Opera

• Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen -- Complete | DVD | (15/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £95.99

• Sibelius - a Musical Journey: Finland | DVD | (30/06/2008) from £7.95   |  Saving you £1.04 (11.60%)   |  RRP £8.99

• Mitridate Re Di Ponto - Mozart | DVD | (09/09/2002) from £18.98   |  Saving you £22.00 (137.59%)   |  RRP £37.99

  A performance of Mozart's opera in three acts 'Mitridate Re Di Ponto' performed by The Royal Opera conducted by Paul Daniel and choreographed by Ron Howell. Singers include: Annn Murray Justin Lavender and Luba Orgonasova.

• Le Coq D'Or | DVD | (20/08/2004) from £10.93   |  Saving you £15.32 (158.43%)   |  RRP £24.99

  From the Theatre Musical De Paris - ChateletA fairy tale with a moral Opera in three acts.

• Art House 2 - The Cool School | DVD | (28/07/2008) from £14.83   |  Saving you £5.16 (25.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Cool School is an object lesson in how to build an art scene from scratch and what to avoid in the process. The film focuses on the seminal Ferus Gallery which groomed the LA art scene from a loose band of idealistic beatniks into a coterie of competitive often brilliant artists including Ed Kienholz Ed Ruscha Craig Kauffman Wallace Berman Ed Moses and Robert Irwin. The Ferus also served as launching point for New York imports Andy Warhol (hosting his first Soup Can show) Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein as well as leading to the first Pop Art show and Marcel Duchamp's first retrospective. What was lost and gained is tied up in a complex web of egos passions money and art. This is how L.A. came of age.

• Tchaikovsky-Pique Dam | DVD | (27/08/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  'Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Pikovaya Dama' 'Pique Dame - The Queen Of Spades - La Dame de Pique'

• Florence Foster Jenkins - A World Of Her Own | DVD | (21/01/2008) from £17.05   |  Saving you £1.94 (10.20%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Documentary. 2007, 82 min, Color/B & W.

• Khovanshchina | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £36.43   |  Saving you £-6.44 (-21.50%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Modest Mussorgsky's opera 'Khovanshchina' performed by the Vienna State Opera and Chorus and the Slovak Philharmonic Chorus from Bratislava; conducted by Claudio Abbado.

• Mozart: Die Enftuhrung Aus Dem Serail (Abduction from the Seraglio) | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £13.48   |  Saving you £6.51 (32.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Peter Ustinov presents this production of Mozart's opera at the world famous Salzburg Marionette theatre.

• Inside the Actors Studio - Dave Chappelle | DVD | (26/01/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Dave Chappelle continues the close relationship betweenInside the Actors Studio and America''s masters of comedy.His career which began in high school and has taken him -and us - through his film appearances standup televisionspecials and the Comedy Central series Chappelle''s Show deserves that rarest of entertainment accolades ''meteoric.''Chappelle''s Show broke many of the molds for sketchcomedy and pushed the boundaries of even as audaciousa network as Comedy Central. He has continued his boldvoyage toward comedy''s outer limits with the featurefilm Dave Chappelle''s Block Party.The sometimes hilarious often touching and alwaysintriguing answers to many different questions are waiting here in this Emmy''-nominated episode of Inside the Actors Studio.

• Verdi - Il Corsaro | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £20.10   |  Saving you £-0.11 (-0.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Verdi: Il Corsaro - Renato Palumbo (Parma Teatro Regio Chorus)

• Britten: Owen Wingrave - Berlin/Nagano | DVD | (22/12/2003) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Owen Wingrave is perhaps Britten's most radical opera, both politically and artistically. Originally written for television, and here presented in a 2001 Channel 4 version, the 1970 score is based, like The Turn of the Screw, on a Henry James ghost story. Britten, though, is more in tune than James with the pacifism into which Owen revolts from a long family tradition of military service. The fluid, impassioned, often declamatory music given Owen makes him one of the most sympathetic of Britten's outsider protagonists, though he has a streak of self-centredness, which stops him being an implausible paragon. Gerald Finley is quite admirable in the part, conveying fully the sense that by losing and dying at the hands of family ghosts, Owen demonstrates the integrity which is central to his character. The other parts are admirably filled here, notably Martyn Hill as Owen's harsh General grandfather, Josephine Barstow as his aunt and Charlotte Hellekant as the fiancee who unknowingly sends him to his death. They and Elizabeth Gale are quite extraordinary in the first act quartet of recrimination and condemnation. This excellent performance compares vocally with the original on almost entirely equal terms--modern technology means that the ghost scenes are far more dramatic and plausible. Kent Nagano and the Berlin Orchestra do full subtle justice to the chamber orchestra sonorities of one of Britten's most interesting scores, never overstressing its complex musical architecture at the expense of the drama. On the DVD: Owen Wingrave is presented in a widescreen 16:9 visual aspect ratio with PCM stereo sound. It is accompanied by The Tender Heart, a documentary about Britten's career full of personal reminiscences by his surviving friends, colleagues and family, that concentrates on Peter Grimes, the War Requiem and Death in Venice, the three popular masterpieces of his early, middle and late career. It has menus and subtitles in English, French, German and Spanish. --Roz Kaveney

