"Actor: La Scala Theatre Orchestra"

• Don Giovanni - Mozart | DVD | (23/04/2004) from £9.77   |  Saving you £0.22 (2.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A performance of the Mozart opera Don Giovanni.

• La Boheme - Puccini | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  La Boheme - Recorded live at the Teatro degli Arcimboldi Milan February 2003 - Staged by the Teatro all Scala.

• Puccini: Madama Butterfly -- La Scala/Maazel | DVD | (31/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This 1986 production of Madama Butterfly strives, with its Japanese director and designer, for authenticity in the Japanese setting, yet is somehow entirely Italian at the same time. Yasuko Hayashi's Cio-Cio-San is surprisingly tough, rejecting the arguments of her uncle and the marriage broker with more anger than usual, and her suicide is as much a moral statement of integrity as a sentimental gesture. Accordingly, Dvorsky's sexually magnetic Pinkerton is even less sympathetic--you can see what she sees in him, but he is arrogant and a user, except when he is being lyrical--and Zancanaro's Sharpless, the consul who expedites Pinkerton's betrayal of his wife but develops his own compassion for her, is all the more complex and interesting. The production has real charm as well as authenticity on its side; the staging of the love duet is impressive in its use of shadow and delicate light. Maazel's interpretation has a forceful energy that the recording impressively conveys. --Roz KaveneyOn the DVD: The DVD has scene selection, and subtitles in German, French and English; the menu adds Spanish.

• Giselle | DVD | (15/05/2000) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Alolphe Adam's Giselle is the first of the great classical ballets and this production was choreographed by Patrice Bart and filmed at La Scala in Milan.

• Puccini - La Boheme, Madama Butterfly | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  La Boheme: Recorded in the San Francisco Opera House in 1988, this performance of Puccini's La Boheme contains an international cast of singers and players. ; ; Madama Butterfly: Puccini's classic opera which was completed in 1904. This performance is the 1986 La Scala production.

• La Donna Del Lago - Rossini | DVD | (22/10/2004) from £9.15   |  Saving you £0.84 (8.40%)   |  RRP £9.99

  La donna del lagoGiachino Rossini (1792-1868)Director Werner Herzog and conductor Riccardo Muti combine with the finest of casts to lavish Rossini's rarely performed Neapolitan masterpiece set in feudal sixteenth-century Scotland with the genius it deserves. June Anderson is an outstanding Elena (the Lady of the Lake) in the 1992 production of the melodrama based on Sir Walter Scott's poem. Unlocked from the archives of RAI television this is a classic recording from one of the world's great opera houses.

• Verdi: Otello -- La Scala/Muti | DVD | (19/09/2003) from £9.98   |  Saving you £15.01 (150.40%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Riccardi Muti conducts a performance of Otello at the La Scala Theatre before the start of a three year renovation project.

• I Due Foscari | DVD | (20/08/2004) from £9.19   |  Saving you £0.80 (8.71%)   |  RRP £9.99

  I due FoscariGiuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)Renato Bruson takes the role of the Venetian Doge - Francesco Foscari - in Verdi's dark three-act tragedy based on a drama by Lord Byron set in 15th century Venice. Giandrea Gavazzeni directs the 1988 La Scala production of a work that is hailed among the best of Verdi's early operas and that led him to a career of operatic immortality. Unlocked from the archives of RAI television this is a classic recording from one of the world's great opera houses.

• Puccini: Tosca -- La Scala/Muti | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Tosca was revived to great acclaim at La Scala in this 2000 production, which built on Luca Ronconi's 1996 version with musical direction from principal conductor Riccardo Muti and Lorenza Cantini's nightmarishly distorted set. Puccini's most recorded opera is loved and derided in equal measure for its high-octane dramatics, rich arias and the fire-spitting exchanges of the eponymous heroine and her wily tormentor Scarpia. Under Muti, the music takes precedence over the self-conscious theatricality of the book. As a result, some high dramatic points--the stabbing, always tricky, and Tosca's suicide, equally dicey--are underplayed here. Singers of the calibre of Maria Guleghina and baritone Leo Nucci can be relied upon for rounded, controlled performances. Guleghina eschews the ferocity of Callas for a less stately, earthier honesty and enjoys moments of great delicacy, particularly in a sweet "Vissi d'arte". And her grief at Cavaradossi's death is searing. The key to Tosca, though, is the ambivalent relationship between the singer and the chief of police. Scarpia is probably the most toxic antihero in opera, and Nucci could do with a touch more virulence. Even so, this is a fascinating production that strips away much of the traditional artifice and gives real insight into the complex emotions that make the opera so compelling for its devotees. On the DVD: Tosca, like so many operas recorded in the theatre, here relies on the performances to compensate for the camera's inability to convey the overall majesty of the production. The 16:9 anamorphic picture format gives no more than a hint of the crushing power of Cantini's set. Happily, the choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 surround sound means there is no compromise on the sound front. Orchestra, chorus and principals unite in a fluid homage to Puccini's score. There are no extras on the DVD. One minor niggle: careless editing of the booklet notes means that Puccini briefly becomes Verdi in the description of the opera's genesis. --Piers Ford

• Verdi - Aida, La Traviata | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Performed at La Scala in Italy 'Aida' is Guiseppe Verdi's famous grand opera at its very best. 'La Traviata' is Peter Hall's production and comes from the 1988 Glyndebourne Festival under the musical direction of Bernard Haitink.