"Director: Humphrey Burton"

• Verdi: La Traviata -- Royal Opera House | DVD | (12/03/2001) from £16.69   |  Saving you £-2.70 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Angela Gheorghiu's stunning debut as Violetta from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden it was this performance that turned the Romanian soprano into an international sensation. The occasion also marked Sir George Solti's first performances of Verdi's ever-popular tragedy. World-class performances by opera's finest - Frank Lopardo (Alfredo) Leo Nucci (Germont) Leah-Marian Jones (Flora) and Gillian Knight (Annina). With Richard Eyre's dramatic staging Bob Crowley's elegant strik

• Mozart-Piano Concerto 17 | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £11.69   |  Saving you £13.30 (113.77%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Mozart:Piano Concerto Mo.17 Symphony No.39

• Boris Godunov - Mussorgsky | DVD | (05/08/2002) from £17.29   |  Saving you £-2.30 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The legendary Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky helmed his one and only opera in 1983 with this famed production of Mussorgsky's 'Boris Godunov'. Staged at London's famed Royal Opera House the staging features Robert Lloyd giving a masterful performance in the title role. Conductor Valery Gergiev known primarily for his fine work leading St. Petersburg's Kirov Opera takes the baton.

• Mahler-Complete Symphonies | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £63.99

• Giordano: Andrea Chenier - Royal Opera House/Rudel | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-2.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Giordano's Andrea Chenier is one of the greatest of verismo operas, full of heart-stopping big tunes and powerful emotional situations. If it is not as well-known as it should be, it is because in summary it sounds a little too like Puccini's Tosca: there is a tussle between political opponents over a woman, an attempt to save a condemned man, a tenor aria about writing poetry on the eve of execution. The difference is that Gerard (Giorgio Zancanaro) is not a villain like Scarpia, he is an idealist whom the French Revolution has betrayed as much as it has his rival the poet Chenier (Placido Domingo). His temptation to abuse his power to seduce the virtuous Maddalena (Anna Tomowa-Sintow) is a momentary one, though its consequences are terrible. There is a streak of post-Wagnerian decadence in much of this--Maddalena is at least as much in love with death as she is with Chenier, and the final love duet has a deeply sinister aspect. Domingo is at his best in this Covent Garden Opera House performance from 1985; at once ardent and serious-minded, we believe in his Chenier as a poet and political figure. Conductor Julius Rudel gives the rich score all the weight and lyricism it demands and the Covent Garden chorus is at its occasional best in the scenes of revolutionary excess. On the DVD: Andrea Chenier is presented a little disappointingly in NTSC format and 4:3 picture ratio. At least the sound is sumptuous Dolby Digital 5.0. Subtitles are in English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. --Roz Kaveney

• Die Fledermaus | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £10.69   |  Saving you £7.30 (68.29%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The operetta 'Die Fledermaus' is Johann Strauss' most brilliant and best-known stage work. It's a glittering comedy packed with Viennese music that has become a firm favourite in opera houses all over the world. A top international cast really have a ball in this highly-acclaimed 1983 New Years Eve performance from The Royal Opera Covent Garden in which Placido Domingo makes a very stylish British conducting debut. Kiri Te Kanawa stars with her celebrated performance as Rosalinde

• Brahms - Symphonies 1 - 4 - Leonard Bernstein/Wiener Philharmoniker | DVD | (13/08/2007) from £18.95   |  Saving you £3.04 (13.80%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Leonard Bernstein: Brahms Cycle I

• Beethoven - Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7 (Kleiber) | DVD | (22/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  This DVD features both the 'Symphony No.7 in A major op.92' and 'Symphony No.4 in B flat major op.60'.

• The Golden Ring - Wiener Philharmoniker/Sir Georg Solti | DVD | (11/06/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The legendary 1965 BBC film on the pioneering recording by Sir Georg Solti of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Filmed during the recording of Gotterdammerung in the Sofiensale with the Vienna Philharmonic, it features performances by the great Wagner singers Birgit Nilsson, Wolfgang Windgassen, Gottlob Frick, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The DVD also includes ORF's German-language version of the programme (Hinter den Kulissen der Gotterdammerung) featuring different interview footage with Sir Georg Solti.

• Beethoven - Piano Concertos - Leonard Bernstein/Wiener Philharmoniker | DVD | (05/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Tracklisting: Disc One: Beethoven: Piano Cto No.1: Zimerman 1. Allegro con brio 2. Largo 3. Rondo (Allegro scherzando) Beethoven: Piano Cto No.2: Zimerman 1. Allegro con brio 2. Adagio 3. Rondo (Molto allegro) Disc 2 : Beethoven: Piano Cto No.3: Zimerman 1. Allegro con brio 2. Largo 3. Rondo (Allegro) Beethoven: Piano Cto No.4: Zimerman 1. Allegro moderato 2. Andante con moto 3. Rondo (Vivace) Beethoven: Piano Cto No.5: Zimerman 1. Allegro 2. Adagio un poco mosso 3. Rondo (Allegro)

• Rodelinda - Glyndebourne Festival Opera | DVD | (05/09/2005) from £28.00   |  Saving you £-10.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Handel wrote his Italian opera Rodelinda at the height of his musical powers and it is considered to be one of his greatest with music of astonishing power and beauty. This highly praised production filmed in 1998 was the first ever staging of a Handel opera by the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Jean-Marie Villegier's stylish production sets Handel's tale of royal exile and fidelity in the silent movie era. Starring Anna Caterina Antonacci in a glamorous portrayal of Rodelinda an

