Opera

• Le Comte Ory - Glyndebourne Festival Opera | DVD | (27/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Set in rural France at the time of the crusades Rossini's last comic opera is the saucy tale of Le Comte Ory and his pursuit of the crusaders' wives who chastely await the return of their menfolk. This acclaimed production was recorded at Glyndebourne during the 1997 season with the delectable French soprano Annick Masis as Adele the Belgian tenor Marc Laho as the lecherous Comte Ory and Diana Montague as the amorous page Isolier. Jerome Savary's sparkling production includes a sensuous bathing scene and a riotous banquet with the male singer disguised as nuns. Andrew Davis conducts the London Philharmonic.

• Leonard Cohen-Under Review 1978-2006 | DVD | (02/06/2008) from £6.59   |  Saving you £-0.60 (-10.00%)   |  RRP £5.99

  By 1978 Leonard Cohen had already produced a staggering body of work that had firmly set the standard for the singer-songwriter genre and contained numerous classic songs within its cannon. If like many of his contemporaries his muse had abandoned him around this time he would still today be regarded as a genius. But the 6 studio albums released between then and 2006 contained some of the finest work of Cohens entire career and on tracks such as First We Take Manhattan Dance Me To The End Of Love The Future I'm Your Man Ain't No Cure For Love Tower Of Song and so many others he augmented his music with a philosophy wisdom and enlightenment that both delighted his existing fanbase and endeared him to new generations in a manner that few others could hope to achieve. This film mixes rare performance footage studio recordings interviews rarely seen photographs location shoots and many other features with contributions from some of Cohens closest colleagues and from experts on his life and music. Featuring his official biographer Ira Nadel; Cohen producers John Lissauer David Gold and John Simon journalists Robert Christgau [Village Voice] Anthony De Curtis [Rolling Stone] and Nigel Williamson [Uncut] authors Johnny Rogan and Jim Devlin and many others.

• Puccini: Tosca -- La Scala/Muti | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £39.99   |  Saving you £-15.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Tosca was revived to great acclaim at La Scala in this 2000 production, which built on Luca Ronconi's 1996 version with musical direction from principal conductor Riccardo Muti and Lorenza Cantini's nightmarishly distorted set. Puccini's most recorded opera is loved and derided in equal measure for its high-octane dramatics, rich arias and the fire-spitting exchanges of the eponymous heroine and her wily tormentor Scarpia. Under Muti, the music takes precedence over the self-conscious theatricality of the book. As a result, some high dramatic points--the stabbing, always tricky, and Tosca's suicide, equally dicey--are underplayed here. Singers of the calibre of Maria Guleghina and baritone Leo Nucci can be relied upon for rounded, controlled performances. Guleghina eschews the ferocity of Callas for a less stately, earthier honesty and enjoys moments of great delicacy, particularly in a sweet "Vissi d'arte". And her grief at Cavaradossi's death is searing. The key to Tosca, though, is the ambivalent relationship between the singer and the chief of police. Scarpia is probably the most toxic antihero in opera, and Nucci could do with a touch more virulence. Even so, this is a fascinating production that strips away much of the traditional artifice and gives real insight into the complex emotions that make the opera so compelling for its devotees. On the DVD: Tosca, like so many operas recorded in the theatre, here relies on the performances to compensate for the camera's inability to convey the overall majesty of the production. The 16:9 anamorphic picture format gives no more than a hint of the crushing power of Cantini's set. Happily, the choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 surround sound means there is no compromise on the sound front. Orchestra, chorus and principals unite in a fluid homage to Puccini's score. There are no extras on the DVD. One minor niggle: careless editing of the booklet notes means that Puccini briefly becomes Verdi in the description of the opera's genesis. --Piers Ford

• Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point | DVD | (30/06/2008) from £17.98   |  Saving you £-0.99 (-5.80%)   |  RRP £16.99

  For the first time, an intimate view of what happens in a John McLaughlin recording session. Filmed over a period of five days, you can see how great musicians work together and create new music with spontaneity and vitality.For this 'meeting of the minds' John invited some of the most outstanding instrumentalists, including vocalist Shankar Mahadevan.Through the interviews of all musicians, you will get to know the different ways in which they approach John's compositions. In addition, there is an extra audio track with John commenting on the entire recording.

• Don Giovanni - Mozart | DVD | (30/05/2005) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Riccardo Muti and an outstanding cast of singers were joined by the Vienna State Opera ensemble in a spirited and time-travelling interpretation of the eternal myth of Don Giovanni.

