"Actor: Renato"

• Bester Mann / Label Me | DVD | (29/06/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Black Magic Rites | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A series of black magic rituals take place in a castle in the hope that they will resurrect a dead witch. Naked virgins are the sacrifice. A rescue attempt by one of the virgin's lovers ends in burnings and torture. A 1972 outing by Italian director Renato Polselli that has now been remasterd from the negatives. A deluxe sordid tale of the Black Magic Rites and secret orgies of the 14th century....

• Puccini - Turandot (Previtali, Corelli, Udovich, Mattioli) | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £21.44   |  Saving you £6.55 (30.55%)   |  RRP £27.99

  The legendary Franco Corelli world-renowned for his portrayal of Calaf here stars in a magical RAI television production of what many consider to be Puccini's crowning achievement. Under the creative direction of Mario Lanfranchi this Turandot resonates with elements of Kabuki.

• Giovanna D'Arco - Teatro Comunale Di Bologna | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-6.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A performance of Verdi's seventh opera 'Giovanna D'Arco ' performed by the Orchestra Communale Di Bologna and conducted by Riccardo Chailly

• The Voyage | DVD | (20/10/2008) from £16.12   |  Saving you £-0.13 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Voyage

• 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.

• Bianca E Falliero | DVD | (01/07/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• La Traviata - Verdi | DVD | (02/05/2006) from £22.87   |  Saving you £7.12 (23.70%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Norah Amsellem as Violetta leads a cast of outstanding talent in Pier Luigi Pizzi's beautiful production filmed with High Definition cameras and recorded in multi-track surround sound. Jes''s L''pez Cobos conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real (Madrid Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) in an acclaimed reading of one of Verdi's greatest works.

• The Blood Drinkers | DVD | (14/07/2003) from £16.06   |  Saving you £-10.07 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In the late 1960s and early 70s, a bizarre alliance between the Filippino movie company Hemisphere and the American exploitation outfit Independent International yielded a series of weirdly interconnected horror movies, most of which work the word Blood into the title. The Filippino items are strangely fascinating vampire and mad scientist pictures with oddball colour effects and a mix of naive serial-style thrills and extreme-for-the-era sex and gore; the American efforts, from director Al Adamson, are shoddier, thrown together from offcuts of previous pictures, and are lead-paced but nevertheless curiously appealing. Gaze in awe at mutant killer trees, slobbering hunchbacked servants, faded matinee idols, stripper-turned-actress heroines with concrete blonde hairdos, evil dwarves, John Carradine or Lon Chaney, footage cut in from completely different films, Dracula and Frankenstein meeting hippies and bikers, red filters when the vampires attack, chanting natives! Plus lots of exclamation marks! Plus lurid trailers! In The Blood Drinkers a bald vampire in New Wave sunglasses tries to revive his dead girlfriend using her twin sister's heart. This is an unusual vampire effort with special tints to indicate normality (lovely pastel colour), night-time and the presence of evil (blue shadow) and vampires acting viciously (cherry blood red). Plus Basra the Bat! --Kim Newman

• Giallo | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A triple bill of stylish 'Giallo' thrillers from Italian maestro Dario Argento: The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970) The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971) and Phenomena (1984). The Bird With The Crystal Plumage : An American writer (Tony Musante - Toma TV series) travelling in Rome is the only witness to an attempted murder by a sinister man in a raincoat and black leather gloves though he is powerless to do anything to stop him. With a feeling that something is not quite right about the scene he has witnessed and the police's inability to make any progress he launches his own personal investigation - and nearly loses his life in the process. While this modern day Jack-the-Ripper type is slithering through the dark byways of Rome slicing up pretty girls director Dario Argento is carving up the emotions of terrified viewers. Dark deeds are mixed with black comedy worthy of Hitchcock in a film of almost unbearable tension and nail-biting suspense. Cat O'Nine Tales: The second movie directed by Dario Argento. With the screenplay by Dardano Sachetti and score by Ennio Morricone Cat O'Nine Tails is a haunting and suspensful thriller in the classic giallo tradition. The story begins when a blind puzzle maker (Karl Malden) overhears a conversation shortly before a robbery is committed at a genetics institute. When he teams up with a journalist (Franciscus) intent on solving the crime they uncover a trail off murders linked to the institute. Can they discover the murderer's identity before it is too late? Phenomena: Young Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly) is sent to study at an exclusive boarding school in Switzerland. A psychopathic killer is at large and has already murdered one of the academy's students. Jennifer sleepwalks and has a strange empathic relationship with insects. One day she befriends local entomologist Dr. McGregor (Donald Pleasance) who has been helping the police in their murder investigation with his knowledge of insects. McGregor encourages her to use her gift to track down the killer bu this places her in mortal danger...

