The Metropolitan Opera: Don Pasquale

Amours divins !(fr)

The most famous Scenes and Arias from French operas

A Cossack Beyond the Danube(uk)

Zaporozhets za Dunayem (Ukrainian: Запорожець за Дунаєм, translated as A Zaporozhian (Cossack) Beyond the Danube, also referred to as Cossacks in Exile) is a Ukrainian comic opera with spoken dialogue in three acts with music and libretto by the composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813–1873). The orchestration has subsequently been rewritten by composers such as Reinhold Glière and Heorhiy Maiboroda. This is one of the best-known Ukrainian comic operas depicting national themes.

Zaporozhets Za Dunayem(uk)

Adapted from the opera written by the composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky.

O Die Zee(en)

O Die Zee is a modern Dutch retelling Homer's Odyssey in the form of a rock opera. It was performed in the summer of 2014 in the open air of Fort Rammekens, The Netherlands.

Giordano: Andrea Chernier(it)

“Kaufmann is performing the title role for the first time, and it’s hard to imagine him bettered. His striking looks make him very much the Romantic and romanticised outsider of Giordano’s vision. His voice, with its dark, liquid tone, soars through the music with refined ease and intensity: all those grand declarations of passion, whether political or erotic, hit home with terrific immediacy.” – The Guardian Presented in its Covent Garden premiere in January 2015, this staging – directed by David McVicar and conducted by the Royal Opera’s Music Director, Sir Antonio Pappano – shows a bloody tricolour daubed with the words “Even Plato banned poets from his Republic” – written by Robespierre on the death warrant of the historical Chénier, a poet and journalist sent to the guillotine in 1794 for criticising France’s post-revolutionary government.

Rodelinda(en)

With this DVD and Blu-ray of Rodelinda, one of Handel’s most emotionally complex operas, conductor Emmanuelle Haïm adds to her impressive Erato catalogue of the composer’s works. The imaginative production, by Jean Bellorini, was seen at the Opéra de Lille in Autumn 2018, and the cast features soprano Jeanine De Bique in the title role, countertenor Tim Mead as her husband Bertarido and another countertenor, Erato’s rising star Jakub Józef Orliński as Unulfo. Reviewing the production, Le Monde noted Emmanuelle Haïm’s “intimate connection with this music, which she knows how to unleash in all its violence, passion and heart-wrenching expressivity.”

Carmen Not Only According to Bizet(cs)

This is funny or rather crazy adaptation of classical opera Carmen inspired by famous czech theatre Ypsilon play of the same name shot at various bizarre locations such as airport, botanical garden and winter forest.

Rossini: La Cenerentola(it)

This occasionally off-the-wall but finely sung and colourfully staged La Cenerentola was Rome Opera’s first foray into the media market, shown on television and in cinemas across Italy in 2016. It clearly had the funding. Emma Dante’s production will not have come cheap – Vanessa Sannino’s costumes are a particular feature – nor would the singers, given that this is as good a Cenerentola cast as any international house might currently muster.

Verdi: Il Trovatore(it)

Alex Ollé, one of the famous La Fura dels Baus, recreates the conflict and places principal protagonists in clear, transforming set with supporting lighting – facing all primal emotions directly, with no place to hide. The set design (smart and impressive solution of scenography by Alfons Flores) encased in mirrors and accented with silently moving columns, creating cloister, battlefield, cemetery or castle with minimalistic hints (impressive lighting design by Urs Schönebaum), gives us the opportunity to keep full attention on the vocal performance of main characters.

Paisiello Nina(en)

The opera: Nina, o sia La Pazza Per Amore itself, is an extra-ordinary sad and touching story, and seems very difficult to be performed if the singer has no acting talents. Therefore we adore Cecilia Bartoli for the magnificent performance as the crazy Nina who lost her mind totally. Her magnificent singing, we don't doubt at all, but her acting is amazingly such that it expressed a real situation of a girl becoming crazy and losing her mind caused by painful incidents in her love life. It is also supported by the other singers who are singing matching as perfectly and splendidly as the diva Cecilia Bartoli, especially the baritone Laszlo Polgar with his deep rich voice as the cruel father who has remorse and came back to see his daughter Nina and the young tenor Jonas Kauffmann with his clear light voice, resulting in a surprisingly beautifully performed opera.

