Items Matching Tag 'Opera'

Pergolesi: Adriano in Siria (DVD Details)
For the festivities marking Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's tercentenary in his native Jesi, Ignacio García created a new staging of the imperial drama Adriano in Siria. His staging in Jesi's exquisite 18th century Teatro G.B. Pergolesi includes the delightful comic intermezzo Livietta e Tracollo, thus following the precedent set at the premiere in 1734. A fine italian cast and the...

Verdi: Les Vêpres Siciliennes (Carignani) (DVD Details)
Les Vêpres siciliennes, like the similarly epic Don Carlos, was conceived as a grand opéra for Paris and is driven by the tensions between private passions and public politics. Originally set during Sicily's 13th-century uprising against French rule, in Christof Loy's staging for the Netherlands Opera the action is transposed to a 1940s world of sudden violence and shadowy double-dealing....

Janacek: Jenufa (Bolton) (DVD Details)
The vulnerable young woman at the heart of Janacek's breakthrough opera is a signature role for the English soprano Amanda Roocroft. Here, in Stéphane Braunschweig's clear but deeply affecting production, she is partnered by the Slovak tenor Miroslav Dvorský, as the man through whom she finds redemption, love and hope. The complex figure of the Kostelnicka becomes both tormentor and tormented...

Turnage: Anna Nicole (Pappano) (DVD Details)
The Royal Opera commission from composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, librettist Richard Thomas and director Richard Jones adds Anna Nicole Smith to opera's gallery of tragic women. A pneumatic Playboy model who married an octogenarian billionaire, she flirted with global fame before falling fatally prey to its allure and corruption. With its jazz coloured score and Eva-Maria Westbroek's starry...

Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (Noseda) (DVD Details)
Boris Godunov is the story not only of a troubled leader but of an entire nation, and its history is as eventful as that of Mother Russia herself. In this new production, the legendary director Andrei Konchalovsky presents a personal vision of the opera that takes Mussorgsky's bare and monumental first version as its basis, while adding the final scene from the composer's revision, in which not...

Tchaikovsky: Pique Dame (Boder) (DVD Details)
Obsessive in gambling and in love, the soldier hermann is the protagonist of Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, based on a short story by Pushkin. He is smitten with the aristocratic Lisa and fixated on learning the winning secret of 'the three cards' from her grandmother, the Countess, pleayed by iconic contralto Ewa Podleś. This opulent production from Barcelona's Liceu captures St....

Britten: Billy Budd (Elder) (DVD Details)
Based on Herman Melville's novella of naval life in the late 18th century, Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd is a gripping reflection on good and evil, injnocence and corruption. In Glyndebourne Festival Opera's 2010 production, director Michael Grandage scrupulously recreates the claustrophobic environment aboard HMS Indomitable, the setting for fatal tensions between the young sailor Billy Budd,...

Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer (Haenchen) (DVD Details)
Austrian director Martin Kušej's pioneering vision brings a challenging and provoking insight into Wagner's opera of love and redemption, with his singular ability to connect characters and their actions to the score. Martin Zehetgruber's spacious, multi-layered sets define the settings therough which Daland (Robert Lloyd), Senta (Catherine Neglestad), The Dutchman (Juha Uusitalo) and the chorus...

Verdi: La Traviata (Pappano) (DVD Details)
Reneé Fleming, as the ill-fated courtesan Violetta, leads The Royal opera's stellar cast opposite Joseph Calleja as Alfredo, with Thomas Hampson as his unyielding father. Richard Eyre's classic production brings one of Verdi's best-loved works vividly to life, with stage designs that evoke the pleasure-seeking whirl of Parisian society - the glamorous setting for the doomed love of Alfredo and...

Wagner: Die Walkure (Thielemann) (DVD Details)
Christian Thielemann, " by common consent the leading Wagner conductor of our time" (Die Presse), returns to Bayreuth for this radiant account of Die Walküre filmed at the 2010 festival. Appearing on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time, it provides the only audio-visual document of Tankred Dorst's Ring production, and follows the hugely successful release of the whole cycle of on CD. Two new...

