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.

Finding the right librettos was not easy, but one month after the end of the First World War, his tr...

Based on a revolutionary play supposedly written by the Eternal President of the Democratic People's...

The operatic version of the famous story about a governess who fears her two charges are possessed.

Julia Bullock, Joyce DiDonato and Jakub Jozef Orlinski star in Katie Mitchell’s thrilling new produc...

Franz Schreker’s career was cut short by the events of 1933 in Germany but he achieved real fame wit...

A 12-year-old boy tries everything to join a music lovers club.

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the...

Based on Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci. The film recounts the tragedy of Canio, the lead clo...

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

This is the 2004 version of Kaija Saariaho's opera performed by the Finnish National Opera and condu...

Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as ...

"La Bohème" is one of Giacomo Puccini's most popular and timeless works and the second-most performe...
A colorful and comedic staging of the classic opera buffa by the Vienna State Opera.

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

This live version of Puccini s superbly dramatic opera was recorded in Rome in the exact locations a...

Here is a rare and exceptional example in which the director and costume designer amuse themselves w...

Desdemona in Verdi's Otello was a career role for soprano Renata Tebaldi, from her first operatic pe...

The director, Roland Schwab, has created his version of Hell. The set is like a high iron walled han...

Kristine Opolais is the young woman whose conflicting desires for love and luxury lead to her tragic...