Rossini's "Le Comte Ory" tells the story of a libidinous and cunning nobleman who disguises himself first as a hermit and then as a nun in order to gain access to the virtuous Countess Adele, whose brother is away at the Crusades. The 2011 Met production was directed by Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher, who presented the action as an opera within an opera, updating the action by a few centuries and giving the costume designer, Catherine Zuber, the opportunity to create some particularly extravagant headgear. Juan Diego Florez starred as the title role while Diana Damrau plays Countess Adele, and Joyce DiDonato was in breeches as his pageboy Isolier. Conducted with verve and finesse by Maurizio Benini, the production also features the stylish French baritone Stephane Degout as Ory's bibulous conspirator Raimbaud, charismatic Italian bass Michele Pertusi as the Count's long-suffering Tutor, and, formidable as Adele's housekeeper Ragonde, the Swedish dramatic mezzo Susanne Resmark.

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

A version of Benjamin Britten's opera based on the Melville story. Will the virtuous young sailor Bi...

With his affinity for the 16th-century sculptor Benvenuto Cellini's advocacy of artistic and persona...

An excellent performance of this delightful opera. The principals are superb, especially the sisters...

Richard Wagner's Parsifal, staged at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo in 2020, opened the opera season ...

Part of an epoch-making release of Mozart's complete operas on DVD, here is the 18-year old composer...

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

Who loves whom in Così fan tutte, Mozart’s and Da Ponte’s cruelly comic reflection on desire, fideli...

This is a good video of "Figaro", but there are a couple of better ones available. The Bohm and the ...

All the throbbing eroticism—and ultimate heartbreak—of Puccini’s youthful score is unleashed by Jame...

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...

Deep in a forest where druids and warriors seek revenge against the conquering Romans, Norma is scor...

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

The grand scale and magnificent acoustics of the Roman arena in Verona are ideally suited to the pag...

Known as a creator of astonishing images, stage director and visual artist Robert Wilson delivers a ...

Performance of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder by SBR, conducted by Mariss Jansons

Berlioz’s epic masterpiece retells the magnificent saga of the aftermath of the Trojan War and the e...