Live performance from Schwetzinger Festspiele, 1988. What sets this IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA apart from all others available is its elegant realism. None of its visuals are the least bit cartoonish or blatantly designed for comedy. Dr. Bartolo’s house is a stark, stern-looking structure of plastered brick with a comfortable yet plain, white-curtained interior, while the costumes are highly realistic 18th century garb in subdued colors. Yet despite its fairly austere appearance the production is delightful, thanks to its performers and staging. The stage business is lively, witty and free of excessive slapstick, and every singer brings his or her character to life, all offering rich, vibrant characterizations that strike a perfect balance between comedy and humanity.

The 2021 production by the Dutch National Opera of the work by German composer Rudi Stephan (1887–19...

A film version of the famous Bizet opera, where a soldier (Don Jose) falls in love with a beautiful ...

Cio-Cio-San, a young Japanese geisha, seeks to fulfill her dreams through marriage to an American na...

The stupendous climax to Wagner’s four-part Ring cycle is brilliantly realized by the Otto Schenk/Gü...

Mirella Freni, Placido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, and Robert Kerns star in this Jean-Pierre Ponnelle-d...

Live performance from Zürich Opera House, 2001. “Vesselina Kasarova’s Rosina turned this Barber int...

The gypsy Azucena (Fiorenza Cossotto) takes revenge for her mother who was accused of putting a curs...

Live performance, Bayerische Staatsoper, 2011. The Tales of Hoffmann (French: LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN...

Part of Tutto Verdi series - Nabucco (2009) Parma. NABUCCO was Verdi’s third work for the stage and...

This epic opera follows Virgil, beginning as the Greeks appear to have ceded the field after ten yea...

Werther loves Charlotte, but she promised her mother on her deathbed that she would marry Albert. Af...

An operatic film adaptation of the poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar of the same name.

On May 21, soprano Nadine Sierra takes on one of the repertory’s most formidable and storied roles, ...

The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make...

37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts...

"Yenufa" is an outstanding phenomenon in the music of the 20th century. Drawing on Moravian folklore...

In a small Japanese town, Ko-Ko is appointed to the unenviable position of executioner. Knowing he m...

David McVicar's exhilarating new production, with Anne Sofie von Otter in the title role, restores t...