
Woody Allen's production of the Puccini comic opera at LA Opera in 2015
Lauretta
Rinuccio
Zita
Nella
Simone
7.0Academician and piano expert David Dubal narrates this absorbing documentary chronicling the instrument's history and featuring some of the 20th century's finest pianists via archival film clips. Among the keyboard virtuosos are Vladimir Horowitz, Claudio Arrau, Van Cliburn and Glenn Gould. Extras include Arrau's 1983 performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 4, accompanied by the Philadelphia Orchestra under maestro Riccardo Muti.
6.1In answer to an orphan boy's prayers, the divine Lord Krishna comes to Earth, befriends the boy, and helps him find a loving family.
The film tells the story of three best friends named Ako, Aki and Awang, who are well-known in their village for their mischievous and humourous pranks. The trio work for Pak Man. One day, they are assigned to pick up his daughter Misha, who has just returned from overseas and dreams of becoming a doctor. The trio have been in love with her for a long time but she does not pay them any heed. When Misha is robbed by a snatch thief one day, she is rescued by a doctor named Shafiq. Her face reminds the doctor of his late wife, and he begins to pursue her, which annoys the trio.
5.9Amber, a mean popular girl who gets electrocuted and dies, is not allowed to enter into heaven unless she helps the least popular girl in school become Prom Queen within a week, but things do not go as planned.
6.3Someone from another planet crashed on Earth and evil is chasing him, and then love appears, and it defeats evil through an amulet.
8.2The funny little details of everyday life, simple things that make us laugh. An unforgettable performance from Cem Yilmaz. Yilmaz captures the audience with his hilarious stories about relationships, humankind's struggle with the technology and professional life. Yilmaz proves us that a food delivery or even a funeral might be amusing when considered correctly.
6.3After being dumped at the altar on her wedding day, Maggie Conway moves to the island town of Friday Harbor in Washington State, where she meets Mark Nagle, the local coffee shop owner.
6.5Two outsiders, both shaped by the circumstances that have brought them together, forge a deep and lasting love.
6.4After cancer claims Matt Kell's life on Christmas Day 2005, his widow, Gina and two young boys are left to cope with the pain of his loss while their close church community gathers around them for support.
6.1The boss of the Hung Hing gang, Tian Sang, has died. Ho Nam and Hon Bun find Sangs younger brother, Yang to lead the gang. Meanwhile, Hon Bun receives news that his younger brother, a leader of the Tuen Mun gang has been assasinated. They travel to Hong Kong to settle the matter.
6.3The grandfather welcomes us into his blue grotto, there was still beautiful memories of childhood to tell Kirikou: the times when he helped the men and women of his village and elsewhere ... He tells us how Kirikou, thanks to his bravery and intelligence, came to the aid of the strong woman. He tells us by what trick the little hero found the grumpy old man, who had been lost in the bush, and how a cherry threatened by the witch was finally able to pass on his knowledge to the villagers. We also discover the secret of a mysterious blue monster, and finally through a flute linked to the family of our small and valiant heroes, the magical power of music.
6.1Young Rudolph suffers a childhood accident that sees his nose turn from the publicly accepted norm of black to a glowing red colour. His parents worry about him getting teased, and indeed he does in the end. When he is beaten in the reindeer games by his rival for a doe he fancies, Rudolph runs away and moves into a cave with Slyly the Fox. However can he overcome his fear and reach his true potential?
7.4The film tells the story of a man who has just arrived to work in one of the villages as a security guard in an old club. There he meets the employees of the club, and they take turns telling him scary stories. People tend not to believe strange stories. He contradicts everything, expressing his arguments, proofs. But he's wrong. Because everything told has its roots of truth, reality and goes deep into the past times, which can not be returned.
6.8An ever evolving alien life-form arrives on a comet from the Dark Gaseous Nebula and proceeds to consume pollution. Spewing mists of sulfuric acid and corrosive sludge, neither humanity nor Godzilla may be able to defeat this toxic menace.
