This is a good video of "Figaro", but there are a couple of better ones available. The Bohm and the Pappano are better still due to the female members of the casts. The reason for buying this one is the "Figaro", Bryn Terfel. No one can top him today in that role. John Eliot Gardiner also stands out. Many of us have voiced their opinion that If the Metropolitan Opera would release it's 1998 version, that would be the one to get.
All the throbbing eroticism—and ultimate heartbreak—of Puccini’s youthful score is unleashed by James Levine and his top-flight cast. Plácido Domingo is Des Grieux, the handsome, headstrong young aristocrat who falls head over heels for the enticing, impetuous Manon Lescaut (Renata Scotto). Manon returns his love, but her obsession with luxury ruins them both. Gian Carlo Menotti’s opulent production, with sets and costumes by Desmond Heeley, superbly captures the colorful world of 18th century France.
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.)
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.
Disillusioned with life, the aged philosopher Faust calls upon Satan to help him. The devil Méphistophélès appears and strikes a bargain with the philosopher: he will give him youth and the love of the beautiful Marguerite, if Faust hands over his soul. Faust agrees, and Méphistophélès arranges matters so that Marguerite loses interest in her suitor Siébel and becomes infatuated with Faust. Faust initially seems to love Marguerite in return, but soon abandons her. Her brother Valentin returns from the war and is furious to find his sister pregnant. Will Faust repent his destructive actions, and can his soul, and Marguerite's, be saved?
It's hard to imagine confirmed Straussians not wanting this starry Metropolitan Opera performance of Elektra. Strauss and his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannstahl, transformed Sophocles' take on Homer's tale into a harrowing opera noir. Elektra lives for one reason, to kill her mother, Klytämnestra, and her stepfather, Aegisth, the murderers of her father, Agamemnon. In contrast to Elektra's vengeful obsession, her sister Chrysothemis desires to get on with life. When their long-missing brother, Orestes, returns to do the deed, Elektra celebrates with a dance of death and, her sole purpose in life fulfilled, dies. Strauss joined the hermetic plot to music of the utmost opulence, violent and yearning by turns, evoking the cardinal principles of Greek tragedy - pity and terror.
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).
In Verdi’s retelling of Shakespeare’s towering tragedy, Renée Fleming gives a captivating performance as the innocent Desdemona, a role long considered one of her calling cards. Johan Botha as the title hero delivers an imposing portrayal of a proud warrior brought down by jealousy, and Falk Struckmann is thrilling as the villainous Iago. James Morris sings Lodovico. Elijah Moshinsky’s production is conducted by Semyon Bychkov.
Early Rossini has a youthful, buoyant vibrancy about it, even in the dark swirls of drammi per musica like Sigismondo. The work, centered on a mad king and his delusions, was rarely played after its premiere in 1814. This performance marked the first from the critical new edition at the 2010 Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and was hailed as a "perfect symbiosis of music and stage work" resulting in "truly brilliant theatre." Complete with a cast of sought-after Rossini singers, this is not to be missed.
In January 2007, superstar soprano Natalie Dessay, joined on stage by acclaimed tenor Juan Diego Florez dazzled British audiences in Laurent Pelly's new production of Donizetti's "LA FILLE DU REGIMENT". The perfectly staged & cast production became the operatic event of the year, receiving rave press reviews & rapturous audience ovations.
This is an excellent version of one of the greatest of all comic operas, featuring superb singing and orchestral playing. And it's not just the two headliners; listen, for example, to the entrance of the stepsisters at the beginning of Act One. Nevertheless, some viewers may find the staging problematic, with singers in clown-like costumes and sets featuring human-sized rodents. Those seeking a more conventional production might want to consider the Houston Grand Opera DVD, also on Decca, with Cecilia Bartoli and Raul Jimenez. Both sets are wonderful, but, for me, Joyce Didonato and Juan Diego Florez are slightly to be preferred. Highly recommended.
Can the darkest moments of life also lift our souls? Drawing on his own experience in a Siberian prison in the company of misfits, murderers and theives, Dostoevsky was inspired to write his novel Notes from a Dead House, telling his brother at the time: ‘Believe me, there were among them deep, strong, beautiful natures, and it often gave me great joy to find gold under a rough exterior.’ In Janáček’s hands, Dostoevsky’s inspiration and the raw material drawn from an appalling world of incarceration find an even more powerful form of expression in his last opera, From the House of the Dead. Unfettered by conventional story-telling, Janáček wrote his own libretto, freely weaving together a series of stories of everyday prison life and of the fates of individual convicts.
At the English National Opera, Deborah Warner has been directing Benjamin Britten's final opera, Death in Venice, conducted by Edward Gardner.
La vida breve, an Andalusian opera in two acts written by Manuel de Falla on a libretto by Carlos Fernández Shaw, staged by Giancarlo del Monaco at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, in Valencia.
In 2009, Frédéric Mistral’s tale of love and loss in Provence came to the Opéra de Paris with a new production of Gounod’s 1864 opera Mireille. Nicolas Joel’s naturalistic staging frames the accomplished performances of Albanian soprano Inva Mula as Mireille and American tenor Charles Castronovo as her ardent country lover Vincent.
Stage director Jean-Louis Grinda and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo present Verdi’s early smash hit opera Ernani. Ramon Vargas heads up an incredible cast in the heroic title role and maestro Daniele Callegari leads the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra in the sumptuous melodies of Verdi’s score.
