
For those with any interest in Vivaldi's operas Orlando Furioso is essential viewing, being a 1989 San Francisco Opera revival by Pier Luigi Pizzi of his own 1979 production which was largely responsible for beginning modern interest in Vivaldi's stage work. The composer first premiered Orlando finto pazzo in 1714, but the Orlando Furioso finalised in 1727 was so heavily reworked as to be virtually an entirely new opera, and so successful Handel set the same epic poem by Aristo under the title Alcina in 1735.
Conductor
7.0Diana Damrau’s reputation as the world’s leading coloratura soprano has been built on her extraordinary technical virtuosity, her sensitive musicianship and her acute psychological insight. In this DVD of Katie Mitchell’s sometimes radical production of Lucia di Lammermoor from London’s Royal Opera House, she is, as the Financial Times wrote, “brilliantly convincing”. The British award winning director Katie Mitchell – took a revisionist approach to the drama, updating the action to the mid-19th century and applying a feminist slant as she added new and unexpected elements. The Financial Times wrote: “Mitchell shows us on stage personal traumas that a self-respecting woman in the early 19th century was meant to keep to herself. It is a messy, bloody list — nocturnal sex trysts, a knife murder, a miscarriage, a suicide in the bath … In all this Damrau is brilliantly convincing. Her rebellious Lucia is a woman of modern attitudes stuck in a still feudal Victorian world.”
8.5Janma Bhoomi is a compelling Nepali film that celebrates culture, family, and the triumph of good over greed. Arjun and Krishna, two brothers unaware of their bond, face Kuber Agarwal, a wealthy businessman set on destroying Naya Basti village to build a factory, ignoring the villagers’ heritage. Agarwal’s daughter Sirjana falls in love with Arjun and marries him against her father’s wishes.Chameli secretly loves Arjun but remains silent, while Krishna falls for Gita. With the villagers’ support, Arjun and Krishna resist Agarwal’s plans. The story takes a tragic turn as Agarwal and Chameli die, but the brothers succeed in protecting the village. Sirjana’s decision to leave her father highlights that love and integrity triumph over greed. Directed and written by Mohan Nirula and produced by Chabi Ojha, Janma Bhoomi showcases Nepal’s cultural roots and the power of unity.
3.5Serial killers have plagued the American landscape for decades, committing gruesome atrocities, and providing some tough cases for criminal investigators to crack. Two detectives are on the trail of a bizarre murderer intent on slaughtering his victims, then using them as real-life puppets in a tale that he is trying to tell.
7.0Prequel of the film Nobody, 浪浪山的小妖怪, introducing us to the pig as one of the main characters!
5.0Unaware of her brother Raghunandan's evil plans, Laxmi ill-treats her stepchildren, causing them to run away. What follows after is a young girl’s transition to a woman battling for survival, her brother’s education, and to reconcile with her long lost family.
4.0Tired of being mistreated by their husbands, Ema (Reyes Spindola), Clotilde (Elizarraras) and Chayo (Orozco) leave their past (children and husbands included) and begin an adventure that will take them to a cavernous cabaret in Guadalajara, a love affair with a hot-blooded young drug dealer and, finally, a popular and well decorated mexican restaurant in downtown L.A. In the middle, the three women will find their respective self-esteem and their true reasons for living.
3.0When a university student moves in with a family in Mexico City, conflicts emerge. An inevitable affaire with the father, a rebellious bond with the adolescent daughter and tensions with the mother lead up to a painful secret that will shake the family apart.
8.2Purged from its details, the image thus obtained offers a vision of this sculpture reduced to moving lights.
5.0Welcome to St. Sebastian's Quiet Academy for Disreputable Youth. Here you will learn about character...unless you're Isaac.
