"Actor: Charles Mackerras"

• Mozart In Turkey | DVD | (22/12/2003) from £4.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (300.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Mozart in Turkey is a feature-length 88-minute hybrid BBC co-production which interleaves making-of documentary footage (24 minutes) and filmed highlights (64 minutes) from Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"). Working to their pre-recorded performance of the complete opera conducted by leading Mozartian Sir Charles Mackerras with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Choir, we see the cast mime to playback key arias, duets and quartets from Mozart's gorgeous work. The story of a Spanish noble woman, Konstanze (soprano Yelda Kodalli), her English maid, Blonde (soprano Désirée Rancatore), fiancé, Belmonte (tenor Paul Groves) and his servant, Pedrillo (tenor Lynton Atkinson) in the Turkish Harem of Pasha Selim (Oliver Tobias in a speaking role) is beautifully filmed in the famous Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The documentary sections offer a brief, rather superficial look at Mozart's writing of the opera and the ideas that influenced it and are expressed within the drama. The music-making is hardly to be faulted and the staging is ravishing. Unfortunately the whole seems like an over-length DVD extra that should accompany a complete film of the opera--the very thing that is mysteriously missing from this release. On the DVD Mozart in Turkey is presented anamorphically, enhanced at 16:9 for widescreen televisions, with a virtually flawless picture taken, presumably, from digital tape. If the programme is watched complete the sound is stereo only and the music sometimes sounds harsh. If music highlights are selected, sound is available in stereo or a much fuller and more rounded Dolby Digital 5.1. There are optional subtitles in English, German, Spanish, French and Dutch, but if any of these is selected it is imposed over the English-language documentary sections as well as the German-language opera scenes. When playing music highlights there are rather abrupt and unmusical fades in and out between scenes. The menu is awful, offering the option either to play all or select a given track, but not to play from a particular scene onwards. Switching subtitles on or off, or changing audio tracks, entails returning to the main menu then starting the programme afresh. There is no resume play facility and there are no extras. --Gary S Dalkin

• Delius - A Village Romeo And Juliet | DVD | (08/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Shot on location Peter Weigl's film is a spell binding version of Delius's operatic masterpiece. Based on the timeless tragedy of Romeo and Juliet the fate of the young lovers Vreli and Sali is mysteriously linked to the enigmatic Dark Fiddler. The drama is set in nineteenth century Switzerland and includes the celebrated 'Walk To Paradise Garden'.

• Janacek - Jealousy, Taras Bulba (Mackerras, Czech Po) | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £14.63   |  Saving you £2.12 (16.47%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Sir Charles Mackerras is known and respected worldwide as a leading connoisseur champion and editor of Janacek's compositional output.Mackerra's Janacek occupies a place of pride in the Supraphon catalogue. Here is a DVD not to be missed by any Janacek aficionado.Includes the following works: Glagolitic Mass Jealousy and Taras Bulba by Sir Charles Mackerras.

• Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg -- Australian Opera / Mackerras | DVD | (20/02/2004) from £32.38   |  Saving you £-2.39 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is Wagner's most life-affirming opera, a romantic comedy about life and love in 16th century Nürnberg with none of the mythological characters and settings of the composer's other operas. The story concerns a knight, Walther Von Stolzing (here sung by Paul Frey) who must win the hand of the woman he loves, Eva (Helena Doese) by competing in a competition to become the Master Singer of the city. Against him are various romantic rivals, while in the role of his eventual mentor is the shoemaker Hans Sachs (Donald McIntyre). Doese brings just the right innocent femininity to one of only two important female roles--the other is filled by Rosemary Gunn as her governess, Magdalene. Paul Frey is fine as the romantic young knight, but the opera belongs to the great New Zealand Wagnerian bass-baritone, Donald McIntyre. His performance is richly insightful as only one so steeped in the world of the composer could be. The staging is deliberately unspectacular, the colours muted to the natural earth tones of the Middle Ages, focusing all attention on the characters, drama and exhilarating music. Though running three-and-a-half hours, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an excellent introduction to Wagner's art; especially as presented in this 1990 performance in an engagingly direct and unpretentious style, one that draws the audience in and makes for highly effective small-screen viewing. On the DVD: Die Meistersinger is presented on two DVDs to maximise picture quality over the 227-minute playing time. The image is 4:3 and is typical of a 1990 live opera performance recorded on video, being perfectly acceptable while revealing all the faults of the medium. The stereo sound is very good without being exceptional. There are optional subtitles in English, German, French and Spanish but no extras. --Gary S Dalkin

• Don Giovanni / Adieu Mozart | DVD | (12/06/2006) from £18.02   |  Saving you £-2.03 (-12.70%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This double pack features a unique performance of 'Don Giovanni' at the Estates Theatre Prague and a documentary detailing Mozart's connection to Prague and his three emotional visits to the Czech capital.

• Mozart: Don Giovanni -- Prague/Mackerras | DVD | (03/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A live recording from the Prague National Theatre.