"Director: Claus Viller"

• Rossini: L'Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) | DVD | (04/12/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  L'Italiana in Algeri, Rossini's first real hit as a writer of comic opera, is one of those almost unsinkable works difficult to get entirely right. Michael Hampe's production for the 1987 Schwetzinger festival captures both its charm and its sense of menace--the court of the Bey is both a setting for farce and a place in which the Italian characters are at the mercy of a despot who will not necessarily find things funny. Gunther von Kannen's Mustafa is a convincing Bey of Algiers, with all the arrogance of power and the vulnerability to mockery that goes with it. His adversary, the tough witty proto-feminist Isabella, is given real presence in Doris Soffel's performance--it is entirely credible, listening to her throaty mezzo, that everyone else should be more-than-a-little in love with her. The slightly effete tenor of Robert Gambill as her lover Lindoro makes him a perfect partner in intrigue for her. Conducting Rossini is not just a matter of winding the crescendos up and letting them go; Ralf Weikert is particularly fine in the complicated finale of Act One with its imitations of bells and drums and its complicated vocal lines. The DVD comes with menu material in English, French, German and Spanish, and with English, French and German subtitles; the stereo sound is particularly crisp. --Roz Kaveney

• L'Occasione Fa Il Ladro - Rossini | DVD | (28/04/2006) from £18.88   |  Saving you £6.11 (24.40%)   |  RRP £24.99

  L'occasione fa il ladro is one of the five one-act operas - farsa giocosa - in which the teenage Rossini first demonstrated his operatic genius and in musical terms is by far the most riotous one This sparkling production continues the Rossini one-act opera series emerging from the Schwetzingen Festival.

• La Scala Di Seta - Rossini | DVD | (03/03/2006) from £14.75   |  Saving you £10.24 (69.42%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Gioacchino Rossini's La scala di setaA stage production of the Oper der Stadt Koln and the Opera de Montpellier from the Schwetzinger Festspiele.Recorded live at the Rokokotheater Schwetzingen 6-8 May 1990.

• Tarare - Salieri | DVD | (21/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Salieri opera peformed at the 1988 Schwetzinger Festspiele. 'Tarare' tells the story of the Spirit Of Nature who creates new people in an attempt to cleanse the human race. The results bring love and jealousy. Sung in French.

• Rossini: La Cenerentola (Cinderella) -- Vienna/Chailly | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  La Cenerentola is one of the few operas to have an important subtitle, "The Triumph of Virtue". This Salzburg production makes a point of its being a moral tale rather than a mere fairy tale like the version reflexively sung by Angelina in her "Cavatina": the defeat and forgiveness of the stepsisters and their greedy father is a settling of moral accounts. The production is also tremendous fun--partly because of gimmicks like the mechanical coach and horses that arrives on stage in the high wind of the Act Two storm--but mostly because of the endlessly energetic pulse of Riccardo Chailly's conducting of the Vienna Philharmonic. Anne Murray is an ideal Angelina, equally good at the heroine's witty intelligence and at the complexity of her emotional situation--loyal to the family that mistreats her. Francisco Araiza is an attractive Don Ramirez; the byplay between him and his servant Dandini (Gino Quilico)--in the duet "Zitto, zitto. Piano, piano", for example is for once genuinely amusing. Parts like Don Magnifico were the late Walter Berry's stock-in-trade--his occasionally menacing portrayal is far richer and more interesting than a mere buffoon. On the DVD: As usual with Arthaus Musik, an excellent production and performance is left to sink or swim without any detailed production notes either on the disc or in the leaflet. The sound is standard PCM stereo and the picture ratio 4:3. There are instructions in French, German, English and Spanish and subtitles in all of those languages plus Italian. --Roz Kaveney

• Salieri: Falstaff | DVD | (21/06/2000) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Recorded at the Schwetziner Festspiele in 1995.

• Christa Ludwig - The Birthday Edition | DVD | (28/01/2008) from £22.18   |  Saving you £2.81 (11.20%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The intimate auditorium of the magnificent neo-baroque Volkstheater in Vienna was packed with a discerning and enthusiastic audience when Christa Ludwig gave two master classes there.The first master class focuses on Mozart and concludes with a performance extract featuring the young Christa Ludwig as Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte (1970). The second includes pieces by Beethoven, Bizet and Massenet and, at the end, the greatness of her art is recalled as she is seen singing Mistress Quickly in a production of Verdi's Falstaff (1982).