Opera

• John Mayall and the Bluebreakers - Live at Capitol Nj | DVD | (28/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  John Mayall is known as the White King of Black Blues. His way of singing his harmonica playing and his typical Hammond organ sound reigned supreme in the realm of the blues during the sixties and seventies. I never made commercial compromises; everything I did I did for myself and nobody else Mayall confessed - words that are as honest and credible as his music. In 1982 Mayall decided to reunite the Bluesbreakers in the original line-up for a tour. In June of that year there was a spectacular extravaganza at New Jersey's Capitol Theatre when John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers open a concert night titled Jammin' With The Blues Greats: white blues from Britain meets Chicago and Memphis blues. The audience paid homage to the Bluesbreakers who accompanied five blues immortals through the night. Tracklist: 1. An Eye For An Eye 2. Baby What Ya Want Me To Do feat. Etta James 3. Messin With The Kid feat. Buddy Guy & Junior Wells 4. Dont Start Me Talkin feat. Buddy Guy & Junior Wells 5. My Time After A while 6. Shorty George feat. Sippie Wallace 7. The Dark Side Of Midnight 8. Why Are You So Mean To Me? feat. Albert King 9. Born Under A Bad 10. Sign feat. Albert King 11. Call It Stormy Monday feat. Albert King 12. C. C. Rider Jam Allstars 13. Room To Move

• Manon | DVD | (01/07/2000) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-6.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Kenneth MacMillan's tragic lyric ballet to sumptuous music by Jules Massenet orchestrated for the ballet by Leighton Lucas is a Royal Opera House favourite returning season after season. The story of Manon Lescaut is a moving tale of corrupted innocence in early 18th century Paris in which the lovely girl finds both happiness and grief at the hands of men who love and abuse her. Manon is one of MacMillan's most highly regarded works featuring several passionate and moving pas

• The Singing Kettle | DVD | (07/05/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

• Ghetto and Risky Roadz - Presents F**K Radio | DVD | (07/07/2008) from £18.88   |  Saving you £-4.89 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Pirate Radio was once the platform for MCs to showcase their talent but as the scene grew so did the sets. Station owners became wary of too many MCs drawing too much attention and causing trouble inside the secret station locations. They begun to limit the sets thus slowing down the golden era of pirate radio. A small group of MCs said Well F**k Radio and so it was born. They decided to record their own sets in a full studio; crisp quality sound all the mandem and nothing holding them back. You have heard the audio now see the visuals. This is the ultimate DVD for any grime fan. Set Comprises: How and why F**k Radio began F**k Radio 3: Under 18s F**k Radio 5: Ghettos Birthday Set A never seen before All Star Set - and much much more...

• Verdi - La Traviata | DVD | (12/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  A lavish period production of Verdi's best -loved opera featuring two of today's most celebrated stars - American soprano Renee Fleming and Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon. The tragic love-story of the courtesan Violetts and her young admirer Alfredo Germont is set to some of the most popular in all opera, including the irresistible Brindisi (Drinking Song) and Violetta's thrilling Act One finale Sempre Libera. For this performance, filmed live in Los Angeles, the role of Alfredo's father is sung by the great Verdi baritone Renato Bruson.

• Don Carlo - The Royal Opera | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Set in France and Spain in the second half of the sixteenth century Don Carlo tells the story of the political and amorous rivalry between Philip II of Spain and his son Don Carlo. Luchino Visconti's magnificent and definitive Royal Opera production of Verdi's Don Carlo was first seen in 1958 and is seen here in a staging by Christopher Renshaw filmed in 1985. The Visconti sets recreate the forest of Fontainebleau the monastery of San Yuste and Don Carlo's dark underground prison with equal effectiveness. The superb cast is led by Ileana Cotrubas as a tender and touching Elisabetta the fine lyric tenor Luis Lima in the title role and the great baritone Giorgio Zancanaro as Rodrigo. The conductor is Bernard Haitink.

• Verdi: Requiem | DVD | (04/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Produced by the BBC in association with RM ARTS from the Usher Hall, Verdi's 'REQUIEM'.

• Adriana Lecouvreur - Cilea | DVD | (22/10/2004) from £13.74   |  Saving you £-3.75 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Adriana LecouvreurFrancesco Cilea (1866-1950)Cilea's four-act opera of jealousy and tangled love first performed in Milan in 1902 is based on the true story of Adriana Lecouvreur an 18th-Century actress at the Comedie Francaise whose rival for the love of Maurizio count of Saxony is the married Principessa di Bouillon. Unlocked from the archives of RAI television this 1989 classic recording comes from one of the world's great opera houses.

• Canterbury Tales - the Knight's Tale | DVD | (27/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Ace (John Simm) and Paul (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are two young prisoners who've been friends since childhood. When they fall in love with the same woman Emily (Keeley Hawes) a teacher at the prison their friendship is torn apart and they become bitter enemies. When Ace has served his sentence both become consumed with bitter jealousy each thinking the other will be closer to Emily. And when Paul escapes from jail events hurtle towards a tragic conclusion.

