Massenet Thais

There's an uncompromising clarity to Blu-ray audio and video that really does bring the splendour of grand opera right into the living room. So it's all the more frustrating to get a compromised production as the final product. Jules Massenet's 1894 tragedy about a sex goddess humbled by an insistent Cenobite monk isn't produced very often, because of a demanding lead role and some difficult staging issues. But the music is gorgeous from beginning to end. When you have a great diva at centre stage, the three acts go by in a flash.

• Tiziano ManciniDirector

• Barbara FrittoliThais
• Lado AtaneliAthanael
• Alessandro LiberatoreNicias
• Maurizio Lo PiccoloPalemon
• Nadezhda SerdjukAlbine
• Eleonora BurattoCrobyle
• Ketevan KemoklidzeMyrtale
• Gianandrea NosedaConductor