23-year-old Gioachino Rossini completed his masterpiece IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA incredibly quickly – legend has it in just 13 days – which Rossini attributed to ‘facility and lots of instinct’. The opera, characterized by youthful energy and bold wit, has all the ingredients for comic chaos: an imprisoned young woman, her lecherous guardian and a young noble suitor. Skilfully plotting behind the scenes is Figaro, an irrepressible and inventive character in whom many have seen a resemblance to the young Rossini himself. The score fizzes with musical brilliance, from Figaro’s famous entrance aria to the frenzy of the Act I finale. This recording sees Joyce DiDonato (Rosina) bring literal meaning to the old theatrical motto Break a leg! She did just that in an earlier show but was determined to finish her commitment and was re-staged into the production to allow for the additional challenges that come when a leading lady in a lively physical role must wheel around the other performers...
A colorful and comedic staging of the classic opera buffa by the Vienna State Opera.
The first-ever audio-visual recording of this opera – directed by Christof Loy, conducted by Marc Al...
Starring Jonas Kaufmann as Bacchus and featuring Emily Magee with Daniel Harding conducting the Vien...
"Die tote Stadt" is a psychologically layered drama with Hitchcock-like features, about Paul who, af...
Sasha Regan’s award-winning All-male Company are set to lift everyone’s spirits with a treat in thei...
Live performance from Schwetzinger Festspiele, 1992. Based on Voltaire's tragedy, TANCREDI is a sto...
Donizetti’s timeless comedy shines in Otto Schenk’s enchanting production, conducted by James Levine...
IL CAMPANELLO DI NOTTE, Farce in one act by Gaetano Donizetti, is set in Naples. Don Annibale Pistac...
José Cura, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Verónica Villarroel and Yvonne Naef lead the star cast of Verdi's bl...
In ancient Babylon, SEMIRAMIDE (Anderson) encourages her lover Assur (Ramey) to murder her husband, ...
Star soprano Anna Netrebko adds Donizetti’s hapless heroine to her growing list of Met triumphs in t...
Madcap physical comedy and impeccable coloratura come together for Natalie Dessay’s indelible portra...
Verdi’s IL TROVATORE again storms the Met stage in a star-studded, anvil-wielding cast , including S...
LA PIETRA DEL PARAGONE (The Touchstone) concerns the Count Asdrubale who is wealthy and therefore of...
"Irresistible" (Opera News) rising-star mezzo Elina Garanca triumphs as Rossini's Cinderella in this...
Franco Zeffirelli's magnificient staging of Puccini's final opera - a fairy tale set in a mythical C...
When Sir John Falstaff decides that he wants to have a little fun he writes two letters to a pair of...
Live performance, Bayerische Staatsoper, 2011. The Tales of Hoffmann (French: LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN...
Part of Tutto Verdi series - Nabucco (2009) Parma. NABUCCO was Verdi’s third work for the stage and...
The gypsy Azucena (Fiorenza Cossotto) takes revenge for her mother who was accused of putting a curs...