Without question, this is an incredibly bizarre production. The revised storyline makes little sense, and there is a surprising amount of violence and sexual innuendo. However, the singers are superb, both vocally and in regard to their stage presence and acting, the orchestra plays beautifully, the chorus is wonderful, and the set is as clever as it is strange. It's definitely not for purists, or for someone new to this particular opera. But for someone who's seen Die Entfuhrung before, and is familiar enough with the original story to not miss it, watching Belmonte, Constanze, Blonde, Pedrillo, and Osmin embark on an entirely new adventure -- and push the boundaries of good taste -- is rather enjoyable.
Blonde
Osmin
Pedrillo
Without question, this is an incredibly bizarre production. The revised storyline makes little sense, and there is a surprising amount of violence and sexual innuendo. However, the singers are superb, both vocally and in regard to their stage presence and acting, the orchestra plays beautifully, the chorus is wonderful, and the set is as clever as it is strange. It's definitely not for purists, or for someone new to this particular opera. But for someone who's seen Die Entfuhrung before, and is familiar enough with the original story to not miss it, watching Belmonte, Constanze, Blonde, Pedrillo, and Osmin embark on an entirely new adventure -- and push the boundaries of good taste -- is rather enjoyable.
2006-01-02
0
This superb 2006 production of the Los Angeles Opera's La Traviata stars Renée Fleming, who joins the ranks of the elite handful of sopranos whose vocal and acting talents make their portrayals memorable. Her Violetta Valéry is a vulnerable figure torn between self-indulgence and love, sacrificing personal happiness to become a victim of the social mores of mid-19th-century bourgeois France. Fleming's acting captures the complexity of the character and her vocalism is flawless. She negotiates the wild coloratura of Act One with aplomb, and is stunning in the lyric passages that pervade the opera, and touching in her scenes with her lover, Alfredo, and his father. Her singing is free of the mannerisms that have sometimes crept into her work and at the same time she brings countless personal touches to the role, phrasing and verbal emphases that shed fresh light on the character.
Documentary about Fidel Castro, covering 40 years of Cuban Revolution. Rare Fidel Castro footage: he appears swimming with a bodyguard, visiting his childhood home and school, playing with his friend Nelson Mandela, meeting kid Elián Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with the Buena Vista Social Club group.
When '80s B-movie icon Tim Thomerson wakes up one day to realize the acting roles are not coming his way any more, he sets out on a quest to find his former co-star Lance Henriksen to discover his secret of Hollywood longevity and gets more than he bargained for in the process.
A young actress arrives late to a casting, making up a great excuse without knowing a small detail.
Soviet wartime cameramen accompanied the fighting troops of the Red Army on foot, aboard their tanks, and in their aircraft to film this epochal documentary of the Battle of Moscow that halted the vaunted and---until then, unstoppable---German war machine cold in its tracks.
A new member has joined Eli and the Shane Gang! Junjie, once the protector of the Eastern Caverns, is a master of the slugslinging art of Slug Fu! But even with the power of five slingers, the Shane Gang find themselves in over their heads as they race across The 99 Caverns in search of the Legendary Elemental Slugs. The five Elementals are ancient slugs of great power, and the forbearers of all slugs found in SlugTerra today. In the wrong hands, they could bring Slugterra to the brink of destruction. So when an evil alliance starts hunting down the Elementals, Eli and his friends — old and new — take off in pursuit of the greatest threat their world has ever faced!
After the closure of a lace factory in Calais, Andrée, Lulu and Solange are out on the street.
Three astronauts crash land on an Earth-like planet after returning from a 7-year long expedition to Ganymede. The planet however is populated by murderous psychopaths who kill two of the astronauts right away. The third, Roger Corman, flees to the alien countryside where he decides to begin a violent quest to find out the truth behind his mission.