• 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

• Herbert Von Karajan - New Year's Concert Vienna 1987 | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £47.99   |  Saving you £-33.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Tracklist Features: Strauss - Spharenklange Op. 235 Waltz French Polka Die Fledermaus Overture Kaiser-walzer Op. 43 and An Der Schonen Blauen Donau Op. 314 Waltz

• Schubert - Symphony No. 9/Schumann - Manfred Overture - Bernstein | DVD | (31/03/2008) from £17.69   |  Saving you £7.30 (29.20%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Schubert:Symno.9/Schumann:Manfred Ov

• Mozart - Mass in C Minor | DVD | (15/05/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  This DVD presents three of Mozart's best-loved sacred works filmed in the magnificent Baroque Basilica of Waldsassen Bavaria. Featuring superb soloists his inspirational performance of the great C minor Mass found widespread critical acclaim.

• Mahler - Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 3 (Bernstein, Wiener Po) | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Beginning with the First Symphony Bernstein reveals Mahler's position at the hinge of modernism while emphasizing his emotional extremism The uplifting Second Resurrection Symphony with which Bernstein had an especially long and close association is recorded long and close association is recorded here in a historic performance from 1973 set in the Romanesque splendour of Ely Cathedral. In the Third Bernstein encompasses the symphony's spiritual panorama like no other conductor - with the Vienna Philharmonic players alive to every nuance.

• The Golden Ring | DVD | (08/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When The Golden Ring was aired on the BBC in 1965, it was the longest music documentary ever made. And though now Humphrey Burton's 90-minute black and white film about Georg Solti's landmark recording of Gotterdammerung seems rather rough and naïve in its use of basic documentary techniques, the excitement it conveys about the gargantuan Ring cycle project is still palpable. Underlings scuttle about, engineers endlessly fiddle with knobs, and Decca producer John Culshaw oversees the largest recording project ever undertaken with the command of a great military general. The technical insights are fascinating: all the sound mixing has to be done immediately, for instance, and echo effects are created by placing certain instruments in different rooms with closed-circuit TV cameras giving them Solti's beat. Culshaw's legendary attention to detail is also noted: he had obsolete stierhorns made especially for Hagen's call to the Gibichung vassals. Burton's documentary style is a little awkward, and his use of cut-aways and fades now seems antiquated. But he is sensible enough to allow generous portions of the music to speak for themselves, and the closing scene--Birgit Nilsson singing Brunnhilde's immolation--is simply heart-stopping. Despite the roughness, this film undoubtedly still captures one of the greatest moments in the history of classical music recording. On the DVD: The Golden Ring, as you might expect from a 1965 documentary, has patchy sound and picture quality (from a mixture of video and 16mm film). Occasionally the tape seems to splinter a little and the microphones fail to catch certain conversations with clarity. But somehow it all adds to the raw excitement and doesn't detract from the subject matter. The DVD also includes 69 minutes of audio highlights from the final recording.--Warwick Thompson

• Mozart: Requiem | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  1991 was the 200th anniversary of the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. To mark the occasion Sir Georg Solti conducted this stellar concert offering a performance of ""Requiem"" delivered exactly as the original composer intended. The hallowed surroundings of Saint Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna provided an apt location for the concert particularly as it's where Mozart's funeral rites were conducted in 1791.

• Krystian Zimerman-Chopin and Schubert | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Krystian Zimerman's icom-parable Chopin and Schubert filmed in 1987 by director Humphrey Burton. '' Fascinating visual confirmation of the purely acoustical impression of Zimerman's Chopin recordings.......In the Schubert, flawless pianism, satisfying conceptions, lucid and deft-plus superb piano sound quality'' (FonoForum).

• Rostropovich - Life And Art | DVD | (05/11/2007) from £15.04   |  Saving you £-1.05 (-7.50%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007) one of the 20th century's greatest musicians is captured here on film with the two most famous conductors of his generation - Karajan and Bernstein - in Schumann's Cello Concerto Strauss's Don Quixote and Bloch's Schelomo. The Portrait produced by Arte features the manifold talents of this truly charismatic artist: Rostropovich as a conductor teacher and cellist with interview footage and comments about the great musician by Vengerov and others combined with fantastic historic black & white footage Tracklisting: 1. Nicht zu schnell 2. Langsam 3. Sehr lebhaft Rostropovich / Bloch 4. Lento moderato - Andante moderato - Allegro moderato - Allegro - Andante moderato Rostropovich / Strauss 1. Introduktion (Miges Zeitma) 2. Don Quixote der Ritter von der traurigen Gestalt 3. Sancho Panza 4. Variation 1 (Gemchlich) 5. Variation 2 (Kriegerisch) 6. Variation 3 (Miges Zeitma) 7. Variation 4 (Etwas breiter) 8. Variation 5 (Sehr langsam) 9. Variation 6 (Schnell) 10. Variation 7 (Ein wenig ruhiger als vorher) 11. Variation 8 12. Variation 9 (Schnell und strmisch) 13. Variation 10 (Viel breiter) 14. Finale (Sehr ruhig)