"Actor: Orchestra"

• Janacek: Jenufa -- Glyndebourne | DVD | (22/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Janacek's masterpiece Jenufa, captured in this 1989 Glyndebourne Festival Opera production, is among the most revived modernist works. Compared with much grand opera, the story of one woman's struggle to rise free from social constraints at a terrible cost is remarkably poignant, credible and accessible. Scenes are short and intense. The music shimmers with Janacek's characteristic blend of sweetness and sharp dissonance. His men are damaged and angry; his women kick against the expectations of convention. Tragedy is inevitable, but here, unusually, hope triumphs. In the title role, Roberta Alexander is utterly convincing as the stepdaughter of the Kostelnicka Buryja, placing her love and trust in the wrong man with dire consequences. As the Kostelnicka, Anja Silja turns in an equally towering performance, unravelling with the awful consequences of her pragmatism. Alexander's fluid soprano reveals the extraordinary beauty of some of Janacek's finest arias: the moment when she becomes supernaturally aware of her baby's fate--it's "as if death was peering into the house!"--and is actually singing prayers for its soul is quite overwhelming. This Jenufa is sung splendidly; a revelation of the essential humanity which lurks at the heart of the greatest operas. On the DVD: This production was filmed for Channel 4 and has all the hallmarks of a 1980s television broadcast: standard 4:3 picture format which limits the impact of Tobias Hoheisel's magnificent expressionistic set; PCM stereo which somewhat dulls Andrew Davis' sterling, powerful work at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (although the principal singers shine through); poor subtitles; and static freeze-frame links between scenes. As a record of an important production, though, it suffices. --Piers Ford

• Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg | Blu Ray | (02/09/2012) from £28.55   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione di Poppea -- Glyndebourne | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Peter Hall's lavishly staged L'Incoronazione di Poppea celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Glyndebourne in 1984 with a performance of Monteverdi's most celebrated and also most controversial opera. The score is conductor Raymond Leppard's "enhanced" edition, which he had premiered at Glyndebourne back in 1962, fully scored for a large orchestra. Much debate circles around the forces appropriate for performing Monteverdi's decidedly minimalist work, but one thing at least is certain: it didn't sound anything like this in the 17th century! Never mind, however inauthentic it may be, Leppard's big and beefy orchestral updating--including a fulsome continuo group with pairs of harpsichords, organs and cellos, as well as lute, guitar and harp--supports the weighty melodrama nicely. The singers, too, are full-bodied, led by a fruity Maria Ewing as Poppea (in various revealing outfits) sounding suitably seductive, and Dennis Bailey, oddly lovely of voice as Nero (one of the opera's controversial aspects is the heroic central role accorded to these two thoroughly wicked characters). Perhaps best of all is Robert Lloyd as Seneca, who not only boasts a profound, reverberant bass, but also looks the part under beard and toga. With an onstage chorus to lament him, Seneca's death scene is the most moving in the opera. Peter Hall's clever staging keeps the Olympians--Love, Fortune and Virtue--permanently watching from above as the venal humans below act out this tragedy of poisoned love. The no-frills DVD has subtitles in English, French, German and Spanish. --Mark Walker

• 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.

• The Cleveland Orchestra At Carnegie Hall | DVD | (15/10/2007) from £10.45   |  Saving you £12.54 (120.00%)   |  RRP £22.99

  The Cleveland Orch At Carnegie Hall

• Elgar: Enigma Variations | DVD | (29/03/2005) from £13.47   |  Saving you £6.52 (48.40%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Includes BBC drama documentary A Hidden Portrait presented by Sir Andrew Davis plus a complete performance of The Enigma Variations given in Elgar's home town of Worcester by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

• Puccini: Madama Butterfly -- Verona/Arena | DVD | (11/06/2001) from £3.49   |  Saving you £15.76 (706.73%)   |  RRP £17.99

