When the most voluptuous, sought-after courtesan in the world meets an ascetic monk whose life is devoted to God, you know erotic sparks are going to fly. And when the clash takes place in a glorious, but rarely performed, opera by Massenet, it’s a delight to the ear just as much as to the eye. Renée Fleming is every inch the glamorous Thaïs, swathed in elegant gowns designed by Christian Lacroix. Thomas Hampson is Athanaël, the tortured man of God. This production by John Cox, which premiered in December 2008, brilliantly sets the stage for a confrontation as old as civilization itself.

Starring the exquisite coloratura soprano Emma Matthews as the innocent girl priestess Lakmé, and su...

Berlioz’s colossal masterpiece requires stupendous forces—dozens of soloists, enormous chorus, orche...

A Victor Hugo play, haunting and scandalous, provided the inspiration for Verdi’s mid-career masterp...
Politics and love leads to a love triangle between father, son and stepmother.

In the 50's, in Paris, the neighbors Rodolfo and Mimi meet each other when Mimi's candle blows out i...

Nabucco - live from Metropolitan Opera, June 2002. On its surface, Nabucco is about the epic strugg...

A new generation of rising stars shines in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production of Puccini’s most ...

Renée Fleming stars in the title role of one of Handel’s greatest dramas, seen in Stephen Wadsworth’...

The Royal Ballet performs Tchaikovsky's classic ballet, choreographed by Liam Scarlett and starring ...

Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the...

A musical drama based on Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto.

Götterdämmerung, the final instalment of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, is a story of human passions...

Take a perfect cast, a great conductor and a groundbreaking staging in-out makes a 'Tristan' for ete...

The painter Lili Elbe was the first person to have gender confirmation surgery in the 1930s. The hom...

This superb 2006 production of the Los Angeles Opera's La Traviata stars Renée Fleming, who joins th...

Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur was inspired by the real-life story of a celebrated actress at ...

Recorded at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1995, this acclaimed presentation of composer Gioachi...

The life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singe...