• Verdi - Il Corsaro | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £20.10   |  Saving you £-0.11 (-0.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Verdi: Il Corsaro - Renato Palumbo (Parma Teatro Regio Chorus)

• Nude For Satan | DVD | (26/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In Nude for Satan, director Luigi Batzella deftly combines weirdly stylised horror and out-and-out exploitation (scenes of bondage, torture, unmotivated sex and an orgy are sprinkled throughout) for a film dripping in eerie mood and nightmare imagery. Two strangers who wreck their cars on a rural highway during a storm take refuge in a mansion. A doctor (James Harris), who has left an unconscious woman, Susan (the striking Rita Calderoni), in his car walks in to discover depravities behind every door when Susan suddenly appears, dressed in a flowing gown and acting as if they were old friends. The next morning, Susan wakes up in his car and enters the mansion to find a leering aristocrat, his snaggle-toothed servant, and the doctor dressed as a count and acting like a decadent dilettante. It's as if the two exist in parallel universes, confronted with ghost versions of one another in a portal to the past controlled by a devilish hedonist. The doppelganger story of split psyches doesn't always make sense, and a few clumsily executed scenes are laughably silly (a hoary papier mâché and pipe-cleaner spider is the worst offender), but the handsome production is unexpectedly compelling and unsettling. --Sean Axmaker

• Renee Fleming/Rolando Villazon/Renato Bruson/Los Angeles Opera Chorus/Los Angeles Opera Orchestra/James Conlon - Verdi: La Traviata | Blu Ray | (17/03/2009) from £25.95   |  Saving you £-5.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Rene Fleming shines as Violetta and Rolando Villazn gives a powerful performance as her lover in the Los Angeles Opera's elaborately staged 2006 production of Verdi's beloved tragic opera.

• Sette Scialli Di Seta Gialla (AKA Crimes of the Black Cat) | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £27.59   |  Saving you £-21.60 (-360.60%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Sette Scialli Di Seta Gialla (Aka Crimes Of The Black Cat)

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

• Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) -- La Scala | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Like all successfully filmed operas, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1974 film of his 1972 La Scala production of The Barber of Seville weaves its magic on multiple levels: naturalistic lighting and camera-work which break through the invisible barrier of the proscenium arch and take the viewer to the heart of the action; wonderful casting and magnificent singing; opera singers who can act to the camera (Teresa Berganza, in particular, is luminous); and conducting which simply revels in the richness of a much-loved score (Claudio Abbado wrings every ounce of levity and brilliance from the music). Rossini's 1816 work, based on Beaumarchais' Figaro characters and an earlier libretto by Paisiello, is one of the great joys of comic opera, crammed with familiar arias and duets, all of which drive the galloping pace of the book without ever interrupting the plot. Its ingredients of romance, disguise and intrigue merge in Rossini's extraordinarily vibrant and increasingly explosive score. At the heart of the tale is the love triangle of Count Almaviva (a lusty Luigi Alva), the wilful Rosina (Teresa Berganza at the peak of her mezzo-soprano powers) and her guardian with an ulterior motive Bartolo (Enzo Dara, constantly foiled). Thanks to the machinations of Figaro (Hermann Prey, making the most of his trademark theme "Largo al factotum") they are put through a series of hoops in which love conquers all and no real harm is ever done. On the DVD: If this Barber has dated at all it's largely thanks to Abbado's pudding-basin haircut and the film's inevitable 1970's quality. It is presented in standard 4:3 format with a PCM Stereo soundtrack, producing a merely average video-standard viewing experience. Apart from a good choice of subtitles there are no extras. A history of the production would have been useful. But these shortcomings, and the occasionally dull sound quality, are soon forgotten in the heat of the action.--Piers Ford

