The story of Cio-Cio-San, called Butterfly, a young Nagasaki geisha who, abandoned by her American lover after giving birth to their son, ultimately kills herself, continues to impress audiences today. In this outstandingly authentic and elegant production from the Sferisterio Opera Festival, Puccini's highly emotional music is expertly delivered. The superior cast is headed by Raffaella Angeletti, "certainly one of the best Butterflies of our time" (ForumOpera.com), who has performed this role in many Italian theatres, as well as in Madrid and at the Vienna Staatsoper.
Soviet animation inspired by the ancient Egyptian paintings.
Experts set out to prove that female great white sharks rule the ocean.
Five brothas run outta gas in the sticks and roll up on some country girls home alone. Their hillbilly boyfriends come home and declare hunting season. Will the homies make it out alive or will the necks have their hide?
This movie takes place during the premiere of Mozart's Die Zauberfloete (The Magic Flute). Not really depicting his entire life and loves, much of this is fictionalized scatology. Although not without basis in fact, Mozart has attained a somewhat colorful reputation and this is really just more of the same. The music is a joy, but the movie bogs down in titillation. Mozart's last days were lived in poverty and disgrace--stemming chiefly from his embracing of the Freemason stance, which was essentially a heresy in Austria and the rest of Europe at that time. None of this is depicted and even a satyr could not sustain the lifestyle Mozart has been portrayed as having here. Still, this is an interesting movie and worth a listen to.
Mo, an eccentric taxidermist, tries to reconnect with his past.
1999— The Age of Apocalypse, where violence was rampant. In those days, nothing was easy. A story about the love and friendship of girls, which was hotter than any other summer... Joo-young and Ye-ji’s relationship is tender but ultimately feels like an impossible one.
All aboard for Thomas' very first adventure! A little tank engine discovers a big new world when he arrives on the Island of Sodor. Escapades abound as Thomas explores his new home and meets some Really Useful new friends. Finding the true blue meaning of hard work and friendship, Thomas transforms into the Number 1 engine!
Roy plays the piano intro before "The River" and "Once Upon A Time In The West" as a bridge between that song and "Badlands". "Growin' Up" features the spaceman story. Bruce sings the opening of "Come A Little Bit Closer" as an introduction to "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)". Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n Roll Trio's "Lonesome Train" is included in the "Detroit Medley" for the first time. The medley does include the "all aboard" segment, but "I Hear A Train" is dropped. The MC that introduces Springsteen is the legendary Washington-area DJ Don "Cerphe" Colwell.
An overdose of gas at the dentist's office causes Willie to float like a balloon. He floats out of the office, through the stratosphere, and into outer space. There, he meets an alien scientist who has created a ray gun that will immediately process pigs and cows into cuts of meat...
A small-town private investigator is hired to investigate the sale of black-market lobster in Prince Edward Island along with a scrappy convenience store owner.
A poor and desolated boy is bullied by the rich kid from school. Amidst his despair, he finds solace: Boxing.
Owen, a young man is dissatisfied with his life. He heads into the forest to escape and learns a lot during his time there.
Various introductions corners, card games, quizes, 'Making Of', and concert 'Backstage Footage'.
Lin Xiao, Gu Li, Nan Xiang, Tang Wanru - these four best friends, after waving goodbye to their school campus and entering the workforce, they are faced with various challenges in their life: friendship, love, and career. Together, they become lost in life, having long forgotten their past courage.
A staging of Britten's opera filmed at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in June 2008.
This recording of the opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue by Paul Dukas was staged at the Liceu in Barcelona in 2011, with Claus Guth as director, Stéphane Denève as conductor and José van Dam and Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet in the leading roles.
A one-off production of Boris Godunov was staged by Andrei Konchalovsky at the Teatro Regio in Torino in 2010, with Orlin Anastassov in the leading role and Gianandrea Noseda conducting the Orchestra del Teatro Regio.
A superb adaptation of Purcell's the Indian Queen, staged and directed by Peter Sellars and performed in 2013 at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Peters Sellars combines John Dryden and Robert Howard's libretto with a short-story written by the Nicaraguan writer Rosario Aguilar, La niña blanca y los pájaros sin pies.
German composer Richard Wagner wrote Parsifal, which is a three-act opera that tells the story of the title character's quest to save the Knights of the Holy Grail by returning the Holy Spear, healing King Amfortas, and carrying out the sacred ceremony of uncovering the Holy Grail.
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.
Kazushi Ono and Laurent Pelly offer audiences an inspired and poetic interpretation of Ravel's classic children's opera, L'Enfant et les Sortilèges.
The 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.
Recorded 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
In Benjamin Britten's operatic adaptation of Henry James' masterwork, a naive governess (Helen Field) arrives at a country manor and soon discovers that it holds a murky secret involving her charges and two ghostly servants who wield a sinister influence on them. The taut, atmospheric production also stars Sam Linay, Machiko Obata, Menai Davies and Phyllis Cannan, with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra providing accompaniment.
"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.
Simultaneously filmed English language version of a period operetta, in which a Polish noblewoman is romantically linked with a revolutionary student activist.
John Adams’s mesmerizing score, in the powerful production of Penny Woolcock, tells the story of one of the pivotal moments in human history—the creation of the atomic bomb. Conducted by Alan Gilbert in his Met debut, this gripping opera presents the human face of the scientists, military men, and others who were involved in the project, as they wrestled with the implications of their work. Baritone Gerald Finley gives a powerful star turn in the title role as the brilliant J. Robert Oppenheimer.
At Salzburg Festival, Cecilia Bartoli shines as Ariodante with her dazzling coloratura in a highly acclaimed new production by the German director Christoph Loy, who is known for his clever psychological stagings. Loy turns Handel's splendid baroque opera into an exciting and differentiated reflection on gender roles.
Margaret Williams directs this 2001 production of adaptation of Benjamin Britten's television opera based on a short story by Henry James. Performers featured include Gerald Finley, Peter Savidge and Josephine Barstow. The conductor is Kent Nagano. As pertinent now as then, OWEN WINGRAVE was composed by Benjamin Britten at the height of the Vietnam War. The opera poses the question: Is pacifism an act of cowardice? Or rather a desire to escape from the spiral of war and create world peace? To what extent do we determine our own futures? Should we let past events inform the decisions we make? Britten’s characters grapple with timeless issues in this gripping psychodrama.
Music & Musicals, Opera & Operetta, Classical Music - 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 Thomas Hampson (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.
Live performance from the Schwetzinger Festspiele, 1987. At the age of 21, Italian composer Giacchino Rossini penned the masterful comic opera “L’Italiana in Algeri” (“The Italian Girl in Algiers”) in less than a month. The composer’s youthful exuberance comes across in this infectious 1987 performance. Though she’s known mainly for her Wagner roles, acclaimed German mezzo-soprano Doris Soffel shines in the title role of Isabella. Ralf Weikert conducts, and Mauro Pagano oversees sets and costumes.