In the early 1670s, soon after Venetian opera became established in Naples, a series of comic figures began to inhabit secular but also sacred operas. These stock characters included the Neapolitan, the Calabrian and the Boy, and all three plus a fourth, 'The Spaniard', appear in a comic intermezzo inserted in the 1673 opera Il disperato innocente by the little-known Francesco Antonio Boero. This is the oldest surviving Neapolitan comic intermezzo, and, along with it's Prologue, seems to have been written by other authors. This video preserves a historically informed performance given by Antonio Florio with Pino de Vittorio that explores the tradition of the intermezzo in 17th century plots.

Fromental Hal�vy's five-act grand opera La Juive ('The Jewess') is one of the most popular operas of the 19th century, captivating audiences ever since it's debut at the Op�ra de Paris in 1835. Set in the 15th century and full of pageantry, the subject is the forbidden love between a Christian man and a Jewish woman, and the tragedy that ensues. Oper Frankfurt's contemporary staging won great acclaim, with Ambur Braid being lauded for her 'luminous soprano' as the heroine Rachel, and 'vocal phenomenon' John Osborn heralded in the role of her father �l�azar as 'immensely moving'.

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'.

The three operas-comiques in this set epitomise the glamour, vivacity and zest of the quintessentially French genre and are among their composers' most admired works. Adolphe Adam's "Le Postillon de Lonjumeau" exudes rococo Parisian charm, Reynaldo Hahn's elegant and refined "Ciboulette" is one of the last masterpieces of French operetta, and Jacques Offenbach's "La Perichole" is an opera-bouffe of scintillating colour and vivacious dances. These acclaimed productions from the famous stage of the Opera Comique in Paris feature world-class performers, superb directors, and, in the Adam, costumes by the iconic French fashion designer, Christian Lacroix. “[A] delightful collection…Florie Valiquette shows a lively stage presence as Madelaine...All in all this is an enjoyable outing.” --MusicWeb International

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.

Tchaikovsky's lyric opera Eugene Onegin is based on Alexander Pushkin's novel in verse - a masterpiece of Russian literature. The narrative tells the story of Onegin's remorse in rejecting the young Tatyana and his instigation of a fatal duel in which his friend Lensky dies. The opera is constructed in what Tchaikovsky termed 'lyrical scenes', with music that articulates the feelings of the characters with great sensitivity and subtlety. With a minimalist set design, director Laurent Pelly's staging underlines the lightness and sadness of the subject while fully expressing the characters' fantasies and inner torments. After his forays into the Russian repertoire, Alain Altinoglu conducts La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with a cast of outstanding singers.

Francesco Piemontesi, a BBC Music Magazine award-winning pianist and lauded as a 'wonderful Mozartian', has an intense curiosity about his fellow artists - their pianos, the sonorities they cultivate, the secret elements that animate their playing, and what drives them. In this documentary by Jan Schmidt-Garre, filmed over one year, Piemontesi talks with some of the world's leading performers, including his mentor Alfred Brendel, Maria Joao Pires, Stephen Kovacevich and Antonio Pappano, in a series of revealing encounters that illuminate their individual approaches to the instrument, it's colour and form. The film is complemented by a bonus 60-minute recital by Yulianna Avdeeva, Zlata Chochieva and Francesco Piemontesi, played on Rachmaninoff's Steinway piano at Villa Senar, his home in Switzerland during the 1930s.

Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos is one of the early 20th century’s most peculiar operatic works. Its narrative derives from the famous myth of Ariadne, who is abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos and eventually falls in love with the god Bacchus. This opera is, however, preceded by an extensive modern prologue in which a young Composer finds himself tortured by egotistical artists complicating preparations for the opera’s production in an eternal struggle between comedy and high art. Set in the beautiful Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Matthias Hartmann’s 2022 production was a triumphant success both for its soloists and conductor Daniele Gatti in his first season as musical director at the Maggio Musicale Foundation.

Having been granted unprecedented authority by Louis XIV, the Sun King, no one could stage operas in France without Jean-Baptiste Lully's permission. By 1686, however, Lully's authority was waning and his long-standing librettist deserted him to write sacred works. Despite these setbacks, Lully wrote Acis et Galat�e, a pastorale h�ro�que, and one of his final masterpieces. It's plot - the cyclops Poliph�me's love for the nymph Galat�e - drew from Lully an astonishing alternation of effects, a profound monologue for the nymph in Act III and a magnificent concluding Passacaille, all framed by a succession of dances and vividly conceived choruses.

