The ROH Live: Nabucco(2016)

Famous Scenes from Pagliacci(en)

Scenes from Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera with Canio, the clown, introducing actors who are seen in pantomime while the operatic voices are heard off-screen. Canio discovers his wife has been unfaithful but carries on with his performance.

Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel(en)

Pushkin folk tale as comedic opera whose sultry elements expand an Oriental influence. Korsakov portrays the story of Tsar Nicholas II, punished for his cowardice and despotism, using satire to condemn Russia's autocratic ruler.

Kouzelný strom(cs)

Down in the Valley(en)

Short opera. A boy falls in love with a girl after an Appalachian prayer meeting, but her father wants her to go to the dance with a local shyster who the father thinks will bail him out of his money troubles instead.

Once to Every Woman(en)

Aurora Meredith is the daughter of the village blacksmith. Because she has a promising voice, her family does everything they can to develop her talent. A wealthy New York woman hears her sing and sends her to Europe to study. But the woman dies, and Aurora borrows money for her last year from a hot-blooded Italian man. Instead of being paid back financially, the Italian wants her love, and she rejects him.

Semele(en)

The Copper Queen(en)

Still healing from her grandmother’s death, Addison Moore finds herself checking into The Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee, Arizona. Aware of the ghost stories and hauntings, Addison fearlessly elects to stay in Room 315, the location of the heartbroken Julia Lowell’s death a century ago.

La bohème - Liceu(es)

Il trovatore - Liceu(es)

Sevil(az)

The film takes place in Baku in 1918-19 and then several years later. The film is based on the opera of the same name by Fikret Amirov. Sevil became the first film opera in the history of Azerbaijani cinema.

Let's Sing Again(en)

An orphan (Eight-year-old boy soprano Bobby Breen) gets a chance to sing opera in New York.

Cavalleria Rusticana - Pagliacci - Live from the Zurich Opera House(it)

Britten: Billy Budd(en)

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.

La Traviata(en)

Parisian courtesan, Violetta meets the romantic aristocrat Alfredo and finds herself in love for the first time. She abandons her frivolous lifestyle to be with him but his father Germont, charged by the hypocrisy of upper-class society, threatens their future.

Aida(en)

Any performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida at La Scala, Milan, is guaranteed to be an experience – but, when it’s a new production, it becomes a major event, especially given the theatre’s notoriously critical audience. Legendary stage director Peter Stein succeeds in delivering a lucid production acclaimed in equal measure by the press and public: “a perfect coup de théâtre” (Giornale della musica). A “stellar cast” (La Stampa) contributes to the production’s success under the musical direction of Verdi specialist Zubin Mehta, who leads the orchestra in a “gorgeously colourful performance”, while “the entire ensemble is brilliant in its portrayal of the characters” (Die Presse).

The Marriage of Figaro(it)

David McVicar's spellbinding production of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO is set in 1830s post-revolution France, where the inexorable unravelling of an old order has produced acute feelings of loss. In the relationship between Finley's suave, dashingly self-absorbed Count and Röschmann's passionately dignified Countess, which lies at the tragic heart of the opera, the sexy ease between a feisty Figaro (Erwin Schrott) and a sassy Susanna (Miah Persson) is starkly absent, the tenacious spark between Marcellina (Graciela Araya) and Bartolo (Jonathan Veira) suggesting what might be rekindled. The production is superbly complemented by the beauty of Paule Constable's lighting and Tanya McCallin's evocative sets. Antonio Pappano conducts (and accompanies the recitatives) with invigorating wit and emotional depth.

The Miserly Knight(en)

An impoverished knight is at odds with his rich but miserly father

L'Incoronazione di Poppea(it)

Experience Claudio Monteverdi's three-act opera in the environment it was meant to be seen with this release of a filmed performance captured live during a 2000 production staged at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in France. Mireille Delunsch, Anne Sofie Von Otter, and Sylvie Brunet star, and conductor Marc Minkowski leads the Les Musiciens du Louvre, Grenoble. Klaus Michael Grüber directs for stage.

L'Incoronazione di Poppea(it)

Live performance, part of Monteverdi cycle staged by Oper Zürich with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Zürich Opera House Monteverdi Ensemble. Staged and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria(it)

Live performance, part of Monteverdi cycle staged by Oper Zürich with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Zürich Opera House Monteverdi Ensemble. Staged and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle