"Actor: Shirley Verrett"

• Samson Et Dalila - The Royal Opera | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £10.24   |  Saving you £7.75 (75.68%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Jon Vickers plays Samson while Shirley Verrett plays Dalila in this production of the classic tale which was performed at the Royal Opera House. The dramatic story based on Chapter 16 of the Book of Judges lends itself to spectacular presentation not least in the final scene as the blinded Samson summons all his strength to bring down the pillars of the temple. The opera also features a magnificent and voluptuous score.

• Verdi - Macbeth | DVD | (22/10/2007) from £24.99   |  Saving you £-3.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Verdi Macbeth

• L'Africaine - Meyerbeer | DVD | (02/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Meyerbeer - L'Africaine (Arena Orch/Chorus/Ballet SFO)

• Saint-Saens: Samson et Dalila -- San Francisco Opera | DVD | (11/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila is here realised in a lavish 1981 San Francisco Opera production with Placido Domingo in his prime. Significantly expanded from the famous Bible story of the Jews under the Philistine yoke, and recast in late-19th century romantic terms, the opera was close to the composer's heart: Saint-Saens began work in 1859 but did not complete his score until 17 years later. While elements of the originally planned more formal oratorio remain, Samson et Dalila nevertheless develops considerable dramatic and orchestral power, with Domingo giving a performance worthy of a great tragic hero. Likewise, mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett brings complex characterisation to the temptress Dalila, offering a performance of such seductive intelligence that her scenes with Domingo spark with electrifying force. Equally fine support comes from Wolfgang Brendel as Samson's nemesis, the High Priest of the pagan god Dagon. Director Nicolas Joel knows when to emphasise the spectacle of the stage production or focus on more intimate personal drama, though it is the latter which is best served in a small screen version somewhat diminished by early 1980s TV technical standards. That aside, this is music drama with the grip of a psychological thriller and is unlikely to disappoint those looking for a feast of fine singing. On the DVD: Samson et Dalila on disc has good if occasionally a little harsh PCM stereo. The 4:3 picture is somewhat soft and prone to blurring, evidencing all the problems of live concert material shot on video. There are optional multi-language subtitles, trailers for two further ArtHaus releases and a booklet with chapter details, cast list, notes on the composer, opera, production and performers, and a detailed synopsis.--Gary S Dalkin

• Meyerbeer: L'Africaine | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Enormously popular and influential in its time, Meyerbeer's L'Africaine has become a rarity--the conventions of grand opera which it embodies so thoroughly are only familiar as adapted by Verdi and Wagner, so this work usefully reminds us of how radical they were. Meyerbeer and his librettist Scribe give us a five-act plot full of confrontations and threats of death, a shipwreck and the suicide of the Indian heroine Selika and her rejected suitor by inhaling the poisonous aromas of a deadly tree. The expedition of Vasco Da Gama round the Cape of Good Hope and up to the spice ports of India becomes less a story about the crusade for profit and more a matter of messy triangular love affairs. Heavy fathers, Brahmin priests and Grand Inquisitors are handled with much facility and no intensity. What L'Africaine really amounts to is a singers' display piece, and the two principals here--Shirley Verrett as Selika and Placido Domingo as Vasco--are entirely up to its demands. Domingo reminds us that Vasco's Act 4 aria "Oh Paradis" was for decades a standard tenor showstopper. The other principals, Ruth Ann Svenson and Justino Diaz, are entirely admirable and Marco Arena and the San Francisco Opera give the work as a whole both the grandeur it certainly possesses and rather more subtlety than one might have expected. On the DVD: The DVD, presented in 4:3 ratio, and in PCM stereo, has no features apart from instructions and subtitles in French, German, English and Spanish. This failure to provide extras, or even an especially informative leaflet, becomes especially regrettable with a work whose conventions are now far out of the operatic mainstream. --Roz Kaveney

• Opera Hits | DVD | (08/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Opera Hits features many of opera's best-loved arias duets and choruses in performances from La Scala Milan La Fenice Venice The Royal Opera Covent Garden Arena di Verona and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The extracts are taken from some of the world's favourite operas: La Traviata The Barber of Seville Tosca Andrea Chnier Orfeo ed Euridice Aida Gianni Schicchi Samson et Dalila Carmen Les Contes d'Hoffmann La Bohme Madama Butterfly and Nabucco.

• Luciano Pavarotti - The DVD Collection | DVD | (13/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Three features including 'Pavarotti In Central Park' 'Pavarotti - A 30th Anniversary Gala Concert' and 'Pavarotti And Levine In Recital'. Pavarotti - Live In Central Park: One of the three most famous tenors in the world the exceedingly round Luciano Pavarotti has a voice that could shake all of New York City. And it surely shook all of Central Park on the night that the star performed in 1993. As captured on this video Pavarotti is ably backed by members of the New York

• Great Arias With Placido Domingo | DVD | (25/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

• Mascagni - Cavalleria Rusticana (Podic, Verrett, Johannson) | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £17.11   |  Saving you £5.88 (34.37%)   |  RRP £22.99

  A live Performance from the Teatro Comunale dei Rinnovati Siena staged in honor of the 100th anniversary of the opera's world premiere.

• Prima Donna | DVD | (26/10/2009) from £20.23   |  Saving you £-7.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.25

  Prima Donna

• Great Arias With Placido Domingo & Friends | DVD | (19/01/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99