Guided by his idol George Balanchine, Hans Van Manen has striven all his life to create meaning in his choreography. Alongside conversations with colleagues and collaborators, in the documentary Moving to Music, van Manen talks about his life and work, and from where his inspiration came in ballets that are charged with drama and eroticism. Also included are three complete works from Dutch National Ballet - the early Metaforen; Adagio Hammerklavier, which presents the slow movement of Beethoven's Op. 106 sonata performed live on stage with three couples in various configurations; and Frank Bridge Variations, a late masterpiece that plays with balance and counterpoint to music by Benjamin Britten. Total playing time: 127 minutes (Documentary: 52 minutes � Ballets: 75 minutes). Language: English � Subtitles: English, German, Japanese, Korean. HD 16:9 � PCM Stereo � BD 50 � Region: A, B, C. Photos: Front cover � Erwin Olaf; Back cover Courtesy Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam � Erwin Olaf. Documentary � 2022 RM Creative � Ballets � 2017 La Belle T�l� - Festival Montpellier Danse - Mezzo. � 2024 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd � Made in Germany.

Initially a failure when first performed in London in 1750, 'Theodora' has proved to be one of Handel's most enduring and compassionate masterpieces - a work of introspective depth about the redemptive power of tolerance. Theodora's determination to die in defence of her religious freedom offers her the promise of eternal salvation. In this acclaimed Viennese production, award-winning stage director Stefan Herheim contrasts Theodora's self-sacrifice with the lack of spiritual direction of our own times. La Folia Barockorchester and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor are conducted by the acclaimed countertenor and Handel specialist Bejun Mehta.

Richard Strauss's 'Arabella' is a lyric comedy that portrays hardships and obsessions in a society whose latebourgeois values are crumbling. An addiction to gambling has driven the family of cavalry officer Waldner into financial ruin, and their only hope for salvation lies in marrying off their daughter Arabella into a wealthy family. Strauss's orchestral opulence coupled with it's period Viennese setting has seen 'Arabella' perceived as a light-hearted comedy of errors, but Tobias Kratzer's multi-faceted production also explores the disunity between it's characters, spotlighting tensions that connect 19th-century Vienna to the present day.

Giuseppe Verdi was well on the way towards renown and prosperity when he took up the story of Violetta, a famed courtesan whose intensely romantic and colorful but tragically brief life marked the emergence of realism into Italian opera. Verdi and Alexandre Dumas intended this melodrama to have a contemporary setting, and David Livermore’s stunning production maintains this wish by placing his elegant and powerful cast firmly into the 20th century. This alchemy of masterful acting, vivid bel canto voices and the vitality of Zubin Mehta’s conducting results in a triumphant and unforgettably poignant operatic experience.

Premiered in 1883, 'Lakmé' remains one of the most popular of all French operas. Reflecting contemporary tastes, the original source material presented a tragic liaison between a French officer and a Tahitian woman on a Pacific island, but Delibes moved the location to British-ruled India where the two central characters are torn between passion and loyalty, and assailed by a fanatical religious leader. For this opera Delibes wrote music of indelible beauty, including the much-loved ‘Flower Duet’ and ‘Bell Song’.

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 expos� 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'.

Influential German poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes reinvented the Passion oratorio tradition, transforming it's textures into a much-admired poetic meditation that took hold of the imagination of many German Baroque composers. Of several settings Handel's is by far the most famous, creating an eloquent and moving score from his friend's libretto. This acclaimed staged version directed by Walter Sutcliffe extends the vision of the original by asking fundamental questions about the evolution of mankind and it's dangerous implications for planet Earth.

Internationally celebrated as both a soloist and conductor, Florian Krumpock has more than proven his outstanding capability in the international concert scene. Appointed as one of the youngest music directors in German history in 2011, Krump. Ck characteristically masters a broad variety of opera and concert literature as well as a wide piano repertoire, and particularly enthralls his audiences with his double role as a soloist and as a conductor. "Forget Lang Lang and Arcadi Volodos. There are highly virtuoso keyboard tigers in Austria, too", was the verdict of the daily newspaper Die Presse on the pianist's solo debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus. The son of a cellist and an art historian, Krump. Ck counted Rudolf Buchbinder, Gerhard Oppitz and Elisabeth Leonskaja among his teachers at an early age, some of the most important pianist personalities of our time. Sir Peter Ustinov presented the young musician to a wide audience early on. After an audition, no less a person than Daniel Barenboim judged him simply "a wonderful pianist" and thus paved the way for a promising international career.

Gotterdammerung ('Twilight of the Gods') is the final opera of Wagner's epic tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ('The Ring of the Nibelung') in which his visionary masterpiece reaches it's cataclysmic conclusion. Betrayal and death, murder and remorse, lie at the opera's heart, in a work that draws together every plot element in writing of blazing intensity. As the ring is restored to the Rhinemaidens, the age of the gods ends, with the opera offering the certainty of destruction but the consolation of renewal. Staged by the award-winning director Stefan Herheim, this innovative new production from Deutsche Oper Berlin features a leading international cast conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. The release includes "Making Of" documentary featuring interviews with Stefan Herheim and Sir Donald Runnicles, and behind the scenes footage.

