Clara is given an enchanted Nutcracker doll on Christmas Eve. As midnight strikes, she creeps downstairs to find a magical adventure awaiting her and her Nutcracker. The magician Drosselmeyer transforms the drawing room into a battle between mice and toy soldiers. During the battle, Clara saves the Nutcracker’s life – so breaking a magical spell that turned him from a boy to a toy – and the Mouse King is defeated. In celebration, Drosselmeyer sweeps Clara and the Nutcracker off to the Kingdom of Sweets, where they meet the Sugar Plum Fairy and take part in a wonderful display of dances. The next morning, Clara’s adventures seem to have been more than just a dream.
Clara
Hans-Peter / The Nutcracker
A live recording of Carl Orff's world-famous musical masterpiece Carmina Burana, performed by more than 100 singers and dancers of the National Opera and Ballet of Ukraine (Odessa).
The 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.
Recorded at the Paris Opera and co-produced with Siberia’s Novosibirsk Opera, this new Macbeth uses cutting-edge multimedia technology to give the viewer a fresh perspective on the work. Google Earth satellite images plunge us into the heart of the action: a gloomy square surrounded by soulless buildings, and the interior of an aristocratic residence.
In 2010, for the first time in its history, the Bolshoi Opera presented Alban Berg’s masterpiece Wozzeck conducted by Teodor Currentzis. Dmitri Cherniakov’s aim with this bold, sensitive transposition was “to highlight the hidden sorrows of a late twentieth-century man dwelling in a megalopolis.”
Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1879 opera, adapted from Alexander Pushkin's novel. Performed by the Finnish National Opera. Filmed on 20 December 2024 and streamed by Operavision.
The show is a dramatization of the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart beginning from the age of 17 and culminating with his death in 1791 at the age of 35.
This is the story about Setyo, Siti and Ludiro, who were the performer of Javanese Ramayana's Wayang Wong. Setyo and Siti are spouse who live in a village by selling earthenware products. In the village, live as well Ludiro, the head of the stockyard, who is very wealthy and secretly in love with Siti. Conflicts arrived as Setyo's earthenware company is going bankrupt and Siti started to took notice in Ludiro's desire to win her love. These triangle love transform into a civil war in the village that brings not only extremity and injustice, but also the death of the loved ones.
Internationally acclaimed Chinese film-maker Chen Kaige delivers an opulent staging of the fairy-tale story of Chinese Princess Turandot, who will only marry a prince capable of solving her riddles. With sumptuous costumes and palace sets designed in China, Kaige's production adds a compellingly authentic accent to Puccini's exotic orchestral palette. Zubin Metha and his brilliant Orquestra de la Comunitet Valenciana offer "genuine foreworks of sound" (Wiener Zeitung), Maria Guleghina triumphs as Turandot. Recorded in 2008 at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia. Zubin Mehta (conductor).
Carmen is a French-Italian musical drama film directed by Christian-Jaque and starring Viviane Romance, Jean Marais, and Lucien Coëdel. It is a version of the famous opera.
Bugs Bunny vs. a famous opera singer at the Hollywood Bowl.
Anna Netrebko as the beautiful and wealthy Adina leads the cast in Barlett Sher’s production of Donizetti’s charming comedy, first seen on Opening Night of the Met’s 2012–13 season. Matthew Polenzani is Nemorino, the poor but good-hearted country boy who wins her love—with the help of the magic “elixir” sold by the quack Dulcamara, played by Ambrogio Maestri. Mariusz Kwiecien is the swaggering Sergeant Belcore and Maurizio Benini conducts.
Il tabarro is a tale of jealousy and murder between Michele, his young wife Giorgetta and her lover Luigi, set aboard a barge on the Seine. Suor Angelica tells the story of the nun Angelica’s familial loss, sacrifice and suicide. Gianni Schicchi is an opera full of trickery, greed and romance as a family dispute breaks out over a missing will. The Olivier-nominated Royal Opera production featuring a trio of one-act Puccini operas was first performed together on the same bill at Covent Garden in September 2011, and was acclaimed by the Telegraph as "an operatic treat... three hours of gorgeous music that allows big voices to let emotion rip" and by the Evening Standard as "a triumphant vindication of the social awareness and dramatic power of Puccini's triptych". The trio of operas offers a panorama of emotions, with the dark and foreboding Il tabarro and comic Gianni Schicchi bookending a heart-wrenching Suor Angelica.
New tenor star Vittorio Grigolo takes on the title role in Offenbach’s fantastical opera, giving a tour-de-force performance as the tortured poet unlucky in love. He is joined by a trio of leading ladies: Erin Morley sings the mechanical doll Olympia, Hibla Gerzmava is the fragile Antonia, and Christine Rice sings Giulietta, the Venetian courtesan. Bartlett Sher’s colorful production, seen here in its second Live in HD presentation, also stars Thomas Hampson as the sinister Four Villains and Kate Lindsey as Niklausse, Hoffmann’s friend and muse. Yves Abel conducts.
La Sonnambula is an idillic, classical and intense melodramma with an extremely fine, lyrical musicality and tense with pure "canto", suspended between Arcadia and Romanticism. It is a combination of tender and melancholic sentiments and of tragic and moving passion, in a natural uncontaminated and innocent atmosphere and humanity which clearly represent the artistic experience of the composer. The charming staging by Hugo de Ana, at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari goes back to January 2007. Through fascinating tableaux vivants, references to 17th century Romantic painting and refined visual projections, it is a tribute to Luchino Visconti. Visconti produced the memorabile performance of Sonnambula in March at the Scala di Milano with the magnificant Maria Callas.
Become a ballerina! Prima Princessa brings you England's world famous Birmingham Royal Ballet performing excerpts from The Nutcracker that will inspire the ballerina in you! Come join in the holiday fun with Prima Princessa as she takes you to a magical show filled with snow fairies, toy soldiers, tutus, pirouettes and plies.(Amazon editorial)
Birgit Nilsson and Jon Vickers star in this filmed record of the Theatre Antique d'Orange's acclaimed 1973 production of Wagner's epic tale of doomed love in the Middle Ages. Tristan und Isolde also features the Orchestre National de R.T.F., under the direction of Karl Bohm.
PRELIMINARY EVENINING OF THE RING CYCLE. Upon the banks of the ageless river Rhine, the Rhinemaidens play. Alberich, a Nibelung dwarf, tries vainly to seduce one of them. To taunt him, they reveal their secret: out of the gold they guard one can forge a Ring to rule the world, but at the cost of giving up Love forever. Alberich steals the gold, makes the ring and plans his world take-over. Meanwhile, Wotan, King of the Gods, must figure out how to finance the construction of Valhalla. He has promised his sister-in-law as payment to the giant construction workers led by Fafner, but his wife Fricka disapproves. Loge (God of Fire) tricks Alberich and brings him to Wotan, who takes the Ring. In revenge Alberich curses it: lack of the Ring will fuel desire for it and possession will only lead to misery. Wotan gives the Ring to Fafner as ransom for Fricka's sister. Filmed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in June & July 1991.
THIRD DAY OF THE RING CYCLE. Günter, the lord of the Rhine people, gives Siegfried a love potion that causes Siegfried to forget Brünnhilde and fall in love with Günter's sister Gutrane. Siegfried has given Brünnhilde the Ring as a token of their love, but her Valkyrie sister urges her to destroy it, because their father Wotan has lost his spear and power and is hiding out in Valhalla. Instead, Brünnhilde keeps it, and under the influence of the potion, Siegfried steals it from her. Enraged, Brünnhilde helps Alberich's son murder Siegfried, but Siegfried's memory returns, and he dies thinking of Brünnhilde. Brünnhilde repents and orders a funeral pyre to be built. She rides into the fire herself, and the Rhinemaidens get the ring back. The story closes with flames flickering about Valhalla in the background. Filmed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in June & July 1991.