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.

A 2002 live performance of Mikel Rouse's Dennis Cleveland, a multimedia opera set entirely on a tele...

The production was the Vienna State Opera debut for the young Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan – the ...

Emmanuelle Haïm has established herself as one of the world’s leading performers, conductors and int...

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

The complete version of Verdi's Otello performed by Placido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa, at the Royal...
The writer Dario Fo applies his inventive genius to Rossini's comic opera in its premiere DVD releas...

David McVicar's exhilarating new production, with Anne Sofie von Otter in the title role, restores t...

Gustav Von Aschenbach, a passionate composer, arrives in Venice as a result of wanderlust and there ...

Jules Massanet's lyrical opera is transformed into a superb film production by Petr Weigl, shot on l...

Frantisek Filip film version of the Smetana opera.

This tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigol...

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

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

Johann Strauss, Jr., a would-be composer of waltzes in mid-19th Century Vienna, attempts to thwart h...

Jean-Marie Villegier's modern interpretation of Handel's "Rodelinda" – filmed live at the world-reno...

Richard Wagner called Die Walküre the “first evening” of the Ring of the Nibelung; he called Das Rhe...

The tale of a quick-witted fox and her escape from confinement for a life in the forest.

At first glance, the title of Shostakovich’s opera seems to speak for itself: Katherina, neglected a...

Charles Mackerras teases the romantic beauty from Gounod's score, which has been widely admired sinc...