In Rigoletto, the deformed figure of the hunchbacked jester at the Mantuan court acts as a foil to his cynical and powerful master, an unscrupulous philanderer contrasted with his cruel and unforgiving fool. Rigoletto encourages and welcomes the Duke's conquests, pitilessly mocking his victims until he discovers that the Duke has abducted the one person he genuinely loves, his own daughter. As a result, the character of the court jester is transformed into a tragic figure who, in spite of his evident immorality and malice, allows us to sense the devotion he feels for his daughter and his horror at being destroyed by the same despotic world as that which he himself has helped to create.
The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make...
A filmed version of Tchaikovsky's opera. Onegin visits a friend, his fiancee and her sister Tatiana...
Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the...
Robert Lepage’s remarkable Met Opera production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, the 2013 Grammy...
Ring Cycle, pt 4. Siegfried is drugged and tricked into kidnapping his wife, since she has the Ring ...
Adaptation of John Gay's 18th century opera, featuring Laurence Olivier as MacHeath and Hugh Griffit...
37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts...
Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become...
Richard Eyre’s stunning new production of Bizet’s opera was the talk of the town when it was unveile...
"Giovanna d'Arco; ossia, la pulzella d'Orléans" is an operatic dramma lirico with a prologue and thr...
In February 1972, the American president Richard Nixon went to China to meet Mao Zedong. In the cont...
This is Laurent Pelly’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées staging of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, wit...
The historic Toscanini television concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. This concert, broadcast ...
Originally set in the 15th c century, Tchaikovsky's "The Enchantress" is updated to the present day ...
Car Men is a collaboration between the renowned choreographer Jíri Kylían and filmmaker Boris Paval ...
All the throbbing eroticism—and ultimate heartbreak—of Puccini’s youthful score is unleashed by Jame...
A musician is offered a job in Vienna as stage director, but his disagreements with the aristocratic...
This telecast offers a rare opportunity to see the legendary Joan Sutherland in the role that first ...
Two years prior to the opening scene, the nobleman Florestan has exposed or attempted to expose cert...