David et Jonathas

L'Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi is the last Opera of the Monteverdi trilogy filmed by the Italian label and producer Dynamic at the Teatro Real, Madrid, May 2010.

Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro returned to Teatro alla Scala in 2016 in a new production directed by Frederic Wake-Walker and conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. Created to mark the 225th anniversary of Mozart’s death, the staging offers a fresh perspective on the composer’s celebrated comedy of love, deception and social hierarchy. Antony McDonald designed the sets and costumes, framing the intricate intrigues surrounding Figaro and Susanna’s wedding. The international cast features Markus Werba as Figaro, Golda Schultz as Susanna, Diana Damrau as the Countess, Marianne Crebassa as Cherubino, and Carlos Álvarez or Simon Keenlyside as Count Almaviva.

The Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro Alla Scala conducted by Marc Minikowski; Teatro alla Scala, Milan, March 2015

A ruthless dictator falls in love with a sexy woman. Together, they get rid of every obstacle in their way: his wife, her former lover, and also the voice of reason. Everything is sacrificed to passion, in this tale where evil triumphs, virtue and reason are humiliated, and nothing corresponds to our moral principles. Jan Lauwers, the director and choreographer, sets L'incoronazione di Poppea in a way congenial to his means: a visual artist, he translated the emotions expressed by Monteverdi’s music into dancing and visual images. The result was mixed; the general impression was one of many ideas, seemingly not fully developed or analysed. The stage was constantly cluttered with moving bodies, or tableau vivants, leaving a sense of confusion, and distracting from the music.

Organized like a dream, structured like a musical and with texts, both spoken and sung, that lead us to unexpected, chaotic and exciting situations, which try to grasp part of what the unattainable Alexandre O'Neill left us.

After the success of the DVDs devoted to Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Cadmus & Hermione, Vincent Dumestre and Le Poème Harmonique continue their exploration of repertoires of the 17th century.This piece, combining theatre and music, allowed Purcell to achieve his dramatic ideal. In fact, he wrote only a single opera in his short career he died at the age of 36 , but with it, he left us a gem of rare beauty and extreme concision. The work's genius is also due in part to the quality of the libretto, skilfully put together by Nahum Tate.Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek, stage directors coming from the arts of the circus and the mime Marceau, had already collaborated with Le Poème Harmonique on the Carnaval Baroque. Here, they combine mime, dance and acrobatics with the music in a moving, magical production.

Not exactly a standard work in the repertoire, Mozart´s two-act serenata from 1775 (he was 19) Il re pastore, libretto by Metastasio and previously used by several other composers, such as Gluck. A story including the usual ingredients of fidelity, love and a benevolent ruler, whose element of rigid opera seria are emphasized by director-and-conductor Thomas Hengelbrock in this stylized set-up.

Filmed production of the 2016 Scala production of the famous opera.

Posthumously premiered in 1930, From the House of the Dead derives from Dostoevsky’s autobiographical 1862 novel that drew on his experience as a political prisoner in Siberia. Janáček focuses on Dostoevsky’s idea of the “spark of God” in every human being that has the potential to redeem even the most hardened criminal.

The oratorio concerns the Christian martyr Theodora and her Christian-converted Roman lover, Didymus.

Live performance by Les Arts Florissants at the Théâtre de Caen, recorded on 18 Octorber 2011. "One of the earliest operas deserving of the name, Didone is our first surviving musical version of the famous episode in Virgil's Aeneid where the Trojan Hero loves and then cruelly leaves the noble Dido." — from the DVD back cover