"Actor: Ashley Putnam"

• R. Strauss: Arabella -- Glyndebourne/Haitink | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Richard Strauss's elegantly playful opera Arabella (sometimes close to operetta in style) gets a polished, light-hearted, but also serious production at the Glyndebourne Festival. Ashley Putnam gives a glowing performance in the title role and she has a strong supporting cast. John Cox's stage direction and Julia Trevelyan Oman's design create a convincing atmosphere of 19th-century Vienna (not without a dark side to provoke dramatic interest) and Bernard Haitink's conducting of the London Philharmonic is splendidly idiomatic, in the dramatic music as well as the waltz and folk dance melodies that brighten the score. Arabella is the last libretto written for Strauss by Hugo von Hofmannsthal before his untimely death, and it has the high literary value found in all his work, although he did not live to revise Acts II and III. The story focuses on a Viennese family--Count Waldemar, his wife Adelaide and two daughters, Arabella and Zdenka. They are living in genteel poverty and hoping that Arabella, who has several suitors, will marry well and recoup their fortune. They are so poor that Zdenka has been raised as a boy because the family cannot afford to bring out two daughters in Viennese society. A properly rich suitor, Mandryka, shows up and it is love at first sight, until Zdenka confuses the situation. She is in love with one of Arabella's suitors, Matteo, sends him love letters under Arabella's name and seduces him in a darkened bedroom under the pretence that she is Arabella. Mandrkya learns of the seduction but not of Zdenka's deception, and breaks off his engagement to Arabella. There is, of course, a happy ending. Putnam is sweet and troubled in stage presence, silvery in tone and totally charming. John Brocheler is an ardent, impetuous Mandryka and Gianna Rolandi is convincing in the rather difficult role of Zdenka. Gwendolyn Bradley makes an impressive appearance as Fiakermilli, the belle of the coachmen's ball in Act II, one of the opera's favourite features with Viennese audiences. --Joe McLellan

• Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito -- Glyndebourne | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £11.74   |  Saving you £14.51 (138.45%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Mozart's Clemenza di Tito ("The Clemency of Titus") makes for riveting viewing in this Glyndebourne performance directed by Nicholas Hytner and conducted by Andrew Davis staged in the composer's bicentenary in 1991. Mozart's last opera, Clemenza was for some time considered below par by his own exalted standards. He composed it in a rush, the recitatives are by a pupil and it had to be on an appropriate theme to please the new Hapsburg monarch, for whose enthronement it was designed. There's little character development and the musical style harks back to operatic conventions Mozart had done so much to overthrow. Watching this production one would scarcely credit that such reservations once held sway. Hytner and his team have put a contemporary angle on a story set in Rome AD 78 in which sets, props and the stage itself are constructed to different dimensions offering alternate perspectives on a static tale. A slanting pillar and a sloping corridor allude to the unhinged mind of the scheming Vitellia, the central character, who puts her confidant Sesto on an emotional roller coaster ride as she ensnares him to plot the downfall of Titus. The principals use their eyes to communicate to one another as well as the audience and in the imaginatively staged entrances and exits of the ensembles one senses Hytner's choreographic instincts coming to the fore. The superb cast sing magnificently and look stunning. Philip Langridge is an eloquent Titus, Diana Monatgue a sincere Sesto and Ashley Putnam brings a touch of Alexis Colby to her portrayal of Vitellia. The London Philharmonic are all fired up under conductor Andrew Davis' fervent direction. The performance (the "Overture" accompanied by a visual montage of artefacts of Ancient Rome) is played on modern instruments yet articulated and reproduced with the clarity and definition associated with period ones. On the DVD: La Clemenza di Tito has no special features save for the obligatory subtitles. The picture quality is outstanding with the imaginative and colourful production design caught, like the music, with exceptional fidelity. The high drama at the conclusion of Act 1 justifies running on without a break into Act 2. This is a must for all lovers of opera. --Adrian Edwards

• Mitridate Re Di Ponto - Mozart | DVD | (31/01/2005) from £7.33   |  Saving you £17.66 (70.70%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A performance of 'Mitridate' composed when Mozart was just fourteen. Theodore Guschlbauer conducts the Lyon Opera Orchestra recorded live at the Lyon National Opera in 1986.