Musicals and Stage

• Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty (Bolshoi Theatre: Svetlana Zakharova, David Hallberg, Maria Allash) | DVD | (03/10/2012) from £23.29   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story -- The Making of the Recording | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Filmed in 1984 for the BBC, the feature-length documentary Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story follows the composer through one week as he records the first-ever complete album of his musical theatre masterpiece. (The previous Broadway cast and original soundtrack albums had both been cut down to single LP length.) Virtually the entire documentary takes place in a New York recording studio with a pick-up orchestra, session singers and headliners Kiri Te Kanawa (Maria), José Carreras (Tony), Tatiana Troyanos (Anita) and Kurt Ollmann (Riff). The 89-minute programme alternates rehearsal footage with complete final takes of the main numbers--including "Tonight", "America", and "Maria"--with a limited amount of comment from the principal players. Te Kanawa explains how much the music means to her, Troyanos notes how she grew-up in the very streets depicted on stage and Carreras provides a rare moment of tension when a session ends unsatisfactorily. Bernstein himself is by turns commanding, charming, enthusiastic or weary. For anyone wanting an extensive insight into what happens as a major album is recorded this is fascinating, though others who just want to enjoy the wonderful music will be better served by the resultant two-CD set. On the DVD: Though filmed for British television, Deutsche Grammophon have chosen to release a single region-free (Region 0) DVD for the entire world. Unfortunately this means the disc is in NTSC format rather than PAL, and requires an NTSC-compatible television for playback. It also means that while the sound has been effectively remastered for PCM stereo the picture shows all the signs of a bad NTSC copy--weak, washed-out colours and poor definition with a serious lack of detail. Most videos are far better. The DVD has subtitles in German, French, Spanish and Chinese. There are no extras, though the booklet adapts an interesting article by producer Humphrey Burton which originally appeared in Gramophone magazine in 1985.--Gary S Dalkin

• Handel: Rinaldo | DVD | (21/05/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Boris Godunov | DVD | (03/01/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Easy Come, Easy Go | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £6.24   |  Saving you £11.01 (221.08%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Navy diver Ted Jackson (Presley) with the help of the skipper's daughter hunts for sunken treasure...

• The Snow Maiden | Blu Ray | (28/05/2021) from £20.90   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Dido & Aeneas, by Henry Purcell / Connolly, Meachem, Crowe, OAE, Hogwood, McGregor, Royal Opera & Ballet (ROH Covent Garden 2009) | Blu Ray | (27/09/2009) from £29.56   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Mamma Mia! The Movie | DVD | (03/07/2018) from £11.30   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Best Of Michael Ball | DVD | (27/11/2006) from £4.56   |  Saving you £15.43 (338.38%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Best Of Michael Ball

• The Essential Musical Collection | DVD | (09/10/2006) from £23.95   |  Saving you £27.04 (112.90%)   |  RRP £50.99

  A box set of classic Warner Brother's musicals. Includes: 1. My Fair Lady (Dir. George Cukor 1964) 2. Singin' in the Rain (Dirs. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly 1952) 3. High Society (Dir. Charles Walters 1956) 4. Calamity Jane (Dir. David Butler 1953) 5. Gigi (Dir. Vincente Minnelli 1958) 6. Annie Get Your Gun (Dir. George Sidney 1950) 7. Meet Me In St Louis (Dir. Vincente Minnelli 1944) 8. Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (Dir. Stanley Donen 1954) 9. The Wizard Of Oz (Dir. Victor Fleming 1939)

• The Royal Opera Collection | Blu Ray | (29/10/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Music Lovers 1970 DVD | DVD | (27/06/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Composer Peter Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) abandons his intimate friend , Count Chiluvsky (Christopher Gable), when Madame Von Meck (Izabella Telezynsky) sponsors him after hearing him perform his First Piano Concerto.A tortured man , unhappy except in his music, Tchaikovsky marries Nina Milukova (Glenda Jackson), a passionate, neurotic woman. When he is unable to fulfill the demands of matrimony, his tensions become so great that he attempts suicide and has a nervous breakdown. Nina’s world also falls apart and she deteriorates into madness and is commited to an asylum.Tchaikovsky recuperates at a country mansion of Madame Von Meck. The two correspond but never meet. At a great party which she holds in his honour, Count Chiluvsky appears, and when Tchaikovsky rebuffs him he tells Madame Von Meck the truth about her protg. She immediately severs all connections with the composer.Tchaikovsky is hurt but continues to compose and conduct throughout the world. World fame does nothing to ameliorate his unhappy state. At the age of 53, after composing his “requiem” his Pathetique Symphony, he deliberately drinks water contaminated with cholera germs.A few days later he is dead. Decades later his music still lives!

• Tannhauser | DVD | (09/07/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Viscera/Carmen | DVD | (29/04/2016) from £23.05   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Radio Parade of 1935 | DVD | (07/02/2011) from £4.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (68.80%)   |  RRP £15.99

  One of the first screen outings for Will Hay. Hay plays the Director General of the National Broadcasting Group (NBG) who hides away in his office unaware that the general feeling about his programming is that it is too high-brow and the public are not happy. However, when he discovers this he decides to take action and promotes Jimmy, his Head of the Complaints Department, to Programme Director. Jimmy decides that a series of variety spectaculars are what the public want and sets about hiring the acts. But obstacles are put in his way and he discovers that the NBG has its own cluster of wannabe variety stars.

• Shaolin Wheel of Life - The Masters Edition | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £8.98   |  Saving you £9.00 (128.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Shaolin Wheel of Life is the critically acclaimed Kung-Fu extravaganza that has thrilled and astonished audiences all over the world. The Masters Edition not only contains the amazing original show but is packed with truly exceptional additional footage. We travel to the wilds of China to the actual Shaolin Temple where the Grand Masters perform spectacular new feats of breathtaking Kung-Fu. This special edition also includes previously unreleased footage from the original show whi

• The Beggar's Opera | DVD | (07/04/2008) from £10.35   |  Saving you £5.64 (54.49%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Beggar's Opera captures the quality and satiric edge of the Hogarth engravings that influenced John Gay's original version. The fast-paced scenes scintillating dialogue and inventive music have made this ballad opera an overwhelming success time and again.

• Singin' in the Rain - Double Play (Blu-ray + DVD | Blu Ray | (12/11/2012) from £13.79   |  Saving you £11.20 (81.22%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds, and featuring unforgettable song and dance classics like 'Singin' in the Rain', 'Make 'Em Laugh' and 'All I Do Is Dream of You', it has just about everything you could ask for in a movie musical.Set in Hollywood in the roaring 20s, co-starring Jean Hagen and the incomparable Cyd Charisse, and featuring a spectacular, 12-minute 'Broadway Ballet' finale, it is indisputably, the most enjoyable of all American movie musicals.

• Step Up 3: 3D Edition | Blu Ray | (29/11/2010) from £7.99   |  Saving you £22.00 (275.34%)   |  RRP £29.99

  New York's intense street dancing underground comes alive in eye-popping Digital 3D in the third installment of the Step Up franchise as the raw passion-fuelled culture goes global. A tight-knit group of street dancers including Luke (Rick Malambri) and Natalie (Sharni Vinson) team up with NYU freshman Moose (Adam G. Sevani) and find themselves pitted against the world's best break-dancers in a high-stakes showdown that will change their lives forever.

• Slade in Flame | DVD | (02/04/2007) from £20.85   |  Saving you £-5.86 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  This deluxe set features a brand new print of the film transferred and digitally remastered from the original negative alongside a remastered CD of the original soundtrack album, one of Slade's most accomplished and varied recordings.