  This traditional production of Puccini's enduringly popular opera Madama Butterfly should give much pleasure. It was recorded at the open-air theatre in Verona in 1983 with the local orchestra and chorus under the aptly named Maurizio Arena. The video direction is by an expert in the field, Brian Large, who brings home all the intimate moments of Puccini's drama from an open set that ascends and sprawls across rows of seating. His camera draws the viewer into scenes that the audience cannot witness at their distance--most movingly when Sharpless, the American consul in Nagasaki, gives up his attempt to read Pinkerton's letter to Butterfly saying he has no intention of seeing her again (set to that magical melody which will recur as the humming chorus). It's of little matter that there are no operatic stars in the cast for this ensemble consists of experienced singers who fill the night air with lungs to match Puccini's heaviest demands. The audience, many of them evidently on holiday, greet the show-stopping moments with waves of applause. Their enthusiasm may drown a few bars of orchestral continuity but the orchestra itself is always at the service of the singers on a soundtrack that captures the atmosphere of an open-air performance with astonishing verisimilitude. Butterfly, sung by the statuesque Raina Kabaivanska, may not see Cio-Cio San (to give "butterfly" her real name) 16 years again and some of her arm movements are overdone but her big number "Un bel di" and its reprise when she's holding her child by Pinkerton are touchingly conveyed. Neither does she overplay the final scene where she prepares to follow her father's example using the Mikado's dagger to commit suicide--a moment that sends a shiver down the spine in its economy. Nazzareno Antinori as her Pinkerton, with his matinée idol looks and resonant voice, complements her well; their singing of Puccini's spacious love duet at the close of Act One goes down a treat with the crowd. --Adrian Edwards

• Theodora - Glyndebourne Festival Opera | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  This production of Handel's tragic and moving oratorio took Glyndebourne by storm when it was first staged in 1996. Sellars took Handel's tale of self-sacrificial love between a Christian virgin and a Roman imperial bodyguard in fourth century enemy occupied Antioch and by resetting it in modern-day America transformed it into a timeless parable of spiritual resistance to tyranny and persecution.

• Puccini - La Boheme (Levine, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £13.58   |  Saving you £0.40 (3.78%)   |  RRP £10.99

  Puccini - La Boheme (Levine Metropolitan Opera Orchestra)

• Wiener Festwochen 1963 - Wiener Philarmoniker - Hans Knappertsbusch | DVD | (03/11/2003) from £22.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (-15.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

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

• Roger Waters - The Wall - Live In Berlin | DVD | (28/04/2003) from £30.00   |  Saving you £-15.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Time: In 1989 the Berlin Wall for so long the symbol of the cold war came crashing down. 12 months later this defining moment was marked by one of the greatest rock concerts of all time. The Place: Postdamer Platz sat between the two Berlin walls which divided the city. For decades people had died trying to escape Communism to Capitalism. In 1990 this extraordinary concert would open up this historic landmark. The Performances: Special Guests: Bryan Adams The Band: Rick Danko Gareth Hudson Levon Helm Paul Carrack Thomas Dolby James Galway Jerry Hall The Hooters Cyndi Lauper Ute Lemper Paddy Maloney Joni Mitchell Van Morrison Sinead O'Connor and Scorpions.

• E.L.O.-Out of This/Discovery | DVD | (01/12/2008) from £7.69   |  Saving you £3.30 (30.00%)   |  RRP £10.99

  The Seventies was the decade when rock became show business. And nobody put on a better show than the Electric Light Orchestra. The whole world plugged in as the best of classical met the pop generation. The result? Classic rock! George Harrison himself once said that if the Beatles had stayed together they would have sounded like the ELO. But their Out of the Blue Tour took them into another dimension altogether. Captured live at London's Wembley Arena in 1978 this space-age show

• R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier - Royal Opera House/Solti | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Strauss' dazzling opera Der Rosenkavalier set in 1740's Vienna combines farce romance and a world of weary acknowledgement of getting older. It features some of the most gorgeous music ever written for the female voice.

• The Bolshoi Ballet 2 | DVD | (31/03/2008) from £21.99   |  Saving you £18.00 (81.86%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The Bolshoi Ballet 2 contains performances of:- Ivan The Terrible- The Stone Flower- Spartacus- RaymondaPerformances recorded at the Bolshoi Theatre, 1989, 1990.

