"Actor: Maurizio Muraro"

• Puccini: Tosca -- 2002 Film Version | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £15.98   |  Saving you £9.01 (36.10%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Benoit Jacquot's filmed Tosca treads a fine line between operatic staginess and cinematic contrivance. As per the libretto, each act takes place in a single setting, but with the singers here miming to a pre-recorded soundtrack. Jacquot freely reminds us of the conceit with cutaways to the recording session itself--revealing conductor, orchestra and soloists at work--thus a bridge is made between the on-screen action and the music-making itself, and the inherent duality of any opera production is laid refreshingly bare. The same cannot be said for the director's decision to interpolate spoken dialogue over the music in key places--a distraction not an enhancement. Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna are glamorous and attractive enough to make the most of their Hollywood-style close-ups; their singing easily bears similar close scrutiny--as anyone who owns the CD soundtrack album will surely already know. If Alagna lacks a little power as Cavaradossi on record, his charismatic screen presence happily compensates; Gheorghiu is both vocally and physically almost ideal as Tosca. Ruggero Raimondi's Scarpia completes an outstanding trio, and in the pit (or, rather, in the studio) conductor Antonio Pappano handles the drama of Puccini's score without missing a single nuance. Both musically and visually, then, this is a Tosca to treasure. On the DVD: Tosca on disc looks vibrant in this warm, widescreen picture accompanied by a DTS 5.1 soundtrack. Three filmed interviews--with Gheorghiu, Pappano and Jacquot--provide some insight into the making of this production. --Mark Walker

• Cilea - Adriana Lecouvreur | Blu Ray | (02/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Moise Et Pharaon - Rossini | DVD | (31/10/2005) from £40.48   |  Saving you £-10.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The Rossini opera performed at the La Scala in Milan which tells the story of Moses and Egypt. Riccardi Muti conducts.

• Wolf-Ferrari - La Vedova Scaltra (Martin) | DVD | (02/06/2008) from £26.89   |  Saving you £3.10 (11.53%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - La vedova scaltra.Performed by various performers and conducted by Massimo Gasparon.

• Ton Koopman Conducts Mozart and Cimarosa (Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg) | DVD | (30/06/2008) from £10.49   |  Saving you £12.50 (119.16%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Mozart:Syms 23+34/Cimarosa:Maestro Di Cappella