Opera

• Frank Zappa - in Barcelona | DVD | (14/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  Thanks to his belligerent views about the American Way of Life Frank Zappa (1940-93) ranges among the most controversial figures in rock history to date. In 1988 Zappa went on a last tour with this band. Until June that year they toured North America and Europe. Tracklist: 1. The Black Page #2 2. Packard Goose 3. Sharleena 4. Bamboozled By Love 5. Black Napkins 6. When The Lies So Big 7. Planet Of The Baritone Women 8. Any Kind Of Pain 9. Jesus Thinks Youre A Jerk 10. Sofa - Find Her Finer 11. Big Swifty 12. I Aint Got No Heart 13. Love Of My Life 14. The Torture Never Stops 15. Bolero 16. Watermelon In Easter 17. Hay 18. Whipping Post 19. I Am The Walrus 20. The Illinois Enema Bandit 21. Strictly Genteel

• Appollononian Visions - Greek Myth And Baroque Opera | DVD | (25/06/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Appollononian Visions: Greek Myth & Baroque Opera

• Fidelio - Beethoven | DVD | (18/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ludwig van Beethoven - FidelioRecorded live at the Opernhaus Zurich 15 February 2004.

• Suns of Arqa - Hindu Pict | DVD | (19/01/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

• Carmen | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £40.48   |  Saving you £-10.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The passionate tale of the self-willed gypsy Carmen the scene in front of the imposing backdrop of a Roman amphitheatre lit by the flickering flames of candles.

• Milada - Bolshoi Opera | DVD | (01/01/1993) from £12.93   |  Saving you £6.32 (54.16%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Rimsky-Korsakov s fantasy opera-ballet with its tale of the early Slavs prior to Christian conversion could be described as a ballet with a vocal score equally well as an opera with dancing. This acclaimed production from the Bolshoi by Boris Pokrovsky was filmed in 1992. The choreography is by Andrei Petrov who has created an amazing variety of ritual dances. The colourful blend of dance and music is a reminder of the Diaghilev ballets in which Rimsky-Korsakov s music played such a

• The Last of the Belles | DVD | (05/06/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  The amazing Richard Chamberlain as F. Scott Fitzgerald gives an outstanding performance, with the wonderful Blythe Danner as his zany wife Zelda. The couple have just returned from Europe, deeply in debt from a very high style of living. Their marriage is showing visible signs of stress, and Zelda has become quiet and moody, distancing herself from her pompous husband. This is a story within a story, depicting the courtship of the writer, while stationed in the army during WWI. The fabulous Susan Sarandon plays Ailie Calhoun and David Hoffman is Andy McKenna. This charming love story, was Fitzgerald's attempt to correct the flaws in his own marriage, by causing a fictional story to unfold, as he wished his own would in real life. Brilliant actors bring romance, young passion, and the realities of life in the Deep South during WW1, to this wonderful drama.

• Guiseppe Verdi's Rigoletto Story | DVD | (10/10/2005) from £7.77   |  Saving you £12.22 (157.27%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece Rigoletto is brilliantly brought to life in this unique production of the beloved opera performed under the stars of Siena Italy by Roberto Servile Inva Mula (The Fifth Element) Marcelo Alvarez and the Toscanini Foundation Orchestra conducted by Keri Lynn Wilson and costumes by Vivienne Westwood. In the 1550s Mantua the Duke (Alvarez) a celebrated ladies man seduces Gilda (Mula) the beautiful daughter of his sharp-tongued jester Rigoletto (Serv

• Der Freischutz - Carl Maria Von Weber | DVD | (24/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The chorus and orchestra of the Zurich Opera are conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt in this 1999 performance.

• Tristan Und Isolde - Richard Wagner | DVD | (04/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Wagner's erotic opera in a production by the German Opera of Berlin under the direction of Gotz Friedrich with music conducted by Jiri Kout.

