"Actor: Orchestra"

• A Gala Concert With Joan Sutherland And Marilyn Horne | DVD | (06/08/2001) from £50.23   |  Saving you £-28.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In 1986 one of opera's legendary partnerships was celebrated in A Gala Concert with Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne at Sydney Opera House. Under the musical direction of Sutherland's husband and long term conductor Richard Bonynge, the great soprano and mezzo soprano treated their audience to an epic evening of solos and duets from works with which they had long since become indelibly linked. The concert was preserved and transmitted as an Esso-sponsored night at the opera by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Each diva is given ample room to shine individually. Here in all their glory are Sutherland's "Les Oiseaux dans la Charmille", the mechanical doll's aria from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann and Horne's "Iris, Hence Away" from Handel's Semele. Magical duets include "Serbami Ognor si Fido" (Rossini's Semiramide), "Viens Mallika, les Lianes en Fleurs" (Delibes' Lakme, much-used in their advertisements by British Airways) and of course the "Barcarolle" from Hoffmann. The overwhelming effect is of their passion for the music and the great professional respect and friendship which Sutherland and Horne clearly feel for each other as two of the greatest champions of the bel canto repertoire in living memory. Essential viewing for anyone remotely interested in operatic history. On the DVD: Digitally restored and remastered from the original tape, this disc at least offers the benefit of crystalline PCM stereo sound quality. In all other respects, it is a television production which inevitably shows its age. The curtain calls and long waits between every item, while Horne and Sutherland are fetched singly or together by Bonynge, are interminable and should have been cut. The 4:3 picture format is sharp enough and reveals the cumbersome dullness of the staging in all its glory. But none of this detracts from the wonder of two appealing prima donnas near their vocal peak. --Piers Ford

• Wonderful Town - Bernstein | DVD | (04/12/2006) from £29.68   |  Saving you £-4.69 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Musical Comedy in Two ActsRecorded live at the Philharmonia Berlin 30-31 December 2002.

• 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.

• Manon | DVD | (01/07/2000) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-6.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Kenneth MacMillan's tragic lyric ballet to sumptuous music by Jules Massenet orchestrated for the ballet by Leighton Lucas is a Royal Opera House favourite returning season after season. The story of Manon Lescaut is a moving tale of corrupted innocence in early 18th century Paris in which the lovely girl finds both happiness and grief at the hands of men who love and abuse her. Manon is one of MacMillan's most highly regarded works featuring several passionate and moving pas

• Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos (Glyndebourne) | Blu Ray | (29/06/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Electric Light Orchestra - Zoom Tour Live | DVD | (05/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Zoom Tour Live is a superlative concert video that will be a godsend for fans of Electric Light Orchestra, since ELO's Zoom tour was sadly cut short due to lacklustre ticket sales. Judging from this tour-opening performance (in May 2001 at the CBS studios in Los Angeles), those cancelled gigs were a major loss, because Jeff Lynne's revamped ELO is in top form, playing six new songs from Zoom (ELO's first release in 15 years) and 17 hits from the band's beloved legacy. Like the meticulous producer he is, guitarist-composer Lynne plays cordial frontman to an appreciative audience, and his re-creation of ELO's classical-rock sound is astonishing in its fidelity to the studio recordings. From the moment ELO's signature space-ship stage blossoms to reveal Lynne's eight-piece ensemble (including, of course, two cellists), there's not a weak song in the brisk 98-minute set. Zoom Tour Live is ample compensation for those who bought useless tickets to an ill-fated show. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Mahler-Symphony 5/Ades-Asyla | DVD | (03/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Simon Rattle conducts the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 5: Ades-Aslya.

• Wiener Festwochen 1963 - Wiener Philarmoniker - Hans Knappertsbusch | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £5.86   |  Saving you £10.39 (225.87%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A performance of Wagner's Die Walkure at the Wiener Festwochen in 1963. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Hans Knappertsbusch.

