"Actor: Nicolas Cavallier"

• Rameau - Les Indes galantes / Petibon · Agnew · Croft · Hartelius · Rivenq · de Niese · Panzarella · Le Roi · Les Arts Florissants · Christe - Serban (Opéra de Paris 2004) | DVD | (27/06/2005) from £26.44   |  Saving you £4.81 (19.10%)   |  RRP £29.99

  William Christie and Les Arts Florissants propel this exuberant production of Jean-Phillipe Rameau's second opera to great heights. Andrei Serban's extravagant highly baroque staging presents the four exotic love stories vibrantly. In Le Turc Genereux Osman sets free his captive Emilie whom he loves so that she may be reunited with her former lover Valere; Les Incas De Perou is all about the rivalry of the Inca Huascar and the Spaniard Don Carlos both in pursuit of Princess Phani; Les Fleurs offers a Persian love intrigue as the Sultana Fatime tries to detect whether her husband Tacmas has his eye on the lovely Atalide; and Les Sauvages takes us to North America where a Spaniard and a Frenchman compete for the love of Zima daughter of a native chief who prefers one of her own people.

• Donizetti: Lucie de Lammermoor - Lyon National Opera | DVD | (15/12/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Based on one of Walter Scott's most melodramatic novels, what is arguably Donizetti's best tragic opera is here presented in its French version, Lucie de Lammermoor. The hapless Lucia (Patrizia Ciofi) tries to refuse the marriage to a minister that will rescue her family's fortunes in favour of her beloved, the family's worst enemy Edgard (Roberto Alagna). Predictably this all ends in many deaths and the audience's tears. Evelina Pido and the Orchestre Nationale de Lyon tear through the fairly unsubtle score with considerable brio and they and the cast are admirable in the opera's quieter more thoughtful moments--the famous Act Two sextet and Lucia's mad scene, in which Ciofi is solidly excellent rather than deeply memorable. Alagna turns in his usual high-gloss performance as Edgard and manages to make his final aria more moving than the quality of the piece deserves. This is an idiomatic and effective performance in a solid made-for-TV production, albeit one that never comes across as notably original. On the DVD: Lucie de Lammermoor is presented on disc in 16:9 ration with Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS or LPCM stereo sound options. It has subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. --Roz Kaveney