In this interpretation of Verdi's MacBeth, stage director Christof Loy skillfully navigates the interplay of light and dark, infusing the opera - based on Shakespeare's work - with remarkable depth and drama. The outstanding vocal ensemble vividly captures the psychological nuances of the characters, featuring Ludovic Tezier as the paranoid MacBeth and Martina Serafin as Lady MacBeth, the mastermind behind the crimes. Giampaolo Bisanti pours his passion into the score, while The Symphony Orchestra and the Liceu Choir deliver exceptional performances in response. Consequently, the audience experiences a flawless blend of lyrics and music, crafted by the Milanese composer, librettist Francesco Maria Piave, and poet Andrea Maffei. "It is a unique scenography." El Pais
Sheehan: A Christmas Carol / Walker, Skylark Vocal Ensemble
Sono Luminus
Blu-Ray
$9.49$18.99Save 50%Sep 23, 2022
This is a Blu-ray Audio disc, playable on Blu-ray players only.
“In the Summer of 2019, we recorded our album Once Upon a Time, our first recorded version of a “story concert.” Although we had explored this concept for several years prior with storyteller Sarah Walker, Once Upon a Time was our first collaboration with Benedict Sheehan, who composed incidental music (almost like a choral movie score) to accompany Sarah’s dialogue and to connect the musical dots between existing works by an array of composers. That summer, it became clear that we had stumbled onto something unusual and special. First, the idea of a continuous choral story score – combining elements of classical performance, storytelling, film scoring, and theatricality – seemed to be a rich new idiom for choral performance art. Second, the collaborative team of the project seemed like a dream come true – there was a strong sense of mutual respect for everyone’s unique talents, and a rare ability for creative push and pull…” (Matthew Guard, Artistic Director)
Bull's eye, Carl Maria von Weber triumphantly wrote to his librettist Friedrich Kind after the enthusiastically received world premiere of Der Freischutz in 1821 in Berlin. With it's emotional and gripping music, it soon became the epitome of German Romantic opera. As one of the most popular operas in the German-speaking world, Der Freischutz has now been staged on the Seebuhne for the first time under the lead of director and stage designer Philipp Stolzl and conductor-in-residence Enrique Mazzola. The two teamed up again in Bregenz following their phenomenal success with Verdi's Rigoletto. "The staging is overwhelming" (Suddeutsche Zeitung). "A small theatre miracle is taking place in Bregenz" (Der Tagesspiegel). BONUS: A Winter's Tale: Inside 'Der Freischutz' at Bregenzer Festspiele
Bull's eye, Carl Maria von Weber triumphantly wrote to his librettist Friedrich Kind after the enthusiastically received world premiere of Der Freischutz in 1821 in Berlin. With it's emotional and gripping music, it soon became the epitome of German Romantic opera. As one of the most popular operas in the German-speaking world, Der Freischutz has now been staged on the Seebuhne for the first time under the lead of director and stage designer Philipp Stolzl and conductor-in-residence Enrique Mazzola. The two teamed up again in Bregenz following their phenomenal success with Verdi's Rigoletto. "The staging is overwhelming" (Suddeutsche Zeitung). "A small theatre miracle is taking place in Bregenz" (Der Tagesspiegel). BONUS: A Winter's Tale: Inside 'Der Freischutz' at Bregenzer Festspiele
The Staatsoper Berlin presents a new production of Mozart's early masterpiece Mitridate, re di Ponto. This captivating tale of love, power and betrayal revolves around a king and his two sons who vie for the love of the same woman. Under the baton of Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre bring fresh energy and nuance to Mozart's intricate opera seria, while the all-star cast shines with an impressive vocal range. In a staging where different worlds converge, director Satoshi Miyagi and his Japanese production team have created an atmosphere that is nothing short of magical. "Marc Minkowski and his brilliant orchestra Les Musiciens du Louvre [...] a real coup." (Tagesspiegel) "Singing feats of brilliance!" (Berliner Zeitung)
Few of Gioachino Rossini's operas are less well known than Adina. This production by Rossini Opera Festival and Wexford Opera Festival revives a masterwork of glittering arias and rich orchestral textures. The oriental tale, where Adina is a slave in a Baghdad seraglio, is set by Rosetta Cucchi on a giant and colorful wedding cake. The vocal star Lisette Oropesa "gave a splendid rendition as Adina. Her voice was brilliant, shiny on top, warm and round in the middle." (Bachtrack) World Premiere Recording on DVD and Blu-ray