• Elgar: Symphony No.2/ Enigma (Symphony No.2/ Enigma Variations) | DVD | (09/02/2011) from £21.49   |  Saving you £-1.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Verdi: Requiem | DVD | (04/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Produced by the BBC in association with RM ARTS from the Usher Hall, Verdi's 'REQUIEM'.

• Adriana Lecouvreur - Cilea | DVD | (22/10/2004) from £12.23   |  Saving you £-2.24 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Adriana LecouvreurFrancesco Cilea (1866-1950)Cilea's four-act opera of jealousy and tangled love first performed in Milan in 1902 is based on the true story of Adriana Lecouvreur an 18th-Century actress at the Comedie Francaise whose rival for the love of Maurizio count of Saxony is the married Principessa di Bouillon. Unlocked from the archives of RAI television this 1989 classic recording comes from one of the world's great opera houses.

• Elgar: Enigma Variations | DVD | (02/09/2013) from £17.09   |  Saving you £2.90 (16.97%)   |  RRP £19.99

  BBC Symphony Orchestra - Leonard Bernstein, direction

• New Year's Concert 2004 | DVD | (09/02/2004) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-6.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The New Year's Concert recorded in Vienna featuring the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Riccardo Muti. The theme of this concert is Johann Strauss Father and Sons and celebrates the two hundredth anniversary of the elder Johann Strauss' birth.

• Mazeppa - Tchaikovsky | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  The first-ever release on any video format of the Kirov's 1996 production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa. Valery Gergiev directs the Kirov Opera and Ballet in this dramatic staging of Tchaikovsky's historical opera based on Pushkin's verse tale of the legendary Cossack chieftain. Tchaikovsky's dark musical setting intertwines the political drama of Mazeppa's ill-fated betrayal of the Tsar with the personal tragedy of his love for Maria the young daughter of his hapless opponent Koc

• The Miserly Knight - Rachmaninov | DVD | (30/05/2005) from £17.35   |  Saving you £2.64 (15.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Vladimir Jurowski conducts Rachmaninov's dark setting of Alexander Pushkin's 'little tragedy' with an outstanding performance from Sergei Leiferkus in the role written for the great Russian bass Fyodor Chaliapin.Rachmaninov's dramatically brooding score - beautifully recorded in an atmospheric surround sound - portrays the miser consumed by the power of his glinting gold as it pushes him to his ultimate collapse.

• Brian Setzer Orchestra - Christmas Extravaganza | DVD | (28/10/2005) from £11.21   |  Saving you £4.04 (40.60%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Tracklisting:Dig That Crazy Santa ClausThis Cat's On A Hot Tin Roof Boogie Woogie Santa Claus The Dirty BoogieWinter WonderlandSleigh RideSanta Claus Is Back In TownEverybody's Waiting' For The Man With The BagCaravanPipelineStray Cat Strut/You're A Mean One Mr. GrinchJump Jive An' Wail'Zat You Santa Claus?Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!Run Rudolph RunGene & EddieBlue ChristmasJingle Bell RockRat Pack BoogieFishnet StockingsRock This TownNutcracker SuiteRumble In BrightonGettin' In The MoodJingle Bells

• George Frideric Handel - Acis and Galatea (The Royal Opera / The Royal Ballet, 2009) | Blu Ray | (01/03/2010) from £25.40   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 And 2 | DVD | (04/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Views of France including Paris Burgundy Arles Nimes and Franche-Comte accompany the music of Chopin conducted by Robert Statonsky.

• Puccini - Gianni Schicci (Jurowski, Lpo) | Blu Ray | (28/07/2008) from £4.99   |  Saving you £25.00 (501.00%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

• Schumann: Scenes From Goethes Faust (HD Audio) | Blu Ray | (30/08/2011) from £16.39   |  Saving you £-5.40 (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  Solistes - Chœur de garçons de Varsovie - Chœur & Orchestre Philharmonique de Varsovie - Antoni Wit, direction