Love conquers all – ruthlessly and irresistibly – as Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea remove the obstacles to their union. At Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu David Alden’s visually sumptuous production, with its suggestions of a giant game of chess, puts the opera’s potent blend of sex and politics in a context that sets ancient against modern– just as the action juxtaposes scurrilous comedy and stark drama. Monteverdi’s magnificent score, meanwhile, accommodates intrigue, wit, nobility, tragedy and sensuality, and, led by the intense Sarah Connolly and the delectable Miah Persson, the cast brings both drama and music startlingly to life.
This is an effective staging, though the set looks medieval and the costumes are modern. It’s well p...
For those with any interest in Vivaldi's operas Orlando Furioso is essential viewing, being a 1989 S...
Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the...
Teatro Regio’s 2013 revival of their highly successful 2006 production of Verdi’s Don Carlo celebrat...
"Manon Lescaut is a heroine I believe in," wrote Giacomo Puccini to his publisher Giulio Ricordi. Ex...
La Rondine (The Swallow) is possibly the least performed of Giacomo Puccinis later operas, but is st...
“Let us assume that Switzerland is truly a paradise. The music hereto was written long ago. We have ...
“Kaufmann is performing the title role for the first time, and it’s hard to imagine him bettered. Hi...
This all-star cast is framed by Peter Hall’s gritty, realistic production and conducted by James Lev...
Conspiracies and regattas form the backdrop to the fortunes of a young singer. Harassed by a heartle...
At the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, Raphaël Pichon conducts a new production of Rameau's opera Dardanu...
Triumphantly premiered in 1724 at the King's Theatre in London, George Frideric Handel's Giulio Cesa...
This John Dexter production, designed by Desmond Heeley, was a parting gift to the great American so...
The Count Di Luna believes that his younger brother was murdered years before by a vengeful gypsy bu...
The priestess Norma loves Pollione, leader of the occupying force suppressing her people, and has bo...
Met audiences were fascinated by Mariusz Treliński’s gripping, visionary production of Wagner’s epic...
Robert Lepage’s landmark staging of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, unveiled over the course of th...
Bizet’s rarely heard opera returned to the Met for the first time in a century on New Year’s Eve 201...
Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher’s bold new production probes the psychological underpinnings of Verd...
Met Music director James Levine conducts a cast of youthful stars in Mozart’s sophisticated comedy a...