"Actor: Julia Migenes"

• Carmen: The Restored Edition (2 discs) | DVD | (18/07/2011) from £19.51   |  Saving you £0.48 (2.46%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This movie version of Bizet's popular opera Carmen was filmed on location, conveying a kind of atmosphere, a sense of space, movement, and presence that's hard to achieve in a staged performance. It takes the action out of doors for many scenes, with the opening titles superimposed on the bloody conclusion of a bullfight. Elsewhere the changing of the guard, the crowd scenes, the dance number that opens Act 2, and the panoramic scenery of the smugglers' mountain hideout all benefit from the freedom granted by movie cameras. It's an exciting Carmen, too, with a young-looking Placido Domingo in top form for a role he has sung hundreds of times. For Julia Migenes, though, it was her first performance in a role she would have trouble performing in an opera house. Her voice does not fit easily into Carmen's range, and she spent months training it, very successfully, before singing the role in a recording studio where the soundtrack was taped before the film was shot. Casting her in the role was a gamble, but it worked; she is a convincing actress. Unlike most opera-house performances this movie version uses the opera's original opera comique form with some spoken dialogue rather than recitatives.--Joe McLellan, Amazon.com

• Bizet: Carmen -- film version | DVD | (13/03/2000) from £17.89   |  Saving you £2.10 (11.74%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This movie version of Bizet's popular opera Carmen was filmed on location, conveying a kind of atmosphere, a sense of space, movement, and presence that's hard to achieve in a staged performance. It takes the action out of doors for many scenes, with the opening titles superimposed on the bloody conclusion of a bullfight. Elsewhere the changing of the guard, the crowd scenes, the dance number that opens Act 2, and the panoramic scenery of the smugglers' mountain hideout all benefit from the freedom granted by movie cameras. It's an exciting Carmen, too, with a young-looking Placido Domingo in top form for a role he has sung hundreds of times. For Julia Migenes, though, it was her first performance in a role she would have trouble performing in an opera house. Her voice does not fit easily into Carmen's range, and she spent months training it, very successfully, before singing the role in a recording studio where the soundtrack was taped before the film was shot. Casting her in the role was a gamble, but it worked; she is a convincing actress. Unlike most opera-house performances this movie version uses the opera's original opera comique form with some spoken dialogue rather than recitatives.--Joe McLellan, Amazon.com

• Carmen: The Restored Edition (Blu Ray) | Blu Ray | (18/07/2011) from £14.59   |  Saving you £5.40 (37.01%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The heat and passion of Bizet’s Carmen is brought to life as never before in Francesco Rosi’s definitive, highly-acclaimed version starring Placido Domingo, Julia Migenes and Ruggero Raimondi.In Seville, 1820, a naive soldier Don Jose falls under the spell of sensual temptress Carmen. He deserts from the army, gives up everything to be with her, only to be spurned in favour of the toreador Escamillo. His desperate pleas for her to return are met with further humiliation and Carmen’s taunts lead to a dramatic finale.

• Strauss - Eine Nacht In Venedig | DVD | (12/05/2008) from £15.85   |  Saving you £-1.86 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A Night In Venice by Johann Strauss, recorded at BUFA, Berlin, 1973.

• Sherrill Milnes: An All-Star Gala | DVD | (22/08/2005) from £16.39   |  Saving you £0.60 (3.66%)   |  RRP £16.99

  I PAGLIACCI: Prologue (Leoncavallo) Sherrill MilnesUP IN CENTRAL PARK: Close as Pages in a Book (Romberg/Fields) Julia Migenes and Sherrill Milnes.COSI FAN TUTTE: Un'aura amorosa (Mozart) Peter Schreier.O TOD WIE BITTER BIST DU: (Brahms) Sherrill Milnes with Jon Spong piano.LA TRAVIATA: Pura siccome un angelo (Verdi) Mirella Freni and Sherrill Milnes.DON CARLO: Dio che nell'alma infondere (Verdi) Placido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes.OTELLO: Credo in un Dio crudel (Verdi) Sherrill Milnes.

• Julia Migenes - Diva on the Verge | DVD | (28/07/2008) from £12.13   |  Saving you £2.86 (23.58%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Drawing on her experiences in opera the irrepressible soprano Julia Migenes invites us to look afresh at the genre she loves with this irreverent one-woman show. Punctuated with some of the greatest arias in the soprano repertoire she sketches out the life of the opera singer with audacious anecdotes from behind the scenes. Aimed at ""those who would not go to the opera and those who would not go back"" Migenes's iconoclastic and earthy humour throws open the gates to the world of opera in all its splendour and preposterousness.