8.5In the middle of a broadcast about Typhoon Yolanda's initial impact, reporter Jiggy Manicad was faced with the reality that he no longer had communication with his station. They were, for all intents and purposes, stranded in Tacloban. With little option, and his crew started the six hour walk to Alto, where the closest broadcast antenna was to be found. Letting the world know what was happening to was a priority, but they were driven by the need to let their families and friends know they were all still alive. Along the way, they encountered residents and victims of the massive typhoon, and with each step it became increasingly clear just how devastating this storm was. This was a storm that was going to change lives.
6.0The Norwegian Gods of Extreme Metal are back with their 2008 two DVD set and CD! After the unbelievably successful album, In Sorte Diaboli , Dimmu Borgir presents a spectacular DVD of the Invaluable Darkness tour with many specials like the whole gig in Wacken 2007, video footage, behind the scenes stuff, a video gallery, the conferment of their Gold Award and many more stuff. This DVD shows a unbelievable show of the undisputed Kings of Black Metal. It's a absolutely must have for all Dimmu Borgir maniacs all over the world!!!
A 1945 documentary celebrating the 40 year anniversary of Norway's King Haakon VII.
5.3Helsinki wakes up to the summer morning in Jörn Donner's first short film, which goes through the landscapes of Katajanokka, Pohjoisranta, Market Square, Kruununhaka and Kallio
5.8The filmmaker goes to discover Meir the village where her great-grandparents were born, the place her grandparents left, but continued to love. When she goes, she discovers a village that people are trying to leave.
6.5A romantic comedy concerning the tribulations of a love quadrangle during a night of magic & madness.
3.8A usual chain mail is forwarded to a group of people. Some pass it while others ignore. One dies and is followed by series of sudden and unexplainable deaths of others. Soon after, a revelation begins to unfold, the chain mail is cursed and so she has to find the origin and mystery behind to stop the misfortunes it may cause to anyone who fails to pass it before another life perish again. Sandra also suspects Anne is behind the tragic incidents that happened to their friends. Will she break the curse before it's too late or will she become one of the victims?
6.4Acrobat Eddie Marsh is in the army now. His first act is to become friendly with Kathryn Jones, the colonel's pretty daughter. Their romance hits a few snags, including disapproval from her father. Eddie's also plagued by fear of having an accident during his family's trapeze act in the army variety show, which also features a gallery of MGM stars.
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.
0.0Kristine 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.
0.0The director, Roland Schwab, has created his version of Hell. The set is like a high iron walled hanger and the stage is continually occupied with people who look like fugitives from Mad Max and who interact with Mefistofele. The orchestra and choir are wonderful. Rene Pape gives a nuanced interpretation with a certain amount of sardonic humour under the evil. His singing and acting are first rate, as is that of Kristine Opolais and Joseph Calleja.
0.0"La Bohème" is one of Giacomo Puccini's most popular and timeless works and the second-most performed opera at New York's Metropolitan Opera. This production, directed by the legendary Franco Zeffirelli, features José Carreras, Teresa Stratas, Renata Scotto and Richard Stilwell. The opera is replete with extraordinary visual beauty as it presents the tragic story of young bohemians struggling to make it in the world.
0.0Originally commissioned to celebrate the completion of the Suez Canal and the opening of Cairos new opera house, Verdis Egyptian epic Aida is here seen in a spectacular new staging in the Teatro Regio Torino by the Oscar-winning American film director William Friedkin, creator of such famous movies as The Exorcist and The French Connection. The cast features American soprano Kristin Lewis who has been heralded for her remarkable voice, which she uses with powerful dramatic instinct, and Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, whose Amneris dominates the stage with her dark, rounded, irresistible voice and extraordinary stage presence. Gianandrea Noseda leading the Orchestra and Chorus Teatro Regio Torino received accolaides from all: he controls everything- orchestra, singers, chorus, dancers, acrobats- with an all-encompassing overview. He knows exactly when its time to linger over a timbre, a color, an expressive chord.
