Giacomo Puccini - Tosca aus der Arena von Verona

Featuring never-before-seen footage, concert performances and intimate interviews, filmmaker Ron Howard examines the life and career of famed opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti.

Visually this is a gripping production which captures the drama of this opera perfectly. It's downright exciting! and I found the singing, acting, and orchestral playing reasonably fine. I found only one major problem with it, a problem that kept Puccini for quite a few years. Turandot has been looking for an opportunity to kill Calif and Calif has singlemindedly tried to get Turandot to love and wed him focusing on her and ignoring a better looking girl who loves him truly. The problem is how to get the audience to applaud the match once Calif gets his wish. Puccini couldn't figure out how to do it. The traditional quick ending doesn't do it, and Berio's attempt is longer , tries its best, but ends up making it plain this is one wierd couple.

For the first time since the 1904 La Scala premiere, Riccardo Chailly restores Puccini's original two-act version to the La Scala stage.

In its most ambitious effort yet to bring the joy and artistry of opera to audiences everywhere during the Met’s closure, the company presented an unprecedented virtual At-Home Gala, featuring more than 40 leading artists performing in a live stream from their homes all around the world.

Recorded at Glyndebourne, Lewes, East Sussex, United Kingdom on 21 June 2018.

Christine Goerke has wowed audiences as Turandot, the icy princess at the heart of Puccini’s grand final masterpiece. In this performance from the 2019–20 Live in HD season, Goerke stars alongside tenor Yusif Eyvazov (as Calàf) and soprano Eleonora Buratto (as Liù) in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic staging, which dazzles with its opulent visions of mythic China. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin is on the podium, drawing a vivid array of musical colors from the incomparable Met Orchestra and Chorus.

Ever since its premiere in Turin in 1896, La bohème has been a huge hit with audiences across the world. Within two years, it had been seen in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Prague, Berlin, Manchester and beyond. With over 500 performances chalked up at Covent Garden alone, this opera is one of the most popular and enduring in the repertoire. In this performance from 2020, Sonya Yoncheva stars as the doomed seamstress Mimì, with Charles Castronovo as Rodolfo, who falls in love with her at first sight. Simona Mihai and Andrzej Filonczyk perform the roles of the on-off lovers, Musetta and Marcello. Poverty and passion collide in a story of friendship and fellowship, love and loss. Featuring some of Puccini’s best-loved music, this performance is conducted by Emmanuel Villaume.

Premiered immediately before the enduring masterpieces Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and La Traviata, Luisa Miller incorporates the youthful vitality that had made Verdi an international sensation while also looking forward to the dramaturgical discipline and sophistication of those later works. In this Live in HD performance, soprano Sonya Yoncheva takes on the riveting title role, capping off a season in which she starred in three cinema transmissions. As her father, Miller, the legendary Plácido Domingo adds another baritone role to his extensive repertoire. Tenor Piotr Beczała as Rodolfo, Alexander Vinogradov as Count Walter, and Dmitry Belosselskiy as Wurm round out the illustrious cast, and Bertrand de Billy conducts.

To bring together again, for the first time since their premiere on a December evening in Moscow, Tchaikovsky’s opera Iolanta and ballet The Nutcracker, was the audacious challenge that Russian stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov accepted for the Palais Garnier in Paris in March 2016 : a revolutionary production, which was to become one of the key events of the Paris Opera season.

Riccardo Chailly inaugurates the 2024-2025 Opera Season with a new production of La forza del destino, conducting his ninth Verdi title at La Scala. Leo Muscato will direct yet another cast of extraordinary prestige. A complex opera in terms of dramaturgy, first performed in St. Petersburg in 1862 and debuting in its final form at La Scala in 1869 with the creation of the famous overture, La forza del destino offers some of the most memorable Verdi melodies. It has been absent from the programme since the Verdi centennial in 2001, when it was brought to La Scala by the artists of the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg; the La Scala Orchestra and Choir have not performed it since 1999.

Sir David McVicar’s bold new staging of Tosca, Puccini’s operatic thriller of Napoleonic Rome, thrilled Met audiences when it rang in the New Year in 2018. Only weeks later, the production was seen by opera lovers worldwide as part of the Met’s Live in HD series of cinema presentations. In this performance, Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva is the passionate title diva, opposite charismatic tenor Vittorio Grigolo as her lover, the idealistic painter Mario Cavaradossi. Baritone Željko Lučić is the menacing Baron Scarpia, the evil chief of police who employs brutal tactics to ensnare both criminals and sexual conquests. On the podium, Emmanuel Villaume conducts the electrifying score, which features some of Puccini’s most memorable melodies.

