Produced with the cast of a year-2000 Stuttgart stage version, this performance of Handel's 1735 opera Alcina has been specially shot for home viewing without the audience present (though applause is heard during the closing credits). Director Janos Darvas enhances the usual low theatre illumination with stronger television-friendly lighting to provide more detail, and he also takes his cameras much closer to the artists than live performance permits, offering film-style close-ups that greatly enhance the drama. With just eight performers and an essentially static set--though some intriguing interesting things are done with a large "mirror"--this intimate approach proves an enormous advantage.

Handel's complex tale of intense romantic entanglement on the island of the enchantress Alcina focuses as much on high-voltage acting as powerful music-making. The 20th-century costumes are initially disconcerting, but soon become part of a psychologically intense world where time seems out of joint and charged with otherwise-unimaginable emotional possibilities. As Alcina, Catherine Naglestad gives an extraordinary performance, both strikingly passionate and deeply sensual, her revealing costuming being just the most obvious sign of a production intent on the erotic. Though Naglestad dominates, each performer offers memorable characterisation and fine singing.

On the DVD: Alcina comes to disc with an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 picture that is clear and detailed, while the PCM stereo audio is natural and is recorded with good presence. Other than various optional subtitles, including English, extras are entirely absent. Within the booklet is a brief biography of Handel, background notes on Alcina and a synopsis, but nothing on the artists or performance. --Gary S Dalkin

Handel's 1724 opera Tamerlano followed the success of his previous year's Giulio Cesare with another colourful historical costume drama. This time the setting is the court of "Timur the Tartar", who has just defeated the Turkish Sultan Bajazet at the battle of Angora. There are, naturally enough, romantic complications when both Tamerlano and his ally, the Greek Prince Andronico, fall in love with Bajazet's daughter Asteria. She, however, has plans to revenge her father's defeat.

This production was directed by Jonathan Miller and staged in the intimate surroundings of the Goethe Theatre of Bad Lauchstadt as part of the 2001 Halle Handel Festival. Miller's sparse gold-draped sets, as well as the video direction, always lead the eye towards the singers and their splendidly decorative costumes. Mezzo Monica Bacelli looks a little too pretty beneath her moustache to be convincingly threatening as Tamerlano; soprano Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz is a full-blooded, perhaps overripe Asteria; and Thomas Randle tackles the very demanding tenor role of Bajazet. None of the voices are necessarily "authentic", but thanks to the musical direction of Trevor Pinnock--an experienced and sensitive Handelian--the performance always feels completely natural. In the pit Pinnock's English Concert are, as always, a delight. Anyone who has not yet discovered the sometimes arcane delights of Baroque opera will find much to encourage them here; seasoned opera seria buffs should not hesitate.

On the DVD: Tamerlano comes handsomely packaged in a two-disc set with a colourful and informative booklet. The extra features put most other ArtHaus releases to shame. To begin with the "Score Plus" facility, which superimposes the score over the picture, will provide hours of joy (all DVD operas should have this as standard). There are subtitles in English, German, French or Spanish. There's a lengthy (40-minute) "Making of" documentary, which takes us behind the scenes with Jonathan Miller, Trevor Pinnock and their team at Sadler's Wells then in Halle. More material about the Handel Festival can be found in the "Interviews" section, the selection of "Historical Film Footage" from previous Festivals, and the illustrated "Interactive Chronolgy". The 16:9 picture is perfectly adequate, and the sound options are good PCM Stereo and Dolby 5.1. --Mark Walker