"Manon", wrote Puccini to his publisher Giulio Ricordi in 1889, "is a heroine I believe in and therefore she cannot fail to win the heart of the public." This turned out to be a truly prophetic statement since none of Puccinis other world successes were received on their first nights as rapturously as Manon Lescaut. The popularity of Puccinis great masterpiece has never waned and the highly acclaimed Götz Friedrich production at Covent Garden was hailed as an operatic milestone. Two of the worlds leading stars--Kiri Te Kanawa and Placido Domingo--head a strong cast conducted by the brilliant Italian conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli.
Simon Keenlyside smolders dangerously in the title role of Mozart’s version of the legend of Don Jua...
An Egyptian military commander, Radamès, struggles to choose between his love for the enslaved Ethio...
Live performance from the Schwetzinger Festspiele, 1987. At the age of 21, Italian composer Giacchin...
Live performance from Zürich Opera House, 2001. “Vesselina Kasarova’s Rosina turned this Barber int...
What begins like a fairy-tale turns into a whimsical fantasy halfway between magic farce and Masonic...
A Victor Hugo play, haunting and scandalous, provided the inspiration for Verdi’s mid-career masterp...
Among DVDs of "Hoffmann" currently available, this is the only one that even begins to stand compari...
This is a joy from beginning to end. Although there are many tricks and ideas from Laurent Pelly, as...
Jean-Marie Villegier's modern interpretation of Handel's "Rodelinda" – filmed live at the world-reno...
After the acclaimed Met premiere of Thomas Adès's "The Tempest" in 2012, the composer returned with ...
Sir David McVicar’s bold new staging of Tosca, Puccini’s operatic thriller of Napoleonic Rome, thril...
Premiered immediately before the enduring masterpieces Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and La Traviata, Lui...
The complete version of Verdi's Otello performed by Placido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa, at the Royal...
Recorded at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1995, this acclaimed presentation of composer Gioachi...
David McVicar's exhilarating new production, with Anne Sofie von Otter in the title role, restores t...
Live 2001 production from the Zurich Opera House of the classic Mozart/Da Ponte opera, with Nikolaus...
Renée Fleming stars in the title role of one of Handel’s greatest dramas, seen in Stephen Wadsworth’...
The stupendous climax to Wagner’s four-part Ring cycle is brilliantly realized by the Otto Schenk/Gü...
What happened to Figaro and his friends after the events told in Rossini’s and Mozart’s operas? One ...
In a small Japanese town, Ko-Ko is appointed to the unenviable position of executioner. Knowing he m...