San Giorgio in Mantua the Piazza Duomo in Cremona and the Teatro Farnese in parma Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's lavish production of Rigoletto captures all the tenderness and tragedy of Verdi's heartbreaking drama. Luciano Pavarotti in his formidable prime is the dashing dissolute Duke of Mantua who seduces fair innocent Gilda - a virtuoso performance by Edita Gruberova - away from her protective father the hunchback court jester Rigoletto sung and acted with indelible pathos by Ingvar Wixell.

• Giordano - Andrea Chenier (Santi) | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £15.37   |  Saving you £1.62 (9.50%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Political intrigue during the French Revolution and the fate of a woman desired by two men are the focal points of Giordano's gripping drama Andrea Chenier. Placido Domingo sings the title role with great passion and tenderness in this acclaimed 1981 Vienna State Opera production; Gabriela Benackova portrays the hero's beloved Maddalena.

• Verdi: Falstaff | DVD | (06/03/2006) from £26.89   |  Saving you £-1.90 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This 1956 Falstaff from Radiotelevisione Italiana is one of the finest of the many studio productions that RAI presented in the 1950s. In addition to the presence of the legendary maestro Tullio Serafin there is the elegant physical production and brilliant staging by the renowned opera director Herbert Graf. the top-notch cast includes a number of singers particularly associated with this opera. Anna Moffo scored many of her early successes as Nannetta often opposite Luigi Alva's Fenton. Just a month after appearing in this production the two joined the cast of the studio recording of Falstaff under Karajan also featuring Fedora Barbieri as Mrs Quickly. Giuseppe Taddei Rosanna Carteri and Anna Maria Canali had also taken part in a 1949 Cetra recording of the opera. Taddei Rosanna Carteri and Anna Maria Canali had also taken part in a 1949 Cetra recording of the opera. Taddei who made a specialty of the title role began his long career in the mid-1930s.

• Verdi: Rigoletto -- Vienna/Chailly | DVD | (12/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana / Leoncavallo: Pagliacci | DVD | (14/01/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

• Stefan Zucker - Opera Fanatic - A Jan Schmidt-Garre Film | DVD | (28/04/2008) from £18.97   |  Saving you £1.02 (5.38%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A journey into the underbelly of Italian Opera of the fifties. Stefan Zucker, an eccentric opera fanatic from New York, visits the opera divas of his childhood: megalomaniacs, beauties, vain, fascinating - forgotten by many but worshipped by countless opera lovers around the world. The journey from apartment to apartment, from diva to diva, from Rome via Florence, Bologna, Padua, and Bergamo to the Scala in Milan, turns into an unprecedented opera road movie.