In 2024, near Wagner's former Zurich residence, where much of the "Ring des Nibelungen" was composed, Opernhaus Zurich staged it's first complete Ring cycle in more than 20 years, performed under the musical direction of Gianandrea Noseda. "In a way, the 'Ring' returned to it's origins," said Andreas Homoki, stage director of Wagner's grandiose myth, which depicts the rise and fall of an entire world, delving into themes of love, fate, courage, and betrayal. At it's core, the "Ring des Nibelungen" is also a family drama about Wotan, the father of the gods, and his struggle to keep and break treaties, about freedom, it's presence and absence, and his desperate attempts to halt the very downfall he set in motion. Homoki's production brings the gods, humans, and mythical beings strikingly close, making their relationships and motivations vivid and compelling through meticulous character portrayal. The same outstanding cast performs across all four operas, heightening the dramaturgic intensity: Tomasz Konieczny as Wotan, Camilla Nylund as Brunnhilde, Christopher Purves as Alberich, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as Mime, and Klaus Florian Vogt as Siegfried, who also gave his acclaimed role debut in Homoki's Zurich productions. Recorded live at Opernhaus Zurich May 2024
Teatro la Fenice New Year‘s Concert 2023 / Harding, Teatro la Fenice Orchestra & Chorus
C Major Entertainment
DVD
$16.49$32.99Save 50%Mar 15, 2024
The Teatro La Fenice opened in 1792 and is one of the most renowned and most beautiful theaters in the world. Since nearly 20 years it has celebrated the traditional New Year‘s concert every year, which became immediately vast popularity in Italy and abroad making it one of the best-known and desired New Year's events. The orchestra of Teatro La Fenice, conducted by Daniel Harding, presents a colourful array of arias and orchestral pieces. As soloists soprano Federica Lombardi and tenor Freddie De Tommaso sing famous arias as Casta Diva and Nessun dorma among others from the operas Carmen, La traviata, La bohème, Turandot, William Tell and La clemenza di Tito. On top Jacopo Tissi, now principal of the Dutch National Ballet, is dancing a scene from Tchaikovsky´s ballet The Sleeping Beauty in this thrilling and exhilarating concert.
Richard Strauss described his two-act opera 'Intermezzo' as a 'bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes'. The soprano role of Christine with her shimmering cantilenas represents Strauss's wife Pauline, while the successful Court Conductor Robert Storch is Richard Strauss's alter ego in a reality drama that was avant-garde for it's time. This acclaimed production from director Tobias Kratzer brings 'Intermezzo' into the present day, highlighting Strauss's own clever switches between reality and fiction with stunning visual effects and a superbly characterful cast.
Set during the Roman Civil W War (49-45 BCE), Handel's "Giulio Cesare" is an intense drama filled with romance, tragedy and political intrigue. The plot centers on Cleopatra's campaign to seduce Julius Caesar in order to enlist his support in her becoming Queen of Egypt. Handel's music breathes the atmosphere of the Baroque with virtuosic vocal fireworks and subtle arias. This acclaimed production is given a modern setting populated by power-hungry oligarchs who are placed by director Calixto Bieito into 'a digital dream world in a desert paradise'.
Alessandro Scarlatti's Il trionfo dell'onore (The Triumph of Honour) - his only comic opera - was first performed in Naples in 1718. With it's distinctive recitatives and expressive arias, and a cast including four pairs of lovers, it can be considered one of the forerunners of opera buffa. The central character is the unrepentant seducer Riccardo Albenori, a Don Giovanni-like figure though without the villainous aura. In this opera, Scarlatti ensures not only perceptive psychology but a rich variety of arias, duets and quartets that generate the work's pathos as well as it's humour and eroticism.
Roberto Devereux is the fourth and finest of Donizetti's works dedicated to the Tudor period of English history, and is considered by many to be the ultimate masterpiece amongst his Italian operas. The tragic narrative is a tale of intrigue and vengeance in the court of the elderly and weary Queen Elisabeth I, with Donizetti's powerful score expressing all of the intense drama and sorrowful emotion demanded by the opera's finely etched characters. This star-studded Donizetti Opera Festival production received wide critical acclaim.
Rued Langgaard's remarkable opera 'Antikrist' confronts the decline and fall of Western civilisation, critiquing modern lifestyles and ways of thinking, which resonates with our times more than ever before. Never performed in the composer's lifetime, 'Antikrist' blends Romantic and contemporary styles to create a score that is both seductive and opulent, while the lack of a conventional plot creates space for an ironic and sarcastic exposé of contemporary civilisation's weaknesses. This spectacular Deutsche Oper Berlin production was acclaimed in 'The New York Times' as a 'riotously colourful, boldly stylised staging [in] a near-breathless swirl'.
