"Actor: Cecilia Bartoli"

• Cecilia And Bryn At Glyndebourne - Arias And Duets | DVD | (04/06/2002) from £19.49   |  Saving you £0.50 (2.57%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Opera arias and duets from Mozart Rossini Haydn Donizetti and Handel.

• Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) -- Stuttgart | DVD | (06/03/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £4.99 (24.95%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The point of a good production of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia is to have a Rosina and a Figaro who will knock your socks off in their respective arias, while holding back enough in all those crescendo ensembles in which the farce plot reaches its several culminations that the other stars get a chance to shine too. Cecilia Bartoli and Gino Quilico give full-blooded enough performances when on stage by themselves that self-effacement seems far from imminent, yet both are capable of less, and give it when it is needed. Of the others, David Kuebler is an attractively raffish Almaviva, while Robert Lloyd turns Basilio into a memorable cameo. Gabriele Ferro is one of the most intelligent of Rossini conductors--he understands the relationship between the pulse of the music and its dramatic function, and he is also outstanding in the delicacy of phrasing, even in climaxes, that ensures that every voice, every instrument, gets the moment of glory Rossini intended. Michael Hampe's solid reliable unfussy production keeps everything moving without drawing attention to itself. The DVD has subtitles in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, as well as trailers for other Arthaus Musik discs. --Roz Kaveney

• Vivaldi - Viva Vivaldi (Bartoli) | DVD | (24/11/2008) from £11.02   |  Saving you £-2.03 (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  A full-length concert from the Theatre des Champs-Elysees Paris featuring beautiful and rare arias from Vivaldi's operas. This Brian Large film showcases the repertoire from the bestselling Vivaldi Album (Decca 1999) which catapulted Cecilia Bartoli to worldwide stardom. Bartoli's spectacular vocal pyrotechnics are supported by world-class Baroque ensemble and collaborators on the Decca album Il Giardino Armonico. Tracklisting: 1. Di due rai languir costante (Foa 28) 2. Siam navi all'onde algenti (L'Olimpiade) 3. Non ti lusinghi la crudeltade (Tito) 4. Gelosia (Ottone in Villa) 5. Domine Deus (Gloria) 6. Armatae face e anguibus (Juditha Triumphans) 7. Zeffiretti che sussurrate (Ercole sul Temodonte) 8. Gelido in ogni vena (Farnace) 9. Anch'il mar par che sommerga (Bajazet) 10.Dite oime (La fida ninfa) 11. Agitata da due venti (La Griselda) 12. Sventurata navicella (Giustino)

• Cecilia Bartoli - Live In Italy | DVD | (25/06/2001) from £3.45   |  Saving you £14.80 (675.80%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Cecilia Bartoli gives a performance from Teatro Olimpico Vincenza Italy. The tracklist includes 'Voi Che Sapete' Seguedille' and many more.

• Rossini: La Cenerentola (Cinderella) -- Houston | DVD | (25/06/2001) from £25.00   |  Saving you £-8.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Rossini's opera recorded live in Houston in November 1995. Bruno Campanella conducts the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Grand Opera Chorus.

• CECILIA BARTOLI/HANDEL: SEMELE | DVD | (12/05/2009) from £18.23   |  Saving you £1.76 (8.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Sacrificium | DVD | (01/03/2010) from £3.22   |  Saving you £14.03 (715.82%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Tracklist:1. Sacrificium / Opening Credits2. Come Nave in mezzo all'onde3. Sposa, non mi conosci4. Sinfonia5. Cadr, ma qual si mira6. Parto ti lascio, o cara7. In braccio a mille furie8. Nobil onda9. Usignolo sventurato10. Son qual nave11. Ombra mai f12. Cecilia Bartoli discusses Sacrificium13. Sinfonia from Perdono, amata14. Visit to Caserta15. Cecilia Bartoli Photo Gallery16. Maria Trailer

• The Blu-ray Experience: Opera & Ballet Highlights | Blu Ray | (27/10/2008) from £5.40   |  Saving you £-0.41 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Features performance extracts from Verdi's IL TROVATORE, Tchaikovsky's SWAN LAKE, Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE, Puccini's LA BOHEME and GIANNI SCHICCHI, Bizet's CARMEN, Mendelssohn's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Strauss' DIE FLEDERMAUS, Rameau's ZOROASTRE, Bellini's NORMA, and Balanchine's JEWELS.