Monteverdi: L'Orfeo (Alessandrini) (DVD Details)
Monteverdi's seminal first opera tells the dramatic story from Ovid's Metamorphoses of the descent of Orfeo into the underworld to recover his beloved wife Euridice, who has died from a snake bite. In a new production for La Scala, based on a painting by Titian and directed by Robert Wilson, the oepra received a powerful and inspiring performance from a fine cast, the Orchestra of Teatro alla...

Strauss,R: Elektra (Thielemann) (DVD Details)
The richness and intensity of Richard Stauss's masterful one-act opera. in herbert Wernicke's compelling production, vividly portrays the relentless pursuit and ecstatic realisation of vengeance. Linda Watson, as a merciless Elektra, joins Jane Henschel as Klytämnestra and Manuela Uhl as Chrysothemis to head a magnificent cast which see commanding performances also from Albert Dohman and René...

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (DVD Details)
A double première: Katharina Wagner's first production on Bayreuth's Green Hill and the first live recording from the festival on Blu-ray and DVD. In this production Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is a parable about art and society using images of a kind never previously seen in this work at Bayreuth. "This piece has a very unfortunate history. And in Bayreuth, above all, we finally need to...

Strauss, R : Der Rosenkavalier (Davis) (CD Details)
Richard Strauss's most popular opera mixes comedy and philosophy, farce and romance. Anna Tomowa-Sintow, an exceptional Marschallin, is perfectly complemented by Kurt Moll's Baron Ochs, Ann Murray's octavian and Barbara Bonney's Sophie, with the Royal Opera Chorus and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Andrew Davis. Recorded live by the BBC at the Royal Opera House, Covent...

Puccini: La Fanciulla del West (Rizzi) (DVD Details)
Nikolaus Lehnhoff's  Hollywood-style production updates Belasco's Wild West story to the capitalist culture of Wall Street, perfectly reflecting Puccini's innovatory spirit. In a new angle on the age-old love triangle theme, corrupt Sheriff Jack Rance (Lucio Gallo) and charismatic criminal Dick Johnson (Zoran Todorovich) vie for the love of glamorous blonde and devout Christian, Minnie (Eva-Mari...

Tchaikovsky: Cherevichki (Royal Opera) (DVD Details)
Based on Gogol's fantastical and comic story of the Devil's antics on Christmas Eve, this magical blend of opera and ballet is brought to vivid life in Francesca Zambello's colourful production. Magnificent set designs (Mikhail Mokrov) and costumes (Tatiana Noginova), and an excellent, largely Russian cast provide authenticity. Splendid dancing by The Royal Ballet and Cossack dancers...

Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte (Davis) (CD Details)
Mozart specialist Colin Davis directs an exceptional recording of this witty, sophisticated, compact, comic opera. The superlative cast, including a stellar Kiri Te Kanawa, and the excellent orchestra respond to Davis's finely polished account of the score, deftly balancing the humanity, irony, pain and humour of Da Ponte's complex battle of the sexes. Packaged in an attractive clam-shell...

Monty Python: Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy) (Blu-ray Details)
A comic oratorio inspired by Monty Python's Life Of Brian filmed at its only European performance at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2009 to celebrate 40 years of Monty Python.

Puccini: La Bohème (Nelsons) (DVD Details)
John Copley’s enduring production of one of the most famously melodious and popular of all operas is a classic of the Royal Opera repertory. With historically accurate designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman and an excellent cast headed by Hibla Gerzmava and Teodor Ilincai, this 2009 revival, in which conductor Andris Nelsons makes a distinguished Royal Opera House debut, does full justice to...

Berg: Lulu (Pappano) (DVD Details)
Berg’s masterful and thought-provoking opera tells the gripping story of the rise and fall of an alluring, destructive but vulnerable woman, culminating in her death at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Christof Loy’s austere, minimalist production allows the complexities of the drama to unfold through the sumptuous, taut beauty of the score. Agneta Eichenholz and Michael Volle lead an all-star...

