Jean-Philippe Rameau: Samson (Festival d'Aix-en-Provence)

Francesco Cavalli, a natural successor to Monteverdi, was the most famous and influential Italian opera composer during the mid-17th century. Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister to the king, commissioned Cavalli to create a Parisian spectacle to celebrate the wedding of the ‘Sun King’ Louis XIV and the Infanta of Spain. Ercole amante (‘Hercules in Love’) was the flattering subject chosen for this regal extravaganza combining larger-than-life characters with mythology, and genuine human emotions with natural and cosmic phenomena. The result is a sumptuous Baroque spectacle, conceived on a vast scale in this lavish production by directors Valerie Lesort and Christian Hecq.

As Christof Loy put it: Così fan tutte invites us to embrace the complexity of life and face the future with heads held high. In his staging of the version he abridged with Joana Mallwitz for the Salzburg Festival 2020 the focus is wholly on the figures and the subtle choreography of their emotional states — in a space that like a magnifying glass exposes the intricate mechanisms between the characters. In this way the production leads the protagonists and the audience to experience the ‘serene calm’ that can perhaps indeed cure our own ‘distempers’.

When Ovid's “Metamorphoses” meet Vivaldi's music: conceived and directed by Barrie Kosky, an effervescent show presented at the 2025 Salzburg Festival. With Cecilia Bartoli, Lea Desandre, Nadezhda Karyazina, and Philippe Jaroussky, as well as actress Angela Winkler in the spoken role of Orpheus.

At the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, Raphaël Pichon conducts a new production of Rameau's opera Dardanus, with the ensemble Pygmalion, in a staging by Michel Fau and a choreography by Christopher Williams.

Opera in three acts by Christoph Willibald Gluck, Hector Berlioz's version (1859)

Besides the landing on the moon by the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Richard Nixon’s meeting with China’s leader Mao Zedong in February 1972 then represented one of the biggest media spectacles in history. Nixon himself established the reference between the two events: “We came in peace for all mankind” not only marked the lunar module Eagle’s landing spot – Nixon also spoke of it into the microphones just before his departure to China. It was not John Adam’s aim to create a superficial or even a caricaturing representation of Nixon’s visit when composing his opera. He attempted to create a “heroic opera” about the construction of modern myths by using archetypical characters and situations. Director Marco Štorman stages Adams’ minimal music opera as a deconstruction review about the power of images, the politics of staging and the staging of politics.

The Pygmalion Ensemble, led by conductor and countertenor Raphaël Pichon, is renowned for its refined sound on period instruments. Together with vocal stars Sabine Devieilhe, Lea Desandre, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Julian Prégardien, and Daniel Behle, the ensemble delves into rarely performed works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The Greek army is gathered at Aulis, ready to sail for Troy, but the winds fail. The seer Calchas reveals that the goddess Artemis is angry and demands a sacrifice. King Agamemnon’s daughter, Ifigenia, must die for the fleet to depart. Torn between duty to Greece and love for his daughter, Agamemnon initially uses a ruse to bring Ifigenia to Aulis; he claims she is to marry Achilles. When Ifigenia and her mother Clitennestra arrive and learn the truth, they are devastated. What hero might intervene to save Ifigenia from the altar of sacrifice?

The dark world of Tchaikovsky’s penultimate operatic masterpiece Queen of Spades hinges on obsession, greed, and a secret in winning at cards… In 2005, the Opéra Bastille mounted a compelling production featuring Vladimir Galouzine as the mad lover Hermann, Hasmik Papian as the doomed Lisa, and Irina Bogatcheva as the mysterious Comtesse.

The programme features arias from Vivaldi’s operas and oratorios, as well as two of his cello concertos, performed by cellists Nicolas Altstaedt and Bruno Philippe. The young Franco-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre performs on the world’s leading concert and opera stages and won the Opus Klassik award for Singer of the Year in 2022.

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.

While best known today for having composed the ending to Puccini's unfinished Turandot, Franco Alfano wrote some dozen operas, including Cyrano de Bergerac (1936) with a libretto by Henri Cain based on Edmond Rostand's drama of the same name. It is a moving tale of romantic misunderstanding, swashbuckling bravado and heartbreaking loyalty, in which the eloquent Cyrano feels unable to express his love for Roxane because of his famously protuberant nose except on behalf of his handsome but inarticulate friend, Christian.

After the fall of Troy, King Idomeneo can finally think about returning to his homeland of Crete. During his long absence, his son Idamantes took care of the affairs of government and the Troyan prisoners of war, including Ilia, the daughter of King Priam. In order to get out alive from the storm that prevents him from landing in Crete, he promises to sacrifice the first living creature he encounters on his home soil to the sea god Poseidon. Unfortunately, this is his son who rushes to greet him. By sacrificing her life for Idamante's, whom she loves and who reciprocates her love, Ilia manages to appease Poseidon and release Idomeneo from his fateful oath. Production of the Grand Theatre de Geneve, 2024.

