"Director: Brian Large"

• Il Postino: Los Angeles Opera Orchestra And Chorus (Gershon) | DVD | (27/01/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  SONY 88691919709; SONY - Italia; Classica Lirica

• Wagner: Siegfried -- Metropolitan/Levine | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £19.19   |  Saving you £2.80 (14.59%)   |  RRP £21.99

  James Levine makes Siegfried, sometimes the problem child among the four operas of Wagner's Ring cycle, attractive and interesting. He is aware of the darker side of some of the comic scenes--the seemingly benevolent dwarf Mime carries the weight of Wagner's many prejudices--but manages to keep them uneasy rather than positively sinister thanks to the finally judged performance of Heinz Zednik. Siegfried Jerusalem is admirable as Siegfried, full of boyish enthusiasm during the reforging of the sword, and of authority in his confrontations with the dragon and with Wotan. (The dragon itself is, as so often, an unfortunate compromise between realism and stylisation.) James Morris is extraordinary in Wotan's scenes here, his combination of injured pride and relieved joy when Siegfried demonstrates, by shattering his spear, that Wotan has entirely lost control of events is exemplary. This is an opera whose many and various scenes are all preludes to its emotional core: the love duet which comes when Siegfried awakens Brunnhilde. Jerusalem and Hildegard Behrens convey both the innocence and the ardor of this duet; while Levine gets extraordinary playing from the Metropolitan Opera orchestra throughout, but especially here, where a chamber-like delicacy applies to much of the music. On the DVD Siegfried on this disc is a recording of the 1990 Metropolitan Opera production and comes with both menus and subtitles in German, French, English, Spanish and Chinese as well as a picture gallery. Awkwardly it is presented in (American) NTSC format not PAL, and the visual ratio is standard TV 4:3. Better is the choice of sound formats--PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital and DTS digital--which provide a spacious acoustic that gives proper weight to the climaxes, and an appropriate delicacy to Wagner's subtler passages. --Roz Kaveney

• Otello - Verdi | DVD | (12/04/2004) from £15.85   |  Saving you £1.14 (7.19%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Filmed at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1995 this rendition of Verdi's 'Otello' is beautifully crafted by leading stars Placido Domingo and Renee Fleming. This was the first major success for Fleming at the Met and as this release illustrates she tackled the character of Desdemona wonderfully.

• Rossini - The Barber Of Seville - Metropolitan Opera Orchestra | DVD | (24/05/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Leo Nucci / Battle: Rossini Barber of Seville

• Les Troyens - Berlioz/The Met/James Levine | DVD | (16/07/2007) from £14.31   |  Saving you £1.94 (14.87%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Filmed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1983 Berlioz's masterpiece Les Troyens is a tragic tale of love and fate based on Virgil's Aeneid. Under the baton of James Levine Jessye Norman is stunning in the part of Cassandra and Pl''cido Domingo makes for a strong compelling Aeneas. This benchmark performance was hailed by both critics and audiences and performed to greatest critical acclaim. Norman's role debut as Cassandra emerged as one her most significant and compelling performances and this DVD is also a stand-out release among Domingo's extensive filmography.

• The Makropulos Case - Glyndebourne Festival Opera | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-2.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Nicolas Lehnhoff's stunning 1995 production of Janacek's extraordinary black comedy The Makropulos Case was one of the first to be recorded in the superb new opera house at Glyndebourne. It was received with unanimous acclaim especially for its star the astounding singing-actress Anja Silja. Silja won an Evening Standard Award for her performance.

• Wagner: Parsifal | Blu Ray | (29/07/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk DOES NOT have English audio and subtitles.

• Verdi - La Traviata (Netrebko, Villazon) | DVD | (03/12/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Here is the opera event of 2005 the Salzburg Festival's La traviata Rolando Villazon and Thomas Hampson in a dramatic staging by Willy Decker - the thrilling production that prompted riotous ovations not seen since Karajan's heyday.

• Falstaff - Giuseppe Verdi - The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | DVD | (07/05/2007) from £13.82   |  Saving you £5.43 (43.23%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Verdi was almost eighty when he startled the musical world with his mastery of comic invention in his last opera Falstaff with its brilliant libretto by Arrigo Boito. The story is taken from Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor although the central character is much closer to the Falstaff of Henry IV. The roguish Sir John embroils himself in numerous plots and dupes of love and marriage until eventually the Merry Wives get their revenge on him and all plans are thwarted. When Carlo Maria Giulini returned to conducting public performances of opera after an absence of fourteen years he chose this comic masterpiece for the occasion. The great lyric baritone Renato Bruson sings the title role. Katia Ricciarelli leads the trio of merry wives with Lucia Valentini-Terrani as Mistress Quickly and Brenda Boozer as Meg Page. Leo Nucci sings the role of Ford and the young lovers are here portrayed by Dalmacio Gonzalez and Barbara Hendricks. Stunning designs by Hayden Griffen and Michael Stennett provide the perfect setting for this witty interpretation of Shakespeare's masterpiece.

