"Actor: Richard Bonynge"

• Verdi: Il Trovatore -- Opera Australia | DVD | (05/06/2002) from £22.89   |  Saving you £2.10 (9.17%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Il Trovatore, Verdi's 1853 maelstrom of passion, infanticide, double-crossing and revenge, would be a mightily gamy affair if it didn't contain some of his finest arias, a cracker of a tenor's role and one of opera's most powerfully-written characters in the old gypsy woman, Azucena. Although Joan Sutherland, who plays the self-sacrificing lady-in-waiting Leonora in this 1983 Australia Opera production at Sydney Opera House, is the headline star, in truth the supreme assets of this recording are mezzo-soprano Lauris Elms' Azucena, a beautifully sung performance of haunted, wild-eyed sadness; and Sydney Nolan's wonderfully infernal sets, all purple and burnt ochre with suggestions of distorted faces. Sutherland came late to a part which allowed her to sing up a storm without taxing her rather stolid acting style. Her husband and musical director Richard Bonynge gives her the space to unleash some of Verdi's most fluidly opulent melodies--"D'amor sull'ali rosee" is a case in point--whose beauty is often at odds with the underlying horrors of the tale, based on a rather dodgy Spanish melodrama by Gutierrez. Sutherland has strong support from tenor Kenneth Collins as the doomed Manrico and Jonathan Summers as the vengeful Count. On the DVD: Il Trovatore on disc offers the inevitable shortcomings of a filmed for television performance: to the detriment of Nolan's designs (and the hard-pressed make-up team), the lighting doesn't translate well to video. Presented in 4:3 picture format, the quality is frequently murky. The PCM Stereo soundtrack also has its flat and fuzzy moments, particularly during chorus scenes ("Vedi! Le fosche notturne spoglie") when the orchestra drowns out the singing. But on the whole Sutherland et al sound great.--Piers Ford

• Strauss: Die Fledermaus -- Royal Opera House | DVD | (16/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Originally broadcast live by the BBC from the Royal Opera House on New Year's Eve 1990, this production of Die Fledermaus, Johann Strauss' masterpiece of comic operetta, was a truly historic occasion, marking the retirement from the stage of one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century, Dame Joan Sutherland. Sung in English, in a version by John Mortimer, conducted by Sutherland's husband Richard Bonynge and directed for television by Humphrey Burton, this is an exceptional translation from stage to screen. The story, an elaborate farce with elements of satirical comedy set around a lavish masked ball in 19th-century Vienna comes to life through outstanding performances by a large, vivacious cast, including Judith Howarth, Nancy Gustason and Jochen Kowalski as Prince Orlofsky. Gorgeously designed, wonderfully costumed and enthusiastically played as it is, attention inevitably centres on the "special recital" by the "surprise guests": Sutherland herself, Marilyn Horne and Luciano Pavarotti. No finer, more exhilarating and touching a farewell could have been imagined. After the curtain there is a short, on-stage tribute to Sutherland by Jeremy Isaacs, bringing to a close a glorious, unforgettable evening of music-making for which the word "glittering" might have been invented. --Gary S. Dalkin On the DVD: By presenting the production on two discs the picture quality is maximised, and, by the standards of live-filmed opera, is very good indeed. The discs are presented with PCM stereo sound and a 4:3 TV ratio image. There are options for French and German subtitles, but unless trailers for two further Arthaus DVDs count, there are no extras. The booklet is well documented, though lacking the libretto. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Donizetti - Lucia Di Lammermoor (Bonynge) | DVD | (21/11/2005) from £17.90   |  Saving you £2.09 (11.68%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Lucia di Lammermoor - Tragic Drama in Three Acts.With an exhilarating performance of her signature role Dame Joan Sutherland captivates the audience in this elaborate production of Donizetti's bel canto masterpiece taped during its celebrated 1982 run at the Metropolitan Opera.

• Sutherland / Pavarotti / Bonynge Gala Concert | DVD | (02/05/2006) from £28.60   |  Saving you £-13.61 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Live From Sydney Opera House (Joan Sutherland / Luciano Pavarotti)

• Joan Sutherland - Bel Canto Showcase - Voice Of Firestone | DVD | (07/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

• Centennial Gala | DVD | (07/09/2009) from £21.91   |  Saving you £-1.92 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Here are the greatest moments from the 'ultimate in galas' (Opera), a 'roof-rattling vocal display and the kind of cheering and free-flowing, heartfelt emotion on both sides of the footlights that opera evinces more than any other art form' - New York TimesThe gala celebration immediately catches the attention with spectacular performances by stars such as Dame Joan Sutherland, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Mirella Freni, Marilyn Horne, Birgit Nilsson, Luciano Pavarotti, Jos Carreras, PlcidoDomingo, Nicolai Gedda, Alfredo Kraus and many others 'The world's most famous opera singers [in] a dazzlingsequence of performances' - New York Times 'It's always a privilege to sing at the Met, but this is somethingvery special. I don't think there's ever been anything this grand in the history of opera' - Luciano PavarottiThis product features an awesome roster of international star conducters: from James Levine, Leonard Bernstein and Thomas Fulton to Jeffrey Tate, Richard BonyngeTracklistingDisc 11. Opening Credits / MET Centennial Gala2. Overture The Bartered Bride 3. In questa reggia 4. Dove sono i bei momenti 5. Dio! mi potevi scagliar 6. No.6 Aria: La calunnia (Var. di M. Pierre Rode) 7. Chi mi frena in tal momento 8. Bel raggio lusinghier 9. Son io! Son io la Vita! 10. Presentation of the Rose 11. Va! je t'ai pardonn 12. Una furtiva lagrima 13. Ernani! Ernani, involami 14. Hab mir's gelobt 15. Gi nella notte densa (Love Duet) Disc 21. Opening / MET Centennial Gala2. Ouvertre Leonore III op. 72a 3. La nostra morte il trionfo dell'amor 4. Air de Lia 5. Bacchanale 6. Donna, chi sei? 7. No.31 Alerte, alerte! 8. Viene la sera 9. Va sossopra il mio cervello 10. Mon coeur s'ouvre ta voix 11. Wie lachend sie mir Lieder singen 12. Fjorton ar tror jag (When I was seventeen) 13. Teco io sto - Grand Dio! (Gustavo, Amelia) 14. Happy Birthday To You

