"Actor: Orchestra"

• Classic Meets Rock | DVD | (23/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  From the very outset Barclay James Harvest pioneered and experimented with new forms, going beyond the traditional guitar, bass and drums format to include woodwind, strings and brass, and created many classics in their unmistakable sound. Nothing was more evident to envelope these classics into a real classical form namely in the one of a philharmonic orchestra. Thus emerged the project Classic meets Rock. In spring 2006, Barclay presenting some of BJH's greatest hits under a new form. Among them Mockingbird, Berlin, Life Is For Living, Hymn and many more. On this DVD music fans experience the complete show - nearly two hours pure entertainment!

• Rudolf Nureyev's Don Quichotte | DVD | (03/03/2003) from £9.98   |  Saving you £15.01 (150.40%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Don Quichotte, composed by Ludwig Minkus for the Bolshoi in 1869, was relatively unknown in the West until Nureyev's new choreography--which naturally gave him centre stage as Basile--was introduced at the Vienna State Opera in 1966. A later production in 1981 forms the basis for this 2002 success by the Paris Opera. Don Quichotte is in some ways a misnomer for the ballet. Rather than being the dominant character, here the beloved hero of Cervantes' original novel and tilter at windmills is a catalyst for the troublesome events which beset the love story of Basile and Kitri. The dream in which the knight encounters the queen of the dryads becomes a glittering fault in the narrative. But there is no doubting the fluid delights of the pas de deux between Basile (Manual Legris) and Kitri (the enchanting Aurélie Dupont), always literally several steps ahead of their would-be romance spoilers, which rather overshadow the pathos of Jean-Marie Didière's Quichotte. Nureyev's triumph, though, remains the teeming ensemble dances that reaffirm the close marriage between Minkus's score and the unfolding drama, here immeasurably enhanced by Alexandre Beliaev's Goya-esque designs. Ermanno Florio's musical direction keeps the pace light and busy. On the DVD: Don Quichotte is presented in 16:9 video aspect ratio with a choice of stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS (by far the best) soundtracks: the quality is all you'd expect of a standard modern television broadcast, although the subtleties of the theatrical lighting don't always shine through. Extras are limited to previews of other TDK releases. --Piers Ford

• We Want The Light | DVD | (22/10/2004) from £27.95   |  Saving you £-2.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This is a DVD about many things. It is about freedom and captivity about emancipation acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner his essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but most of all it is a DVD about how much music can mean to people even in the direst of circumstances or particularly in the direst circumstances.The title We Want The Light is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl Eva Pickova written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climax - in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman in his work The Song Of Terezin. The DVD also contains music by Mahler Bach Schoenberg Bruch Schumann Mendelssohn Wagner Schubert Bloch and Brahms.

• Orphee Et Eurydice | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £16.18   |  Saving you £-1.19 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Gluck: Orphee Et Eurydice (Guidarini)

• Verdi - Un Ballo In Maschera - Verdi | DVD | (01/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  John Schlesinger directs Placido Domingo in Verdi's opera...

• Verdi: La Traviata | Blu Ray | (28/07/2014) from £15.75   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Carmen - Glyndebourne Festival Opera | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-6.29 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Bernard Haitink conducts Maria Ewing and Barry McCauley in an interpretation of Bizet's Carmen. Maria Ewing's electric portrayal of the gypsy Carmen is one of the finest in recent memory. Her dark alluring looks and feline grace are exactly suited to playing the hot-blooded Spanish temptress who charms men with her sensuous wild spirit. Peter Hall's production filmed in 1985 reveals Bizet's opera as a torid drama of passion blood and squalor with sets by John Bury that capture the earthy warmth of Spain in an unglamorised view of the factory girls of Seville. Barry McCauley is a thrilling Don Jose Micaela is sung by Marie McLaughlin with Bernard Haitink conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

• Bach - Matthaus Passion | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £21.15   |  Saving you £-0.16 (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

  Performance of Bach's masterpiece St Matthew Passion BWV244.Recorded at the St. Joriskerk Amersfoort 22 and 23 March 2005.

• Spanish Night | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Plácido Domingo is no stranger to stadium events, though in the old days it was as a singer with his pals, Pavarotti and Carreras. In Spanish Night with baton in hand he has an appealingly avuncular manner, and he couldn't hope for a better class of orchestra than the Berlin Philharmonic, here playing in their annual open-air concert given at the city's Waldbühne. It's a real crowd-pleaser of a programme (and the audience's enthusiasm is immediately apparent and increasingly boisterous as the evening wears on). None of the works stretches the concentration unreasonably, and the views of Spain come not only from home-grown composers (Sarasate, Torroba, Serrano and Vives) but also as viewed through other eyes: Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnole, Chabrier's España and Johann Strauss II's Spanish March. A pair of soloists increase the sequin quotient of the evening: the consummately poised violinist Sarah Chang (who has been round for so long it's difficult to believe she's still only 20) and the full-voiced soprano Ana María Martínez, winner of the Plácido Domingo Vocal Competition in Barcelona. Given the visual limitations of such events, the camerawork is imaginative without being distracting, and the sound, if a little boxy, is perfectly acceptable. Above all there's a great sense of fun to the occasion, and in the final number, Lincke's Berliner Lufte, Domingo is unable to resist seizing the microphone and leading the singing. On the DVD Sound options are either Dolby Digital 5.1 or PCM stereo and the picture is formatted for 16:9 TVs. A variety of goodies have been added to the concert itself, including interviews with Domingo and Sarah Chang, footage of flamenco dancing in Berlin (which is vaguely relevant) and a behind-the-scenes documentary.--Harriet Smith

