"Actor: Orchestra"

• Gianni Schicchi - Puccini | DVD | (30/05/2005) from £16.37   |  Saving you £3.62 (18.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Alessandro Corbelli takes the title role in Annabel Arden's whirlwind production of Puccini's compact opera in which the scheming Gianni Schicchi retrieves for himself the spoils of a disinherited family to pave the way for his daughter to marry her love.

• Britten: Death In Venice | Blu Ray | (02/03/2014) from £25.65   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Live in London | DVD | (04/07/2011) from £15.98   |  Saving you £1.01 (6.32%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Tracklist 1. Casa Loma Stomp 2. I Can't Dance 3. Me And Jane In A Plane 4. Happy Go Lucky You (And Broken Hearted Me) 5. Polka Dot Rag 6. About A Quarter To Nine 7. Marigold 8. There's A Wah-Wah Gal in Agua Caliente 9. Air Brakes 10. Black And Tan Fantasy 11. Happy Feet 12. St. Louis Blues 13. Jungle Nights In Harlem 14. Yes We Have No Bananas 15. Where The Blue Of The Night (Meets The Gold Of The Day) 16. That's My Weakness Now 17. Royal Garden Blues 18. Bluebirds And Blackbirds 19. I Can't Get Started 20. Nobody's Sweetheart 21. As Time Goes By 22. Tiger Rag 23. Side By Side 24. Home In Pasadena

• Tchaikovsky: Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades) | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £20.02   |  Saving you £6.23 (33.21%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This Glyndebourne production of Pique Dame ("The Queen of Spades") received rave reviews when it appeared in 1992 due to its claustrophobic intensity and powerful acting, and these qualities help it to transfer to DVD with great success. Graham Vick's direction ensures that the story is told clearly and simply but includes a wealth of telling details: the pastoral scene from Act 2, for example, uses the boys from the opening chorus as comical sheep and the effect is enchanting. But there are much darker undertones too: Richard Hudson's slanting, angular designs produce a disorientating atmosphere which mirrors Herman's increasing mental deterioration with uncanny precision. There is a brilliant stroke of visual assonance when the Countess returns to haunt Herman and all the furniture from her death scene appears on the roof. The singing is generally good, though Yuri Marusin's voice may not be to everyone's taste; sometimes he sounds like he's shouting, and his frequent lack of vibrato produces a piercing, uncomfortable effect. Nancy Gustafson is a fine Lisa, however, and Dimitri Kharitonov (Yeletsky) is heartbreaking in the famous "Ya vas lyublyu" ("I love you") aria. For overall better singing but a more plodding production, try the 1992 Kirov recording, but for spine-tingling drama this is the one to go for. On the DVD: Pique Dame on disc has subtitles in English, German, French and Spanish. The camerawork captures the odd angularity of the designs and gives an excellent account of a fast-paced, powerful production.--Warwick Thomson

• Mozart - Violin Concertos 1-5, Sinfonia Concertante (Kremer) | DVD | (10/04/2006) from £19.89   |  Saving you £2.10 (9.50%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Mozart: Kremer Plays Mozart

• Macbeth - Verdi | DVD | (29/08/2005) from £4.99   |  Saving you £25.00 (501.00%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Carlos Alvarez takes the title role in the first of Verdi's Shakespearean operas with Maria Guleghina as the manipulative wife whose desire to gain the Scottish throne drives her husband to murder and leaves both with blood on their hands. Bruno Campanella conducts the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in the 2004 recording of Phyllida Lloyd's powerful production first staged at London's Royal Opera House.

• Wagner - Tristan Und Isolde | DVD | (18/01/2008) from £31.05   |  Saving you £3.94 (12.69%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Richard Wagner - Tristan Und Isolde.

• Kiss - Symphony | DVD | (28/04/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Kiss bassist/chief provocateur/world-class swagmeister Gene Simmons once infamously claimed that his cartoon shock-rockers were more influential than Dylan, though the driving sentiment behind Kiss Symphony, a chronicle of the band's liaison with the Melbourne Symphony, seems to paraphrase "Love Minus Zero": "There's no success like excess / and excess is the best success of all" The history of the fusion of rock bands and orchestras is a long and notoriously spotted one, though matters of decorum have seldom concerned--or deterred--Kiss. Disc One of this two-DVD set outlines the genesis of the project, with an earnest and typically irony-free Simmons meeting with perpetually bemused conductor David Campbell to discuss mutual musical quandaries, such as synchronising explosions and whether the orchestra can get their Kiss make-up on with due haste. Rehearsal and preparation footage display an unusually affable orchestra and band, a mood that carries over into its pyrotechnic-punctuated greatest-hits set with the band (Paul Thayer ably filling the platforms of the departed Ace Frehley). It all works surprisingly well, if at some pitched, Vegas-showroom-in-hell level of bombast. It's a technically impressive show and package, if one that feels distinctly padded as a double-disc (the performance of the "Symphony"'s Act III is repeated on both discs). Less is more? Not here. --Jerry McCulley

• New Year's Concert 2005 | DVD | (31/01/2005) from £14.98   |  Saving you £2.01 (13.42%)   |  RRP £16.99

  The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in concert conducted by Lorin Maazel....

• Die Fledermaus - Johann Strauss | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Strauss: Die Fledermaus (2 Discs)

• Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 2 And 4 | DVD | (02/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerts 2 and 4 by Francois-Rene Duchable and the Paris Ensemble Orchestra; conducted by John Nelson. Live from the Royal Opera House Versailles Palace.

