"Actor: June Anderson"

• Bernstein, Leonard - Candide (Bernstein, Lso, Hadley, Gedda) | DVD | (11/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  The historic concert that preceded Bernstein's only recording of Candide. Videotaped at the Barbican Centre, London, 13 December 1989.

• Rossini: Semiramide | DVD | (31/12/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Bel canto can be translated as "pretty singing", and that definition seems tailor-made for this production, which offers grace, charm, and a fine-tuned sense of style in abundance to compensate for its limited psychological and emotional impact. The four principal singers are all specialists in the bel canto style and this opera has played a key role in building their substantial reputations. For its sweeping musical imagination and technical wizardry, Rossini's epic about royal assassination and misdirected lust in the ancient Babylonian Empire deserves a place in any inclusive opera collection, and we are not likely to have a better video recording of Semiramide in the foreseeable future. June Anderson has an attractive appearance and sounds exactly right in the music's florid melodic lines. But she is not dramatically compelling as the wicked queen who had her husband killed and fell in love with a man who turned out to be her long-lost son, Arsace. Marilyn Horne rose to the highest levels of international fame in the role of that conflicted son, and her presence alone would be enough to give this video classic status. Her voice was a bit past its prime when this performance was recorded in 1991, but still there is no other voice quite like it, no other voice so suited to Rossini's heroic mezzo roles. Samuel Ramey is a close bass counterpart to Anderson: great tone, agile florid singing, and a rather wooden but visually appealing stage presence. Sanford Olsen has a small role and sings it near perfectly. James Conlon gets excellent musical results; John Copley's staging is massive and static. --Joe McLellan, Amazon.com

• Luciano Pavarotti - 30th Anniversary Gala Concert | DVD | (04/10/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Luciano Pavarotti performs in a 30th Anniversary Concert live at the Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia. Includes arias from 'Tosca' 'Don Giovanni' 'La Boheme' and 'La Traviata' performed by the Orchestra Del Teatro Comunale Di Bologna

• 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

• Ode To Freedom - The Berlin Celebration Concert | DVD | (01/04/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor.Recorded at the Schauspielhaus Berlin on 25 December 1989.

• Luciano Pavarotti - The DVD Collection | DVD | (13/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Three features including 'Pavarotti In Central Park' 'Pavarotti - A 30th Anniversary Gala Concert' and 'Pavarotti And Levine In Recital'. Pavarotti - Live In Central Park: One of the three most famous tenors in the world the exceedingly round Luciano Pavarotti has a voice that could shake all of New York City. And it surely shook all of Central Park on the night that the star performed in 1993. As captured on this video Pavarotti is ably backed by members of the New York

• Rising Damp / Porridge / George And Mildred / Bless This House | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  This fantastic TV Classic Comedy Box Set will provide a feast of laughter with movie versions of some of the most popular sitcoms ever made. The set comprises movie versions of Rising Damp Porridge George and Mildred Bless This House and Please Sir.