"Actor: Marilyn Horne"

• Carmen Jones | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.32   |  Saving you £14.67 (275.75%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Few actresses have dominated the camera as powerfully as Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones. Her polished beauty plays in irresistible contrast to her title character's leonine sexuality and fluid emotions; a man can't decide from moment to moment if he wants to save her from doom, build her a castle, or never let her out of bed. Of course, that's the problem with the boys in this semi-experimental adaptation of Bizet's opera, Carmen. Straight-arrow Joe (a strapping Harry Belafonte), an obedient corporal on a southern military base during World War II, is all set to go to flight school and marry his hometown sweetie, Cindy Lou (Olga James), when his troublemaking sergeant orders him to accompany Carmen to a civilian court. In short order, Joe is swept up in Carmen's carnal anarchy and her craving for release from lousy options in life. An impulsive act of violence ensures that Joe's future is gone forever, putting Carmen in the difficult position of destroying their relationship to save him. Oscar Hammerstein II took Bizet's music in 1943 and rewrote the book and lyrics. The result is largely a smashing success with a few missteps (the bullfighter in Bizet's piece becomes a heavyweight boxer here, which breaks up a certain grace in the story) and a couple of perfect stretches (the long prelude to Carmen and Joe's first embrace, set on Carmen's hoodoo-ish home turf). Despite the fact that both Dandridge and Belafonte were singers, their vocal performances were dubbed by LeVern Hutcherson and Marilyn Horne. (Yes, it is a little disconcerting to hear another voice coming out of the more familiar Belafonte's mouth.) Otto Preminger directed with his usual eye on economy of action and production, as the numerous musical numbers tend to be shot in lengthy, single, carefully choreographed takes. The result can be a little visually static at times, but the passion behind the singing pulls everything through.--Tom Keogh

• The Prince And The Showgirl | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £6.33   |  Saving you £7.66 (121.01%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) was Marilyn Monroe's only British-made film and scores highly for curiosity value. There's something rather outrageous about this iconic American star playing a second-rate hoofer living in a theatrical boarding house in Brixton. Monroe herself is predictably good and touching as Elsie Marina, plucked from the chorus to entertain the Regent of Carpathia for the evening and ultimately smoothing his rough edges. There is, however, a rather uphill feeling all the way. The making of the movie was by all accounts a troubled experience for everybody concerned. Monroe, increasingly unreliable and exasperating, had an unsympathetic director in Laurence Olivier, also playing the Regent Charles, who hardly had the patience for a star of her mercurial talents with her own ideas of professional behaviour. His own performance as the Balkan royal is hammy and mannered and there isn't even a damp squib of sexual chemistry between them. Terence Rattigan's script, based on his successful play, is far too wordy and stage-bound. But somehow Monroe effervesces through all this adversity, aided considerably by British character actor Richard Wattis and the great Sybil Thorndyke, who became her ally during the difficult filming. Not vintage Marilyn but fascinating all the same, and she looks fantastic. On the DVD: The Prince and the Showgirl is presented in 4:3 with an occasionally muffled, apparently mono, soundtrack, giving this DVD a rather dusty quality which is in keeping with the vintage British 1950s production values. Extras include a cast list, original trailer and newsreel footage of the announcement that Marilyn was to make the film with Olivier, referred to at that stage as The Sleeping Prince. --Piers Ford

• Strauss: Die Fledermaus -- Royal Opera House | DVD | (16/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Originally broadcast live by the BBC from the Royal Opera House on New Year's Eve 1990, this production of Die Fledermaus, Johann Strauss' masterpiece of comic operetta, was a truly historic occasion, marking the retirement from the stage of one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century, Dame Joan Sutherland. Sung in English, in a version by John Mortimer, conducted by Sutherland's husband Richard Bonynge and directed for television by Humphrey Burton, this is an exceptional translation from stage to screen. The story, an elaborate farce with elements of satirical comedy set around a lavish masked ball in 19th-century Vienna comes to life through outstanding performances by a large, vivacious cast, including Judith Howarth, Nancy Gustason and Jochen Kowalski as Prince Orlofsky. Gorgeously designed, wonderfully costumed and enthusiastically played as it is, attention inevitably centres on the "special recital" by the "surprise guests": Sutherland herself, Marilyn Horne and Luciano Pavarotti. No finer, more exhilarating and touching a farewell could have been imagined. After the curtain there is a short, on-stage tribute to Sutherland by Jeremy Isaacs, bringing to a close a glorious, unforgettable evening of music-making for which the word "glittering" might have been invented. --Gary S. Dalkin On the DVD: By presenting the production on two discs the picture quality is maximised, and, by the standards of live-filmed opera, is very good indeed. The discs are presented with PCM stereo sound and a 4:3 TV ratio image. There are options for French and German subtitles, but unless trailers for two further Arthaus DVDs count, there are no extras. The booklet is well documented, though lacking the libretto. --Gary S. Dalkin

