
Captain Vere, an old man, is haunted by a moment in his life when he was tested and found wanting. Based on Herman Melville's novella of naval life in the late 18th Century, Benjamin Britten's 'Billy Budd' is a gripping reflection on good and evil, innocence and corruption.


First Mate
Bosun
Donald
Maintop
Novice
Squeak
Mr Redburn
Lieutenant Radcliffe
10.0This new Christmas ballet film was conceived by Matthew Bourne and directed by his long standing film collaborator Ross MacGibbon. The film celebrates Bourne's power to imaginatively transform ballet, taking dance and dancers off the stage into studio, bringing together projections, animation, and an intimate shooting style to produce a distinctive new way of presenting dance on screen. Those who know Bourne's stage work will spot extracts from many of his biggest hits (including Swan Lake, Edward Scissorhands, and Nutcracker!), but for audiences less familiar with his work this is simply a journey through a series of magical worlds where stories are told through dance.
5.4Several little boys run along a pier, then jump into the ocean.
7.0Fadma is an active Moroccan woman, a mother who, after the death of her husband, raised her two children alone: Ahmed is her pride and joy, having succeeded in France, and Karim is the eccentric artist who still lives with her. Sensing danger around her son Ahmed, she decides to visit him in France. And it's here that she discovers the problem of her granddaughter Julie-Aïcha, a teenager in search of her identity. Fadma and Julie-Aïcha discover a new shared passion.
6.4It's a beautiful day in Slottsskogen, Gothenburg idyllic city park, when suddenly the unthinkable happens - gunfire amidst all people. Two gangsters shooting game against each other and a large police operation starts. The conflict grows rapidly to involve several gangs from Gothenburg underworld. GSI switched to try to identify a new thread which proves to be both larger and better armed than any other. The only clue is a tattoo on one of the killed gang members.
9.8Frimley Park Hospital is a heartfelt story about family, resilience, and the importance of prioritizing health without delay. The film follows Rani and her brother Tom, who share a close bond. After returning to the UK from a Nepal holiday, Rani notices something deeply concerning about Tom: his skin and eyes have a yellowish tint, and he looks frail and exhausted. He's lost a staggering 15 kilograms in just a month and seems weaker by the day. Rani, alarmed and worried, insists on taking him to the Aldershot Health Centre to see a GP. The GP, recognizing the urgency of Tom's condition, immediately refers him to Frimley Park Hospital for further testing and treatment. Tom is admitted to the hospital for three weeks, where doctors diagnose him with a range of serious health conditions: jaundice, autoimmune hepatitis, gallstones, and an ulcer. The medical team informs Tom and Rani that his health is in a critical state, and his future is uncertain.
A woman and her child are kidnapped by her lover and plans revenge on him.
8.0This documentary examines the social and cultural underpinnings of the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, in an attempt to understand the work's phenomenal success and influence. The program looks for answers in the author's sources of inspiration, from the folk legends of Norway to the field of linguistics of which Tolkien was a lifelong student. It finds that the deep chord the story strikes owes its resonance to the author's use of archetypal imagery and language. Many examples of these recurrent themes and images are given, with readings from the work and other literature. Interviews with the book's illustrators, the brothers Hildebrandt, speak to the power of the imagery in the classic story. Scholars, Tolkien's children, and the author himself provide insight into the mythic themes and the spell they have cast over the vast readership of The Lord of the Rings.
9.7A poet gets dejected with the materialistic society around him. The only person he gets some sympathy from is a washed out working girl who gives him shelter. Rejected by publishers, he gains fame when his death is reported by a newspaper.
8.5STOP + Cop = "Stop" or "Slow down" ? Make the right choice. An interactice movie by Ken Arsyn.
8.3A collection of cartoons, each of which is a uniquely decorated folk tale.
Street vendors in Korea are almost like a national institution, they are so widespread and relied upon. In Little Pond in Main Street a group of vendors band together to create a community radio station but come into conflict with other groups, as well as the government trying to shut them down.
5.9As Japan is preparing to host the Olympics, a gang member wanting to go to America is sought after by the police after helping his friend conduct a robbery.
