The Graham Vicks production of FALSTAFF opened the new Covent Garden Royal Opera House, and was not to everybody's taste; the garish primary colours of the costumes. The staging is effective--the complicated counterpoint of the ensembles is reflected in unobtrusive blocking that keeps the vocal lines clear and separate, especially in the final fugue. Bryn Terfel's Falstaff is a memorable creation, self-mocking and self-aggrandising at the same time--so much so, in fact, that he almost does not need the vast prosthetic body he has to wear for the part. Desiree Rancatore is an admirably sweet-toned Nanetta; Bernadette Manca di Nissa an appropriately sardonic Mistress Quickly; Roberto Frontali as Ford, in his Act 2 scena, perfectly distils and parodies every jealousy aria ever written, including Verdi's own. Haitink's conducting is exemplary in the lyrical passages, gets almost everything out of the fast and furious comic sections.

A sudden gunshot shatters the dream of two lovers on their wedding day. The fate of Orpheus and Eury...

Last production staged by Patrice Chéreau, this Elektra will remain as the main and most striking ly...

Burgtheater recording, based on Shakespeare's play.
Easter is a five story-arc opera about the coming-of-age of juking. The first of its tales aptly dea...

Born of a flower and growing to only a couple of inches tall, poor Thumbelina is worried she'll neve...

A Shakespearean actor takes poetic revenge on the critics who denied him recognition.

In the Summer of 2009, the British director Nigel Lowery and the Iranian choreographer Amir Hosseinp...

This epic opera follows Virgil, beginning as the Greeks appear to have ceded the field after ten yea...

A young refugee travels from Russia to America in search of her lost father and falls in love with a...

Sergey Prokofiev's operatic tragedy The Fiery Angel was never performed in the composers lifetime th...

A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping ...

Pablo confesses a crime to Anders, who has a hidden agenda.

A temperamental Broadway producer trains an untutored actress, but when she becomes a star, she prov...

When her father decides to flee to England, young Sylvia Scarlett must become Sylvester Scarlett and...

TANNHÄUSER UND DER SÄNGERKRIEG AUF WARTBURG is a grand opera by Richard Wagner in three acts. After ...

When CIA operative Miles Kendig deliberately lets KGB agent Yaskov get away, his boss threatens to r...

The legendary director Ruth Berghaus created this staging of Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz a...

A rare 1979 BBC Arena documentary on the Albion Band, Ashley Hutchings and the development of Englis...

Werther loves Charlotte, but she promised her mother on her deathbed that she would marry Albert. Af...