8.0Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
6.8Who loves whom in Così fan tutte, Mozart’s and Da Ponte’s cruelly comic reflection on desire, fidelity and betrayal? Or have the confusions to which the main characters subject one another ensured that in spite of the heartfelt love duets and superficially fleetfooted comedy nothing will work any longer and that a sense of emotional erosion has replaced true feelings? Così fan tutte is a timeless work full of questions that affect us all. The Academy Award-winning director Michael Haneke once said that he was merely being precise and did not want to distort reality. In only his second opera production after Don Giovanni in 2006, he presents what ARTE described as a “disillusioned vision of love in an ice-cold, realistic interpretation”.
0.0Pietro Mascagni's opera recorded in 2009. Conductor Stefano Ranzani leads the orchestra and chorus of the Zurich Opera House, with performances by Argentinian tenor Jose Cura and soprano Pauletta Marrocu.
7.1The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.
0.0This live version of Puccini s superbly dramatic opera was recorded in Rome in the exact locations and at the precise times of day as Puccini had written into his score. The action opens in Rome's beautiful 16th-century church of Sant Andrea della Valle, where Cavaradossi (Plácido Domingo) is innocently painting, moves to the Farnese Palace where Tosca (Catherine Malfitano) dramatically stabs the lustful Scarpia (Ruggero Raimondi), and finally to the battlements of the Castle Sant Angelo at dawn the following day where Cavaradossi is cruelly killed, and Tosca takes her own life.
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.
0.0La Vie parisienne (Parisian life) is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, composed by Jacques Offenbach in 1866, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. This work was Offenbach's first full-length piece to portray contemporary Parisian life, unlike his earlier period pieces and mythological subjects. It became one of Offenbach's most popular operettas.
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)
0.0This is the 2004 version of Kaija Saariaho's opera performed by the Finnish National Opera and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
0.0Joan Sutherland's farewell performance to the operatic stage offsets this story of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and the magnificence of 16th century France.
10.0Sasha Regan’s award-winning All-male Company are set to lift everyone’s spirits with a treat in their new West End pirate’s cove. The swashbuckling pirates and their winsome lasses sail into the Palace Theatre with their inventive new take on W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan’s classic operetta THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE. Featuring a dazzling cast singing songs including: “I am a Pirate King”; “Oh, happy day, with joyous glee” and “A rollicking band of pirates we”, they are sure to raise the roof off the Palace Theatre!
0.0Carlos Álvarez takes the title role in the first of Verdi's Shakespearean operas, with Maria Guleghina as the manipulative wife whose desire to gain the Scottish throne drives her husband to murder and leaves both with blood on their hands. Bruno Campanella conducts the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in the 2004 recording of Phyllida Lloyd's powerful production, first staged at London's Royal Opera House.
0.0The Biblical story of Belshazzar's hubristic arrogance, set against the valour of the young warrrior-leader Cyrus, provided the 20-year-old Rossini with a dramatic story enriched by West-Eastern implications which still speak to us today. For the title role of Cyrus, Rossini wrote what would be his longest-ever contralto role, to which the great Rossini singer Ewa Podles´ is both naturally attracted and ideally suited. She is partnered by two young stars of Rossini singing, Jessica Pratt and Michael Spyres, and a conductor-scholar, Will Crutchfield, of great experience and sympathy. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound.
0.0The Zurich Opera gathered a superb cast for this production: Italian soprano Eva Mei sings the Countess Violante, known as Sandrina, the feigned gardener of the title. Spanish soprano Isabel Rey is her opponent Arminda, and Arminda's former lover, the melancholy Cavaliere Ramiro, is sung by Romanian mezzo Liliana Nikiteanu. Moretti's staging presents the action in a modern villa in a hierarchical world of the rich and famous.
9.0Recorded at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1995, this acclaimed presentation of composer Gioachino Rossini's epic opus ERMIONE is based on Jean Racine's play "Andromache." Set in Troy after the city fell to the Greeks, the production recounts the rancorous battle between widow Andromache and Helen of Troy's green-eyed daughter, Ermione for the love of Pyrrhus