• Don Giovanni - Mozart | DVD | (27/06/2005) from £3.20   |  Saving you £11.79 (368.44%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Arthaus present another in the Glyndebourne classic opera series this time the long-awaited 1977 production of Don Giovanni directed by Sir Peter Hall.Don Giovanni represents a force of nature without conscience and sense of responsibility. His sole aim in life is to win the female he has just fallen in love with. Therefore all the people around him become his victims. Not able to own up to his crimes he is dragged down to hell.Sir Peter Hall has long been associated with Glyndebourne having directed there since 1970. His production of Mozart's tragic 'opera of all operas' as E.T.A. Hoffman once called it for the 1977 Glyndebourne seasons has received universal praise - a high accolade for such an original production. Celebrated baritone and Glyndebourne favourite Benjamin Luxon perfectly embodies the unconscionable seducer Don Giovanni - although he nearly didn't appear after injuring himself during rehearsals jumping from a balcony as stage directions instructed.

• Berg: Lulu - Zurich/Welser-Most | DVD | (05/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A performance of the Alban Berg opera in two acts plus excerpts from the Lulu Symphony music for the third act which was never completed. Franz Welser-Most conducts.

• On Television: Complete Cbc Broadcasts 1954-1977 | DVD | (06/02/2012) from £75.58   |  Saving you £-16.59 (-28.10%)   |  RRP £58.99

  I will ship by EMS or SAL items in stock in Japan. It is approximately 7-14days on delivery date. You wholeheartedly support customers as satisfactory. Thank you for you seeing it.

• Brahms 1, Dvorak 9, Sibelius 5, Nielsen 3, Four Symphonies: Dausgaard (C Major: 710604) | Blu Ray | (28/05/2012) from £32.38   |  Saving you £-2.39 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £29.99

  I will ship by EMS or SAL items in stock in Japan. It is approximately 7-14days on delivery date. You wholeheartedly support customers as satisfactory. Thank you for you seeing it.

• Elektra | DVD | (05/04/2000) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

• La Sylphide | DVD | (30/05/2005) from £22.89   |  Saving you £2.10 (9.17%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The original choreography by Philippe Taglioni had changed ballet forever. It introduced constitutional features of Romantic Ballet as we know it. These include dance en pointe and the tutu which most certainly owe their omnipresence in ballet to the success of the 1832 staging of La Sylphide in Paris. Everything about the event combined to transform the ballet into a magical spectacle: the libretto inspired by romantic literature the bucolic exoticism of the village wedding festivities the dramatic realism of the Sylvan forest the eerie halo of the gas lights the aerial flights of the dancers the long diaphanous tulle costumes and the ballerina's variations en pointes. Through this work ballet master Philippe Taglioni managed to achieve a magical fusion between mime and artistic dance in a light and flowing style that gave birth to the first white act in the history of ballet.

• Sylvia - Delibes And Neumeier | DVD | (03/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A performance by the Paris National Opera Company choreographed by John Neumeier. Recorded at the Opera National De Paris in March 2005.

• Mitridate Re Di Ponto - Mozart | DVD | (31/01/2005) from £7.33   |  Saving you £17.66 (70.70%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A performance of 'Mitridate' composed when Mozart was just fourteen. Theodore Guschlbauer conducts the Lyon Opera Orchestra recorded live at the Lyon National Opera in 1986.

• Cole Porter - An All Star Tribute | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £21.15   |  Saving you £3.84 (15.40%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Cole PorterAn All-Star TributeEthel MermanPeter NeroJohn RaittMartha WrightGretchen WylerJillanaBell Telephone Hour Orchestra. Donald Voorhees Cond.Telecast of January 28 1964.

• La Traviata - Verdi | DVD | (02/05/2006) from £22.87   |  Saving you £7.12 (23.70%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Norah Amsellem as Violetta leads a cast of outstanding talent in Pier Luigi Pizzi's beautiful production filmed with High Definition cameras and recorded in multi-track surround sound. Jes''s L''pez Cobos conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real (Madrid Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) in an acclaimed reading of one of Verdi's greatest works.

• Sibelius - Violin Concerto / De Falla - Nights In The Gardens Of Spain | DVD | (15/05/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sibelius's solitary concerto is one of the most passionate tests for the violin virtuoso, one to which Maxim Vengerov is more than equal; he captures the work's passion and its occasional quirky patches of the spookily sublime. His performances of the "Sarabande" from the Bach Second Partita, and the "Ballade" from Ysaye's Third Sonata, are admirable encores demonstrating his range and his elegant control. Barenboim's performance of the de Falla Nights is equally virtuoso, bringing out the work's structure as well as its local colour; Domingo's conducting is solid and serviceable. Barenboim ends the concert with three de Falla orchestral showstoppers--the "Farruca" from The Three-Cornered Hat and the "Magic Circle" and "Ritual Fire Dance" from Love the Magician; the Chicago Symphony perform throughout with their usual vigour and fine orchestral colour, but are particularly remarkable in these three encores. On the DVD: The DVD comes with the usual subtitles in standard European languages. --Roz Kaveney