"Director: Pier Luigi Pizzi"

• Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Teatro Réal, Madrid) | DVD | (02/04/2012) from £14.13   |  Saving you £3.86 (21.50%)   |  RRP £17.99

• Tancredi | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £4.10   |  Saving you £20.89 (509.51%)   |  RRP £24.99

• Rossini: Tancredi | DVD | (22/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Tancredi was the work on which Rossini's reputation as a composer of tragic operas rested, just as L'Italiana in Algeri ("The Italian Girl in Algiers") had been his first comic masterpiece. Inevitably, given the opera seria conventions within which he was working, it can seem terribly static nowadays--this is a work whose stage action consists almost exclusively of entrances and exits, and of characters emoting in various combinations--but when the emotions are as powerful as those here it hardly matters. The breeches part of Tancredi is one of Rossini's most powerfully lyrical: Bernadette Manca de Nisa is especially moving in the famous aria "Di Tanti Palpiti". The heroine Amenaide, wrongfully accused of treason, has the most to do emotionally, and Maria Raul is suitably touching, collapsing decorously to the floor as a way of conveying extremes of shame or incredulous hurt. Ildebrando D'Arcangelo does what he can with the stiff villain, Orbazzano. In some ways, the star of the performance is Raul Giménez in the unpromising role of Amenaide's much-deceived father Argirio, combining authority with pain and making both highly musical. Throughout, Gianluigi Gelmetti's intelligent conducting of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra makes the delicate sides of the scoring matter most:he has learned from original instrument performances how to bring out the plangency of Rossini's woodwind writing.On the DVD: The DVD has no additional features except for subitles in Italian, French, German, English and Spanish and menus in French, Spanish, German and English. The sound is presented perfectly adequately but unexcitingly in PCMstereo and the picture ratio is 4:3. --Roz Kaveney

• Death in Venice | DVD | (01/11/2010) from £9.72   |  Saving you £11.53 (136.29%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Benjamin Britten's final opera, written between 1971-1973, recorded at Teatro La Fenice in Venice in 2008. Bruno Bartoletti conducts, while there are performances by Marlin Miller, Scott Hendricks, and Alessandro Riga. Tracklist: Act 1 1. Opening 2. My mind beats on (Aschenbach) 3. Who's that? (Aschenbach) 4. Hey there, hey there, you! (Chorus) 5. Ah, Serenissima! (Aschenbach) 6. We are delighted to greet the Signore (Hotel Manager) 7. Poles, I should think (Aschenbach) 8. ...

• Meyerbeer - Il Crociato In Egitto | DVD | (31/12/2007) from £28.84   |  Saving you £-2.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Giacomo Meyerbeer - Il Crociato In EgittoMelodrama in two acts by Gaetano Rossi

• Amilcare Ponchielli - La Gioconda | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  From the renowned opera house in Barcelona, TDK presents a new production of Ponchielli's Romantic opera La Gioconda, realised in cooperation with the Arena di Verona and successfully shown in the famous opera festival's 2005 programme. The Barcelona production features internationally acclaimed singers as well as acclaimed soloists and ballet dancers from the Gran Teatre del Liceu. The Title role is sung by American Deborah Voigt, one of the most important dramatic sopranos of her generation. As her blind mother Polish Contralto Ewa Podles spreads the overwhelming warmth and broad range of her voice while convincingly conveying the character's suffering. Canadian tenor Richard Margison as the exiled nobleman Enzo and Italian baritone Carlo Guelfi as the spy and agent provocateur Barnaba excel opposite the two female characters. The overall approach is simplicity and clarity - the costumes are dark and elegant with only some recognisable and significant colourings. The atmosphere of the city of Venice is depicted as the harbinger of death - in director Pier Luigi Pizzi's words, Venice is 'metaphysical and cold, moving us to tears. ...The carnival is not associated with pleasure and illusion but is felt to be a way of exorcising the fear of death.

