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The impossible love between a human prince and a swan princess, tragic fates, the constant opposition between imagination and reality: these are the core elements of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Profoundly classical, Valery Kovtun’s version for the Ballet of the National Opera of Ukraine is an homage to Tchaikovsky’s talent, but also to Marius Petipa’s timeless heritage. As in the original libretto, this Swan Lake ends with the two main character’s death, drowned into the lake’s tears. But evil is overpowered by love, and in the final apotheosis, Odette and Siegfried are forever united in a world of perfect harmony. A first-class company, the Ballet Company of the National Opera of Ukraine has toured all around the world: from the United States to Europe and Asia. Thanks to its rich classical heritage, the Company has managed to win the hearts of its audience thanks to its amazing technique and artistic maestria, and as in every good dance company, the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. The Company has also, over the years, established itself as a unique talent pool, that has nurtured first class dancers such as Iana Salenko (Staatsballet Berlin), Alina Cojocaru (Royal Ballet), Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko (American Ballet Theater); and the young gifted dancers that make the Ballet’s reputation ensure the preservation of the classical heritage of this historical and world-renowned company.

After the sensational success of A Swan Lake, performed by the Norwegian National Ballet in 2014 at the Oslo Opera, the choreographical prodige Alexander Ekman created his Midsummer Night's Dream in April, 2015 for the Royal Swedish Ballet at the Stockholm Opera. A powerful contemporary piece that explores the energy and the mysteries conjured up by the summer solstice in the scandinavian tradition. It is the height of summer, the longest day of the year, and everyone gets together to celebrate the most loved of all traditions - Midsummer. Expectations are high, seven kinds of flower must be picked, schnapps must be drunk, and everyone dances giddily around the maypole - perhaps there will even be new love in the air? It is a night filled of love and eroticism as nature gushes with vitality. The border between the world of mortals and the kingdom of the supernatural becomes thinner and thinner as the bottle becomes emptier and emptier. Traditions play jokes on us, the world changes and suddenly we are no longer sure - is it all a dream?...a midsummer night's dream.

This stunning release is a tribute to the art of David Hallberg, the first main American soloist ever to be hired by the Bolshoi Ballet. It features "The Sleeping Beauty," wherein the choreographer Yuri Grigorovich presents a new version of one of his most famous choreography for a breathtaking new experience in splendid sets designed by Ezio Frigerio and more than 400 new costumes designed by Franca Squarciapino. David Hallberg performs alongside principal ballerina Svetlana Zakharova. Also included is "Marco Spada." Recreated specifically for the Bolshoi by French choreographer Pierre Lacotte, "Marco Spada" is a grandiose and unique ballet both on a technical and dramatic level: complex choreography, five lead roles created for five principals, several changes in scenery, the participation of nearly all the Corps de ballet, and even the presence of animals on stage... With it's scenes of pantomime, devilish intrigue, rejected suitors, kidnapping heroines, rebellion, and lovers misunderstandings, Marco Spada is a fresh and joful ballet to discover

Bel Air Classiques presents Wagner’s mystic masterpiece “Parsifal” in a brilliant staging by Dmitri Tcherniakov in the spectacular Staatsoper Berlin. Wagner’s last completed opera, it was begun in April of 1857 but wasn’t completed until twenty-five years later. It is loosely based on the 13th century epic poem Parzival by Wolfran von Eschenbach, in which an Arthurian knight quests for the Holy Grail. Wagner referred to this work as a “festival play for the consecration of the stage,” rather than an opera. This international cast of outstanding singers lights up the stage, and Daniel Barenboim’s interpretation of the score shimmers in the spotlight.

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Kurt Weill wrote Street Scene shortly after fleeing Nazi Germany to the United States. When he discovered the vitality of the American musical scene, his focus became to reconcile the Broadway “musical” with European traditional opera, jazzy and North-American tunes with an almost Puccinian-like lyricism. In his mind, opera had to embrace and reclaim its own theatricality : thus he wrote his Street Scene, meant to be a truly American opera, half-way between his Brechtian Threepenny’s Opera and Bernstein’s later West Side Story and drawing from the famous play by Elmer Rice (recipient of the Pulitzer Prize when it was published in 1928). The main plot of this rampant collection of scenes from the streets of the lower East Side of New York revolves around Frank and Anna Maurant and their daughter Rose. A violent and tough character, Frank fails to see his wife’s growing despair due to his lack of affection. When he discovers her with her lover, he shoots them both and goes to jail, leaving behind a heartbroken Rose who, after having experienced relentless harassment by two aggressive suitors, misses her one true chance at love. The opera ends by showing the streets of New York City moving on from these mundane events in total indifference. Under Tim Murray’s vivid and precise baton, this superb production by John Fulljames perfectly renders the vitality and energy released by the streets of New York, that proved to be a great inspiration to the theatrical mind of the composer.