7.2A Massacre in Veronaville is a dark comedic horror machinima by Alvin Soprano that tells a chilling tale of revenge and destruction in the quiet town of Veronaville. The story follows Pamela Landry, a vengeful Sim who uses a powerful spell to take control of the Grim Reaper and unleash havoc on the entire town — including innocent children. Driven by rage, Pamela commands the Grim Reaper to massacre every Sim in Veronaville. As chaos spreads and lives are cut short, the town quickly descends into bloodshed and terror. But in a cruel twist of fate, Pamela’s own dark magic backfires.
8.0With a mixture of drama, warlords, battles, love, tragedy all set with great music, this made for television movie has it all. Showing the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu as portrayed by Matsudaira Ken (Abarenbo Shogun) this stunning portrait of an exciting era shows how the influence of three women played a pivotal role in the formation of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Brilliant performances by Nakamura Atsuo (Cold Wind Monjiro) and Nakamura Tamao (widow of Katsu Shintaro) highlight this production as such notables as Oda Nobunaga, Toyotami Hideyoshi, Lady Sena, Princess Asahi, and Lady Yodo jump from the pages of history all leading up to the Battle of Sekigahara that would change Japan forever!
5.5Two film students document the fate of an ex-prisoner from Guantanamo who is granted asylum in Switzerland.
8.0Shawn Reed deceives his girlfriend to spend a weekend with an unstable social media crush. The weekend of pleasure becomes a harrowing ordeal. Concerned, Shawn's friend Tarik tries to uncover the truth.
0.0Don Quichotte (Don Quixote) is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Caïn. It was first performed on 19 February 1910 at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.
0.0This film takes us behind the scenes of the magical events of the world famous Vienna State Opera. These one-of-a-kind scenes and fast-paced, brilliant moments are intense, vivid, full of passion and captivating music.
0.0Alone in the woods, a young man is pursued by a horrifying specter and by visions of his deceased sisters. A meditation on the precarious uncertainty of the American Dream and the role that uncontrollable forces play in our lives, The West is a Land of Infinite Beginnings is inspired by a harrowing scene from the opera Proving Up, by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek.
0.0Le Nozze di Figaro New Production Teatro Real in co-production with Bilbao’s ABAO and Las Palmas Teatro Pérez Galdós. From the opening notes of the overture to the final curtain, Emilio Sagi’s classic, triumphant production brings to life all the elegant wit and theatricality of Mozart’s comic masterpiece Le nozze di Figaro. Leading baritone Ludovic Tézier shines as the lustful Count Almaviva who attempts to obtain the favors of Figaro’s bride-to-be, Susanna (Isabel Rey), while Luca Pisaroni gives a feisty performance as Figaro. Conductor Jesús López Cobos masterfully captures the enchanting score. A witty yet profound tale of love, betrayal, and forgiveness.
0.0The pain of unrequited love is portrayed unforgettably by two of today’s greatest stars. Renée Fleming is musically and dramatically radiant as the shy Tatiana, who falls in love with the worldly Onegin, played with devastating charisma by Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Their mesmerizing vocalism and chemistry explode in one of opera’s most heartbreaking final scenes. With Valery Gergiev on the podium conducting Tchaikovsky’s passionate score, this performance is one for the ages.
0.0The documentary draws a portrait of an opera director who is staging Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre. He is torn between the tragicomic routine of an opera house and his own perception of Wagner and the Ring cycle. The film witnesses the director’s drama in maintaining the fragile link between a well-constructed performance and his own vision that lies within the music and the narrative, and is seen as German expressionism-like nightmares.
0.0As Christof Loy put it: Così fan tutte invites us to embrace the complexity of life and face the future with heads held high. In his staging of the version he abridged with Joana Mallwitz for the Salzburg Festival 2020 the focus is wholly on the figures and the subtle choreography of their emotional states — in a space that like a magnifying glass exposes the intricate mechanisms between the characters. In this way the production leads the protagonists and the audience to experience the ‘serene calm’ that can perhaps indeed cure our own ‘distempers’.
0.0Weber was at the forefront of the rise of German Romantic opera and sought to dethrone Rossini from his position as the leading operatic composer in Europe. In his breakthrough and most popular opera Der Freischütz (The Marksman) composed in 1821, he succeeded in his aim of establishing a truly German form. Turning to the folklore and folk songs of his native land he took a story of a marksman who makes a pact with the Devil, vesting it with powerful intensity not least in the famous Wolfs Glen scene and an astonishing control of orchestral color and atmosphere.