0.0Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful voices of that time.
0.0Pious restraint comes face to face with sensuous hedonism in Camille Saint-Saëns’s grand-opera retelling of the Bible story of Samson and Delilah. Multi-Olivier Award winning director Richard Jones returns to The Royal Opera to stage this spectacular fin-de-siècle masterpiece, not performed at Covent Garden since 2004. Elina Garanca stars as the Philistine Dalila, SeokJong Baek as the inspiring Jewish hero Samson and Antonio Pappano conducts the full forces of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. With superb singing in solos and duets of great intimacy and fervour, gorgeous music with thrilling orchestral interludes, and splendid choral numbers for the Royal Opera Chorus – this is a performance to remember.
6.6The life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time.
0.0To open its 2019-2020 season, La Scala in Milan has chosen Tosca, in a new production directed by Davide Livermore. The production is part of the rediscovery of Italian opera led by Riccardo Chailly, the conductor of the production and music director of La Scala. He has chosen the original version of Tosca, as created by Puccini in Rome in January 1900, which included eight "additional musical inserts" that were removed from the work after its second performance in Turin in February 1900 and will now be rediscovered for the first time on December 7 at La Scala.
0.0John Eliot Gardiner conducts Gluck’s 1776 French version of “Alceste” at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Soprano Anne Sofie von Otter takes the title role of Alceste, Queen of Thessaly, who offers to die at the hands of the gods in place of her husband, Admète (Paul Groves), so that the people will not lose their king. Alceste is then saved from the underworld by Hercule (Dietrich Henschel).
0.0Richard Wagner called Die Walküre the “first evening” of the Ring of the Nibelung; he called Das Rheingold the prologue or Vorabend. Musically and dramatically, we are introduced to a radically new and different world when the opening bars of Die Walküre resound. A fully developed orchestral palette of Leitmotivs paints a wild storm scene, and the curtain rises on a modest dwelling: a fully human scene that has nothing to do with the gods, dwarves and nymphs of Das Rheingold. At the same time, however, the way Die Walküre portrays radical beginnings reveals some telling reminiscences of the unfolding of Das Rheingold. Die Walküre is exciting and deeply feeling drama.
0.0Handel'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.
10.0Viva Vivaldi! is a concert by the Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli interspersing arias from the 20 surviving operas of Vivaldi with two concertos. Given with the early music ensemble Il Giardino Armonico before a very appreciative audience in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the performance is part of Bartoli's exploration of the Venetian composer's opera music which also includes The Vivaldi Album. There is a startling dynamic energy, which contrasts powerfully with the more restrained interpretations by singers such as Emma Kirkby. Bartoli's natural Italian and the live atmosphere of Maria Grazia d'Alessio's oboe gives her interpretation of the quietly haunting and melodically rich "Non ti Lusinghi la Crudeltade" from Tito Manlio a particular piquancy. The Flautino Concerto is a most attractive interlude, while the more famous Lute/Violin Concerto beguiles with its exquisite lyricism.
5.0The production by Deutsche Oper Berlin achieves a beautiful balance between the stage drama and the music. It proves that there are still singers who can perform Verdi's melodies at the highest level and that it is also possible to bring them together into an ensemble. The production fulfills all one's expectations of the modern city of Berlin in terms of stylishness and performance.
0.0Axel Kohler, the internationally renowned countertenor has brought Admeto into the modern era in timeless style by the skillful application of imaginative theatrical digressions. Köhler's production at the Halle Opernhaus revisits a work that encompasses comedy, tragedy and almost absurd grotesqueness, couching it in the convincing metaphor of a modern hospital.
