In Amsterdam, conductor Emmanuelle Haïm and director Calixto Bieito take on Handel’s famous Giulio Cesare.
A superb adaptation of Purcell's the Indian Queen, staged and directed by Peter Sellars and performed in 2013 at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Peters Sellars combines John Dryden and Robert Howard's libretto with a short-story written by the Nicaraguan writer Rosario Aguilar, La niña blanca y los pájaros sin pies.
At Salzburg Festival, Cecilia Bartoli shines as Ariodante with her dazzling coloratura in a highly acclaimed new production by the German director Christoph Loy, who is known for his clever psychological stagings. Loy turns Handel's splendid baroque opera into an exciting and differentiated reflection on gender roles.
In search of an opera for his theatre, an impresario finds himself grappling with a group of egotists and jealous individuals. Based on a score by Florian Leopold Gassmann, this caustic satire of the 18th-century opera world is directed by Laurent Pelly. Starring Julie Fuchs as the prima donna.
They're called the "vocal trinity": Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Céline Dion are the first divas of the pop era. But what defines a diva?
In Tamerlano, Handel defied rules both written and tacit—offering a main role to a mature tenor at a time when the castrato voice dominated; and not shying away from shocking scenes that other composers approached hesitantly, like suicide. Pierre Audi’s elegant, minimalist staging allows an all-star cast of singers to highlight the work’s many dramatic elements, proving that Baroque opera can still move and thrill us as it did 300 years ago!
Love, power and ambition meet on the stage of the Teatre de Liceu in Barcelona with L'Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi directed by Jordi Savall and directed by Calixto Bieito.
David McVicar’s production of Giulio Cesare manages to combine serious insight with entertainment, bringing Handel's masterpiece to life in a powerful, convincing and highly intelligent way. ln every line of the complex narrative the subtle nuances are apparent, reflecting perfectly the transparent and exquisite nature of Handel's musical expression. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true surround sound, the outstanding singing of the all-star cast, led superbly by Sarah Connolly, and the vivid playing of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under the energising baton of William Christie reveal the colour and dramatic character of Handel’s music in a most delightful manner.
Les Indes Galantes (The amorous indies), is an opera-ballet created by Jean Philippe Rameau in 1735. He was inspired for one of the dance by tribal Indian dances of Louisiana performed by Metchigaema chiefs, in Paris in 1723. Clément Cogitore adapts a short part of the ballet by mobilizing a group of Krump dancers, an art form born in Los Angeles black ghetto in the 1990s. Its birth occurred in the aftermath of the beating up of Rodney King and the riots, as well as police repression it triggered. Amidst this coercive atmosphere, young dancers started to embody the violent tensions of the physical, social and political body. Both the tribal dance performed in Paris in 1723, and the rebelious Krump dancers of the 1990s shape a reenactment of Rameau’s original libretto, staging young people dancing on the verge of a volcano.
Directed by Uffe Borgwardt. Starring Inger Dam-Jensen, Christophe Dumaux, Andreas Scholl.
Three hundred years old and as timely as ever, Handel's monumental Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Julius Caesar in Egypt) arrives at the 2025 Salzburg Festival in a new staging by the audacious, award-winning Dmitri Tcherniakov! When Caesar (Christophe Dumaux) comes to Egypt on the hunt for his enemy Pompey, he discovers that the pharaoh Ptolemy (Yuriy Mynenko) has beaten him to the punch, setting Pompey's son Sextus (Federico Fiorio) on a mission for vengeance — all while Ptolemy's sister Cleopatra (Olga Kulchynska) schemes to take the throne for herself, leading her directly into the path of Caesar… This tale of uncompromising rivalries and the corrupting thrall of political power is animated by one of Handel's finest scores, majestic in the hands of expert Baroque ensemble Le Concert d'Astrée under their celebrated founder Emmanuelle Haïm.
From the RAI Auditorium in Turin, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, soprano Giuliana Gianfaldoni and mezzo-soprano Cecilia Molinari, conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada, perform Pergolesi’s *Stabat Mater dolorosa* and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 (Pastoral).
More than anything in the world, Rusalka, a mysterious and elusive water nymph, yearns to become human to win the heart of a young prince. But this metamorphosis comes at a price: she will lose her voice and be damned forever should their love story fail. To what lengths would you go to find happiness?
The origin story of one of Italy's greatest rock stars, Gianna Nannini, who chased her dream despite obstacles from her family and the music industry.