• I Lombardi | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £10.03   |  Saving you £9.22 (105.13%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The magnificent cast of this production of I Lombardi is headed by Ghena Dimitrova Jose Carreras Silvano Carroli and Carlo Bini. The haunting designs of Spartan grandeur are by Giovanni Agostinucci who uses the motif of a blood-red cross as a double-edged symbol throughout the opera which is set at the time of the first crusade. The performance is conducted by a La Scala conductor of long-standing repute Gianandrea Gavazzeni.

• Gluck - Orphee Et Eurydice (Gardiner) | DVD | (24/11/2008) from £7.32   |  Saving you £2.93 (48.35%)   |  RRP £8.99

  When the historic Theatre du Chatelet in Paris re-opened after a period of extensive refurbishment the first two productions mounted in the theatre were Gluck''s Alceste and Orph''e et Eurydice. Both operas were sung in their French versions and were mounted and designed by Robert Wilson and conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. This was the first time Wilson and Gardiner had collaborated and their individual credentials combined to produce an exceptional result. American polymath Wilson was responsible for some of the most ambitious avant-garde performance projects of the 1970s and 80s.Since the mid-1980s he has increasingly brought his prodigious creativity to works fiom the standard dramatic and operatic repertoire transforming them into his own unmistakably minimalist yet grandiose visions. His styled classical interpretations of Alceste and Orph''e bear his trademarks of an uncluttered stage and the arresting use of colour and light. They are not so much timeless as in Robert Wilson''s words ''full of time''. With their minutely rehearsed gestures at once formal and poetic the singers have the grace and elegance of Balanchine or Martha Graham dancers. A key figure in the revival of Early Music John Eliot Gardiner has long been a champion of Gluck''s French operas and is a great Gluck conductor. He received enormous critical acclaim for his musical direction of both Orph''e and Alceste at the Chatelet as did his orchestras and chorus. He sought to rid the operas of any vestiges of remoteness or venerable respectability and to release the huge emotional charge that lies behind the beauty of Gluck''s classical sobriety. The stories are after all he says not only poignant and deeply moving they have an immediate and contemporary relevance: they portray two married couples striving to protect their union and their love plumbing the very depths of their emotional strength and summoning the courage to make huge personal sacrifices. ''If presented in a way that''s immediate and with tremendous intensity and truth of expression then all the dross and superficiality of the stage action falls away and you''re left with what''s actually a very visceral connection between two living people.'' Television''s top opera director Brian Large worked closely with Robert Wilson and John Eliot Gardiner to ensure that the translation of live performance to the small screen is of the highest artistic and techcal standard. John Eliot Gardiner chose to use Berlioz''s 1859 revision of Orphee which adapted the tenor role of Gluck''s 1774 score for the contralto voice of Pauline Viardot adjusting the register for a mezzo-soprano. Underlining his preference for this version he performed the opera with the nineteenth-century period instruments of his Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. His regular chorus the Monteverdi Choir excelled vocally and dramatically in its elegant contribution to the drama. The Greek legend of Orpheus has captured the imaginations of many creative artists over the centuries. In this recording Magdalena Kozena brings to the role expressiveness exceptional virtuosity and a rare emotion. Madeline Bender as Eurydice is possessed of a touching grace and beauty while Patricia Petibon is deliciously mischievous as Amour. All three of these young singers are among the cream of a new generation of operatic talent.

• Gluck - Orphée et Eurydice / Robert Wilson, John Eliot Gardiner, Théâtre du Châtelet | DVD | (22/11/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Gluck's 1762 opera Orphée et Eurydice was ground-breaking in its day and--as this 1999 performance from the Theatre Musical de Paris shows--it still lends itself to radical treatment. The composer's rejection of traditional flamboyant operatic bells and whistles led to a fresh form in which the lyrics hold court. The music provides the setting and emotional colour in a way that is almost physical in its intensity. Gluck's readiness to incorporate the influences of other art forms--poetry, ballet and drama--has always made this story of love rescued from the jaws of tragedy universally appealing. This production, directed by Robert Wilson and conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, is mesmerising. The all but ill-fated couple (Magdalena Kozena and Madeline Bender) move as if in a trance, their actions suggesting marionettes controlled by greater forces. Their faces are largely expressionless, leaving their voices to explore the force of the huge range of human emotions they must cover during the opera's 100 minutes. Only Cupid runs free. The performances are beautifully sung in French, Kozena bringing immense dignity to Orphée's lament, "J'ai perdu mon Eurydice". A powerful interpretation of an important work, fit for the 21st century. --Piers Ford