• Mozart: Requiem | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  1991 was the 200th anniversary of the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. To mark the occasion Sir Georg Solti conducted this stellar concert offering a performance of ""Requiem"" delivered exactly as the original composer intended. The hallowed surroundings of Saint Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna provided an apt location for the concert particularly as it's where Mozart's funeral rites were conducted in 1791.

• Il Barbiere Di Siviglia | DVD | (17/04/2003) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Mozart - Il Barbiere Di Siviglia (Bartoli Kuebler)

• Mozart: Don Giovanni -- Zurich/Harnoncourt | DVD | (12/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  In this Zurich Opera House staging of Mozart’s darkly comic cautionary fable Don Giovanni the lighting and stage design keep the characters shaded in half-shadow: even Zerlina’s wedding feels like a subdued affair here, and the Don’s banqueting room is a suitably gloomy venue for the Stone Guest’s climactic visit for a spot of dinner and damnation. Both this staging and video director Brian Large’s filming play no tricks with the audience’s expectations, opting for a largely traditional presentation of this tragedy of swaggering bravado, cuckolded lovers and revenge from beyond the grave. Nikolaus Harnoncourt brings all the sensitivity of his historically informed approach to the orchestra pit. Heading a very strong cast are Rodney Gilfry, defiantly strong-voiced but also haughtily handsome as the seducing Don, and Cecilia Bartoli, a mercurial presence as Donna Elvira. Their scenes together crackle and fizz, even when Bartoli’s extremely ripe vibrato contrasts a little uncomfortably with Harnoncourt’s authenticity. Liliana Nikiteanu makes for a pretty, naïve Zerlina, convincingly torn between her Masetto (Oliver Widmer) and the animalistic attraction of the Don. Laszlo Polgar’s Leporello is wheedling and base, but still the inheritor of his master’s charisma; Isabel Rey and Roberto Sacca are solid as the colourless moralists Anna and Ottavio; while Matti Salminen’s powerful Commendatore isn’t expected to do anything more than stand still and declaim. Overall this is an excellent musical performance, unexceptionally staged. On the DVD: Don Giovanni on disc has a good 24-minute "Behind the Scenes" feature, including interviews with Cecilia Bartoli, Harnoncourt, Gilfry and Isabel Rey. There’s also a trailer for other ArtHaus releases. The 16:9 picture sometimes struggles to bring definition to the dimly lit sets; sound though is crisp and clean PCM stereo or Dolby 5.1. There are subtitles in five languages. --Mark Walker

• Cecilia Bartoli - Maria | DVD | (17/03/2008) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-4.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Disc 1: Cecilia Bartoli - The Barcelona ConcertDisc 2: The Documentary - Malibran Rediscovered - The Romantic Revolution: This unique film follows Cecilia Bartoli as she plays tribute to her predecessor, the legendary singer Maria Malibran - the first female superstar in music history, muse to composers and adored public goddess or Romanticism.

• Mozart: Cosi fan tutte | DVD | (30/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Mozart's third and final opera with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, the hugely ambitious dramatic comedy Così fan Tutte (roughly translated as: "They're All Like That"), is brought passionately to life in a first-class production conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and featuring one of the great starring roles for Cecilia Bartoli. Filmed live at the Zurich Opera House in February 2000 on a set which visualises the subtitle "The School for Lovers", the plot revolves around two army officers arguing about the fidelity of their brides, then setting out to test their chastity. Despite the often playful humour, this is not only psychologically telling music-making, but reveals Mozart exploring the structure of opera, discarding convention to mix large ensemble sections with arias for as many different combinations of singers as possible. With Liliana Nikiteanu attractively contrasted with Bartoli, and thoroughly convincing performances by Roberto Sacca (Ferrando) and Oliver Widmer (Guilelmo), this Così has a freshness and flow which, coupled with the timeless romantic themes, feels very contemporary. On the DVD: the presentation, which includes an interesting 22-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, is spread over two DVDs. There is a multi-language booklet minus libretto, though there is the option to watch with English subtitles. Given the difficult live stage lighting conditions the 16:9 anamorphically enhanced picture is as good as can be expected. There are both stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, though the latter gives the voices a disconcertingly disembodied character, leaving the former to be preferred. The total running time is approximately 213 minutes, not 275 minutes stated on the packaging. --Gary S Dalkin