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This concert, recorded to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the landmark musical Les Miserables, gathers the casts of the show's 2010 original production at the Queen's Theatre, the 1985 original production by the London company, and the 2010 production at the Barbican together for one performance. Together with talents like Michael Ball, Hadley Fraser, and John Owen-Jones, the performers present the play's musical numbers in a semi-theatrical style, fully costumed and with all the emotion of the musical's heyday.
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The rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom.
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An exploration of the life and music of Miles Davis.
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The true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organize the greatest solo concert in music history: Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert.
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The story of sex, violence, race and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, and the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.
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The rise and fall of the pirate mixtape empire of three brothers from Naples, Italy, during the '80s.
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Taylor Swift takes the stage in Dallas for the Reputation Stadium Tour and celebrates a monumental night of music, memories and visual magic.
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The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Joseph Bologne rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair and a falling out with Marie Antoinette and her court.
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A portrait of Ennio Morricone, the most popular and prolific film composer of the 20th century, the one most loved by the international public, a two-time Oscar winner and the author of over five hundred unforgettable scores.
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In the aftermath of the Trojan war, a series of unrequited loves threatens to destabilise the fragile peace. But for a spurned Spartan princess, there are only two options left: forgiveness and murder. The most ambitious and innovative of all Rossini’s operas, Ermione was a calamitous failure on its opening night at the Teatro di San Carlo 200 years ago. It now returns to the Neapolitan theatre in a new production by Italian director Jacopo Spirei starring American soprano Angela Meade in the title role.
Considered by some to be the greatest opera ever written, Don Giovanni was the second product of an incredibly fruitful collaboration between two geniuses: the legendary W.A. Mozart and the talented Italian librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. Based on Molière's Don Juan, the two-act dramma giocoso premiered in October 1787 at Prague's state theater to rave reviews. The 2017 Festival d'Aix-en-Provence brought Mozart's fabulously devious work to the stage once more in a production by stage director Jean-François Sivadie. Starring Philippe Sly (Don Giovanni), Nahuel di Pierro (Leporello), and Eleonora Buratto (Donna Anna), the excellent performance featured the acclaimed maestro Jérémie Rhorer at the head of the period instrument ensemble Le Cercle de l'Harmonie.
An impressive masked figure, Trompe‑la‑mort reveals his true character through his impalpable latent energy and a plot abounding in tragic twists of fate. An ambivalent character, both regal in bearing and warmly protective, cruel and yet loving, rapacious and indomitable even in the face of madness, this ’Machiavelli among miscreants’ destined to become chief of police, uses his conquests to advance relentlessly in the pursuit of his aims whilst keeping his hand closely hidden. Guy Cassiers, working for the first time with the Paris Opera, portrays a three-tiered society where some rise and others fall.
When Rossini’s opera Le Siège de Corinthe was premiered in 1826 in Paris it became a huge success all over Europe. The Rossini Opera Festival presents the opera in a new production from Carlus Padrissa of the Barcelona collective La Fura dels Baus, “which here has one of its most interesting shows” (connessiallopera.it). Artistically “Roberto Abbado holds the ranks excellently and supports a well-cohesive and balanced cast” (L’ape musicale) “where bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni growled fearsomely as Sultan Mahomet, tenor Sergey Romanovsky as Néoclès matched a warm tone with pinging top notes, and tenor John Irvin was self-assured as Cléomène, but soprano Nino Machaidze as Pamyra thrilled most of all, as she purred effortlessly through pyrotechnic coloratura” (Financial Times).
With her village under siege, a daring widow implores the invading general for mercy. Catching the military man with his trousers down, she uses all her cunning and charisma to try and save her people. Courage triumphs in this allegorical oratorio. Though not intended for the theatre, the twists and turns of the plot lend itself perfectly for staged production. Distinguished Baroque and Vivaldi specialist Andrea Marcon conducts his own early music ensemble, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel.
Linda di Chamounix is a pretty country girl who is in love with Carlo, who she believes is a penniless artist. Her honour is threatened by the local squire and she escapes to Paris in search of fortune. This is a tale of courage and madness, in which we discover and experience the strength and suffering of a woman torn apart by estrangement from family and love. Donizetti reaped full and longlasting success with Linda di Chamounix, and it became one of his most modern, appreciated and long-lived works. Jessica Pratt leads an all-star cast in this acclaimed production from the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
