"Actor: Ning Liang"

• Puccini: Madame Butterfly -- 1995 film version | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £23.82   |  Saving you £-3.83 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Like the finest of film scores with its fluid beauty and succession of intensely romantic tunes, Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly has a surprisingly cinematic feel. In 1995 director Frederic Mitterand exploited this quality of the story, exposing a young woman's disillusionment against a backdrop of cultural chasms. Shot on location, with Tunisia doubling convincingly as a turn of the century Nagasaki, this Butterfly shines with fragile beauty. The house becomes a brilliantly used set; airy and full of the scent of flowers and at the same time a cage for the trapped woman. Archive footage of bygone Nagasaki is used skilfully to underline the distance between the 15-year-old bride and Pinkerton. Purists may prefer a more traditionally robust, stage-bound Butterfly, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a more visually heartbreaking interpretation. Chinese soprano Ying Huang doesn't rock the rafters with her vocal power; hers is a tender, delicately observed performance. Tenor Richard Troxton's self-seeking Pinkerton is well sung. Overall, this is a haunting cinematic treatment of an enduringly popular opera. On the DVD: Madame Butterfly is presented in a letterbox widescreen format (enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions). The Dolby Digital surround soundtrack engulfs the listener in some of Puccini's most memorable tunes, stringing you out and leaving you emotionally spent. The main special feature is a charming portrait of Ying Huan, providing interesting insights into how the film was made and how she won the role. --Piers Ford

• L'Incoronazione Di Poppea - Monteverdi | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £16.10   |  Saving you £13.89 (86.27%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Almost four decades before creating his Poppea Monteverdi wrote in the preface to his fifth book of madrigals The modern composer must create his works solely on the basis of the truth - a credo to which the music of his final opera is utterly faithful.Poppea is a potent work from opera's first true creator and pioneering genius. The fact that at the close of this highly charged 'dramma in musica' he allows evil to triumph over good (albeit temporarily) has frequently led to his being decried as amoral.Monteverdi's timeless masterpiece which creates a deep involvement in performers and audiences alike is brilliantly captured in this High Definition live recording of Pierre Audi's moving and beautifully style production from Het Muziektheater Amsterdam in 1994.