Don Giovanni - Opéra royal de Versailles

Adolphe Adam’s Le Postillon de Lonjumeau was a great success at its premiere in 1836, and, along with the ballet Giselle, has remained one of the composer’s most popular works. Following the great French tradition, this opéra-comique has it all: 18th-century Rococo Parisian glamour and a perilous love story involving the dashing and flirtatious Chapelou and his opposite, the powerful and clever Madeleine. This lavish and spectacular production from the Opéra Comique in Paris received widespread critical acclaim and also features costumes by the iconic French fashion designer Christian Lacroix.

In this new "Marriage of Figaro", Jérémie Rhorer revisits this composer and US film director James Gray makes his first foray into opera. This opera is recorded for broadcast by Louise Narboni.

In the mid-20th century, in Fucecchio, near Florence, Buoso Donati, an elderly collector and wealthy antique dealer, has just passed away. He lies in his bed, surrounded by relatives feigning grief. They are all worried, as the deceased has bequeathed his entire fortune to a monastery. They search frantically for the will. The young Riniccio, Donati’s nephew, finds it but agrees to show it to the family only if they promise to let him marry Lauretta, the daughter of Gianni Schicchi, a local figure of dubious reputation. Everyone accepts the condition and discovers to their horror that the rumour was true: the monks are set to inherit the fortune. Riniccio suggests calling on Schicchi for help, much to the family’s disgust. Summoned, Riniccio arrives at the house accompanied by his daughter. He proposes keeping the death a secret, taking his place, and instructing a doctor and a notary to alter ‘his’ testamentary dispositions. But has the hunter become the hunted? Not so sure...

Don Giovanni was commissioned by the Prague Opera immediately after the success of The Marriage of Figaro: Mozart and Da Ponte wanted to build on their success and chose a subject that had triumphed just a few weeks earlier in Venice, a Don Giovanni composed by Giuseppe Gazzaniga. Revisiting the theme of the Seville Cheat – a prevalent subject in theatre since the mid-17th century, especially through Molière’s powerful incarnation, and in a ballet by Gluck in Vienna in 1761 – Da Ponte focused the work on the libertine character of Don Juan, no doubt drawing inspiration from his friend Casanova (who in fact helped make changes to Act 2, Scene 9, and attended the Prague première).

On the way to the Trojan War, the king of Mycenae killed a sacred doe belonging to Diana, an offense for which the goddess of war demands the sacrifice of the daughter of the leader of the Achaeans.

When a fairy king quarrels with his queen over a young changeling, he orders his servant, a mischievous sprite, to play a prank on her with hilarious consequences. Adapting Shakespeare’s classic comedy of confused identities, bewildered lovers and a startling metamorphosis, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream comprises the composer’s perhaps most atmospheric score. An entrancing orchestration of instrumental colours breathes life into a magic wood setting the scene for a mysterious dream world.

Le Nozze di Figaro marked the beginning of Mozart’s collaboration with Da Ponte. At the premiere in 1786, the success was mixed in Vienna, but Prague was enthusiastic about this love imbroglio set in Seville, where the Countess and Suzanna play cat and mouse with the gentlemen, to avoid the Count’s designs on his maids… Figaro undertakes to set this little world to rights, to confound his Master while preserving the Countess’s affair with Cherubino. An infernal machine launched at full speed, which allows Mozart to produce arias of great beauty, an exceptionally determined Figaro, and reversals of situation which are the subject of brilliant ensemble numbers at the end of each act. Exhilarating!

Part of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the death of the Pesaro composer, Il Barbiere di Siviglia staged in Lugano, is the result of a virtuous collaboration that involved Swiss Radio and Television, LuganoInScena and LuganoMusica. The musical part was entrusted to Maestro Diego Fasolis who, together with his Barocchisti ensemble, was involved in the project from the very beginning. Internationally renowned soloists such as Edgardo Rocha (who embodies the Count of Almaviva), Riccardo Novaro (Bartolo), Lucia Cirillo (Rosina), Giorgio Caoduro (Figaro), Ugo Guagliardo (Basilio) and Alessandra Palomba (Berta) performed on stage.

This is Laurent Pelly’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées staging of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, with a cast featuring Florian Sempey as Figaro, Catherine Trottmann as Rosina, and Michele Angelini as Il Conte Almaviva. Jérémie Rhorer conducts Le Cercle de l-Harmonie.

At the Festival della Valle d'Itria, Antonio Vivaldi's opera Orlando Furioso. Orchestra I Barocchisti, conductor at the harpsichord and music director Diego Fasolis.