The season kicks off with Boitos resplendent retelling of Goethes Faust, a monumental work of 'choral grandeur and melodic richness' (The New York Times) in one of the most impressive productions ever seen at the War Memorial Opera House. The cast includes Ramón Vargas, a tenor 'in ravishing voice' (Financial Times), as the philosopher who sells his soul to the Devil; the 'luminous, compelling' Patricia Racette (Washington Post) as the woman he desires; and, in the vividly menacing title role, the 'seductively malevolent' bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov, a 'fullbodied bass-baritone' renowned for his 'wonderfully evil portrayals' (The New York Times).
Walter Felsenstein's staging of Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann at the Komische Opera Berlin.
The Italian and international press were unanimous in their praise for "Peter Grimes" at La Scala, which revived the tradition of Britten's operas on the lyric stages of Italy. A top British cast was marshaled by the baton of Robin Ticciati. Richard Jones's production focuses on the fisherman as the outside in a brutal and brutalized 1980s society, cut off by mutual suspicion and misunderstanding: an unforgettable production of a 20th-century operatic masterpiece that never loses its power. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound.
Macbeth" was Giuseppe Verdi's first attempt at music drama and also the first manifestation of his profound love for Shakespeare's work. Verdi took great pains with this opera, displaying special enthusiasm for it as he concentrated on the main characters of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth and the witches. This recording of Luca Ronconi's production is conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli, who brings fresh color to Verdi's score. The cast, headed by Renato Bruson and Mara Zampieri, are strongly supported by a fine-toned and adaptable chorus who ably meet the demands of Verdi's great "chorus opera.
In the aftermath of the Great Plague and amidst the subsequent witch-hunts against women, a young widow grapples with the tragic death of her husband in a society completely consumed by fear and death. Because she rejects the advances of her landlord, she is falsely accused of being a witch and thrown in jail for a crime she didn’t commit. She must endure physical persecution at the hands of England’s most ruthless witch-hunter and face her own inner demons as the devil himself starts to work his way into her mind.
The evolution of adult cinema through the most influential films in history, a journey that begins in the 1970s and ends nowadays. An in-depth analysis of the success of the most prestigious erotic films, their impact on industry and society, and their influence on cinema and contemporary culture.
Shot at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul during the BTS World Tour ‘Love Yourself’ to celebrate the seven members of the global boyband and their unprecedented international phenomenon.
Due to a female passenger falling out of her top whilst running for the bus Stan is distracted and crashes the bus resulting in the depot managers car being written off. As a result Stan, Jack and Blakey are fired. Stan and Jack soon get new jobs as a bus crew at a Pontins holiday resort but discover that Blakey has also gotten a job there as the chief security guard.
As a Korean-American man raised in the Louisiana bayou works hard to make a life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past as he discovers that he could be deported from the only country he has ever called home.
In 1920s New York City, a Black woman finds her world upended when her life becomes intertwined with a former childhood friend who's passing as white.
Four different couples have a romantic week over New Year's Eve. Both coming out of failed marriages, Ji-ho and Hyo-young are not open to the possibility of new love, while Jin-ah heads to the other side of globe and encounters Jae-hun.
Martin Bashir conducts a rare interview with Michael Jackson and is given unprecedented access to the reclusive performer's private life over a span of eight months, from May 2002 to January 2003.
Army Lieutenant Halliday, accused of stealing the Army payroll, pursues the real thief on a frantic chase through Mexico aided by the thief's ex-girlfriend and is in turn being chased by his accuser, Capt. Blake.
Young man has his dreams come true when the sexy new maid seduces him. But she also has a secret that leads to trouble.
Now that Ivan is about to turn 21, he is now grown up and finally old enough to marry the beautiful Vasilisa. But when Vasilisa is kidnapped and trapped in modern Moscow, Ivan and his friends must travel to the present day to rescue her.
A burning Godzilla, on the verge of meltdown, emerges to lay siege to Hong Kong. At the same time horrifying new organisms are discovered in Japan. These crustacean-like beings are seemingly born of the Oxygen Destroyer, the weapon that killed the original Godzilla.
An ex-fireman with PTSD goes on the run when accused of a crime he doesn't even remember committing, leading him down a rabbit hole of conspiracy to the highest degree.
A group of five classmates is trapped inside their school bus after a mysterious creature invade the road. Time runs and every passing minute decreases their survival chances against the constant threats of that unknown entity.
In the sixth installment of the Gabriel's Inferno series, Julia deals with the aftermath of Gabriel's departure, while Gabriel goes on a journey of self-discovery. Will they reunite and be able to repair what is broken?
A young woman lives, hidden in plain sight in a ruined Hong Kong building after a tsunami destroyed the city - a castaway on a concrete island. Her concealed existence is changed forever when a small child literally floats into her life.
A debt-ridden father takes advantage of an unforeseen situation to disappear and live off the grid under a false identity. But a chance event occurs and the temptation to want to know his family resurfaces.
Comic tale of a cynical TV star's slow-combustion romance with a young paraplegic.
A period drama film, depicting Joseon Dynasty in Korea. Kyoung-su is a skilled acupuncturist but a blind who can only see a little at dark. Right after Kyoung-su joins King Injo’s medical team, the prince comes back after 7 years of living in Chung dynasty. Due to a long journey coming back, the prince becomes ill, and the king’s doctor brings Kyoung-su to heal him. But while Kyoung-su is doing his work, he finds out the king’s hidden secret which might change everything that the king owns. Could Kyoung-su be able to save everyone and himself?
A local activist and a budding young mayor clash over the best path forward for their impoverished suburb.