• Verdi: Aida -- La Scala | DVD | (28/08/2000) from £3.51   |  Saving you £17.74 (788.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  La Scala went all-out for its 1986 production of this grandest of grand operas, with a strong cast and--most important for a video recording--a larger-than-life staging. The Triumph Scene in Act II is by no means Aida's only attraction, but it is the part that makes the strongest and most lasting impression and it is the visual and musical climax of this production. Stage director Ronconi brings on a procession to dwarf all processions: looted treasures, heroic statuary, miserable captives struggling under the lash of whip-bearing slave-drivers. On par with these visuals is Lorin Maazel's first-class performance of the popular "Grand March" with the outstanding La Scala chorus and orchestra. In Act III, the contrasting tranquillity of the Nile Scene also gets a visual treatment to match the music's qualities.When it is not an epic spectacle, Aida is a tragic story of love, jealousy and horrible revenge. The shifting focus between vast spectacle and intimate moments-sometimes awkward in a live performance onstage--presents special opportunities and challenges for a video recording. In this Aida, the camera work shows an acute awareness of those opportunities and challenges. The soloists have a variety of strengths that outweigh a few small weaknesses. Luciano Pavarotti sings one of his signature roles in superb voice, but his weight problems are visually evident and detract from his impact as the dashing hero Radames. Maria Chiara has moments of vocal imperfection but gives a dramatically compelling performance. Ghena Dimitrova sings powerfully and the supporting cast is excellent throughout. --Joe McLellan, Amazon.com

• Runrig - Beat the Drum Drumnadrochit | DVD | (20/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

• Mazeppa - Tchaikovsky | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  The first-ever release on any video format of the Kirov's 1996 production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa. Valery Gergiev directs the Kirov Opera and Ballet in this dramatic staging of Tchaikovsky's historical opera based on Pushkin's verse tale of the legendary Cossack chieftain. Tchaikovsky's dark musical setting intertwines the political drama of Mazeppa's ill-fated betrayal of the Tsar with the personal tragedy of his love for Maria the young daughter of his hapless opponent Koc

• The Miserly Knight - Rachmaninov | DVD | (30/05/2005) from £17.35   |  Saving you £2.64 (15.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Vladimir Jurowski conducts Rachmaninov's dark setting of Alexander Pushkin's 'little tragedy' with an outstanding performance from Sergei Leiferkus in the role written for the great Russian bass Fyodor Chaliapin.Rachmaninov's dramatically brooding score - beautifully recorded in an atmospheric surround sound - portrays the miser consumed by the power of his glinting gold as it pushes him to his ultimate collapse.

• La Traviata - Verdi | DVD | (13/06/2005) from £22.13   |  Saving you £2.86 (11.40%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The famous performance of Verdi's romantic tragedy captures one of the most sensational debuts in operatic history. Singing Violetta for the first time was the young Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu whose remarkable interpretation reached the front pages of the world's press and led the BBC immediately to film the production. Equally notable was the masterly conducting of Sir Georg Solti and director Richard Eyre's stylish staging. This DVD and highlights CD present the definitive record of a momentous occasion.

• L'Occasione Fa Il Ladro - Rossini | DVD | (28/04/2006) from £18.88   |  Saving you £6.11 (24.40%)   |  RRP £24.99

  L'occasione fa il ladro is one of the five one-act operas - farsa giocosa - in which the teenage Rossini first demonstrated his operatic genius and in musical terms is by far the most riotous one This sparkling production continues the Rossini one-act opera series emerging from the Schwetzingen Festival.

• Handel: Ariodante | DVD | (23/06/2000) from £19.61   |  Saving you £8.37 (50.36%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ariodante makes extraordinary vocal and acting demands, which the English National Opera brilliantly fulfils in a curious combination of baroque music and post-modern production styles. Handel's intensely emotional arias and the surreal staging combine their energies with powerful impact, aided by some imaginative choreography and a remarkable English singing translation of the Italian text. The subject is the painfully complex love entanglements of five characters: pure idealism and raging jealousy, nefarious plots and deceptions, unscrupulous exploitation, and opportunism, hopelessness mounting to the brink of insanity. The plot, as often happens in baroque opera, is riddled with improbabilities, exaggerations, and coincidence, but they matter not at all. It is essentially no more than a framework on which Handel mounts music of tender passion, rage, delirious joy, hope, resignation--nearly three hours of unrestrained emotional intensity and vocal brilliance. Ann Murray and Joan Rodgers are appealing as the young lovers Ariodante and Ginevra, but the show is nearly stolen by countertenor Christopher Robson as the villainous Polinesso, who convinces Ariodante that Ginevra has been unfaithful. Lesley Garrett performs brilliantly as Polinesso's dupe and accomplice, Dalinda, and Ivor Bolton conducts with a fine sense of baroque style. --Joe McLellan, Amazon.com

• Beethoven - Fidelio | DVD | (12/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Ludwig Van Beethoven - Fidelio:From Berlin's Deutsche Oper in 1970.

• Cosi Fan Tutte - Mozart | DVD | (13/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Though performed in the original Italian Peter Sellars' production of Cosi fan tutte relocates Mozart's comedy of love to the neon-and-chrome glare of a seaside diner mirroring the turbulent world of late-twentieth-century America. Peter Sellars' productions of Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro set in the dark streets of Harlem and the heights of New York's Trump Tower are also available on DVD.

• Puccini: Manon Lescaut | DVD | (24/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Flemish Opera Symphony Orchestra conducted by Silvio Varviso perform The Manon Lescaut opera in four acts.

• Il Viaggio A Reims - Rossini | DVD | (22/10/2004) from £40.48   |  Saving you £-10.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  From theGRAN TEATRE DEL LICEU BARCELONAGIOACHINO ROSSINIIl Viaggio a ReimsOssia l'Albergo del Giglio d'OroDramma giocoso in one act