How faithful are women really? That is the question that Guglielmo and Ferrando ask themselves in Mozart’s comic opera Così Fan Tutte. To answer it, they put their fiancées to the test by pretending to go off to war and a short time later returning in disguise with the aim of seducing each other’s betrothed. Fortunately, the Opèra de Lausanne has no time for such moral grandstanding. This new staging of Così is Jean Liermier’s second production for Lausanne after his My Fair Lady in 2015. Joshua Weilerstein, artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, pilots the orchestra through Mozart’s colourful score with Stéphanie Guérin (Dorabella), Robert Gleadow (Guglielmo), Valentina Nafornita (Fiordiligi), and Joel Prieto (Ferrando) in the roles of the tried and tested lovers.

DON GIOVANNI is one of the timeless classics of all opera. Mozart’s music, and the words of his great collaborator Da Ponte, are brought to life in Francesca Zambello’s engrossing production with its rich and colourful designs by Maria Bjornson. The music is memorable, dramatic and enjoyable: from the seductive solo voices of the famous ‘La ci darem la mano’ to the fabulous ensemble as Don Giovanni’s infatuated conquests, vengeful victims and their outraged relatives join forces for justice. And retribution does finally come to Don Giovanni, a serial womanizer and a murderer, with the searing flames of Hell ready to engulf him. Simon Keenlyside heads the outstanding cast at the Covent Garden Royal Opera House, conducted by renowned Mozart expert Charles Mackerras.

As part of the 2019 Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival, filmmaker Christophe Honoré delivers an innovative staging of Giacomo Puccini's famous drama. His cleverly staged "opera within the opera" is a melancholy homage to the fascinating figure of the diva, who thrives on art and love and upsets the laws of time and death.

Don Giovanni prides itself in being a dramma giocoso. Not an easy expression to translate, given how starkly contradictory the terms would appear to be. But dig below the surface and you are plunged into a delightful swirl of ambiguities. Nothing here is set in stone: the libertinage is passionate, but couples meet and part. Fate plays tricks with masks, right up until the final challenge.

Catone in Utica is the story of the power struggle between two giants of the Roman world, the dictator Julius Caesar (Cesare) and Cato the Younger (Catone), the upholder of traditional republican ideals. This battle of political wills forms the backdrop to the military action in which Cesare and Catone are engaged in 49-48 BC and to an involved secondary love plot. Catone in Utica was staged for the first time in 1737 in Verona and is one of the last operas by Antonio Vivaldi. Although only Acts II and III survive, this work is considered to be one of the greatest operatic compositions of the Venetian composer. After the successful staging of Vivaldi’s Farnace in December 2021, Teatro Comunale di Ferrara ‘Claudio Abbado’ offers a a chance to discover live a rarely-performed production by the 'red priest', as Vivaldi was known.

A kind-hearted young woman is forced to be a maid in her own home. Her luck seems to turn when a royal bachelor comes looking for a wife, but her stepsisters are determined to keep her in her place. Give your New Year a fairytale start with Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Directed by Orpha Phelan, this new production from Irish National Opera unfolds from the pages of a book in celebration of literature, fantasy and the triumph of good over evil. Tara Erraught stars as Angelina alongside Andrew Owens as her Prince Charming. La Cenerentola is presented in partnership with the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. Irish National Opera is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Vivaldis Orlando Furioso was chosen to open the 43rd Festival della Valle dItria. This baroque opera is a true feast for the senses, with peaks of sheer poetry and a sense of wonder. Director Fabio Ceresa was clearly inspired by the works of Gustav Klimt, both for the setting and the costumes. Conductor and Continuo Diego Fasolis leads the excellent Barocchisti ensemble with an elegant touch, and an unfailing ability to fully convey the musics nuanced coloratura. The production was very well received, with the cast highly praised by audience and critics alike. Sonia Prina proved highly convincing in the title role, both for the quality of her voice and for her outstanding acting skills - a true 'ba-rock star'. Lucia Cirillo (Alcina) was complimented by Bachtrack for her 'flawless coloratura and virtuosity in ornamentation', while Riccardo Novaro (Astolfo) displays a stylish poise and vocal warmth.

To save his protegé from a fatal destiny, a magician has imprisoned knights and ladies in an enchanted labyrinthine palace and mystifies them to the point of delirium. Luigi Rossi's first opera - boasting sixteen soloists, double and triple choirs for 6 and 12 voices, numerous ballets - marked the last surge of Roman opera before the Eternal City forsook it for a long time. For the Argentine conductor Leonardo García Alarcón, who rediscovered the opera in the Vatican Library neglected for 380 years, Il palazzo incantato is ‘the missing link in the history of opera and the metaphor of our lives'. ‘Leonardo Garcia Alarcon was known as a magician, now he has become a conjurer.’ (Le Monde)