Gina, Rano’s mother, made a pact with the devil to have more wealth for her family, on condition that she has to sacrifice lives. When she fails to meet the condition on one occasion, the devil kills her family, leaving just her son, Rano. Years after, Rano and his friends, Dicky, Ocha, and Popi, decide to study in a university in Bandung. They agree to live together in a rented house that was actually Rano’s old family home. At the house, an ambulance is parked that is rumored to be haunted. Then they start to experience strange and horrifying incidents, especially since the ambulance keeps claiming victims. Finally, the secret of Rano’s family is revealed by Widya, his grandmother. Rano is sad and disappointed, especially as his friends also became victims. Rano intends to break the curse but then unexpectedly, Fiona, his ex-girlfriend, comes to visit. Rano, who loves Popi, now has to decide which of the two girls, he must sacrifice.
Vangie, a miserable contractual sales lady, is about to lose her job. But in her desperate attempt to convince her boss not to sack her, Vangie uncovers the ultimate jaw-dropping secret to regularization.
A movie built up of three stories about life in a small Slovak town. The Prosecutor: the district attorney is a jazz orchestra soloist at the same time and that is much disliked by the local provincial society. The Defender: is about a young doctor's relation to his patient, who is open about his reactionary opinions. The Judge: it is only after long years that the old judge realizes that his own marriage is in jeopardy.
With the victory against "The Beastly Beasts", "The Wild Soccer Bunch" showed it to everyone and then won every single game. Only one victory now separates them from the "Pott", the Freestyle Soccer Cup. For this they have to compete against the "Wolves of Ragnarök". But the wolves are not normal opponents! They have a dark secret - and behind them lurks a power stronger than all of them: the girl Horizon and the "Silver Lights" from the fog...
Raul is torn between life and death, while he is traveling through infernal labyrinths.
The untold and ultimately inspiring story of legendary singer, Teddy Pendergrass, the man poised to be the biggest R&B artist of all time until the tragic accident that changed his life forever at the age of only 31.
After a student's scholarship falls through, her academic dreams lie in a life-changing offer: marry into a family in exchange for tuition.
An anthology of four abbreviated operas: "William Tell" by Rossini, "The Marriage of Figaro" by Mozart, "Don Pasquale" by Donizetti, and "Carmen" by Bizet. Filmed in Italy with major opera stars, and accompanied by English narration.
Kristine Opolais is the young woman whose conflicting desires for love and luxury lead to her tragic end, and Roberto Alagna plays the man who falls for her in Puccini’s early hit. Richard Eyre’s elegant production, which sets the action in 1940s occupied France, was one of the highlights of the Met’s 2015–16 season. Massimo Cavalletti as Manon’s brother and Brindley Sherratt as her aging admirer co-star, and Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium.
Live 2001 production from the Zurich Opera House of the classic Mozart/Da Ponte opera, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting and directed for television and video by Brian Large.
A look at the entire process of creating and developing Patrice Chéreau’s third staging of "In the Solitude of Cotton Fields" by Bernard Marie Koltès with Pascal Greggory and Chéreau himself. From the first reading around the table through the first contact with the performance space, rehearsals and lighting to opening night, the entire creative process unfurls in front of our eyes. The film shows us the evolving and ongoing dialogue between Greggory and Chéreau, a dialogue full of crises and magical moments of harmony and insight via which the truth, intensity, complexity, mystery and depth of Koltès’ text gradually emerge to form an implicit bond between these two men. The film also shows Chéreau directing rehearsals for Mozart’s "Don Giovanni" in Salzburg, revealing both the unity of and profound differences between his opera and theater work.
Witness the Zurich Opera's stunning production of Richard Wagner's masterpiece "Tannhauser," conducted by Franz Welser-Most and featuring Peter Sieffert (Tannhauser), Solveig Kringelborn (Elisabeth) and Roman Trekel (von Eschenbach). Initially produced in Dresden in 1845, "Tannhauser" instilled a sense of wonder in a few of Strauss's ardent friends and admirers, among them Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt. Opera buffs will love it.