• Puccini: Tosca -- Canadian Opera | DVD | (10/12/2001) from £9.19   |  Saving you £15.80 (63.20%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Puccini's masterpiece Tosca is a tragic tale of love intrigue and betrayal set in Napoleaonic Rome of 1800 a highly successful collaboration of composer Puccini librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa and the original playwright Victorien Sardou that was first performed in Januray 1900 in Rome. The performance by the internationally renowned Canadian Opera Company stars Bulgarian soprano Stefka Evstatieva as Tosca the tempestuous opera singer whose stormy romance with art

• Leoncavallo - Paglicci - Roberto Alagna | DVD | (19/03/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

• Four Eyed Monsters | DVD | (01/09/2008) from £13.48   |  Saving you £-3.49 (-34.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Arin and Susan met online - falling in love through e-mails notes videos and pictures. As their intimacy grew so did their fears. Neglect cheating and jealousy force the couple to question if they were actually in love or just engaged by their artistic collaboration together. As they try to escape the reality they've created together they are forced to finally address the question that kept them committed for so long in their romance and in their collaboration What is love?. This award winning project has engaged millions around the world who have followed this real couples story. For the first time ever the entire project now exists on one DVD that captures the evolution of a real modern relationship. Includes the original 8 episodes that put the relationship on a global stage plus 5 new highly anticipated episodes that expose the deterioating relationship and provide the conclusion to the relationship and the project.

• Carmen | DVD | (06/11/2006) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Love jealousy and death - George Bizet's most popular work 'Carmen' includes all accessories for a successful opera.This DVD presents an open-air staging of the Opera Festival St. Margarethen recorded in 1998 in the colourful stage set of the Roman quarry which on this occasion was turned into a Spanish arena.

• Valery Gergiev: The Opera Collection | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £65.99

  To mark maestro Valery Gergiev's 25th anniversary with the Kirov company at the Mariinsky Theatre St.Petersburg this box celebrates the glory of Russian epic opera with three outstanding Kirov productions: Boris Godunov Prince Igor and Ruslan and Lyudmila.

• TDK DVD Opera Sampler 2006 | DVD | (30/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  A compilation of opera excerpts from the 2006 TDK catalogue.

• Giuseppe Verdi - Rigoletto | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

• Offenbach - Les Contes D'hoffmann (Guingal, Opera De Bilbao) | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £28.55   |  Saving you £1.44 (5.04%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Giancarlo Del Monaco's passionate and intelligent production of Jacques Offenbach's magnum opus creates a climactic kaleidoscope of deep and convincing emotions. A highly credible incarnation of the pitiable Kleinsach he sings about, Aquiles Machado is the poet who loses his romantic idealism, his reflection and finally his soul to a trio of charming enchantresses. Conductor Alain Guingal inspires the superbly dramatic cast, including Maria Bayo, Milagros Poblador, Valentina Kutzarova and Katharine Goeldner, in an outstanding recording in High Definition video and surround sound.

• Norma - Vincenzo Bellini | DVD | (28/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Bellini's Norma, first performed in 1831, is one of the most glittering jewels in the bel canto repertoire, placing huge vocal demands on the soprano in the title role. The druid priestess who falls prey to human frail ties before redeeming her grace in the flames of the sacrificial fire must also be played with a high degree of dramatic truth. In the 20th century, two singers scaled new heights in combining these requirements: Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland. Sutherland's great achievement, preserved in this 1978 recording of Opera Australia's production at Sidney Opera House, was to render Norma a very human being, unravelling her complex reactions to the events which bring her personal world tumbling down around her. Using Bellini's deceptively simple melodies to tender effect, she reveals the essential purity of many of his greatest arias, not least "Casta diva": an equally valid alternative to Callas' pyrotechnics. Ronald Stevens as Norma's errant Roman lover Pollione and Margreta Elkins as Adalgisa, the unwitting agent of the priestess's ultimate downfall, strike vocal sparks in their duets with Sutherland. But this is essentially a treasurable record of one of the all-time great divas in a role that brought her some of her finest notices, with her husband and long-time collaborator Richard Bonynge in the conductor's box. On the DVD: In all respects, this is a solid offering with few frills. The only extra is an Arthaus trailer. The 4:3 picture format and PCM stereo-sound quality are adequate media for a theatrical performance which is very much of its time: crudely-edited plot explanations separate the acts and there is the imposition of some rather naff stills of the ill-fated lovers on flickering flames to suggest the pyre. But Sutherland's performance triumphs over all. --Piers Ford

• Verdi: Stiffelio | DVD | (29/10/2001) from £3.06   |  Saving you £30.19 (1,677.22%)   |  RRP £31.99

  A performance of Verdi's three-act opera recorded live at The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Celebrated tenor Carreras performs the title role as Verdi's cuckolded minister confronting his wife's adultery.