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...
Filmed at the Vienna State Opera in 2005, Andrei Serban's production of Massenet's opera with a late...
John Dexter’s brilliant production, James Levine’s masterful conducting of the eclectic score, and a...
Last production staged by Patrice Chéreau, this Elektra will remain as the main and most striking ly...
Loosely based on the story of the singer Nellie Melba...
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House presents a new production of Poulenc's short opera La Voix Hu...
"Manon", wrote Puccini to his publisher Giulio Ricordi in 1889, "is a heroine I believe in and there...
Carlos Álvarez takes the title role in the first of Verdi's Shakespearean operas, with Maria Guleghi...
A godforsaken village in Germany shortly after the Thirty Years’ War: The young scrivener Max loves ...
In the Summer of 2009, the British director Nigel Lowery and the Iranian choreographer Amir Hosseinp...
Richard Eyre’s elegant production, which opened the Met’s 2014–15 season, sets the action of Mozart’...
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...
Finding the right librettos was not easy, but one month after the end of the First World War, his tr...
Mozart’s Don Giovanni was first performed in 1787, and was based on the story of the Spanish lothari...
Fierrabras of 1823 is the last of Franz Schubert’s stage works. Rarely performed to this day, this h...
Giancarlo Del Monaco's passionate and intelligent production of Jacques Offenbach's magnum opus crea...
Johann Strauss, Jr., a would-be composer of waltzes in mid-19th Century Vienna, attempts to thwart h...