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For their 88th year the prestigious Arena di Verona Festival paid tribute to internationally acclaimed Italian stage director Franco Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli delivers an opulent staging of the fairy-tale story of the Chinese Princess Turandot, who will only marry a prince capable of solving her riddles. Russian soprano Maria Guleghina gives a brilliant rendition of Turandot. Salvatore Licitra’s trump card is his imposingly radiant tenor voice of which he remains in sovereign control even in the role’s much-feared highest register. The soprano Tamar Iveri is a beautiful and sensitive Liù. Romeo et Juliette had not been performed at the Arena since 1977. The new production was entrusted to Italian director Francesco Micheli, who opted for a personal, highly original version: ‘‘An arena within the Arena, like a blood-red Elizabethan theatre. A senescent world that will not let its own children live.’’ Juliette is sung by Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze, returning to one of her early roles at the Salzburg Festival. Stefano Secco, often heard at the Opera Bastille in Paris and other international venues, is Romeo. Artur Rucinski interprets Mercutio, Romeo’s friend and the rival of Jean-Francois Borras’s Tybalt. The page Stephano is sung by soprano Ketevan Kemoklidze. Aida To celebrate the bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth, La Fura dels Baus opens the ‘‘Centenario Festival 2013’’ of the Arena di Verona. Carlus Padrissa and Alex Olle sign a brilliant new version of Aida. Aida is the most popular opera at the Verona Festival, the only one performed every year, 17000 spectators enjoy the show every evening. This new production is designed by La Fura dels Baus. They transform the arena into a huge desert, creating mechanical animals and manufacture a solar power plant. They use their experience in leading large-scale shows and opera to create the Aida of the XXIst century splendidly conducted by a young talented conductor : Omer Meir Wellber.

Embark on a journey with Le Jardin des Voix founder, William Christie, as he searches for and later reveals to the world the previously unknown talent of 10 young singers.

For their 88th year the prestigious Arena di Verona Festival paid tribute to internationally acclaimed Italian stage director Franco Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli delivers an opulent staging of the fairy-tale story of the Chinese Princess Turandot, who will only marry a prince capable of solving her riddles. Russian soprano Maria Guleghina gives a brilliant rendition of Turandot. Salvatore Licitra's trump card is his imposingly radiant tenor voice of which he remains in sovereign control even in the role's much-feared highest register. The soprano Tamar Iveri is a beautiful and sensitive Li�. Romeo et Juliette had not been performed at the Arena since 1977. The new production was entrusted to Italian director Francesco Micheli, who opted for a personal, highly original version: 'An arena within the Arena, like a blood-red Elizabethan theatre. A senescent world that will not let it's own children live.' Juliette is sung by Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze, returning to one of her early roles at the Salzburg Festival. Stefano Secco, often heard at the Opera Bastille in Paris and other international venues, is Romeo. Artur Rucinski interprets Mercutio, Romeo's friend and the rival of Jean-Francois Borras's Tybalt. The page Stephano is sung by soprano Ketevan Kemoklidze. Aida To celebrate the bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi's birth, La Fura dels Baus opens the 'Centenario Festival 2013' of the Arena di Verona. Carlus Padrissa and Alex Olle sign a brilliant new version of Aida. Aida is the most popular opera at the Verona Festival, the only one performed every year, 17000 spectators enjoy the show every evening. This new production is designed by La Fura dels Baus. They transform the arena into a huge desert, creating mechanical animals and manufacture a solar power plant. They use their experience in leading large-scale shows and opera to create the Aida of the XXIst century splendidly conducted by a young talented conductor : Omer Meir Wellber.