• Wagner: Gotterdammerung -- Metropolitan/Levine | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £12.24   |  Saving you £11.01 (100.27%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Under the baton of James Levine, Gotterdammerung ("The Twilight of the Gods") has a narrative drive that reminds us that, of all the individual operas in Wagner's Ring cycle, this is the one most about human emotions and the one in which its heroes are pulled into a world where they are most vulnerable to them. Siegfried Jerusalem as Siegfried and Hildegard Behrens as Brunnhilde never, in a sense, stand a chance: they are innocents who allow themselves to be manipulated not merely by the villainous Hagen, but by the ordinary venality of Gunther and his sister Gutrune, who goes along with a dirty little scheme to get what she wants, and is destroyed by it. As the tempter figure Hagen, Matti Salminen dominates the stage whenever he is on it; he is one of those basses whose voice and scowl seem to come from somewhere deeper than his large boots: rarely have the summoning of the vassals, or the oath of vengeance he, Gunther and Brunnhilde swear against Siegfried seemed so utterly his triumph. Jerusalem is almost perfect as Siegfried in spite of the gravelly quality of his heroic tenor: he has a glorious innocence even when the character is tricked into desecrating his true love; Hildegard Behrens is magnificent as Brunnhilde, both in her anger at Siegfried's apparent betrayal of her and in her redemptive understanding of how she has to atone for his death. Other Gotterdammerungs may be more monumental, but few make you care so passionately. On the DVD: Gotterdammerung comes with menus and subtitles in German, French, English, Spanish and Chinese and with a picture gallery of the production. Awkwardly it is presented in (American) NTSC format, not PAL, and with a visual aspect of standard TV 4:3. More impressive is the choice of PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1; the sound is admirably clear and well-balanced. --Roz Kaveney

• Mozart 22 - Le Nozze Di Figaro - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Nikolaus Harnoncourt/Ann Netrebko | DVD | (11/06/2007) from £19.05   |  Saving you £2.94 (15.43%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Le Nozze Di Figaro - Acts 1 - 4: This new, excitingly original production of Mozart's most popular opera was the sensation of the 2006 Salzburg Festival.

• Gounod - Romeo Et Juliette (Villazon) | DVD | (26/01/2009) from £18.95   |  Saving you £1.04 (5.49%)   |  RRP £19.99

• R. Strauss : Ariadne auf Naxos | DVD | (23/08/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  Tracklisting: 1. Ariadne Auf Naxos - Opening Titles 2. Ariadne Auf Naxos - Prologue 3. Ariadne Auf Naxos - Vorhang - 'Mein Herr Haushofmeister' 4. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Hier Finden Euer Gnaden...' 5. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Eselsgesicht' 6. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Wer Ist Dieses Entz''ckende M'dchen....' 7. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Hast Ein St''ckerl Notenpapier?' 8. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Im Gegenteil....' 9. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Ihnen Allen Habe Ich....' 10. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Ich Wei''Ÿ Nicht Wo Mir Der Kopf Steht' 11. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Der Ariadne M''ssen Sie Streichen' 12. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Sie H'lt Ihn F''r Den Todesgott' 13. Ariadne Auf Naxos - Sie Gibt Sich Dem Tod Hin!' 14. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Ein Augenblick' 15. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'An Ihre Pl'tze' 16. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Seien Wir Wieder Gut' 17. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Was Ist Das?' 18. Ariadne Auf Naxos - Ouverture 'Ariadne' 19. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Schl'ft Sie?' 20. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Wo War Ich' 21. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Wie Jung Und Sch''n' 22. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Ein Sch''nes War....' 23. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Lieben Hassen' 24. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Es Gibt Ein Reich....' 25. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Die Dame Gibt Mit Tr''bem Sinn' 26. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Gro''Ÿm'chtige Prinzessin' 27. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'H''bsch Gepredigt Aber Tauben Ohren' 28. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Elne St''rrische Zu Tr''sten' 29. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Ein Sch''nes Wunder' 30. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Circe Circe....' 31. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'T''ne T''ne....' 32. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Doch Da Ich Unverwandelt....' 33. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Circe Circe...' 34. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Das Waren Zauberworte' 35. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Gibt Es Kein Hin''ber?' 36. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Du! Alles Du!' 37. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'T''ne T''ne - 'Was H'ngt Mir....' 38. Ariadne Auf Naxos - 'Deiner Hab' Ich Um Alles Bedurft' 39. Ariadne Auf Naxos - Opening Titles

• Carlos Kleiber - the Legend | DVD | (29/11/2004) from £44.39   |  Saving you £-0.25 (-0.60%)   |  RRP £44.14

  Carlos Kleiber's concert appearances were legendary for their rarity and for the sublime quality of his music-making. His death in 2004 robbed music of one of its most charismatic yet enigmatic figures. His excursions into the recording studio were frustratingly few thus it is fortunate that a handful of concerts were captured on film. This special DVD box set includes five of these occasions in which the hallmarks of Kleiber's conducting - his often minimal but always poetic ges

• Aida | DVD | (02/06/2008) from £12.65   |  Saving you £2.34 (18.50%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Aida Live From Royal Opera House July 1994

• Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin | Blu Ray | (06/10/2008) from £22.38   |  Saving you £-0.39 (-1.80%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Eugene Onegin

• Puccini/Leoncavallo - Il Tabarro/Pagliacci (Levine) | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Puccini/Leoncavallo - Il Tabarro/Pagliacci (Levine)