0.0The many passionate, fiery or lyrical vocal pieces of Spanish zarzuela have continued to thrive in concert and recitals all over the world. One of the most renowned and ardent supporters of zarzuela melodies is Plácido Domingo. Belying his 66 years, the world-famous tenor sings these rousing, seductive melodies with the beguiling sweetness of a much younger man and tranports the enraptured listener to the calles and plazas of Madrid and Seville, Domingo is accompanied by Mozarteum Orchestra underJesús López Cobos and, above all, by his partner for the evening, sprano Ana Maria Martínez, "a beautiful woman with a fascinating voice, full of velvety mezzoish half-tints in the middle and bottom ranges, with a gleaming top." (London Times) Martínez and Domingo serve up an evening of infectious good spirits and exquisite vocal treats."The dazzle of genuine stars shone brightly over Salzburg!" (Die Welt)
0.0Visually this is a gripping production which captures the drama of this opera perfectly. It's downright exciting! and I found the singing, acting, and orchestral playing reasonably fine. I found only one major problem with it, a problem that kept Puccini for quite a few years. Turandot has been looking for an opportunity to kill Calif and Calif has singlemindedly tried to get Turandot to love and wed him focusing on her and ignoring a better looking girl who loves him truly. The problem is how to get the audience to applaud the match once Calif gets his wish. Puccini couldn't figure out how to do it. The traditional quick ending doesn't do it, and Berio's attempt is longer , tries its best, but ends up making it plain this is one wierd couple.
0.0Opera in one act, libretto by G. Forzano based on Dante's Divine Comedy. Third part of his opera Triptych. The plot is based on canto XXX of "Inferno" from "The Divine Comedy", which are dedicated to the rogue and deceiver Gianni Schicchi, who was punished for his sins: he impersonated a dying rich man in order to make a forged will on his behalf. Gianni Schicchi is Puccini's only comic opera, a brilliant example of a modern opera buffa based on the tradition of Verdi's Falstaff. The most expressive recitative, bubbling melody, sharp character, impetuous tempo distinguish her music. Recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera House, Sussex, UK on 11 July 2004.
The writer Dario Fo applies his inventive genius to Rossini's comic opera in its premiere DVD release. Recorded in 2005 under the musical direction of Maurizio Barbacini, Fo's production brings fresh vitality and colour to the story of Lisetta, and of her father Don Pomponio's increasingly ridiculous attempts to find a husband for her through an advertisement in the newspaper LA GAZZETTA. Filmed using high definition cameras with multitrack sound.
6.0Emmanuelle Haïm has established herself as one of the world’s leading performers, conductors and interpreters of Baroque repertoire, not only with Le Concert d’Astrée, the ensemble she founded in 2000, but with several of the world’s greatest orchestras. Known for her fresh and expressive approach to Baroque music, she has garnered critical acclaim and several international awards with her own ensemble, including Victoires de la Musique Classique, ECHOs, Gramophone Awards, and Grammy nominations.
0.0The production was the Vienna State Opera debut for the young Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan – the Argentinian tenor Marcelo Álvarez, took the title role. His Charlotte on this occasion was the young Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča. Her performances have been enthusiastically received and she has already been labelled as the new mezzo wonder. Staged by internationally sought-after Rumanian director, Andrei Serban, the apparently sentimental love story – normally presented in 18th century period costumes - reveals a study of personal relationships and a close observation of a woman, who comes of age too late. Serban’s aim was to rid the opera of the unjustified reputation of banality that clings to it despite its underlying tragic mood. By setting the production in the stiff, claustrophobic atmosphere of a small town in the 1950s, he aimed to make the audience more aware of its deeper levels of self-denial.
0.0Officers Ferrando and Guglielmo are certain that their lovers Dorabella and Fiordiligi are faithful to them, but the cynical Don Alfonso challenges them to a bet that the women will be unfaithful given the chance. The officers thus pretend to go off to war, and return in disguise as Albanian strangers, to woo Dorabella and Fiordiligi incognito. The ladies are initially frosty, but soon warm to their new suitors, spurred on by their maid Despina. Performed at the La Scala Theatre in Milan.
1.0Gustav Von Aschenbach, a passionate composer, arrives in Venice as a result of wanderlust and there meets a young man by whose beauty he becomes obsessed.