Verdi's sweepingly ambitious opera on war, religion, love and fate is given a cinematic staging by Christof Loy. The Marquis of Calatrava forbids his daughter Leonora to marry the South American nobleman Don Alvaro. The lovers attempt to elope, but the Marquis catches them. In the ensuing altercation, Alvaro accidentally kills the Marquis, who curses his daughter as he dies. Leonora and Alvaro become separated during their escape. Leonora's brother Don Carlo di Vargas decides to find them and avenge his father.

The opera is based on the Biblical tale of Samson and Delilah found in Chapter 16 of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament. It is the only opera by Saint-Saëns that is regularly performed. The second act love scene in Delilah's tent is one of the set pieces that define French opera. Two of Delilah's arias are particularly well known: "Printemps qui commence" and "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix", the latter of which is one of the most popular recital pieces in the mezzo-soprano/contralto repertoire. Staged by greek director Yannis Kokkos and conducted by Valery Gergiev on May 25th, 2016 at the Mariinsky Theatre.

Umberto Giordano’s exhilarating drama returns to the Met repertory for the first time in 25 years. Packed with memorable melodies, showstopping arias, and explosive confrontations, Fedora requires a cast of thrilling voices to take flight, and the Met’s new production promises to deliver. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva, one of today’s most riveting artists, sings the title role of the 19th-century Russian princess who falls in love with her fiancé’s murderer, Count Loris, sung by star tenor Piotr Beczała. Soprano Rosa Feola is the Countess Olga, Fedora’s confidante, and baritone Artur Ruciński is the diplomat De Siriex, with much-loved Met maestro Marco Armiliato conducting. Director David McVicar delivers a detailed and dramatic staging based around an ingenious fixed set that, like a Russian nesting doll, unfolds to reveal the opera’s three distinctive settings—a palace in St. Petersburg, a fashionable Parisian salon, and a picturesque villa in the Swiss Alps.

Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo are opera’s classic lovers in Gounod’s lush Shakespeare adaptation. Director Bartlett Sher’s “brilliant and inspired new production … is a revelation” (Huffington Post), and has already won acclaim for its vivid 18th-century milieu and stunning costumes during runs at Salzburg and La Scala. Emmanuel Villaume conducts the sumptuous score.

Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher’s bold new production probes the psychological underpinnings of Verdi’s dynamic setting of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. At the helm of this performance is riveting conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who brings out all the cascading emotions in Verdi’s turbulent score. Aleksandrs Antonenko is the Moor Otello, the triumphant general of the Venetian army who is ultimately brought down by the sly insinuations of his friend Iago (Željko Lučić). Sonya Yoncheva continues to win fans as Desdemona, Otello’s faithful and long-suffering wife. With Günther Groissböck as Lodovico and Dimitri Pittas as Cassio.

For the centenary of the Verona Opera Festival, Jonas Kaufmann gave a gala concert in the Arena on 20 August 2023. With colleagues Sonya Yoncheva and Ludovic Tézier, and accompanied by the Orchestra della Fondazione Arena di Verona conducted by Jochen Rieder, he performed arias and duets from Tosca, Otello and Andrea Chenier, and evergreens by Franz Lehár and Leonard Bernstein as well as famous film songs such as 'Nella fantasia' (The Mission) and 'Nelle tue mani' (Gladiator).

It's an event that draws many thousands of music lovers to one of the most beautiful cities in the world every summer: the opera season at the ancient Arena di Verona. The 2,000-year-old roman amphiteatre with its gigantic stage dimensions is one of the largest and best preserved Roman construction of its kind, and with over 22,000 seats it is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular open-air venues of the world! The revered master of opera Franco Zeffirelli, who died shortly before the premiere of Il Trovatore, created a legendary scenery with groups of giant sized armoured knights, a fortress turning into a luminous cathedral, an enormous choir, horses, breathtaking fights: “his perhaps best arena production” (Opernglas). It brings Anna Netrebko to the Arena of Verona where she is giving her much-anticipated debut in one of Giuseppe Verdi’s most popular operas.

New tenor star Vittorio Grigolo takes on the title role in Offenbach’s fantastical opera, giving a tour-de-force performance as the tortured poet unlucky in love. He is joined by a trio of leading ladies: Erin Morley sings the mechanical doll Olympia, Hibla Gerzmava is the fragile Antonia, and Christine Rice sings Giulietta, the Venetian courtesan. Bartlett Sher’s colorful production, seen here in its second Live in HD presentation, also stars Thomas Hampson as the sinister Four Villains and Kate Lindsey as Niklausse, Hoffmann’s friend and muse. Yves Abel conducts.

A new generation of rising stars shines in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production of Puccini’s most popular opera. Vittorio Grigolo is the poor poet Rodolfo who falls head over heels for his neighbor, the seamstress Mimì, sung by the radiant Kristine Opolais. Susanna Phillips is the flirtatious Musetta, Massimo Cavaletti is her sweetheart Marcello, and Patrick Carfizzi as Schaunard and Oren Gradus as Colline complete the ensemble. Stefano Ranzani conducts.