• Maria Callas - La Callas... Toujours - Paris, 1958 | DVD | (26/03/2001) from £5.02   |  Saving you £10.97 (218.53%)   |  RRP £15.99

  La Callas... Toujours is a black-and-white televised recital (Callas' Paris debut) that took place at the Paris Opera on December 19, 1958 when television was still in its infancy. We might wish that it had happened earlier, when her voice was in better condition, or later, when video recording technology was more advanced--so that, for example, we would not have to take the narrator's word that Callas is wearing a red dress. After all, visual elements were as important as the vocal dimensions in her art but her fans will welcome this warmly. The material, carefully chosen to show Callas at her best and most versatile, includes "Casta Diva" from Bellini's Norma (a Callas speciality), the haunting "Miserere" scene from Verdi's Il trovatore, and the mischievous "Una voce poco fa" from Rossini's Barber of Seville, a fine series of stylistic contrasts in which the essential point is not pure tonal beauty but characterisation and subtle expressive nuances. Others have made this music sound prettier; nobody has presented it with more impact. But the climax of this programme is its second half, a staged performance of Act II of Puccini's Tosca. This is a study in police brutality, sexual harassment and sheer violence, psychological and physical, that has some of opera's most extreme moments--including the great aria "Vissi d'arte", the murder of the villain Scarpia and the contemptuous dismissal flung at his corpse--"and all Rome trembled before him". In this segment, Callas goes mano a mano with Tito Gobbi, her only equal as a singing actor during her career. They savour this material in a virtuoso performance. --Joe McLellan, Amazon.com

• Turandot - Puccini | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £18.84   |  Saving you £-3.85 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In the Imperial Palace of Peking the Emperor announces that any prince seeking to marry his daughter Turandot must first answer three riddles. Prince Calaf falls immediately in love with Turandot and successfully answers all three. However before the Prince marries Turandot he asks her a riddle of his own.

• Bellini - Beatrice Di Tenda (Viotti, Zurich Oho/Chorus) | DVD | (26/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  One on Bellini's lesser-known operas is repackaged and re-issued this month at midprice in a fabulous production directed by award-winning Swiss filmmaker Daniel Schmid and boasting the unmistakable voice of Edita Gruberova.The music for this tale of unrequited love forms the perfect vehicle for Gruberova, who relishes Bellini's characteristic solo packages of high emotional tension and theatrical histrionics, and it illustrates why later composers such as Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini and even Chopin owe such a debt to Bellini and the importance he placed on melody.

• Monteverdi - Pierre Audi's Monteverdi Cycle Box Set | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £24.99   |  Saving you £45.00 (180.07%)   |  RRP £69.99

  Opus Arte is proud to present Pierre Audi's profound and refined productions of Monteverdi's opera masterpieces from the Amsterdam Muziektheater as a complete 9.5 hours box set, which explores the depths of human emotions in compelling music drama. The brilliant cast of the beautifully styled, evocative L'Orfeo, under the sophisticated musical direction of Stephen Stubbs, includes John Mark Ainsley, Michael Chance and David Cordier. II ritorno d' Ulisse in patria features Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Graciela in patria features Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Graciela Araya, both commanding and very moving under Glen Wilson's transparent and inspired musical direction. In L'incoroazione di Poppea Christophe Roussel and the musicians of his Les Talens Lyriques lead an all-star cast, including Brigitte Balleys, Cynthia Haymon, Claron McFadden and Dominique Visse, together reaching great heights in a highly evocative production. As a bonus disc, this box set includes the previously unreleased II combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, starring Lorna Anderson and Maarten Koningsberger, with the ASKO Ensemble boldly led by David Porcelijn.Never before have these timeless Monteverdi masterworks been presented with such consistent and inspired vision, and the results is an astonishing theatrical experience. An essential for any serious opera collector's library!

• I Puritani - Bellini | DVD | (30/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The opera I Puritani recorded live at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona on 8th February 2001.

• Die Tote Stadt - Korngold | DVD | (06/08/2002) from £20.00   |  Saving you £4.99 (24.95%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Any fan of Alfred Hitchcock - and in particular of Vertigo his film in which Kim Novak gives male fantasies something to feed on - is certain to love Eric Wolfgang Korngold's Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City). This was the finest opera to come from the pen of this composer of film scores who found both fame and fortune in Hollywood. It relates the remarkable tale of the protagonist Paul and his individualistic approach to dealing with the loss of his beloved wife Marie. As the drama unfolds all is not what it seems - dream and reality intertwine as Paul attempts to come to terms with the past in exchange for a tolerable future.

• Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots (Bonynge, Sutherland) | DVD | (30/07/2007) from £18.05   |  Saving you £1.94 (10.75%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Dame Joan Sutherland takes her historic final bow in this gala farewell performance of Les Hugenots at the Sydney Opera House.

• Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail - Mozart | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Recorded live at the Rococo Theatre Schwetzingen May 1991.Directed for TV by Claus Viller.A stage production of the Oper der Stadt Koln and the Opera de Nice from the Schwetzinger Festspiele.

• Strauss: Die Fledermaus -- Bavarian State Opera | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

• 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

• Mozart: Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) | DVD | (05/11/2007) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (-34.90%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Monumental production on the biggest open air stage in Europe July 1999. Stars MAxim Mihailove the Junge Bundeslander Philharmonic and Stagione d'Opera Italiana.

• Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin -- European Union Orchestra | DVD | (23/11/2000) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The important balance to be struck in any production of Eugene Oneginis between, on the one hand, the long lyrical monologues--Tatiana's letter scene, Lensky's aria, Gremin's praise of his wife--and the crucial confrontations between Tatiana and Onegin with the more public scenes in which these private emotions evolve into tragedy and disillusion. Rozhdestvensky finds this balance effortlessly--the chorus that dances its way through the small-town ball that ends in Lensky's challenge is as much a character in the tragedy as the principals. The principals are excellent, too. Orla Boylan is as good as the mature Tatiana as she is as the callow girl who first falls for Onegin, while Vladimir Gluschak's Onegin is as convincing as the object of her devotion as he is as the self-pitying egoist who wrecks his own life and those of Olga and Lensky. The orchestral sound is convincing but unexciting. --Roz KaveneyOn the DVD: The DVD has subtitles in German, English and French, and the menu is also in Spanish. --Roz Kaveney

• Verdi - Oberto Conte Di San Bonifacio (Abel) | DVD | (27/08/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Oberto Conte Di San Bonifacio - Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901):Verdi's first published opera, written in his 20's, already shows the instinctive melodic gift and heightened sense of drama which was to make him a giant among composers of grand opera. Set in 13th century Italy, Oberto was first performed at La Scala, Milan in 1839- more than 50 years before his last opera was premiered there - and prepared the way for a lifetime's work which would culminate in some of the finest music ever written. Recorded with High Definition cameras and with full multi-track surround sound.

• Russian Opera At The Bolshoi - The Vintage Years | DVD | (08/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  This fascinating programme vividly illustrates the glorious history of the Bolshoi Opera: the theatre itself its operatic productions and the world-renowned star singers that it has produced over the years. The programme reveals many jewels in the Russian archives from the Twenties to the Seventies with stills audio recordings and archive footage featuring early scenes of Fyodor Chaliapin Ivan Kozlovsky Mark Reizen and Sergei Lemeshev right through to more recent stars such as Vl

• Puccini: La Boheme -- Zeffirelli film version | DVD | (12/06/2006) from £16.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (17.66%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Zeffirellis 1963 Milan production of La Boheme, preserved in this 1965 film, provides a richly satisfying take on Puccinis much-loved romantic tragedy. The staging is opulent, not least in the way Zeffirelli opens up the Cafe Momus and turns it into a warm, vibrant haven for the bohemians and their followers. But its the relationships which really matter here. Puccinis score--conducted with restrained passion by Herbert von Karajan--develops in a wonderfully linear way, with some of his most intensely moving arias and duets underpinning the evolution of the bohemian artists, particularly Rodolfo and Marcello, from immature egotists to rounded human beings, touched by tragedy. The film does look dated now--Mirella Frenis Mimi, sung with moving clarity, has the doe-eyed look of a 1960s pop star and the camera work is a tad unsophisticated--but the singing still puts the listener through the wringer. Gianni Raimondis Rodolfo ("Che gelida manina") struggles manfully to come to terms with his emotional shortcomings and Adriana Martino (Musetta) has some fine comic moments before playing her vital part in the overwhelming sadness of the final scenes. Soul food for the tragically inclined. On the DVD: La Boheme has no extras here, but excellent booklet notes accompany the disc. The PCM Stereo soundtrack has been digitally remastered to decent effect. The 4:3 picture format inevitably imposes some limitations and the 1960s video quality is a little dull, but after all, this is a product of its time and a vital record of one of Zeffirellis most successful productions.--Piers Ford