Giuseppe Verdi wanted his seventh opera to be passionate, fiery and action-packed, and he wanted a real prima donna to take centre stage. He found the ideal subject in one of the most famous female figures in world history: Joan of Arc. Verdi was highly satisfied with Temistocle Solera's libretto. It was, he wrote in August 1844, 'almost of an unusual beauty'. In fact, the title role brings a special radiance to the opera, which is not necessarily one of the composer's most prominent roles on the repertoire today. However, it was celebrated by the premiere audience, and the day after the premiere Verdi wrote to his friend Francesco Maria Piave: 'Without exception and without doubt, it is the best of my operas'. A few successful performances followed, but then the work faded into the shadows of Verdi's later, even more famous operas. It is high time to bring it back to light!

SILENZIO; MISTERIO! SECRET AND SILENT ... this is how the chorus begins Verdi's first Venice opera. For I due Foscari; the composer combined dark timbres; impressive choral scenes; intimate orchestral solos and stirring arias.

Plácido Domingo has held a unique place in the history of opera for six decades. Eighty years young, this Madrileño is a lion of the stage who is putting on a Gala for the Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles worthy of the French public’s great admiration for him. Accompanied by the Orchestra of the Opéra Royal under the direction of Laurent Campellone, in a duet with the dazzling Jennifer Rowley, Plácido Domingo performs at Versailles as a living legend, for an unforgettable evening.

Folk tunes have always been an important part of the repertoire of the Norwegian Girls Choir; being a vital aspect of the choir's identity and of it's active enactment of cultural tradition. In STJERNEBRU orjan Matre has taken a selection of Norwegian folk tunes as his starting point, and they are combined with improvisations and arrangements as intermezzos. The word Stjernebru (Bridge of Stars) is taken from the hymn Nedi vester soli glader (The sun is sinking in the west), and alludes to the journey to the next world: the transition, or bridge, from the earthly to the eternal. The word can also refer to the night sky itself, and Lux Aeterna - eternal light - is a theme that runs through the whole album. Det Norske Jentekor Anne Karin Sundal-Ask, conductor Gjermund Larsen, fiddle Frode Haltli, accordion orjan Matre, composer Morten Lindberg, balance engineer and recording producer Disc 1 Hybrid SACD MCH 5.0 DSD Stereo DSD RedBook PCM: MQA CD Disc 2 Pure Audio Blu-ray 2.0 LPCM 192/24 5.0 DTS HDMA 192/24 7.0.4 Auro-3D 96kHz 7.0.4 Dolby Atmos 48kHz mShuttle: MQA + FLAC + MP3 Region: ABC - worldwide

MOTHER - a word that evokes associations - memories - emotions. Which mother do you think of? A loving mother with a newborn baby in her arms. Intimacy. A despairing mother in deep grief over a lost life. Emptiness. Through words and music our lives are woven together with Mary's life and perhaps we sense that a mother's pain and sorrow, a mother's strength and endurance, a mother's warmth and love are the same now as they were two thousand years ago. Petra Bjorkhaug and Ragnhild Jepsen's S�RMERKT interleaved with Domenico Scarlatti's STABAT MATER. Disc 1 Hybrid SACD MCH 5.0DSD Stereo DSD RedBook PCM: MQA CD Disc 2 Pure Audio Blu-ray 2.0 LPCM 192/24 5.0 DTS HDMA 192/24 7.0.4 Auro-3D 96kHz 7.0.4 Dolby Atmos 48kHz mShuttle: MQA + FLAC + MP3 Region: ABC - worldwide

PAX is a concept in which music, lyrics and the sacred space of the cathedral energize each other in these performances of new works by Norwegian composers who all approach the theme of peace with their own individual reflections and interpretations. The music is composed specifically to be performed and recorded as an immersive experience.

As the eighteenth century progressed, Trondheim experienced strong economic growth. The Great Nordic War was over, and merchants set about exporting timber, stockfish, and copper from the mines of Trøndelag. They maintained close contact with their networks in the main cities of Northern Europe, and Trondheim's luxury and extravagance characterised its social milieu. Thus, the latest fashions, literature and music from the Continent found their way to Trondheim. This recording portrays a selection of contemporaneous music that is preserved in Trondheim. The manuscripts may be found in the Gunnerus Library's special collections and probably belonged to the town musician and polymath Johan Daniel Berlin (1714–87) and his circle of musicians. They provide a unique insight into how European instrumental music found fertile ground in one of Denmark–Norway's largest provincial towns in the decades preceding the union's dissolution in 1814.