"Actor: Mark Padmore"

• War Requiem | DVD | (10/01/2012) from £19.31   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Turn Of The Screw - Britten | DVD | (21/01/2005) from £21.19   |  Saving you £3.80 (17.93%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Benjamin Britten's haunting and sinister opera composed in 1954 is based on the famous novella written by Henry James in 1898. Katie Mitchell's atmospheric and innovative film of the opera returns to the late 19th century setting of the original tale to a world where it is hard to tell ghosts from mere reflections in the glass. There have been many discussions about what happened to the children in both the novella and Britten's opera. This production with an inspired cast led by excellent performances from Lisa Milne and Mark Padmore remains true to both sources. The rich dark imagery entices the viewer exposing the deepest layers of the tantalising unnamed and hidden past relationships between the two servants and the children in one of the greatest operas of the 20th century.

• Bach: Cantatas | DVD | (02/11/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Taking the Bach Cantatas as a basis for a year-long pilgrimage in 2000, conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner led the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists on an emotional and artistically triumphant world tour to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death. Many of the Cantatas were performed in religious buildings throughout Europe and even in New York, at appropriate times in the liturgical calendar. These performances feature Cantatas 179, 199 and 113, all composed for the 11th Sunday after Trinity, in marvellously dramatic interpretations by the Choir and soloists including soprano Magdalena Kozen, alto William Towers, tenor Mark Padmore and Stephan Loges. Gardiner’s mission to expose the delicacy of emotion at the heart of Bach’s deceptively simple melodies pays dividends in settings which range from baroque German cathedrals to the austere bleakness of Iona. Filmed by BBC Wales, the concerts create a moving spiritual journey in which the music itself is allowed to take centre stage thanks to the passion of the performances and, above all, to Gardiner’s vision of Bach’s continuing relevance in the modern world at the beginning of a new millennium. On the DVD: thanks to the crystal clarity of the PCM Stereo soundtrack and Surround Sound, it’s possible to reproduce at home the distinctive acoustics of the different venues where the cantatas are performed. The picture quality (anamorphic 16:9 ratio) makes for the standard television viewing experience but it’s the music which counts. Extras include a 60-minute documentary explaining Gardiner’s vision for the pilgrimage, with further performance extracts, giving a sense of the sheer size and ambition of the project--not least the logistical issues of moving a large group of performers around such a diverse range of locations. It also shows the extent to which the performers become absorbed by Bach’s music and through it, discover new aspects of their own spirituality. Extensive booklet notes include full texts of the featured Cantatas and the double-sided disc allows viewing in PAL or NTSC format.--Piers Ford

• Les Troyens - Hector Berlioz | DVD | (20/08/2004) from £30.55   |  Saving you £4.44 (14.53%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Les Troyens - Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869)Sir John Eliot Gardiner directs this authoritative performance of Berlioz's towering opera recorded in true surround sound. Susan and Gregory Kunde lead a strong cast in the powerful masterpiece wrought from Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid. A special attraction of this recording is that Sir John Eliot Gardiner managed to assemble a full set of the instruments envisaged by Berlioz for this opera.

• Hector Berlioz - Les Troyens (Theatre du Chatelet, Paris 2003) | Blu Ray | (01/01/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• J.S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion (Amsterdam 2012) (Iván Fischer, Mark Padmore, Peter Harvey) (Arthaus: 108075) | Blu Ray | (11/03/2013) from £29.95   |  Saving you £0.04 (0.13%)   |  RRP £29.99

  ARTH 108075; ARTHAUS MUSIK - Germania; Classica vocale Sacra Messe

• Don Giovanni - Mozart | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Don Giovanni - Opera in two acts. A production of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. Recorded in July 2002.