La bohème - ROH(it)

A penniless poet, a young seamstress, and a lost key: Puccinis passionate opera tells the story of a captivating romance set against the background of 19th-century Paris. The luscious score, with its soaring melodies and rich orchestration, brings to life the relationships between Rodolfo, Mimì and their friends, the painter Marcello and fiery Musetta. Acclaimed director Richard Jones stages a fresh and intelligent new production of one of the worlds most popular operas, conducted by The Royal Operas Music Director, Antonio Pappano.

Macbeth - Teatro alla Scala(it)

Verdi-Requiem mit Riccardo Muti(de)

Rusalka(cs)

Three arias from Antonín Dvořák´s fairytale opera Rusalka turned in to a movie, sung by Gabriela Beňačková (Rusalka), Libuše Márová (Witch), René Tuček (Hunter).

Lucia di Lammermoor(it)

This telecast offers a rare opportunity to see the legendary Joan Sutherland in the role that first catapulted her to international stardom. She drove audiences wild by the way her opulent voice caressed the music’s long phrases and sprinted effortlessly through the fiendish runs, trills, embellishments and stratospheric high notes. One of the glories of the operatic world, her portrayal of Donizetti’s hapless heroine is a multifaceted and moving characterization. The incomparable tenor Alfredo Kraus is Edgardo, the man Lucia loves but cannot have. (Performance taped November 13, 1982. Broadcasted September 28, 1983.)

Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio(en)

Two years prior to the opening scene, the nobleman Florestan has exposed or attempted to expose certain crimes of the nobleman Pizarro. In revenge, Pizarro has secretly imprisoned Florestan in the prison over which Pizarro is governor. The jailer of the prison, Rocco, has a daughter, Marzelline, and a servant (or assistant), Jaquino. Florestan’s wife, Leonore, came to Rocco’s door dressed as a boy seeking employment, and Rocco hired her. On orders, Rocco has been giving Florestan diminishing rations until he is nearly starved to death. Place: A Spanish state prison, a few miles from Seville; Time: Late 18th century.

Handel: Alcina(en)

Philippe Jaroussky as Ruggiero is in thrall to Patricia Petibon as the sorceress Alcina in Katie Mitchell’s virtuosic production of Handel’s opera from the 2015 Aix-en-Provence Festival, described by Bachtrack as “a night of a thousand delights”. Conducted by Andrea Marcon, this was, in the words of Opera News, “musically … a performance of the highest festival level”. The production of Alcina, by the British director Katie Mitchell, was welcomed by the Financial Times as “meticulously executed …, rich in detail, consummately polished”. As the New York Times wrote: “It involves a huge sorcery machine for turning people into animals (or whatever). And Ms. Mitchell works magic of her own onstage, constantly showing the enchantresses Alcina and Morgana alternating between glamorous public personas and their ‘real life’, older, private selves …There are also bits of simulated sex, mingling genders and suggesting, among other things, inventive new ways to hit high notes.”

Kouzelný strom(cs)

Dardanus(fr)

At the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, Raphaël Pichon conducts a new production of Rameau's opera Dardanus, with the ensemble Pygmalion, in a staging by Michel Fau and a choreography by Christopher Williams.

Fuoco sacro – Suche nach dem heiligen Feuer des Gesangs(de)

What drives men and women to risk their own lives to save those of others? Fuoco Sacro tells the story of the Vigili del Fuoco, the Italian fire department, and does it through the voices of the people who, over half a century of history, have tackled with competence and a spirit of self-sacrifice the greatest calamities that Italy has tragically had to experience at firsthand.