Opera

• The Magic Flute | DVD | (07/06/2008) from £9.63   |  Saving you £0.36 (3.74%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Performed in two acts Mozart's The Magic Flute is a tale of love betrayal and enchantment. It follows Tamino in his quest to find and rescue Pamina the daughter of the Queen Of The Night from the priest Sarastro but powerful magic is at work and all is not as it seems.

• Cimarosa - Il Matrimonio Segreto (Travis, Fissore, Baiano) | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £4.95   |  Saving you £10.04 (202.83%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Partly based on the 1766 English comedy 'The Clandestine Marriage' by David Garrick and George Colman, Domenico Cimarosa's Il Matrimono Segreto was a widely popular example of opera buffa in its day. This sparkling comedy tells the story of Geronimo, a wealthy citizen of Bologna, who is trying to arrange aristocratic marriages for his two daughters, Carolina and Elisetta. However his plans seem destined to fail as his daughter Carolina is already secretly married to Paolino, his young secretary. Through a series of humorous situations the young couple confess their marriage and all ends well.

• Joseph Merrick - The Elephant Man - Laurent Petitgirard | DVD | (01/11/2004) from £10.44   |  Saving you £9.55 (47.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Laurent Petitgirard is known mainly as a composer of orchestral works including concertos symphonic poems and film scores and as a conductor. Joseph Merrick who was born with horrifying deformities and exploited both as a freak show exhibit and as a medical curiosity. Petitgirard's compelling and moving score - the composer's melodic gift is very much his own - shows us Merrick at different stages of his tragic life until his death aged 27 in 1890.Filmed at Nice Opera on 2

• Don Giovanni / Cosi Fan Tutte | DVD | (28/11/2005) from £52.63   |  Saving you £-2.64 (-5.30%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Cosi Fan Tutte:Live from the Zurich Opera House 2000Don Giovanni:Live from the Zurich Opera House 2001

• Le Nozze Di Figaro - 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 Le nozze di Figaro relocates Mozart's social comedy to the tinted-glass elegance of New York's Trump Tower high above the turbulent world of late-twentieth-century America.

• Death of a Prophet (Malcolm X) | DVD | (05/06/2008) from £14.65   |  Saving you £-10.66 (-267.20%)   |  RRP £3.99

  In this fascinating film charting the last 24 hours in the life of the religious and political leader Malcolm X Morgan Freeman powerfully portrays the life of the man with feeling and conviction; a life that was sadly extinguished in mysterious and as yet unknown circumstances. There are many unanswered questions leading to his untimely death, for instance who firebombed his house; where were the police when he was assassinated; how did his killers escape? Could the CIA or FBI have anything to do with the cover-up - why was he so hated by both the authorities and fanatics alike? This film may help you to make your own mind up about what the reasons were and just who could have caused his untimely death.

• Great Puccini Love Scenes | DVD | (08/11/2004) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-6.29 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A feast of highlights from some of the world's favourite operas featuring great artists in some of their best roles. Placido Domingo features in four of the opera highlights: La Fanciulla del West Manon Lescaut Ernani and Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Other stars include Kiri Te Kanawa Carol Neblett Nicola Martinucci Eva Marton Giacomo Aragall Neil Shicoff Ileana Cotrubas Hermann Prey Mirella Freni among many others. These superb performances were filmed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden the Arena di Verona and La Scala Milan.

• Whitesnake - Live in Japan | DVD | (14/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  In 1973 a clothes shop assistant from Redcar Yorkshire answers an ad published in the music magazine Melody Maker. Before long he's the new vocalist of a British band which sells out stadiums around the US: Deep Purple. Three years later when punk rock has become the hottest thing the band splits and David Coverdale has to start from scratch. After the release of two solo albums he forms his new band Whitesnake and starts touring small clubs in England. Next thing that happens the New Wave of British Heavy Metal hits the scene and Coverdale is in the charts again. Whitesnake produce one album after another and in the 1980s David Coverdale is back where he always wanted to be: sold-out stadiums around the world. This DVD was recorded at SuperRock '84 a big annual event in Tokyo Japan. 1. Gambler 2. Guilty Of Love 3. Love Aint No Stranger 4. Ready An Willing 5. Slow An Easy 6. Crying In The Rain 7. Guitar Solo - Soldier 8. Of Fortune - Drum Solo 9. Aint No Love (In The Heart Of The City) 10. Dont Break My Heart Again

• Il Signor Bruschino - Rossini | DVD | (03/02/2006) from £7.39   |  Saving you £17.60 (238.16%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A production of Rossini's one act opera 'Il Signor Bruschino' performed by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti at the Schetzingen Festival in May 1989.

• Glyndebourne Diamonds | DVD | (30/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £44.99

  All enclosed operas are recorded live at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.Contains the operas:- Macbeth (1972).- Il Ritorno D'Ulisee In Patria (1973).- The Rake's Progress (1975).- Falstaff (1976).- Fidelio (1979).

• Das Rheingold - Wagner | DVD | (21/01/2005) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  In the prologue to Wagner's giant masterpiece Der Ring des Nibelungen the beginnings of an epic journey unfold when Alberich seizes the ring of gold its awesome power unleashing an unstoppable story of deceit destruction death and transfiguring love. Filmed at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu in 2004 Harry Kupfer's stunning production first staged in Berlin numbers among the greatest productions of modern times.

• Il Barbiere Di Siviglia - Rossini | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Gioacchino Rossini - Il barbiere di SivigliaA stage performance by the Opera National de Paris

• Weill: Aufsteig und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny | DVD | (30/01/2001) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Kurt Weill's complex score reigns supreme in Peter Zadek's 1998 Salzburg Festival staging of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, the collaboration with Brecht which became a target for Nazi insurrection on its 1930 premiere. The city itself is suggested by the attitudes and personalities of the singers rather than by Richard Peduzzi's Spartan sets. It's bleak stuff in many ways, not least in its vision of the human state: squaring up to corruption is a lonely and fatal business. But thanks to Weill's musical eclecticism, which ranges from barbershop to lieder, there are moments of intense beauty, not least in the duets between lumberjack Jimmy Mahoney and prostitute Jenny. There are, too, flashes which anticipate Weill's American future on Broadway. The lilting "Alabama Song", that gift to every would-be cabaret artist in search of a Lotte Lenya moment, works wonderfully as an ensemble piece. Despite occasional inaudibility, the singing is often breathtaking. Gwyneth Jones is a majestic Begbick, Catherine Maltifano's voluptuous and earthy Jenny also has a rarely seen sweetness and Jerry Hadley's Jimmy Mahoney is ultimately almost unbearably moving. Food for thought, indeed. On the DVD: The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is presented in 16:9 picture format, but would have benefited from the scale of a widescreen treatment. It can be difficult to keep track of everything that's going on. The cavernous stage is probably responsible for the acoustics which sometimes allow the orchestra to overwhelm the singing, otherwise well served by the PCM stereo sound. There are no DVD extras but the excellent booklet and production notes are welcome.--Piers Ford

• Simon Boccanegra | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Verdi's gritty political drama of 14th century Grnoa is a tale of family feuding political intrigue and ultimate reconciliation. Simon Boccanegra is an underrated opera with a majestic and stirring score. This elegant production was a major highlight of the 1998 Glyndebourne Season.

• Maria Callas - Passion | DVD | (23/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A feature length documentary profiling the opera singer Maria Callas. Includes archive performance footage interviews with the star and her teacher Elvira de Hidalgo recording producer Michel Glotz and film and stage producer Luchino Visconti.

• Rusalka - Dvorak | DVD | (30/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  David Pountney's landmark English National Opera staging of Dvorak's haunting fairy tale opera left critics and audiences spellbound. The production is set in a Victorian nursery where an adolescent girl on the brink of sensual awakening dreams of first love. Her story is that of Rusalka the wood nymph who like Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid sacrifices all for love destined to be betrayed. High above the stage Rusalka dreamily swings as the picturesque gives way to the surreal.

• Internationale Circus Highlights | DVD | (29/02/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

• Mozart - Don Giovanni | DVD | (28/04/2008) from £36.43   |  Saving you £-13.44 (-58.50%)   |  RRP £22.99

• Puccini: Turandot -- Vienna PO/Gergiev | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Puccini's 'Turandot' as directed by David Pountney. His production is based on the idea of fear of civilisation: the fear that the fatal combination of rapid technological progress gradually spinning out of control and inhuman political systems poses a fundamental threat to all human values.

• Handel - Ariodante | DVD | (03/03/2008) from £21.38   |  Saving you £3.61 (14.40%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Recorded at Teatro Caio Melisso Spoleto Italy July 2007