Lost after its material records were destroyed by fire in 1883, the spectacular ballet La Source originally portrayed the idealistic vision of a magical domain in which a complex but beautiful love story of mythical figures unfolded. Jean-Guillaume Bart has long been captivated by La Source, and his new choreography retains the ballet’s romantic fascinations and its glorious music by Delibes and Minkus. Filled with exotic colour and atmosphere, Bart takes the narrative on an odyssey through near- and far-flung realms of classical dance in a brilliant production, further elevated by Christian Lacroix’s gorgeous costumes and Éric Ruf’s imaginative set designs.
Initially composed for performance during the season of Lent, Donizetti's Il diluvio universale ('The Great Flood') takes a Biblical story and mixes it with the human nature of the main characters, creating a uniquely intense drama. Performed here with a stellar cast in it's acclaimed 2023 revival at the Festival Donizetti in Bergamo, this production transports Donizetti's opera into the present day. In this staging collective and individual destinies are interwoven, urging us to reflect on issues such as the environmental crisis and climate change.
Through the haze of the years, a poet remembers the women he loved. But when it comes to matters of the heart, nothing is as it seems. Particularly when the devil himself is involved. Journeying back to his school days, Hoffmann (Juan Diego Florez) relives his childhood romance with Olympia, a model student in every sense. Doomed love follows him into adulthood, where the dancer, Antonia, is taken from him too soon. Meanwhile, the sensual courtesan Giulietta has her own secret agenda. As memory and fantasy become increasingly blurred, will Hoffmann find the enigmatic Stella before it is too late? Olivier award-winning director Damiano Michieletto returns to The Royal Opera for a new production of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann alongside conductor Antonello Manacorda.
The Gondoliers, the twelfth of fourteen operas from Gilbert & Sullivan, has been an audience favourite since it's 1889 premiere. The tunes are infectious, the romantic and family conflicts heartfelt, and the satire of rank and station constantly entertaining and relevant. This Scottish Opera co-production with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and State Opera South Australia is created by some of the world's foremost G&S enthusiasts and experts.
The Gondoliers, the twelfth of fourteen operas from Gilbert & Sullivan, has been an audience favourite since it's 1889 premiere. The tunes are infectious, the romantic and family conflicts heartfelt, and the satire of rank and station constantly entertaining and relevant. This Scottish Opera co-production with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and State Opera South Australia is created by some of the world's foremost G&S enthusiasts and experts.
Deutsche Grammophon's 120th Anniversary Concert - Filmed and recorded live to the highest industry standards in front of the magnificent scenery of Beijing's Forbidden City, this unique gala concert celebrates the 120th anniversary of Deutsche Grammophon. The concert features conductor Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, both freshly signed as exclusive recording artists to Deutsche Grammophon, and performances from Aida Garifullina, Daniil Trifonov, Mari Samuelsen, and more.
A touching evening (BR Classic) A centuries-old tradition. The ghost light is a single lamp that illuminates the stage when the theatre is not in use. Legend has it that the light shines to protect the actors, patrons and the theater from misfortune and ghosts. The Ghost Light shows the solitude that continues to shine on stage while waiting for the audience to return after this unusual season. The Hamburg Ballet was one of the first international companies to return to their studios after the lockdown, with the premiere of John Neumeier's choreography Ghost Light with solo piano music by Franz Schubert, performed live on stage by star pianist David Fray. John Neumeier's new ballet explores the possibilities of dancing among the limitations of the * pandemic. It is developed in fragments with more or less fleeting impressions from the everyday life of dancers. Ghost Light is an ensemble ballet that I develop in fragments. It is comparable to individual instrumental parts of a symphony... How the individual parts ultimately combine to form a work will depend on the moment when we are allowed to come close again on stage. (John Neumeier) Internationally recognized and awarded for his ballet choreography, John Neumeier has been the ballet director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet since 1973, and since 1996. Ballet Director at the Hamburg State Opera and guest choreographer at other venues. He is also director of the ballet school he founded in Hamburg. Choreography, Stage, Lighting and Costums: John Neumeier Costumes from Lady of the Camellias and The Nutcracker: Jrgen Rose Music by Franz Schubert David Fray piano