• Berg: Lulu - Glyndebourne Festival Opera | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Alban Berg's second and last opera Lulu is one of the monuments of modernism, constructed around serial technique and containing scenes conceived of as Sonata-form, Suite and so on. The bliss of Andrew Davis's conducting in this classic Glyndebourne production is that we forget all of this--Davis doesn't gloss over the music's intellectual content, but that's not what we think about as we watch and listen. Part of the production's strength is the prodigious performance by Christine Schafer as Lulu--for once we believe in the character's sexual energy and power; and Schafer makes her real enough as a person that we largely forget the work's intrinsic misogyny. The rest of the cast are admirable too: Norman Bailey brings something perversely sweet to the disreputable painter Schigolch; Kathryn Harries makes the dying words of Lulu's lesbian lover Geschwitz one of the work's lyric high points; David Kuebler is equally powerful as Alwa. The final duet between Lulu and her destroyer Jack the Ripper is one of Wolfgang Schone's great moments, but he is equally good as Dr Schon, the man Lulu marries and kills. This is a performance of energy and beauty, matched by a simple but effective production. On the DVD Lulu on disc is presented in disappointingly in NTSC format with a 4:3 picture ratio. Fortunately, the Dolby 2.0 digital sound is ideal for the fine detail of this complex score and these nuanced performances. There are subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. --Roz Kaveney

• Le Nozze Di Figaro | DVD | (23/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Recorded at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera 1973.

• Coppelia | DVD | (15/10/2001) from £3.06   |  Saving you £23.19 (1,288.33%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This 1994 French TV presentation of Delibes' Coppelia reflects choreographer Maguy Marin's commitment to total theatre, seeking to find a fresh and exciting way of making ballet a rewarding experience on the home screen. One of the problems of filmed live ballet is the video presentation often fails to capture the experience of being in the theatre, something this dynamic production shot on location and in the studio circumvents in a highly visual way. Relocating Hoffman's tale of Doctor Coppelia's automaton and troubled young love to contemporary run-down urban France, the opening folk-dances are set around a hard-court game of football which unequivocally evokes the opening of West Side Story (1961). Throughout classical dance blends with modern, jazz, mine and physical theatre, while the adapted story offers a critique of the modern obsession with visual icons and the power of illusory fantasy over reality. Romantic, witty and filled with a surreal imaginative poetry in a lineage descended from the films of Jean (La Belle et la Bete) Cocteau and Michael (The Red Shoes, Peeping Tom) Powell, this is a Coppelia for anyone who enjoyed Mats Ek's Sleeping Beauty (1999). Purists be warned, Marin dispenses with half the score, making her version last just 60 minutes. On the DVD: The 1.77-1 anamorphically enhanced widescreen picture is excellent, benefiting greatly from being lit and shot like a feature film rather than the video of live ballet productions. The PCM stereo sound is equally good, making this widescreen presentation technically superior to other TV classical music releases from the same date. There is a 12-minute interview with Marin (in French with English subtitles) in which she outlines her background, her idea of theatre, and explains her conception of the film and explores why she cut so much of the original ballet. Also included are trailers of four other Arthaus releases and a multi-language 24-page booklet with full credits and notes on Delibes, Marin, Nagano and the performance. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Mikado | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £17.41   |  Saving you £-2.42 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Mikado is the comedy classic in which W.S Gilbert's 'topsy-turvy' words meet with a supreme musical response from Sir Arthur Sullivan. This is the most widely-loved and by general agreement hilarious of the Savoy Operas set in a wonderfully make-believe Japan.Filmed at Sydney Opera House Australia.

• Samson Et Dalila - Saint-Saens | DVD | (09/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  A production of the Saint-Saens opera performed by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Conducted by the esteemed James Levine.

• Schubert: The Trout / The Greatest Love And The Greatest Sorrow | DVD | (27/06/2005) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Trout is an exuberant explosion of youthful enjoyment in music: first from Schubert himself who wrote his famous Trout quintet when he was 22 years old and then from five young artists of the highest rank. They pick up the spirit of Schubert's music magnificently both in preparation and rehearsal and in their 1969 performance of the work which has become one of the most remembered ever given.The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow is a film which sets out to bring the viewer closer not to the details of Schubert's life but to the spirit of what he was trying to express with what he called his creative gift and with which he tried to brighten the world. The film begins with the funeral of Beethoven at which Schubert was a torch-bearer and the story is told almost entirely in music that Schubert wrote in the twenty months that remained to him after that date together with quotations from his letters and diaries and the words that he chose to set in some of his songs.

• Gugielmo Tell - Rossini | DVD | (23/04/2004) from £17.93   |  Saving you £-4.94 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A performance of Rossini's 'Guglielmo Tell'. Sung in Italian with subtitles.

• Minkus: La Bayadere | Blu Ray | (04/01/2011) from £25.65   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Paavo Jarvi Meets Elisabeth Leonskaia | DVD | (27/08/2007) from £15.89   |  Saving you £0.10 (0.60%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1936 and since then has hosted most of the worlds greatest conductors and soloists. In this DVD the orchestra welcomes one of the great conductors of our time Paavo Jrvi as well as the renowned pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja. The DVD features the Michail Glinka Russian and Ludmilla overture Brahms concerto for piano and orchestra and Schumann Symphony no.1