This stunning release is a tribute to the art of David Hallberg, the first main American soloist ever to be hired by the Bolshoi Ballet. It features “The Sleeping Beauty,” wherein the choreographer Yuri Grigorovich presents a new version of one of his most famous choreography for a breathtaking new experience in splendid sets designed by Ezio Frigerio and more than 400 new costumes designed by Franca Squarciapino. David Hallberg performs alongside principal ballerina Svetlana Zakharova. Also included is “Marco Spada.” Recreated specifically for the Bolshoi by French choreographer Pierre Lacotte, “Marco Spada” is a grandiose and unique ballet both on a technical and dramatic level: complex choreography, five lead roles created for five principals, several changes in scenery, the participation of nearly all the Corps de ballet, and even the presence of animals on stage… With its scenes of pantomime, devilish intrigue, rejected suitors, kidnapping heroines, rebellion, and lovers misunderstandings, Marco Spada is a fresh and joful ballet to discover.

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In 2018, the ‘‘Golden Gallery’’ of the Central Bank of France, and more precisely its renovation in the style of the 18th century by the Count of Toulouse, celebrated its tricentenary. Like the Hall of Mirrors at the Château de Versailles, it counts among the most lavish ceremonial galleries of France: it was in this glorious setting that several scenes of the movie Marie-Antoinette, by Sofia Coppola, were shot. On this occasion, the baroque ensemble ‘‘Concert de la Loge’’ and its musical director Julien Chauvin drew upon this incredible setting, its paintings and its sculptures but also its history, and brought together various pieces from the baroque and classical repertoire: Lully, Rameau, Couperin, Boccherini, Charpentier, Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Haendel… Thanks to an elaborate scenography and to a smart lighting design, the program is also a journey through the mysteries of the visual works displayed in the gallery : for instance the allegories of the young Louis XIV at the beginning of his reign, the story of Henry IV... all of which is explained at length in a gorgeous booklet written by art specialists.

“El Publico” is Lorca’s most difficult and mysterious play, one of the great classics of modern Spanish theatre. Lorca wrote it in Cuba, just after his trip to New York, at a time of intense experimentation in art and life. Homosexuality is addressed openly in “El Publico,” and the play is a cry of defiance against bourgeois hypocrisy and a plea for sexual and artistic freedom. It has been transformed into an opera thanks to Gerard Mortier. He commissioned the composer Mauricio Sotelo to create an opera for the Spanish repertoire of the 21st century. This production from Teatro Real de Madrid is the world premiere recording of El Publico as an opera. Pablo-Heras Casado conducts the Klangforum Wien and the Chorus of the Teatro Real.

Susan Gritton, Sylvie Brunet, Soile Isokoski, Susanne Resmark, Helene Guilmette, Bernard Richter, and Alain Vernhes star in this Bayreuth production of the Poulenc opera conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov.

Mozart was not yet seventeen when Lucio Silla was created in Milan one December evening of 1772, yet we can still distinguish in this youthful composition some of the elements that established the exceptionally-gifted child musician as the greatest composer of all times. Indeed, with Lucio Silla, although a neoclassical "opera seria" in every way, it seems that Mozart was already learning to deconstruct and to free the traditional forms of musical drama from archaic conventions. We can also identify in this work an aesthetic premise that Mozart didn't formulate until ten years later: it falls to music only to express and to reveal the psychological depths of the characters; and the poetry in the libretto should only be it's "obedient daughter". The opera is centered around the love Roman dictator Lucio Silla bears for his enemy's daughter Giunia, who favors the exiled senator Cecilio as the object of her affection. After many twists and turns, the lovers are united in marriage and Silla renounces his crown. Tenor Kurt Streit is Lucio Silla, and soprano Patricia Petibon is Giunia for the last time, after having gained international recognition thanks to her numerous performances in this role, while mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro Santafe is the ardent Cecilio. In this monumental production, Claus Guth finds a way to respect both the classical setting and the formal innovations that make the opera so interesting. Ivor Bolton conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real.

An overpowering and paradoxical perfume of dream and reality floats around 'La Traviata', as if the life and death of this so-called "errant" woman seem more real and more elusive than those of other opera heroines. It is with this perfume, composed of rare flower essences, of alcohols, of prescription drugs, of skins caressed, of seemingly odorless money, that Giuseppe Verdi deeply impregnated his musical material, just at the time when the perfume of the story of the courtesan Marie Duplessis, who died in 1847, six years before the opera was created in Venice, was evaporating. In Traviata - You deserve a better future, the audience is invited into Violetta's privacy to have a close look at the fire to which she abandons herself among the guests of this musical and phantasmagorical celebration that blends theatre and opera, voices that speak and sing, and where the distinction between the instrumentalists and the singers becomes blurred, where Charles Baudelaire is seated next to Christophe Tarkos, and where the phantoms of this Paris in full industrial boom whose future we are living at present, sing and die.