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• Fame | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £8.95   |  Saving you £5.04 (56.31%)   |  RRP £13.99

  This early effort by director Alan Parker is lively but jagged as it follows four students through their years in the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. Rather predictably, the kids fall into four clearly defined stereotypes: brazen, gay and hypersensitive, prickly, shy. Fame makes up for a disjointed presentation with a lot of heart and a great soundtrack (for which it won two Academy Awards). The hopes and disappointments, failures and successes of these teens are fodder for emotional scenes and exuberant dancing in the streets. It also turned out to be the first of many imitators and spawned a popular television series. (It was the breakout film for the short-lived feature-film career of Irene Cara, who sang the title song.) --Rochelle O'Gorman

• Darcey Bussell Diverse Dance Mix | DVD | (26/12/2017) from £4.19   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Darcey Bussell Diverse Dance Mix DVD is an easy to use dance based fitness programme with the aim of getting fit while having fun, using a variety of different types of dances. The DVD features Darcey teaching short routines from 14 different dance styles. There are dances from across the decades including 1920s Charleston, 1960s, 1970s Disco, a 1980s boxing routine inspired by the movie ˜Rocky' and the 1990s trend for ˜Vogue' dancing. Countries from all over the world are also celebrated with workouts inspired by Arabian, Bhangra, Japanese, Irish and Greek dancing, as well the Latin dances, Flamenco and Salsa, and even Hoedown dancing. This variety of dance ensures that the mind is stimulated, not just the body and this combination will enable a better work out. Because there really is something for everyone, no one will ever get bored while exercising to DDMIX!

• Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games | DVD | (24/11/2014) from £8.65   |  Saving you £11.34 (131.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games - a spectacular new staging of the traditional masterpiece; a magical adventure of sight and sound that transports its audience to a mythical time and place lifting the spirits and capturing the hearts of all who experience it. Based on Irish folklore this classic tale of Good vs. Evil expressed through the universal language of dance has thrilled audience's worldwide and catapulted Irish dance to a new dimension and unprecedented worldwide acclaim. With all the visceral precision and thrills of the original Lord Of The Dance: Dangerous Games features new staging new costumes and choreography and 40 of the world's most outstanding young performers directed by Michael Flatley. With new music by composer Gerard Fahy this latest iteration combines the best of tradition with all the excitement of new music and dance!

• Verdi: Aida -- Metropolitan Opera | DVD | (20/11/2000) from £15.73   |  Saving you £1.26 (8.01%)   |  RRP £16.99

  A star-studded production from New York's Metropolitan Opera with Aprile Millo and Placido Domingo in the lead roles supported by the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; conducted by James Levine. Please note: This is a NTSC disc please ensure the compatibility of your TV.

• Madama Butterfly - Puccini | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Of all Puccini's major operas, the intimate tragedy of Madama Butterfly is least in need of elaborate staging and might therefore benefit most from the close scrutiny of film. The story is domestic, the setting Spartan, the incidental characters kept to a minimum. This 1974 version, however, demonstrates that Butterfly still needs a healthy injection of proscenium arch melodrama. Director Jean-Pierre Ponelle's production strives for realism but remains unfortunately studio-bound, having neither the benefit of location filming nor the heightened reality of an opera stage. The exterior is a perpetually fog-shrouded heath of indeterminate locale; the interior is cramped and unadorned. The setting is just too prosaic to contain the epic emotions of grand opera. Thankfully, the cast is superb, headed by Placido Domingo's rakish Pinkerton and Mirella Freni's rubicund Butterfly. Their singing is incomparable, as is Herbert von Karajan's musical direction of the Vienna Phil. The singers mime to pre-recorded music, which is occasionally disconcerting since when film demands close-ups opera provides broad gestures. Musically, this Butterfly is impeccable. Visually it adds nothing that could not be seen to better effect in a stage version. On the DVD: Madama Butterfly is presented disappointingly on disc in a poor NTSC transfer full of distracting graininess that makes every scene, both inside and out, look like it takes place in an omnipresent drizzle. Sound is reasonable stereo and adequate 5.0 surround. There are subtitles in the major European languages as well as Chinese, and the booklet contains a background essay plus synopsis. --Mark Walker

• Verdi: Il Trovatore | DVD | (20/11/2000) from £16.62   |  Saving you £0.37 (2.23%)   |  RRP £16.99

  A performance of Verdi's opera 'Il Trovatore' by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus; conducted by James Levine. Singers include: Eva Marton Luciano Pavarotti Sherril Milnes and Dolora Zajick; directed by Brian Large.

• Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor | DVD | (15/10/2001) from £26.59   |  Saving you £-1.60 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  In the annuals of music history Joan Sutherland's name will always be inextricably linked with the tragic heroine of Donizetti's dark romantic opera. It was the role which catapulted her to international stardom in 1959 and remained the perfect showcase for her remarkable vocal agility and acting ability throughout her career.

• Cavalleria Rusticana - Mascagni / Pagliacci - Leoncavallo | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £15.85   |  Saving you £-1.86 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The great Italian stage and screen director Franco Zeffirelli made these widely acclaimed films both starring Placido Domingo with Georges Pretre conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala. Pagliacci which co-stars the great singing actress Teresa Stratas brought Zeffirelli the coveted Emmy as Best Director in the category of Classical Music Programming. Cavalleria was filmed on location in Sicily which adds immeasurably to the power and atmosphere of this timeless story of love honour justice and violence.

• Verdi - La Traviata | DVD | (12/11/2007) from £17.04   |  Saving you £-0.05 (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Acclaimed film and stage director Franco Zeffirelli spared no costs to reproduce the opulent setting of Violetta Val''ry''s happiness and downfall. The unparalleled musical quality of the production is guaranteed by some of the world''s most famous musicians: The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra of New York conductor James Levine and singers Teresa Stratas and Placido Domingo. As Violetta soprano Teresa Stratas strikes the right balance between emotional grandeur and physical weakness. And with his meltingly lyrical voice and magnetic stage presence Placido Domingo embodies Alfredo Germont with a rarely seen passion.

• Michael Flatley's Feet Of Flames | DVD | (04/05/1999) from £13.11   |  Saving you £2.88 (21.97%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An expanded and more polished version of Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames was recorded at an outdoor performance in London's Hyde Park. While much of the material is familiar to Flatley fans, the production is superior in every way. It's better photographed and the editing is less frenetic. The individual segments are sharper, more self-assured, as is Flatley, who also produced and directed this version. (He also demonstrates his talents as a flutist--maybe he should call himself Lord of the Renaissance.) The outdoor setting also makes the show feel less like a Vegas act, though the proceedings have about as much relation to their Celtic folk roots as the Broadway musical Cats has to the TS Eliot children's poems on which it was based. --Richard Natale

• Shadowland | DVD | (10/03/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The original shadow theatre sensation from award-winning dance company Pilobolus whose performance on the 79th Academy Awards took the world by storm. SHADOWLAND is a mesmerising blend of contemporary shadow theatre and modern dance. This astonishing stage production tells the story of a young girl’s coming of age as she longs for independence. With fluid dream sequences stunning choreography and the heart and humour of a love story SHADOWLAND celebrates the strange transformative power of the dark to show us who we are in the most unexpected and thrilling ways. Previously only seen on stage you can now immerse yourself in the world of SHADOWLAND as it is captured on film for the very first time.

• Puccini: La Boheme -- Royal Opera House/Gardelli | DVD | (21/08/2000) from £17.00   |  Saving you £0.99 (5.82%)   |  RRP £17.99

  This full-blooded 1982 performance of Puccini's most-loved opera demonstrates just how much drive and powerful emotion can make up for a certain lack of subtlety. Cotrubas' Mimi is entirely moving in both joy and death, while never quite feeling as thoroughly frail as some of her quieter rivals; stronger tenor voices than Neil Shicoff's have recorded the role, and yet he has a Romantic passion and a dignity that many of his rivals fail to bring to the role. That under-rated singer Gwynne Howell is especially moving in Colline's farewell to his cloak--one of those perfect little showcase sections Puccini sometimes gives to minor parts. Marilyn Zschau's Musetta is broad and comic and yet somehow includes the audience in the glorious joke that her sexuality is for her; when Thomas Allen sings, to her waltz theme, of youth that is not yet dead, his ardour transcends realism. Gardelli knew this score in his bones--the production bounces along from comedy to tears to eroticism to tragedy and neither cast nor orchestra miss a single one of Puccini's wonderful touches of emotional exploitation. --Roz Kaveney

• Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Perhaps the most popular ballet video ever released, this version of Tchaikovsky's beloved work stars one of the most famous classical dance partnerships of all time, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. Nureyev choreographed this production for the Vienna State Opera Ballet. No ballet lover can afford to be without this DVD, which finds two icons of the 20th-century dance in magnificent form. Ballet authority John Lanchbery, former music director of the Sadler's Wells and Royal Ballet companies, as well as of America Ballet Theatre and Australian Ballet, conducts the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's enchanting score.

• Sylvia | DVD | (29/10/2007) from £24.98   |  Saving you £0.01 (0.04%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Leo Delibes: Sylvia - Ballet in three acts

• Mozart: Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) -- Metropolitan Opera/Levine | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £11.04   |  Saving you £7.21 (73.72%)   |  RRP £16.99

  A performance of Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' by puppet theatre.

• Ballets Russes | DVD | (21/08/2006) from £6.85   |  Saving you £13.14 (191.82%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ballets Russes is an intimate portrait of a group of pioneering artists (now in their 70s 80s and 90s) who gave birth to modern ballet. Directed with consummate invention and infused with juicy anecdotal interviews from many of the company's glamorous stars Ballets Russes treats modern audiences to a rare glimpse of the singularly remarkable merger of Russian American European and Latin American dancers choreographers composers and designers that transformed the

• The Bolshoi Ballet - Romeo & Juliet/Nutcracker/Sleeping Beauty/Swan Lake | DVD | (07/05/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Recorded at the Bolshoi Theatre 1989:Includes:Sergei Prokofiev:Romeo And Juliet.Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:Swan Lake.Sleeping Beauty.The Nutcracker.

• Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) -- Glyndebourne | DVD | (25/10/1999) from £18.99   |  Saving you £-1.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Mozart's immortal adaptation of Beaumarchais' satirical tale has always been a Glyndebourne staple, so it was appropriate that this delightfully traditional production of Le Nozze di Figaro was chosen to reopen a refurbished Gyndebourne in May, 1994. Here, John Gunter's set design is airy and uncluttered, leaving the actors plenty of breathing space, while director Stephen Medcalf likewise allows the characters to speak (and sing) for themselves. Gerald Finley's Figaro and Alison Hagley's Susanna make a charming central pairing; Renee Fleming and Andreas Schmidt are a formidable aristocratic duo, while Marie-Ange Todorovitch fills Cherubino's trousers with pleasing playfulness. Haitink and the London Philharmonic sparkle, as of course they should. Unfussily filmed, this is as close to the real thing as you are likely to get without a Glyndebourne season ticket.On the DVD: This is a double-sided disc requiring a changeover between Acts 2 and 3. With a running-time of 189 minutes, the disc is no longer than some epic Hollywood movies, so such flipping is hard to justify. But at least opera lends itself to natural breaks like this. The sound options are Dolby stereo or 5.1 and the picture is in 4:3 ratio. Subtitles are provided in English, French or German and the booklet contains a plot synopsis. --Mark Walker

• The Best Of Riverdance | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £10.10   |  Saving you £9.89 (97.92%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Of all the performances to emerge from Ireland in the past decade - in rock music theatre and film - nothing has carried the energy the sensuality and the spectacle of Riverdance. See Riverdance journey from its extraordinary beginnings at the Point Theatre Dublin with original stars Michael Flatley and Jean Butler through its phenomenal success in Radio City Music Hall New York to its latest live recording in Geneva. With an international cast fea

• Michael Flatley - The Ultimate Collection | DVD | (24/11/2014) from £51.00   |  Saving you £-11.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The Michael Flatley - The Ultimate Collection Includes the Dangerous Games Lord of the Dance Feet of Flames Gold Celtic tiger.