CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

The Alec Guinness Collection (Kind Hearts and Coronets / The Lavender Hill Mob / The Ladykillers / The Man in the White Suit / The Captain's Paradise)

starring: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sid James, Alfie Bass, Marjorie Fielding
directed by: Charles Crichton, Alexander Mackendrick, Anthony Kimmins

Release Date September 10, 2002
This a wonderful collection of Alec Guinness comedy films that I enjoyed as a young man. They brought back the laughter and memories when I first saw them. It is a very happy experience. At the time I first viewed them, I did not really appreciate some of the cast members who went on to stardom (Audrey Hepburn and Peter Sellers). Enjoy these classic films!

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Saboteur

starring: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Otto Kruger, Alan Baxter, Clem Bevans
directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Release Date June 20, 2006
Saboteur might be less than prime Hitchcock, but it has its moments; in fact, quite a few of them, in my opinion. Where it falls apart, however, is in an essential part of any movie...the leads, including the villain. Hitchcock usually was able to come up with interesting villains. Just think of James Mason, Robert Walker, Joseph Cotton, the never seen Rebecca, Paul Lukas, Ray Milland, Herbert Marshall or Claude Raines. In his best films, if he didn't have a charismatic villain he had such charismatic leads - Grant, Olivier, Donat, Bergman, Stewart, for example, that it didn't make much difference

With Saboteur, we have as the male lead Robert Cummings, a pleasant actor, a fine light comedian but, in drama, just earnest, bland and conscientious. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Georges Bizet - Carmen / Peter Hall, Bernard Haitink, Maria Ewing, Barry McCauley, London Philharmonic, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

starring: Barry McCauley, Maria Ewing, Marie McLaughlin, David Holloway
directed by: Peter Hall

Release Date September 27, 2005
Maria Ewing as 'La Carmen' is superb. Not only does she have a magnificent voice but she is such a tremendous actress that, by facial gestures and body movements alone, she passes through phases of temptress, seductress, harlot and more. Like a black widow in its web she draws foolish males into her lethal embrace. Her gestures and glances, at time, approach pure evil. Wonderful.

All this in the backdrop of Bizet's wonderful music and opera. The orchestra, sets and costumes are excellent and the other singers vary from good to superb but none of them approach Ewing's combination of singing and poise. She is 'La Carmen'.

Let me suggest to those who read this review that they might like to pick up Carlos Saura's 'Carmen'. No, it isn't ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

The Lavender Hill Mob

starring: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sid James, Alfie Bass, Marjorie Fielding
directed by: Charles Crichton

Release Date September 10, 2002
What superlatives can one say about Alec Guinness that haven't been said? He was a great dramatic actor, as in "The Bridge on the River Kwai." He was a great comic actor, as in "The Ladykillers." Amd his genius comes through in the subject movie, in which he plays a mild bank clerk who becomes a mastermind thief of enormous comic proportions.

All of the humor is visual/physical, as Guinness and his cohort Stanley Holloway try to chase down some stray loot--in the hands of little English schoolgirls. In one scene, for example, the two amateur crooks race down a tight circular stairway on the Eiffel Tower and cannot stop spinning when they reach street level.

There a lot of laughs here, as in a great chase scene in police cars, and excellent performances. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Gianni Schicci [Blu-ray]

starring: Alessandro Corbelli, Sergei Leiferkus, Marie McLaughlin, Felicity Palmer, Sally Matthews
directed by: Francesca Kemp, Ann Abel Arden

Release Date September 30, 2008
What superlatives can one say about Alec Guinness that haven't been said? He was a great dramatic actor, as in "The Bridge on the River Kwai." He was a great comic actor, as in "The Ladykillers." Amd his genius comes through in the subject movie, in which he plays a mild bank clerk who becomes a mastermind thief of enormous comic proportions.

All of the humor is visual/physical, as Guinness and his cohort Stanley Holloway try to chase down some stray loot--in the hands of little English schoolgirls. In one scene, for example, the two amateur crooks race down a tight circular stairway on the Eiffel Tower and cannot stop spinning when they reach street level.

There a lot of laughs here, as in a great chase scene in police cars, and excellent performances. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Le Nozze di Figaro [Blu-ray]

starring: Marie McLaughlin, Christine Schäfer, Anna Netrebko, Dorothea Röschmann, Bo Skovhus
directed by: Brian Large

Release Date November 18, 2008
What superlatives can one say about Alec Guinness that haven't been said? He was a great dramatic actor, as in "The Bridge on the River Kwai." He was a great comic actor, as in "The Ladykillers." Amd his genius comes through in the subject movie, in which he plays a mild bank clerk who becomes a mastermind thief of enormous comic proportions.

All of the humor is visual/physical, as Guinness and his cohort Stanley Holloway try to chase down some stray loot--in the hands of little English schoolgirls. In one scene, for example, the two amateur crooks race down a tight circular stairway on the Eiffel Tower and cannot stop spinning when they reach street level.

There a lot of laughs here, as in a great chase scene in police cars, and excellent performances. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro

starring: Anna Netrebko, Dorothea Roschmann, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, Bo Skovhus, Christine Schafer
directed by: Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Claus Gouh

Release Date June 12, 2007
If I had been in the audience at this performance I would have booed from the very beginning and throughout this horrible production. The singing was OK, the recits too slow and ponderous and WHAT was going on in the pit with all those pauses that added beats to pieces?
The Eros dancer was unnecessary; the Count wa a simpering idiot and I couldn't decide if he was sweating or had allergies or a nose bleed. Bartolo in a wheel chair? COME ON! It became about picking up papers and how he would get back in the chair! The "non piu andrai" was the worst travesty. I'm sorry the Salzburg audience had to be subjected to this at those prices. I will have a great deal of trouble watching the rest and THANK GOD I didn't buy it!

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Richard Strauss - Arabella / Thielemann, Te Kanawa, Brendel, Metropolitan Opera

starring: Kiri Te Kanawa, Wolfgang Brendel, Marie McLaughlin (II), David Kuebler, Helga Dernesch
directed by: Brian Large

Release Date June 19, 2001
i've never seen so many big names in one opera before ; also, nathalie dessay has a little role in act II, but that's not really highlighted ; it's definitely a must-have for anyone who wants 2 hours of not stop beautiful music

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Puccini - Gianni Schicchi / Corbelli, Palmer, Giordano, Matthews, McLaughlin, Jurowski, Glyndebourne Opera

starring: Massimo Giordano, Felicity Palmer, Alessandro Corbelli, Vladimir Jurowski, Marie McLaughlin

Release Date July 19, 2005
This is a truly brilliant production of Puccini's comic masterpiece. Although this one-acter, the third in Puccini's "Il Trittico" (trilogy) of one-act operas dealing with the subject of death, is less than an hour long, it packs a more than satisfying punch in the way of great music, well-drawn characters, and entertaining plot.

Annabel Arden has done a marvelous job in drawing out the dark side of humanity in the story, which keeps this production from veering into caricature and slapstick; yet humor is still here in abundance. Vladimir Jurowski leads the London Philharmonic in a brilliant, well-paced reading of Puccini's motif-packed score.

In the title role, Alessandro Corbelli once more shows us why he is considered one of today's most sought-after singing artists. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Mozart - Requiem

starring: Leonard Bernstein, Jerry Hadley, Marie McLaughlin, Maria Ewing, Cornelius Hauptmann

Release Date January 09, 2007
Sound, choir, soloists, place or recording/performance, history, etc... everything in this DVD is great! I do recommend it, also for those who already have any other DVD from Mozart's Requiem.