A village somewhere in the Italian countryside, a wayside inn on a road crossed by the occasional dog. Nothing more. Laurent Pelly’s production presents a deserted landscape in which the turbulent arrival of Doctor Dulcamara causes a sensation. And with good reason! He is said to be the inventor of a mysterious love potion… In opera, love philtres often provoke terrible tragedies. They also provide the pretext for this gentle comedy in which Sergeant Belcore and the timid Nemorino vie with each other for beautiful Adina’s heart. The stage is set! Bring on the music, which, if we are to believe Donizetti, was composed in a fortnight!

La cambiale di matrimonio (The Bill of Marriage or The Marriage Contract) is a one-act operatic farsa comica by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. The libretto was based on the play by Camillo Federici (1791) and a previous libretto by Giuseppe Checcherini for Carlo Coccia's 1807 opera, Il matrimonio per lettera di cambio. The opera debuted on 3 November 1810 at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice Composed in a few days when he was 18 years old, La cambiale di matrimonio was Rossini's first professional opera. The overture, written when he was a student at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, is an important part of the modern concert repertoire. As was to become typical of his later career, the duet "Dunque io son" was later reused, to greater effect, in act 1 of The Barber of Seville

Three colours, three moods, three registers. And yet Puccini conceived this triptych as a whole from the outset. He interweaves these three one-act operas, from Il tabarro, a drama of passion set on the quays of the Seine in the early 20th century, to Gianni Schicchi, a burlesque farce set in medieval Florence, and Suor Angelica, a mystical tragedy set in a 17th-century convent.

To open its 2019-2020 season, La Scala in Milan has chosen Tosca, in a new production directed by Davide Livermore. The production is part of the rediscovery of Italian opera led by Riccardo Chailly, the conductor of the production and music director of La Scala. He has chosen the original version of Tosca, as created by Puccini in Rome in January 1900, which included eight "additional musical inserts" that were removed from the work after its second performance in Turin in February 1900 and will now be rediscovered for the first time on December 7 at La Scala.

Soprano Anna Netrebko joins the ranks of Renata Tebaldi, Montserrat Caballé, and Renata Scotto, taking on—for the first time at the Met—the title role of the real-life French actress who dazzled 18th-century audiences with her on-and offstage passion. The soprano is joined by tenor Piotr Beczała as Adriana's lover, Maurizio. The principal cast also features mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili and baritone Ambrogio Maestri. Gianandrea Noseda conducts. Sir David McVicar's staging, which sets the action in a working replica of a Baroque theater, premiered at the Royal Opera House in London, where the Guardian praised the "elegant production, sumptuously designed ... The spectacle guarantees a good night out."

In three heart-rending acts named “The Woman,” “The Lover,” and “The Heroine,” a poignant tale unfolds on the Florentine stage: the prince’s mistress Stephana falls in love with lieutenant Vassili and follows him to a labor camp where her plan to escape with her beloved leads to her own tragic fate…

Giordano’s passionate tragedy stars tenor Piotr Beczała as the virtuous poet who falls victim to the intrigue and violence of the French Revolution. Following their celebrated recent partnership in Giordano’s Fedora in the 2022–23 Live in HD season, Beczała reunites with soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Chénier’s aristocratic lover, Maddalena di Coigny, with baritone Igor Golovatenko as Carlo Gérard, the agent of the Reign of Terror who seals their fates.

A collection of social media snippets created entirely through volunteer work for the LA Opera during the 2010/2011 season. Director Thomas Storesund received The Presidential Volunteer Work Award by President Barack Obama for this effort.

Giancarlo Giannini in his now usual role as the Prince of Soragna, a small town in the lower Po Valley, the starting and ending point of all the adventures in the series, is absorbed by the daily shaving ritual with his family barber, in this case played by the real Prince of Soragna, Diofebo Meli Lupi. A dear friend, the Italian tenor Vittorio Grigólo, arrives breathlessly and asks the Prince, who is half Neapolitan, for advice on the best rendering of the famous song "O Paese d'o Sole" with in the background the version by Roberto Murolo, the unmistakable voice and sophisticated performer of the tradition. The difficulty is obviously not technical for the great tenor but lies in looking for that expressivity and passion in interpretation that has made this musical form, deriving from great Italian melodrama, one of the best loved in the world.

Giovanni Battista Rigon directed a live recording of Rossini's Il turco in Italia in 2009 at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza. Il turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy) is a two-act comic opera by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Felice Romani, set in Naples.

Three colours, three moods, three registers. And yet Puccini conceived this triptych as a whole from the outset. He interweaves these three one-act operas, from Il tabarro, a drama of passion set on the quays of the Seine in the early 20th century, to Gianni Schicchi, a burlesque farce set in medieval Florence, and Suor Angelica, a mystical tragedy set in a 17th-century convent.