• Verdi: Macbeth | DVD | (29/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  One of the best of Verdi's earlier operas, Macbeth has a distinctive energy to which, in this performance, conductor Sinopoli gives full rein. His excellent chorus--terrifyingly skittish witches, mournful exiles, sinister-facetious murderers, outraged and vengeful courtiers in the aftermath of Duncan's murder--is as much a participant as the principals, and the orchestral accompaniment reminds us that what the young Verdi lacked of his later subtlety he made up in sheer vigour. Renato Bruson is an extraordinary Macbeth, caught in a nightmare of his own making and unable to find release save through further killings and eventually self-destruction; Maria Zampieri has the sort of voice Verdi specified and which many productions avoid, a voice prepared to give its all, not to any sort of lyric beauty but to a harshness that is dramatically appropriate--this is a fine characterisation. Dennis O'Neill has comparatively little to do, but makes his vengeance aria a memorable reminder that guilt and shame are not all that this opera is about. --Roz Kaveney

• Cage Rage - Vol. 10 - Deliverance | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Mixed martial arts event based on the global cage fighting phenomenon Ultimate Fighting Championship. Featured bouts: 1.Renato 'Babalu' Sobral vs. Pierre Guilett 2.Curtis Stout vs. Sol Gilbert 3.Gabriel Santos vs. Mark Weir 4.Jorge Rivera vs. Alex Reid 5.Melvin Manhoef vs. Mathias Riccio 6.Jean Silva vs. Leigh Remedios 7.Sami Berik vs. Jeremy Bailey 8.Antony Rea vs. Evangelista 'Cyborg' Santos 9.Dan Burzotta vs. Andy Costello 10.Robert Berry vs. Andy Harby 11.Chris F

• Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) - Netherlands Opera | DVD | (22/12/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  In an audio recording, the distinctive quality of this Netherlands Opera production of The Barber of Seville would go unnoticed, and a lot of people might like it better without pictures. The singing is first-class, with a pert, smart, visually appealing Rosina (Jennifer Larmore), a Count who can spin out bel canto melodies and also do a good drunk scene (Richard Croft), and a Figaro with lots of personality (David Malis). Conductor Alberto Zedda is an expert in the music of Rossini, but video reveals that, for better or for worse, this Barber of Seville differs radically from other treatments of Rossini's comic masterpiece. Usually, The Barber of Seville is an intimate little comedy with a half-dozen solo roles and a small, all-male chorus. Except for a few ensemble numbers, there are only two or three people on stage at any given moment, often conversing in stage whispers. Sometimes, in a plot full of secrets and deceptions, supernumeraries are out of place. Dario Fo's staging ignores this stylistic tradition. He gives the solo singers a crowd of artfully choreographed silent partners (including acrobats, dancers and two men rigged to imitate a donkey), who scamper around the stage carrying ladders and sheets, pushing platforms, waving banners and making sure that there is always something to amuse the eyes as well as the ears. This staging gives a solid visual embodiment to the comic spirit of the words and music, but it wipes out any pretence of dramatic realism. The Barber of Seville does not pretend to be "a slice of life" and many patrons will find that the energy of these added participants is its own justification. But those who treasure traditional staging and the conventions of realism should be ready for a lively but unconventional production. Perhaps they can listen with their eyes closed and enjoy a first-class sound recording. --Joe McLellan

• Otello | DVD | (01/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  After recording Andrea Chenier in 1955 and Il Trovatore in 1957 for RAI the Italian national broadcaster Del Monaco recorded Otello for Rai on 30 September 1958. Conducted by the magisterial Tullio Serafin the performance also profited from direction by Franco Enriquez who made the most of the limited resources available in those pioneering days of Italian television: using the rather modest studio scenery he created an expressionist ambience of contrasting light and shadows a dark and gloomy atmosphere that evoked the impending tragedy.