Purcell: The Fairy Queen (Christie) (DVD Details)
Jonathan Kent’s spectacular production of Purcell’s huge semi-opera is joyous, imaginative and witty. Glyndebourne, with its intimate auditorium, provides the perfect setting for a drama which is partly spoken and partly sung. Based on an adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the story is lavished with a brilliance that justifies this production’s acclaim. Paul Brown’s...

Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore (Benini) (DVD Details)
Acclaimed Italian conductor Maurizio Benini makes his Glyndebourne debut in Donizetti’s intoxicating and deeply touching opera, whose fast-moving comic story unfolds the romantic rivalry between penniless farmhand and bumptious soldier, both vying for the love of Adina. Will the bogus Dr Dulcamara’s potion – the elixir of love – help farmhand Nemorino win her heart? Peter Auty takes the role...

Terror at the Opera (DVD Details)
Spanish actress Cristina Marsillach stars as Betty, a young and inexperienced opera singer who gets at a chance at her big break starring in a production of Verdi’s ‘Macbeth’ when the lead is forced to pull out following a road accident. Despite her belief that the production is cursed, Betty accepts the role and receives universal acclaim for her performance. Unfortunately, her star turn also...

Beethoven: Fidelio (Haitink) (DVD Details)
Translucence, transparency – warmth’ are the qualities identified by Bernard Haitink as necessary for an ideal sound performance of Beethoven’s only opera, and all are present in this fantastic recording of Katharina Thalbach’s new production for Opernhaus Zurich. Haitink conducts the Zurich Opera Orchestra in a magnificent performance in which Leonore Overture No. 3 provides an interlude between...

Handel: Acis and Galatea (Hogwood) (DVD Details)
Christopher Hogwood conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a distinguished cast including Danielle de Niese and Charles Workman in Wayne McGregor's new production of Handel's opera in which The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet appear in a rare and beautifully crafted collaboration. Filmed with High Definition cameras and recorded in true surround sound. Galatea, a nymph and demi-...

Verdi: Falstaff (Jurowski) (DVD Details)
The inspirational Vladimir Jurowski conducts Verdi’s last opera, his only true comic opera. An international cast is led by Christopher Purves in the larger-than-life role of the corpulent Falstaff, whose profligacy both outrages and inspires the citizens of Windsor. Richard Jones’s production brings out the humour, bitterness and anger – mixed with tenderness and wisdom – embodied in the...

Maw: Sophie's Choice (Rattle) (DVD Details)
In 2002, Nicholas Maw’s opera Sophie’s Choice, based on the novel by William Styron, was given its premiere at the Royal Opera House. The subject had struck Maw when he had first watched the film several years previously, and he immediately felt it would be ‘the most extraordinary basis for an opera’. Commissioned by the Royal Opera House and BBC Radio 3, Maw embarked on an adaptation of Styron’s...

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Schneider) (DVD Details)
Recorded live at the Bayreuth Festival in Summer 2009, this production marks the beginning of an exciting new long-term partnership between the Bayreuth Festival and Opus Arte. The prestigious music festival takes place each year in northern Germany in a theatre that Wagner himself personally supervised the design and construction of. The festival has become a pilgrimage destination for Wagner...

Cavalli: Ercole Amante (Bolton) (DVD Details)
Commissioned to celebrate the marriage of the Sun King, Louis XIV, and Marie Thérèse of Spain, the original production of Cavalli’s Ercole Amante took two years to complete and, at the time, was the grandest show ever performed in Europe. DNO’s contemporary, hilarious and surreal production, directed by David Alden, is a triumph of opera buffa, a riot of decoration and symbolism complemented by...

Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera (López Cobos) (DVD Details)
Passion, loyalty and political conspiracy are the three pillars of Un ballo in maschera (1859), the ‘most operatic of all operas’. Set in 19th-century Boston, Mario Martone’s atmospheric production for the Teatro Real brings out all the innate theatricality and drama of Verdi’s work. World famous Argentinean tenor Marcelo Ã�lvarez, in the role of Riccardo, leads a fabulous cast including...