• The Met/James Levine - Rossini - L'italiana In Algeri | DVD | (19/02/2007) from £16.59   |  Saving you £-1.60 (-10.70%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Live from the Met: 11 January 1986.

• Rossini: Semiramide | DVD | (31/12/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Bel canto can be translated as "pretty singing", and that definition seems tailor-made for this production, which offers grace, charm, and a fine-tuned sense of style in abundance to compensate for its limited psychological and emotional impact. The four principal singers are all specialists in the bel canto style and this opera has played a key role in building their substantial reputations. For its sweeping musical imagination and technical wizardry, Rossini's epic about royal assassination and misdirected lust in the ancient Babylonian Empire deserves a place in any inclusive opera collection, and we are not likely to have a better video recording of Semiramide in the foreseeable future. June Anderson has an attractive appearance and sounds exactly right in the music's florid melodic lines. But she is not dramatically compelling as the wicked queen who had her husband killed and fell in love with a man who turned out to be her long-lost son, Arsace. Marilyn Horne rose to the highest levels of international fame in the role of that conflicted son, and her presence alone would be enough to give this video classic status. Her voice was a bit past its prime when this performance was recorded in 1991, but still there is no other voice quite like it, no other voice so suited to Rossini's heroic mezzo roles. Samuel Ramey is a close bass counterpart to Anderson: great tone, agile florid singing, and a rather wooden but visually appealing stage presence. Sanford Olsen has a small role and sings it near perfectly. James Conlon gets excellent musical results; John Copley's staging is massive and static. --Joe McLellan, Amazon.com

• Montserrat Caballe And Marilyn Horne - In Concert | DVD | (24/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Two great stars of the operatic stage Spanish soprano Montserrat Caball and American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne give magnificent performances in these superb gala concerts featuring a variety of popular arias and duets recorded in 1990. The programme includes arias by Vivaldi Meyerbeer Mercadante Rossini Handel Puccini and Offenbach with duets from Rossini's Semiramide and La donna del lago. The rousing finale is the Barcarole from Les Contes d'Hoffmann.

• A Gala Concert With Joan Sutherland And Marilyn Horne | DVD | (06/08/2001) from £16.17   |  Saving you £6.81 (51.67%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In 1986 one of opera's legendary partnerships was celebrated in A Gala Concert with Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne at Sydney Opera House. Under the musical direction of Sutherland's husband and long term conductor Richard Bonynge, the great soprano and mezzo soprano treated their audience to an epic evening of solos and duets from works with which they had long since become indelibly linked. The concert was preserved and transmitted as an Esso-sponsored night at the opera by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Each diva is given ample room to shine individually. Here in all their glory are Sutherland's "Les Oiseaux dans la Charmille", the mechanical doll's aria from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann and Horne's "Iris, Hence Away" from Handel's Semele. Magical duets include "Serbami Ognor si Fido" (Rossini's Semiramide), "Viens Mallika, les Lianes en Fleurs" (Delibes' Lakme, much-used in their advertisements by British Airways) and of course the "Barcarolle" from Hoffmann. The overwhelming effect is of their passion for the music and the great professional respect and friendship which Sutherland and Horne clearly feel for each other as two of the greatest champions of the bel canto repertoire in living memory. Essential viewing for anyone remotely interested in operatic history. On the DVD: Digitally restored and remastered from the original tape, this disc at least offers the benefit of crystalline PCM stereo sound quality. In all other respects, it is a television production which inevitably shows its age. The curtain calls and long waits between every item, while Horne and Sutherland are fetched singly or together by Bonynge, are interminable and should have been cut. The 4:3 picture format is sharp enough and reveals the cumbersome dullness of the staging in all its glory. But none of this detracts from the wonder of two appealing prima donnas near their vocal peak. --Piers Ford

