"Actor: Vesselina Kasarova"

• Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £22.22   |  Saving you £-3.24 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Franz Welser-Moest conducts the Zurich Orchestra in this performance of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.

• Rossini - The Barber Of Seville | DVD | (02/01/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Rossini: Il Barbiere Di Siviglia

• Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito | DVD | (19/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The opera La Clemenza di Tito was composed only a few months before Mozart's death. As this period of his life is not particularly well-documented there are many legends surrounding this composition - some say that it was composed in just 18 days! This production is unique because the secco-recitatives proven to not be Mozart's own are not up to the standard of the main musical numbers and Franz Welser-Mst decided to replace them with abridged spoken dialogue. The Opernhaus Zrich has aimed to look forward with this production and fuel discussions about the possibilities of modern Clemenza performances. Director Jonathan Miller was inspired by Tolstoi and Tchechov and the Flemish painters for this production. They gave the appropriate down to earth feel which he wanted to achieve. Jonas Kaufmann has sung all of the great Mozartian tenor roles so his excellent Titus rounds up his repertoire extremely well.

• Offenbach: La Belle Helene -- Zurich/Harnoncourt | DVD | (25/09/2000) from £34.31   |  Saving you £-9.32 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Offenbach's operetta La Belle Hélene, which pokes fun at the Parisian upper class of a century and a half ago through tales of ancient Greece, requires a leap of imagination on behalf of today's audience that this production only partly succeeds in reconciling. On musical grounds we're on sure footing. Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts the chorus and orchestra of the Zurich Opera House with his customary flair for precise and taut rhythms and an appreciation of the composer's wit and the good tunes that are a-plenty. His multi-national cast headed by Vesselina Kasarova as Helen of Troy and Deon van der Walt as her lover Paris are excellent and among the smaller parts there's a lively and stylish performance from Liliana Nichiteanus as Oreste. The video direction by Hartmut Schroder and the superb sound obtained from the relatively intimate Zurich Opera House, a delightful setting for this operetta, are further assets. The production alas is unenlightening and perpetrates an over-the-top style that seems to be synonymous with Offenbach. The backdrop, a pink concave awning is hideous. The costumes by designer Jean-Charles de Castelibajac are silly: Paris is dressed in lederhosen and looks a twerp, Calchac, the high priest wears a Ku Klux Klan hat and Helen at one point looks as though she'll take to absailing. Kasarova suggests the lure of Helen in her voice but a beauty she's not. So it's left to Harnoncourt who joins the company at the curtain call with a twinkle in his eye and a nifty side step and his superb orchestra to remind us what might have been. --Adrian Edwards

• Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust | DVD | (15/05/2000) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This imaginative staging of Berlioz's dramatic symphony for chorus, soloists and orchestra relies heavily on the moving of massed choirs across a large stage. It has vivid lighting effects--rather too many of them using strobes--and monolithic multi-purpose sets, in particular a revolving glass drum which functions both as cinema screen and rostrum for singers, so that the final ride to Hell, for example, is sung by Mephistopheles and Faust above a cavalcade of projected horses, like the inside of a zoetrope. The three main soloists have voices on a scale that can compete with these flashy production values--White and Kasarova, in particular, sing at a level of intensity that would swamp anything less; the climactic seduction trio has rarely been sung so well or with such an overpoweringly polymorphous eroticism. Cambreling marshals his forces effectively, giving full rein to the work's showstoppers like the "Hungarian March" but not neglecting the subtler less kinetic Gluckian side of Berlioz's vocal writing. The DVD has subtitles in English, German and Dutch, and menus in those languages, as well as French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish. --Roz Kaveney

• Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) -- Zurich | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The 2001 Zurich production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia has many strengths, but the point of it is ultimately Vesselina Kasarova's vocal gymnastics as Rosina; when you cast a singer with so very steely a voice in the part you expect something special, and we are not disappointed. Her acting is perhaps a little arch--this is a very knowing Rosina, though no more so than such rivals in the part as Baltsa and Bartoli--but she gives a ferocious point and precision to every note and every word. This is a production with touches of luxury casting: Nicolai Ghiaurov is on hand to give Basilio's slander aria an apocalyptic aspect it rarely has; less known singers like Reinaldo Macias as Almaviva and Manuel Lanza as Figaro are entirely in the same league as far as vocal quality goes. Veteran conductor Nello Santi gives the performance real vigour; not a note of this comic standard sounds routine. The production, set in early 20th century Spain, makes imaginative use of a revolving stage and sets whose stylised fan motif give it a toy theatre feel. On the DVD Il Barbiere di Siviglia on disc offers a choice of Dolby Digital, PCM stereo and DTS surround sound and is presented with a widescreen visual aspect of 16:9; the picture quality is unremarkable and the sound wonderfully clear in all formats. --Roz Kaveney

• Monteverdi: Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria -- Zurich/Harnoncourt | DVD | (10/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Klaus-Michael Gruber's austere staging of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria ("Ulysses' Return") gives the impression of a sun-drenched ancient Greek island by the simplest of means: a bleached white wall against a dazzling sky-blue backcloth. It is an ideal setting for conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt's pared-down reading of the score (fewer "authentic" rasps and rattles than 25 years ago) and Vesselina Kasarova's intense, restrained performance of Penelope, all the more powerful for being held back. For example, her repeated cry of "Torna!" ("Return to me!")--an excuse for much hand-wringing on the part of some mezzos--rarely rises above mezzo-forte here. Dietrich Henschel is equally impressive as Ulisse, and uses his rich, flexible voice with inventiveness: he handles the moment of recognition with his son Telemaco (the outrageously handsome Jonas Kaufmann) beautifully. There are some off-the-rail moments to the staging which might not appeal to English theatrical tastes: Penelope's suitors are presented in a rather silly puppet show and the comedy scenes with Iro (Rudolf Schasching) fall flat. But it doesn't prevent the final moments of reconciliation and recognition reaching powerful heights. On the DVD: Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria is presented in 16:9 ratio and has PCM Stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1 sound options. There are subtitles in Italian, German, English, French and Spanish. A handsome, well-lit production is rendered on the small screen with as much subtle shading as possible by video director Felix Breisach, and falls very easily on the eye. --Warwick Thompson

• Gluck - Orphee Et Eurydice (Bavarian State Orchestra) | DVD | (21/01/2008) from £15.75   |  Saving you £4.24 (21.20%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Arthaus Musik DVD Video Sampler 3 | DVD | (30/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Sampler IIIIncludes the following operas ballet and concert: Operas; Alcina Die lustige Witwe Falstaff - Salieri Falstaff - Verdi Les Huguenots Nina Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria Il Turco in Italia Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg Romeo & Juliette Tamerlano Die tote Stadt Peter Grimes Il Barbiere di Siviglia L'Italiana in Algeri. Ballet; Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan - Moon Water Bamboo Dream. Concert; G. Verdi - Requiem J.S. Bach - Motetten J. Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem G. Bizet - Carmen Prelude R. Wagner - Tannhauser Overture E.W. Korngold - Cello Concert.