With “Antigone,” the Philharmonie de Paris serves as the setting for a world premiere: an “operatorio” by Pascal Dusapin, brought to life by Christel Loetzsch in the title role, conducted by Klaus Mäkelä and directed by Netia Jones.

This Salzburg Festival production of Le nozze di Figaro (2020) offers a radical reinterpretation of Mozart's opera, directed by Martin Kušej, who continues his exploration of Mozart’s works following Don Giovanni (2002) and La clemenza di Tito (2003). The turbulent comedy, laden with erotic entanglements, exposes themes of patriarchal dependency, sexual exploitation, betrayal, and emotional emptiness. French conductor Raphaël Pichon, renowned for historically informed performances, conducts his first opera at Salzburg after his debut at the festival in 2018.

Raphaël Pichon and his Ensemble Pygmalion resonate with the humanity, hope and light that permeate Johann Sebastian Bach's most beautiful sacred scores. A concert full of emotion.

This ever-popular opera is given a fresh point of view in Barrie Kosky’s highly physical production, originally created for Frankfurt Opera. The Australian director is one of the world’s most sought-after opera directors, whose Royal Opera debut with Shostakovich’s The Nose in 2016 was greeted with delight. For Carmen he has devised a far-from-traditional version, incorporating music written by Bizet for the score but not usually heard, and giving a new voice to the opera’s endlessly fascinating central character.

Raphaël Pichon and the Pygmalion Ensemble in concert in Arnstadt's Oberkirche, Johann Sebastian Bach's ancestral church.

After last season’s The Dante Project, the Paris Opera continues to explore the music of contemporary composer Thomas Adès with the French premiere of The Exterminating Angel. Inspired by Luis Buñuel’s 1962 surrealist film, which offered a scathing critique of the bourgeoisie, the work begins with a dinner among upper-class friends in a plush mansion after an opera performance. But, gradually, a mysterious force prevents the fifteen guests from leaving the reception. In this confinement for no apparent reason, drawn out over several days, the veneer of propriety cracks, revealing the worst of human nature. Thomas Adès has written a rich and tense score, amplifying the libretto’s strange atmosphere with unusual instruments such as the ondes Martenot. The Paris Opera has entrusted the staging of this huis-clos to Calixto Bieito. The director has long been fascinated by Buñuel’s universe.

A return to its roots for Castor et Pollux, Jean-Philippe Rameau’s lyric tragedy first performed in 1737 at the Académie royale and inspired by the mythological episode of the Gemini. Rarely performed in its original version – the score was reworked by Rameau himself in 1754 –, this daring work plays on contrasts and expressiveness, as in the famous “Tristes apprêts”. The aria is sung by Télaïre mourning the death of her fiancé Castor, killed in battle, before his twin brother Pollux descends into the Underworld to ask his father, Jupiter, to bring him back to life. While this opera celebrates brotherly love, its prologue poses an essential question for director Peter Sellars: how do you stop a war and its attendant hatred and resentment?

With her husband apparently drowned at sea, a scheming empress secures the throne for her son from another marriage. But the commander of the army has other ideas, and then the emperor returns, very much alive. Drottningholm Palace Theatre (Drottningholms slottsteater in Swedish), located at Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm, is one of the few 18th century theatres in Europe that is still used as a theatre with original stage machinery. The beautiful rococo backdrop is the starting point for this production of Agrippina. The Italian conductor and harpsichordist Francesco Corti, a regular collaborator of the orchestras Les Musiciens du Louvre and Il Pomo d'Oro, presides over Handel’s music which is bursting with originality and fun, as well as carefully considered moments of great beauty.

In celebration of Monteverdi’s 450th birthday in 2017, Paul Agnew—an expert in the Italian composer’s œuvre—directs L’Orfeo. This founding masterpiece of lyric opera is brought to life in elegant simplicity through the performances of Cyril Auvity’s Orpheus and Les Arts Florissants, with costumes designed by Alain Blanchot.

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.

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.

Two years prior to the opening scene, the nobleman Florestan has exposed or attempted to expose certain crimes of the nobleman Pizarro. In revenge, Pizarro has secretly imprisoned Florestan in the prison over which Pizarro is governor. The jailer of the prison, Rocco, has a daughter, Marzelline, and a servant (or assistant), Jaquino. Florestan's wife, Leonore, came to Rocco's door dressed as a boy seeking employment, and Rocco hired her. On orders, Rocco has been giving Florestan diminishing rations until he is nearly starved to death. Place: A Spanish state prison, a few miles from Seville Time: Late 18th century