This 1969 BBC production is about as close as we can get to a definitive version of Benjamin Britten's PETER GRIMES, one of the greatest 20th Century operas. The story of the individualistic fisherman hounded by his neighbors who believe he murdered his young apprentice packs tremendous emotional power. The compelling narrative is richly enhanced by its subtexts: the lone outsider versus the conformist mob; the dreamer of improbable dreams that lead to tragedy; the artist (dreamer) versus the Philistines, and the homosexual overtones of Grimes' abuse of his child apprentices. Britten is conductor of his work and tenor Peter Pears is Grimes, 25 years after he created the title role at the opera's premiere. As the widow Ellen Orford, soprano Heather Harper is magnificent. Best of all, the sea is an ever-present actor here. When we don't see it in the background it exerts its presence in the abundant visual references to nets, barrels, and other paraphernalia of a seaside fishing village.

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

La traviata (Italian: [la traˈviaːta], "The Fallen Woman"[1][2]) is an opera in three acts by Giusep...

La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo (Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant) is an operatic dramma...

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

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

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

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...

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

The tale of a quick-witted fox and her escape from confinement for a life in the forest.

At first glance, the title of Shostakovich’s opera seems to speak for itself: Katherina, neglected a...

Opera in one act, libretto by G. Forzano based on Dante's Divine Comedy. Third part of his opera Tri...
The writer Dario Fo applies his inventive genius to Rossini's comic opera in its premiere DVD releas...

Desdemona in Verdi's Otello was a career role for soprano Renata Tebaldi, from her first operatic pe...
An anthology of four abbreviated operas: "William Tell" by Rossini, "The Marriage of Figaro" by Moza...

Kristine Opolais is the young woman whose conflicting desires for love and luxury lead to her tragic...

The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make...
A colorful and comedic staging of the classic opera buffa by the Vienna State Opera.