A return to its roots for Castor et Pollux, Jean-Philippe Rameau’s lyric tragedy first performed in 1737 at the Académie royale and inspired by the mythological episode of the Gemini. Rarely performed in its original version – the score was reworked by Rameau himself in 1754 –, this daring work plays on contrasts and expressiveness, as in the famous “Tristes apprêts”. The aria is sung by Télaïre mourning the death of her fiancé Castor, killed in battle, before his twin brother Pollux descends into the Underworld to ask his father, Jupiter, to bring him back to life. While this opera celebrates brotherly love, its prologue poses an essential question for director Peter Sellars: how do you stop a war and its attendant hatred and resentment?
In the court of Princess Turandot, suitors who fail to solve her riddles are brutally killed. But wh...
37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts...
A Ukrainian comic opera with spoken dialogue in three acts with music and libretto by the composer S...
Adapted from the opera written by the composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky.
Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the...
Royal Opera favourite Bryn Terfel heads the cast for this new production of Donizetti’s comedy of do...
Simon Keenlyside smolders dangerously in the title role of Mozart’s version of the legend of Don Jua...
Richard Jones’ “La bohème” is an important weapon in the Royal Opera’s commercial arsenal. This is i...
Beethoven’s only opera is a masterpiece, an uplifting story of risk and triumph. In this new product...
When this sumptuous production by Giancarlo del Monaco opened in 1995, legendary tenor Plácido Domin...
Franco Zeffirelli's magnificient staging of Puccini's final opera - a fairy tale set in a mythical C...
The water fairy Rusalka falls in love with an earthly prince. In vain, Father Aquarius warns her. He...
Franco Zeffirelli directs these two legendary La Scala productions telling tragic tales of jealousy...
The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make...
Classics on a Summer's Evening is an outdoor concert for an enormous audience which was staged in an...
Elmer Fudd is again hunting rabbits - only this time it's an opera. Wagner's Siegfried with Elmer as...
When a beautiful young woman in rural Moravia becomes unexpectedly pregnant, she learns that love is...
Based on Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci. The film recounts the tragedy of Canio, the lead clo...
An excellent performance of this delightful opera. The principals are superb, especially the sisters...