• Massenet - Thais (Votti, Fenice Venice Orchestra, Mei) | DVD | (31/05/2004) from £14.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (33.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  ACT 11. Voici le pain2. Helas! enfant encore3. Vision4. Toi qui mis la pitie dans nos ames5. Esprit de lumiere et de grace6. Va mendiant chercher ailleurs ta vie!7. Viola donc la terrible cite!8. Athanael! C'est toi!9. Il est jeune!10. Garde-toi bien!11. C'est Thais. I'idole fragile12. Qui te fait si severeACT 213. Ah! je suis fatiguee a mourir!14. Etranger te voila comme tu l'avais dit!15. Je suis Athanael Moine

• I Due Foscari | DVD | (20/08/2004) from £9.19   |  Saving you £0.80 (8.71%)   |  RRP £9.99

  I due FoscariGiuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)Renato Bruson takes the role of the Venetian Doge - Francesco Foscari - in Verdi's dark three-act tragedy based on a drama by Lord Byron set in 15th century Venice. Giandrea Gavazzeni directs the 1988 La Scala production of a work that is hailed among the best of Verdi's early operas and that led him to a career of operatic immortality. Unlocked from the archives of RAI television this is a classic recording from one of the world's great opera houses.

• Weber - Euryanthe (Korsten, Prokina, Fogasova, Chung) | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £19.33   |  Saving you £0.66 (3.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After his success with Freischtz Weber wanted to write a grand romantic opera and in the end the subject of Euryanthe was chosen a tale inspired by a legend going back to the thirteen century. Euryanthe is music of inspiration and originality such as is rarely found in the history of German opera in the first half of the nineteenth century. The Italianisms that are occasionally glimpsed in Freischtz are eliminated almost completely. Euryanthe is set to music in its entirety with

• 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.

• Vivaldi: Orlando Furioso | DVD | (22/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  For those with any interest in Vivaldi's operas Orlando Furioso is essential viewing, being a 1989 San Francisco Opera revival by Pier Luigi Pizzi of his own 1979 production which was largely responsible for beginning modern interest in Vivaldi's stage work. The composer first premiered Orlando finto pazzo in 1714, but the Orlando Furioso finalised in 1727 was so heavily reworked as to be virtually an entirely new opera, and so successful Handel set the same epic poem by Aristo under the title Alcina in 1735. Vivaldi's opera is not of that calibre, offering rather too much functional recitative and only a handful of truly memorable arias. However, the cast perform with such commitment and style as to make the work thoroughly enjoyable. It is a tale of romantic and magical intrigue on a small island, inevitably echoing Shakespeare's The Tempest, and the classically elegant set-design and colourful costumes evoke a suitable sense of fantasy. Mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne makes the title role her own while Susan Patterson is a characterful and strong-minded Angelica. William Matteuzzi makes a sympathetic Medoro, notably outmanoeuvred in love, while as the sorceress Alcina Kathleen Kuhlann is a appropriately complex and powerful in revealing the loneliness at the heart of her corruption. On the DVD: There are no features other than the two trailers which appear on almost all Arthaus releases. The production is presented in the original television 4:3 and the image is little better than a good video. The picture is not especially detailed and too often the performer's faces are slightly out of focus while the sets are pin-sharp. Overall the image suffers the usual problems from originally being shot on professional video, in addition to which some compression artefacting is noticeable. The prologic sound is fine, though appears simply to down mix the main stereo signal to the rear channel and the result is more accurate if switched to straight stereo. --Gary S Dalkin

• Verdi - Aroldo (Toscanini, Orchestra Della Fondazione) | DVD | (09/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £27.99

• Monteverdi: L'Orfeo | DVD | (29/06/2009) from £21.65   |  Saving you £-1.66 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Orfeo (L')

• Rossini - Tancredi | DVD | (02/01/2007) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Recorded live at the Teatro Comunale, Firenze, 21 October 2005.

• Mozart - Idomeneo | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £20.45   |  Saving you £4.54 (18.20%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Mozart - Idomeneo

• Donizetti: Maria Stuarda | DVD | (30/03/2009) from £20.45   |  Saving you £4.54 (22.20%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Filmed at the Sferisterio Opera Festival in Italy 2007.