• A Gala Concert With Joan Sutherland And Marilyn Horne | DVD | (06/08/2001) from £16.17   |  Saving you £6.81 (51.67%)   |  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

• Kiri Te Kanawa - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa - A Portrait | DVD | (24/08/2001) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-1.59 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A portrait of one of the most famous sopranos of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries filmed over a year. The camera follows her on her trips to New Zealand and the San Francicsco Opera. The DVD also includes recordings of Arias by Handel Charpentier Puccini Cilea and Richard Strauss.

• Sleeping Beauty | DVD | (05/04/2000) from £29.68   |  Saving you £-4.69 (-18.80%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty is here transformed by the masterful contemporary choreographer Mats Ek into an allegory of repression, love and emotional maturity set in a bleak, stylised postmodern limbo which is both chilling and, just occasionally, bleakly humorous. Traditionalists may be flinching already, but this is a ballet which has always lent itself to this kind of treatment. Indeed, what many will think of as the "traditional" interpretation is in fact Diaghilev's forward-looking production of 1921, which had sets and costumes by Bakst and re-instrumentation by Stravinsky. Ek's Princess inhabits a world seemingly out of Fritz Lang, where Carabosse is a drug-dealing low-life and the Fairies are a gaggle of sneering girlies. Ek removes his work from the classical tradition to a large degree, but what goes in its place is a highly disciplined yet tactile and gut-wrenchingly emotive approach, conveying both the external and internal narratives of the work with unfailing conviction. --Roger Thomas

• Adriana Lecouvreur - Cilea | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £31.16   |  Saving you £-14.91 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Francesco Cilea's most popular work is based on the 1849 play by Eugene Scribe and Ernest Legouve. Adriana Lecouvreur is a star of the stage who could seemingly have any man she desires but when she falls hopelessly in love with the Count of Saxony she discovers he's already been promised to the Princess of Bouillon leading to a battle of wills between them.Filmed at Sydney Opera House Australia.

• Art of Joan Sutherland - Operatic Scenes & Recital | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £12.98   |  Saving you £15.01 (53.60%)   |  RRP £27.99

  This disc presents Dame Joan Sutherland one of the legends of the opera world in two historic telecasts from the archives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.The first program originally telecast in 1963 Dame Joan takes us on a fascinating journey through the Golden Age of Opera as she pays tribute to some of her most illustrious predecessors. Following in their tradition Miss Sutherland performs arias from Verdi's La Traviata Rossini's Semiramide Bellini's I Puritani and more. In duets from Bellin's La Sonnambula and Donizetti's Don Pasquale she is joined by the elegant bel canto tenor Richard Conrad.The second program is a rare document of Dame Joan in recital taped live in Toronto in 1969. Those who know the singer solely from her great operatic characterizations will be captivated by the intimate Sutherland in direct communication with entranced listeners as she performs songs by Bononcini Handel Bellini Rossini Gretchaninoff Alabiev Abt Gounod Bizet Massenet Deliibes and Balfe.Sir Richard Bonynge Dame Joan's husband and musical mentor leads the CBC Symphony Orchestra in the operatic selections and then accompanies the soprano on piano for the recital program.

• Kiri Te Kanawa - Opera in the Outback | DVD | (25/09/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Opera in the Outback features internationally renowned diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing a superb selection of songs from opera favorites such as Puccini's Tosca through to the popular classics of Richard Rogers and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Dame Kiri is also joined by the Adnymathanha Women's Choir the region's indigenous women's choir for the world debut of the Warrioota Song. Set against the spectacular backdrop of Yalkarinha Gorge in the South Australian Flinders Ranges Opera in the Outback is a truly magical event. Track List / Composer: 1. Prince Igor Overture / Borodin 2. Bailero / Canteloube 3. Malurous qu'o uno fenno / Canteloube 4. La Delaissado / Canteloube 5. Lou Boussu / Canteloube 6. Vissi d'arte / Puccini 7. Signore ascolta / Puccini 8. Un bel di vedremo / Puccini 9. Adagio / Khachaturian 10.Wayanta Lullaby / Traditional 11.Warrioota Song / Soutelle 12. Viliwarunha manyinga / Traditional 13. Marietta's Lied / Korngold 14. Chanson d'enfance / Lloyd Webber 15. Unexpected Song / Lloyd Webber 16. The Jellicle Ball / Lloyd Webber 17. How Deep Is The Ocean / Berlin 18. I Believe / Drake Shirl Graham Stillman 19. You'll Never Walk Alone / Rodgers 20. Summertime / Gershwin 21. O mio babbino caro / Puccini