• Verdi: Falstaff -- Aix-en-Provence/Mazzola | DVD | (20/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  With Willard White in the title role, this very well-sung production of Falstaff from the Aix-en-Provence festival, set in the 1950s, makes for a radical yet plausibly alternative view to the traditional setting in "Merrie England". By casting Jamaican-born baritone White in the title role, director Herbert Wernicke has emphasised Falstaff's role as an outsider, spurned by the community on account of his success as a local businessman and here with the added burden of being black. White engages our sympathy for Falstaff's plight, notably in the last act where he finally turns the table on his adversary, Ford. Yet in his world-weary sophisticated persona this Falstaff seems at odds with the farce unfolding about him; he's been there, done that. There are, nevertheless, key moments to relish: his flicker of the eye as he dismisses Pistol and Bardolph with his letters to the Misses Ford and Page; the duet he shares with Ford on the trials and tribulations of love; and the return of his self-esteem as he pulls himself up to full height following his ducking in the Thames. His face in the final act, shot in close-up, white beard illuminated by moonlight, framed by Herne's horns, is unforgettable. The supporting cast are uniformly excellent as singers and actors, a joy to watch and hear. The main set consists of a polished wooden floor with walls of wooden slatted flaps that open and shut as characters drop in and out of the action. White linen on washing lines, sheets tumbling out of drawers, or, somewhat incongruously, neatly folded on the bed that Falstaff rolls out of after his dip in the Thames, make welcome visual diversions. The Orchestre de Paris play brilliantly under maestro Enrique Mazzola who captures the ebb and flow of Verdi's fast moving score to perfection. On the DVD: Falstaff on disc has subtitles in Italian, English, German, French and Spanish. The picture quality has a real three-dimensional feel to it and the soundtrack likewise. --Adrian Edwards

• Johnny Cash and June Carter - Went to Glastonbury | DVD | (28/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  The Glastonbury Festival on a hot English Sunday in June 1994: 100 000 fans enthusiastically celebrate Johnny Cash. The Man in Black enters the stage takes a bath in the press camera flashlights and starts playing one hit after another with his band from Walk The Line to Ring Of Fire. Then he clears his throat to metamorphose into the solo country blues folkman that brilliant Def Jam producer Rick Rubin invented for American Recordings a fabulous album that was released shortly before the 1994 European Tour and ignited Johnny's sensational comeback to the music scene. Johnny Cash is the hero of the day: an old man who went out to cover songs written by what could have been his children or grandchildren and made him a legend in his own lifetime. Tracklist: 1. Folsom Prison Blues 2. Sunday Morning Coming Down 3. Ring Of Fire 4. Ghost Riders In The Sky 5. Guess Things Happen That Way 6. Interview By Johnny Walker 7. Delias Gone 8. The Beast In Me 9. Let The Train Whistle Blow 10. The Man Who Couldnt Cry 11. Jackson (with June Carter) 12. If I Were A Carpenter ( with June Carter) 13. Orange Blossom Special 14. Interview by Johnny Walker 15. A Boy Named Sue

• Romeo And Juliette - Berlioz | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-4.29 (-21.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the Kulturzentrum Gasteig MunichHector Berlioz - Romeo Et Juliette - Symphonie Dramatique op.17

• Various Artists - 70's Pop Revival | DVD | (10/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Various Artists - 70's Pop Revival [European Import]

• Verdi - Il Trovatore (Carsen, Rosner) | DVD | (30/07/2007) from £25.65   |  Saving you £4.34 (16.92%)   |  RRP £29.99

  A gigantic blood-red monster, made of steel and flames, floating on the still waters of Lake Constance - this is Robert Carsen's unconventional vision of the setting of Verdi's masterpiece II trovatore for the 60th anniversary of the Bregenz Festival. In this threatening set of fire and metal, designed by Paul Steinberg, the characters burn with the passions they experience - love, hatred, sexual desire and revenge - and which eventually destroy them. The High Definition live recording of this most spectacular outdoor production combines astonishing images, relevant reflections on today's world and superb musical expression from the soloists and the world-renowned Wiener Symphoniker, inspired by musical director Thomas Rosner.

• Verdi: Falstaff -- Royal Opera House | DVD | (20/11/2000) from £30.24   |  Saving you £-5.25 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This Graham Vicks production of Falstaff opened the new Covent Garden Royal Opera House, but was not to everybody's taste; the garish primary colours of the costumes, especially Falstaff's unusually hideous get-ups, go several steps beyond the Breughelian effect Vicks intended. The staging is effective--the complicated counterpoint of the ensembles is reflected in unobtrusive blocking that keeps the vocal lines clear and separate, especially in the final fugue. Bryn Terfel's Falstaff is a memorable creation, self-mocking and self-aggrandising at the same time--so much so, in fact, that he almost does not need the vast prosthetic body he has to wear for the part. Desiree Rancatore is an admirably sweet-toned Nanetta; Bernadette Manca di Nissa an appropriately sardonic Mistress Quickly; Roberto Frontali as Ford, in his Act 2 scena, perfectly distils and parodies every jealousy aria ever written, including Verdi's own. Haitink's conducting is exemplary in the lyrical passages, and gets almost everything out of the fast and furious comic sections. --Roz KaveneyOn the DVD: The disc comes with act introductions by James Naughtie, interviews with Haitink, Terfel and Graham Vicks and a documentary about the reaction of the stage-hands to the new building. It has scene selection and subtitles in English. --Roz Kaveney

• Aida - Giuseppe Verdi | DVD | (10/05/2008) from £6.15   |  Saving you £-1.16 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Set amidst the swirling sands of ancient Egypt Giuseppe Verdi's Aida is one of the most stirring and popular operas of all time. It is the tragic story of lovers separated by jealously and family loyalty at a time when the Pharaohs ruled.

• War And Peace - Prokofiev | DVD | (01/04/2004) from £32.38   |  Saving you £-2.39 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  A performance of Prokofiev's opera at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Valery Gergiev conducts the Kirov Opera Orchestra. Sung in Russian.