• Peter Grimes | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Benjamin Britten's powerful opera 'Peter Grimes' is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the 20th century. In this famous production by Elijah Moshinsky for The Royal Opera Canadian tenor Jon Vickers stars as the complex and misunderstood fisherman. The conductor is Sir Colin Davis who worked for several years with the cast of this production resulting in a masterly interweaving of characters in this gripping drama. ""One of the most riveting operatic impersonations o

• Penderecki - Seven Gates Of Jerusalem | DVD | (25/09/2000) from £22.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (-15.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Poland's Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the late-20th century's great composers of religious works, of which his Symphony No. 7, Seven Gates of Jerusalem is but the latest example. (Typically for the restless Penderecki, he hasn't even written his Symphony No. 6 yet!). Penderecki began as a radical avant-gardist who transformed the string orchestra into a shrieking, plucking and banging machine in his 1959 Threnody; but has managed to become one of the most accessible composers around today. This absolutely stunning release is a must for all Penderecki aficionados. Not only does it showcase a first-rate rendition of the bombastic but genuinely affecting Seven Gates of Jerusalem in Cannes, in 2000--conducted by the composer himself--but also is crammed with enticing bonus features. There's a short interview with Penderecki, discussing the genesis of the "Seven Gates" in both English and German; comments by the work's narrator, Boris Carmelli; an onscreen score and Penderecki's subtitled commentary, both synchronous with the music; and Andreas Missler-Morell's illuminating hour-long profile of the composer. --Kevin Filipski, Amazon.com

• Beethoven: Symphonies 1- 9 (Barenboim) | DVD | (06/08/2013) from £31.59   |  Saving you £8.40 (21.00%)   |  RRP £39.99

  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.

• Electric Light Orchestra - Out Of The Blue Live At Wembley | DVD | (01/12/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Electric Light Orchestra are one of the most successful British bands of all time. Formed after the break up of The Move in 1970 they pioneered the integration of orchestral instruments into pop music and released a series of groundbreaking and increasingly successful albums through the seventies that culminated in the multi-million selling 'Out Of The Blue'. Tracklist: 1.Introduction 2.Standing In The Rain 3.Night In The City 4.Turn To Stone 5.Tightrope 6.Telephone Line

• Gounod-Romeo Et Juliette | DVD | (28/07/2008) from £17.49   |  Saving you £-2.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Charles-Francois Gounod's 'Romeo et Juliette', performed by the Royal Opera Chorus and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, and conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.

• Stravinsky: The Firebird & Les Noces -- Royal Ballet | DVD | (12/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Two very different Stravinsky ballets are here presented by The Royal Ballet: the traditional, colourful designs perfectly suit the opulence of The Firebird, contrasting with the later, more austere, ritualistic scoring and choreography of Les Noces ("The Wedding"). Firebird is a traditional fairytale: the Prince gets his girl (a princess, naturally), with a little help from a magical Firebird, by defeating the evil Kostchei, who's holding the Princess and her fellow maidens captive. The devil notoriously gets all the best tunes, and with the riveting presence of David Drew's Kostchei it's apparent that baddies get the best moves in dance, too. Leanne Benjamin is an immensely athletic Firebird and Jonathan Cope, as the Prince, dances with style and personality. Les Noces is, by contrast, a genuine ensemble piece, with the principals (the bride and groom) being almost less important than the corps de ballet itself. There are a few moments of less-than-perfect ensemble here, but these pale into insignificance in the face of the raw power of Stravinsky's angular music (scored for four pianos, percussion and chorus with solo voices). A third item finds Stravinsky conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra in his own Firebird Suite. The date was 1965 and he was a frail 83 at the time, but the concentration of the reading is compelling, as is his own stern visage, only breaking into a smile at the very end of the performance. This is an excellent filler for a first-rate ballet release. On the DVD: The Firebird & Les Noces on this disc are presented with terrific technical values, both visually and in sound quality (the Stravinsky archive performance is in mono, however, but it's perfectly respectable). This is a real feast for the eye, backed up by solid documentation in the booklet and excellent additional features--David Drew's arch and entertaining "Nijinska's World" and behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage--that will appeal to both seasoned ballet fans and those who are new to the art form. --Harriet Smith