• Cecilia Bartoli - A Portrait | DVD | (11/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  A documentary looking at the life and career of Cecilia Bartoli.

• Il Turco In Italia - Rossini | DVD | (21/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A performance of Rossini's opera performed by the Zurich Opera House Chorus and Orchestra and the Supernumerary Association; conducted by Franz Welser-Most.

• Paisiello: Nina | DVD | (19/05/2003) from £33.21   |  Saving you £-8.22 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Live recording of Giovanni Paisiello's opera 'Nina' which follows the tale of a woman traumatised by the death her lover Lindoro.

• Mozart: Cecilia Bartoli Sings | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £18.05   |  Saving you £1.94 (9.70%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Performed at the Styriarte Festival in Graz with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting. Also includes Mozart's Symphony No 38.

• Handel: Semele | Blu Ray | (12/05/2009) from £15.47   |  Saving you £5.78 (40.68%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Cecilia Bartoli: Mission | DVD | (18/12/2012) from £19.92   |  Saving you £-2.93 (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk DOES NOT have English audio and subtitles.

• Cecilia Bartoli - Viva Vivaldi! | DVD | (13/06/2001) from £12.98   |  Saving you £7.01 (54.01%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Viva Vivaldi! is a concert by the Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli interspersing arias from the 20 surviving operas of Vivaldi with two concertos. Given with the early music ensemble Il Giardino Armonico before a very appreciative audience in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the performance is part of Bartoli's exploration of the Venetian composer's opera music which also includes The Vivaldi Album. That said there is very little overlap between the studio-recorded CD and this 105-minute concert. Anyone thinking of Vivaldi's vocal music in the context of his uplifting scared works may get a shock, for Bartoli performs as if her life depended upon it, attacking pieces such as "Armatae Face et Anguibus" from Juditha Triumphans with vengeful gusto. Indeed, there is a startling dynamic energy, which contrasts powerfully with the more restrained interpretations by singers such as Emma Kirkby. Bartoli's natural Italian and the live atmosphere of Maria Grazia d'Alessio's oboe gives her interpretation of the quietly haunting and melodically rich "Non ti Lusinghi la Crudeltade" from Tito Manlio a particular piquancy. The Flautino Concerto is a most attractive interlude, while the more famous Lute/Violin Concerto beguiles with its exquisite lyricism. One Vivaldi opera not represented, Orlando Furioso, is available in a complete performance from 1989.On the DVD: The anamorphically enhanced 1.77:1 image is well above average for a concert video with good detail, definition and colour, and compression artefacting only noticeable on rare completely static shots. There are three sound options: DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM stereo. The surround options are certainly all enveloping, though there is a certain gimmickry in placing the flutes in the rear channels which is attractive with the eyes closed but is decidedly unrepresentative of what is happening on screen. In these modes Bartoli's voice is curiously unfocused. The stereo alternative is clearly locked to the screen, with much of the information actually directed to the centre speaker. This is less expansive but has a natural clarity that will appeal to those who want a more accurate reproduction of the event. There are multiple language subtitles, including English, though the only special feature is the option to have the musical score superimposed over the concert. While a fine idea in principle the execution leaves everything to be desired: the score is presented on a translucent white backdrop, through which the musicians can be seen as pale, bleached-out ghostly figures. Unfortunately the overlaying of the two images results in such an irritating flicker that the screen is barely watchable. --Gary S Dalkin