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.

Handel's 1724 opera Tamerlano followed the success of his previous year's Giulio Cesare with another...

The dark world of Tchaikovsky’s penultimate operatic masterpiece Queen of Spades hinges on obsession...
Miller’s daughter Zuzanka Vojířová, betrothed to Ondřej Zachar, hesitates before marriage when Lord ...

I Vespri Siciliani must me Verdi's most underrated masterpiece. Most people are put off by the fact ...
The writer Dario Fo applies his inventive genius to Rossini's comic opera in its premiere DVD releas...

To open its 2019-2020 season, La Scala in Milan has chosen Tosca, in a new production directed by Da...

"La Bohème" is one of Giacomo Puccini's most popular and timeless works and the second-most performe...

On a June night in 2017, opera lovers thronged to the Royal Opera House in London to hear tenor Jona...

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

Vivian, Roe, JJ, Ines and a mysterious French man through a 20 year musical memory of New York City....

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

The Lyric Opera of Chicago's 1985 production of Puccini's opera, set in the late nineteenth century ...

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

Witness the Zurich Opera's stunning production of Richard Wagner's masterpiece "Tannhauser," conduct...

Set in a South Bohemian village, this faithful film version of Smetana’s opera follows farmer Krušin...

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...

Takarazuka Revue's Phantom based on the play by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit.

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