The beautiful but icy Princess Turandot will only marry a man who can correctly answer three riddles. Those who fail are brutally beheaded. But when an unknown prince arrives, the balance of power in Turandot’s court is forever shaken, as the mysterious stranger does what no other has been able to.
Simultaneously filmed English language version of a period operetta, in which a Polish noblewoman is romantically linked with a revolutionary student activist.
The life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time.
American composer Jake Heggie’s compelling masterpiece, the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years, arrives in cinemas in a haunting new production by Ivo van Hove. Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir about her fight for the soul of a condemned murderer, Dead Man Walking matches the high drama of its subject with Heggie’s beautiful and poignant music and a brilliant libretto by Tony and Emmy Award–winner Terrence McNally. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium, with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato starring as Sister Helen. The outstanding cast also features bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as the death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher, soprano Latonia Moore as Sister Rose, and legendary mezzo-soprano Susan Graham—who sang Helen Prejean in the opera’s 2000 premiere—as De Rocher’s mother.
The success of Verdi’s third opera, a stirring drama about the fall of ancient Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco), catapulted the 28-year-old composer to international fame. The music and Verdi himself were subsumed into a surge of patriotic fervor culminating in the foundation of the modern nation of Italy. Specifically, the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves ('Va, pensiero'), in which the Israelites express their longing for their homeland, came to stand for the country’s aspirations for unity and that exciting era in Italian history, the Risorgimento, or 'Resurgence'.
Director Carrie Cracknell makes her Met debut, reinvigorating the classic story with a staging that moves the action to the modern day, in a contemporary American industrial town.
Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Verdi’s grand tale of ill-fated love, deadly vendettas, and family strife, with stellar soprano Lise Davidsen as the noble Leonora, one of the repertory’s most tormented—and thrilling—heroines. Director Mariusz Treliński delivers the company’s first new Forza in nearly 30 years, setting the scene in a contemporary world and making extensive use of the Met’s turntable to represent the unstoppable advance of destiny that drives the opera’s chain of calamitous events. The distinguished cast also features tenor Brian Jagde as Leonora’s forbidden beloved, Don Alvaro; baritone Igor Golovatenko as her vengeful brother, Don Carlo; bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi as Fra Melitone; and bass Soloman Howard as both Leonora’s father and Padre Guardiano.
Two singers at the height of their powers—radiant soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor sensation Benjamin Bernheim—come together as the star-crossed lovers in Gounod’s sumptuous Shakespeare adaptation, with Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct one of the repertoire’s most romantic scores. Bartlett Sher’s elegant staging also features baritone Will Liverman and tenor Frederick Ballentine as the archrivals Mercutio and Tybalt, mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as the mischievous pageboy Stéphano, and bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Frère Laurent.
The life and work of stage designer ADOLPHE APPIA, originator of the most profound agitations in contemporary theatre. Through the dynamic alternation of animated drawings and choreographies specially conceived for the film, we discover the steps of his artistic evolution.
Franco Zeffirelli's magnificient staging of Puccini's final opera - a fairy tale set in a mythical China - is one of the most popular in the Met repertory. In this Live in HD production, Maria Guleghina takes on the title role and Marcello Giordani is Calaf, the unknown prince. Marina Poplavskaya and Samuel Ramey co-star, and Andris Nelsons conducts in his Met debut.
A self-contained and uniquely seductive world featuring custom built drones with live video feeds, laser set-design, opera singers and an original libretto that combines to drive a narrative of desire, fear and destruction.
From the Styriarte Festival in Graz Austria, the acclaimed mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli and Maestro Nikolaus Harnoncourt with his orchestra Concentus Musicu Wien, present a concert on Haydn arias and Symphony No.92, the "Oxford". The singing virtuosity of "Scena di Berenice" is sublime as is the performance of The "Oxford" Symphony from the ensemble renown for its specialty in early music and playing on period instruments. A unique concert.
Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese bride of American naval officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, finds her romantic idyll shattered when he deserts her shortly after their marriage. She lives in hope that one day he will return.