• Vivaldi: Orlando Furioso | DVD | (22/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  For those with any interest in Vivaldi's operas Orlando Furioso is essential viewing, being a 1989 San Francisco Opera revival by Pier Luigi Pizzi of his own 1979 production which was largely responsible for beginning modern interest in Vivaldi's stage work. The composer first premiered Orlando finto pazzo in 1714, but the Orlando Furioso finalised in 1727 was so heavily reworked as to be virtually an entirely new opera, and so successful Handel set the same epic poem by Aristo under the title Alcina in 1735. Vivaldi's opera is not of that calibre, offering rather too much functional recitative and only a handful of truly memorable arias. However, the cast perform with such commitment and style as to make the work thoroughly enjoyable. It is a tale of romantic and magical intrigue on a small island, inevitably echoing Shakespeare's The Tempest, and the classically elegant set-design and colourful costumes evoke a suitable sense of fantasy. Mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne makes the title role her own while Susan Patterson is a characterful and strong-minded Angelica. William Matteuzzi makes a sympathetic Medoro, notably outmanoeuvred in love, while as the sorceress Alcina Kathleen Kuhlann is a appropriately complex and powerful in revealing the loneliness at the heart of her corruption. On the DVD: There are no features other than the two trailers which appear on almost all Arthaus releases. The production is presented in the original television 4:3 and the image is little better than a good video. The picture is not especially detailed and too often the performer's faces are slightly out of focus while the sets are pin-sharp. Overall the image suffers the usual problems from originally being shot on professional video, in addition to which some compression artefacting is noticeable. The prologic sound is fine, though appears simply to down mix the main stereo signal to the rear channel and the result is more accurate if switched to straight stereo. --Gary S Dalkin

• Various Composers - Marilyn Horne in Recital | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £22.55   |  Saving you £2.44 (10.82%)   |  RRP £24.99

  HANDEL: Semela Awake Saturnia ... Iris hence awayBEETHOVEN: In questa tomba oscura. Ich liebe dich. Busslied.ALVAREZ: La Partida.MONTSALVATGE: Cancion de cuna.GRANADOS: La Maja dolorosa.OBRADORS: El VitoROSSINI: Semiramide Ah quel giorno ... Oh come da quel diDUPARC: L'invitation au voyage. Extase. Le manoir de Rosemonde.COPLAND: Simple Gifts. Ching a Ring chaw. Long Time Ago. At the River.DONIZETTI: Lucrezia Borgia Il segreto per esser felice (Brindisi).ROSSINI: Se il vuol la molinara.FOSTER: Beautiful Dreamer. Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair.Live Performance June 2 1981. Teatro alla Scala Milan.

• Various Composers - Silverline Classics | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £149.99

  Placido Domingo, Marilyn Horne sings Famous Arias, Strauß, Johann (Sohn), Beethoven & Brahms, Fauré & Franck, Schumann, Chopin & Schubert, Chopin & Beethoven, Debussy, Spohr & Dvorak, Swan Lake - Ballet of the Kirov Theatre

• Marilyn Horne: A Portrait | DVD | (17/07/2001) from £31.70   |  Saving you £-11.71 (-58.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  As one of America's most treasured and delightful opera singers, mezzo soprano Marilyn Horne was justly lauded in this 1994 profile, originally made for the South Bank Show arts programme. At work as one of the finest bel canto singers of the 20th century or at rest looking poignantly back at her career--the making of the film coincided with her 60th birthday--Horne is splendid company. She was born with singing in her blood, trying her hand at everything from the church choir to jingles, pirate pop singles--she did a mean Kay Starr impersonation--and supplying a singing voice for Dorothy Dandridge in the 1954 film of Carmen Jones before embarking on a career as a classical artist. Horne effectively learned her trade during four years at Gelsenkirchen, going on to form a legendary singing partnership with Joan Sutherland and blazing a trail for the mezzo soprano roles--Arsace in Semiramide has been her signature--through the world's greatest opera houses. But for all her success, Horne has retained a down-to-earth openness which permeates this documentary and has rendered her equally at home on the recital stage or in grand opera costume. She speaks with simple brilliance about the singer's technique and about her desire to broaden the appeal of opera. A fascinating portrait of one hell of a dame. On the DVD: At just 52 minutes, the original programme is too short to do Horne full justice. Even so, the film is packed with enough archive footage to whet the appetite of the novice fan. The sound format is Dolby Digital 2.0--adequate enough to do justice to Horne's extraordinary range and genius for ornamentation, and the picture format can be adjusted from the standard 4:3 to 1.78:1 although both do little more than replicate the look and feel of the original television transmission. Detailed booklet notes compensate for the lack of extras on the DVD itself--a biography or career chronology would have been more than handy. --Piers Ford

• Charles Munch Conducts Berlioz (Montreal Symphony Orchestra) | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £12.98   |  Saving you £10.01 (43.50%)   |  RRP £22.99

  A Berlioz Celebration:Telecast of March 24 1966Tracklisting:01. Opening Credits02. Villanelle03. Le spectre de la rose04. Sur les lagunes05. L'Absence06. Au Cimetiere07. L'ile InconnueTelecast of December 19 196308. Opening Credits09. Reveries Passions10. Un Bal11. Scene aux champs12. Marche au supplice13. Songe d'une Nuit du Sabbat

• Opera Highlights Vol.1 | DVD | (02/04/2007) from £8.94   |  Saving you £7.31 (95.18%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Opera Highlights is both a visually exciting introduction for new viewers to opera as well as a unique opportunity to see great singers talking to camera before performing some of the roles for which they are famous. This exciting new disc offers us the chance to get an insight into the opinions and motivations of some of the world's greatest opera singers. It presents new recordings and interviews produced especially for this DVD. Highlights include Dame Joan Sutherland singing 'Casta Diva' from Bellini's Norma conducted by Richard Bonynge and another husband-and-wife pairing Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna singing Donizetti. Tracklist: Marylin Horne: 'Sorge l'irato nembo' from Vivaldi's Orlando furioso (from Pier Luigi Pizzi's San Francisco Opera production conducted by Randall Behr) Dame Ann Murray: 'Nacqui all'affanno' from Rossini's La Cenerentola (from Michael Hampe's production for the Salzburg Festival conducted by Riccardo Chailly) Eva Marton: 'Suicidio!' from Ponchielli's La Gioconda (from the Vienna State Opera production by Filippo Sanjust conducted by Adam Fischer) Dame Joan Sutherland: 'D'amor sull'ali rosee' from Verdi's Il trovatore (from an Opera Australia production by Elijah Moshinsky conducted by Richard Bonynge) 'The Mad Scene' from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (from an Opera Australia production by John Copley conducted by Richard Bonynge) 'Casta Diva' from Bellini's Norma (from Sandro Sequi's production for Opera Australia conducted by Richard Bonynge) Roberto Alagna: 'Quanto bella quanto cara' & 'Una furtiva lagrima' from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (from Frank Dunlop's production for Lyon National Opera conducted by Evelino Pido) Angela Gheorghiu: 'Prendi per me sei libero' from from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (from Frank Dunlop's production for Lyon National Opera conducted by Evelino Pido) Gegam Grigorian: 'La vita inferno all'infelice' from Verdi's La forza del destino (from Elijah Moshinsky's production for the Kirov Opera St. Petersburg conducted by Valery Gergiev) Nikolai Putilin: 'Morir! Tremenda cosa!' & 'Urna fatale del mio destino' from Verdi's La forza del destino (from Elijah Moshinsky's production for the Kirov Opera St. Petersburg conducted by Valery Gergiev) Galina Gorchakova: 'Son giunta! Grazie o Dio!' from Verdi's La forza del destino (from Elijah Moshinsky's production for the Kirov Opera St. Petersburg conducted by Valery Gergiev)

• The Prince And The Showgirl | DVD | (09/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  One of the later films of her notably stellar career The Prince and The Showgirl teams Marilyn Monroe with the world's most respected thespian Sir Laurence Olivier in a humorous romp of a stately prince charming and his love for a humble but incredibly infectious performer. A fairy tale born in the Hollywood dream factory this film continues to be a lasting favourite. This Deluxe Series box set will include: DVD of 'The Prince And The Showgirl' DVD documentary 'The Legend Of Marilyn Monroe' a film Senitype'' (image from the film and 35mm film frame) US one sheet movie poster and an exclusive commemorative 16-page picture book of rare Marilyn images.