0.0At the beginning of 1964, the music world experiences something completely unexpected. Maria Callas returns to the opera stage as the prima donna. Her “Tosca” at the Royal Opera House becomes a sensation. Maria Callas wants to show everyone once again that she deserves the title of “prima donna assoluta.” On the condition that star director Franco Zeffirelli take over the direction, the exceptional singer agrees to sing the role of Tosca. The BBC recorded the 2nd act of the opera for television. It is one of the most dramatic acts in opera history: in order to free the painter Cavaradossi from the hands of torturers, Tosca ends up murdering the police chief Scarpia. The film footage is one of the rare opportunities to see Maria Callas in an opera performance and to experience her highly emotional performance art and vocal abilities...
0.0Praised by critics as “magnificent”, “breathtakingly theatrical” and full of “zestful imagination”, Melly Still’s “spine-tingling” Rusalka is a Glyndebourne classic – a magical contemporary reimagining of a much-loved fairy tale. Light and darkness, beauty and danger come together in this passionate tale of love against the odds. At once evocative and unsettling, this production collides two contrasting worlds in Rae Smith’s elegant designs made of “brilliant stage-pictures”. Rusalka’s forest home is a dappled space of sunshine and shadows, full of strange woodland creatures, while the Prince’s court is a world of sleek modernity and sophistication – a world of man.
0.0This is Laurent Pelly’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées staging of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, with a cast featuring Florian Sempey as Figaro, Catherine Trottmann as Rosina, and Michele Angelini as Il Conte Almaviva. Jérémie Rhorer conducts Le Cercle de l-Harmonie.
0.0A collectively made filmic opera in 35 parts. The Black and predominantly queer art collective, an evolving line up of poets and artists from across the world, abstracts and reimagines opera in any traditional conception. Set to hip-hop, blues, noise, R&B and electronica, the piece uses the voice (chanting, singing, screaming; written by poet and activist Dawn Lundy Martin) as its primary tool, verbalising centuries of alienation, vulnerability and protest in the global African diaspora through its disruptive libretto.
8.0Although he is unanimously credited with having democratised opera, making it accessible to the greatest number, focus is rarely put on the strategy he devised and implemented in order to carry out his actions, nor what his actions reveal of the man and artist, and of the resulting metamorphosis from opera singer to pop artist. Through this angle, this film sets out to pay tribute to the man who summed up his credo, obsession and life’s work, in the following way: “They led the public to believe that classical music belonged to a restricted elite. I was the way to prove to the world that was wrong.
0.0Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, a ballet in three acts, is present by the Ballet Company of the National Opera of Ukraine, with music provided by the Orchestra of the National Opera of Ukraine, conducted by Mykola Dyadura
8.0As part of the 2019 Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival, filmmaker Christophe Honoré delivers an innovative staging of Giacomo Puccini's famous drama. His cleverly staged "opera within the opera" is a melancholy homage to the fascinating figure of the diva, who thrives on art and love and upsets the laws of time and death.
6.0One night in Judea, a disabled shepherd boy-turned-beggar and his mother are visited by three strangers. They are the Three Kings, and they are on their way to Bethlehem to visit the Christ Child, who has just been born.
0.0This is the 2004 version of Kaija Saariaho's opera performed by the Finnish National Opera and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
7.0Opera in three acts, a prologue and an epilogue, by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), with a libretto in French by Jules Barbier (1825-1901), based on a work that Barbier himself and Michel Carré (1821-1872) had written based on stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822). Approximate duration: 2 h 45 min Recommended for those over 15 years old. The young poet Hoffmann, accompanied by Nicklausse, his alter ego and confidant, is in a tavern next to the theatre where Mozart's Don Giovanni is being performed. During the opera's intermission, some diners arrive at the bar who, upon seeing the poet, encourage him to sing and tell them the story of his famous love affairs. Hoffmann finally gives in and shares with them the stories of Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta. They, absorbed in the poet's stories, remain in the tavern, forgetting about the opera performance.
