Letter to Peter

The Queen of the Night enlists a handsome prince named Tamino to rescue her beautiful kidnapped daughter, Princess Pamina, in this screen adaptation of the beloved Mozart opera. Aided by the lovelorn bird hunter Papageno and a magical flute that holds the power to change the hearts of men, young Tamino embarks on a quest for true love, leading to the evil Sarastro's temple where Pamina is held captive.

Jessye Norman is a regal Ariadne, the mythological Greek heroine in this opera-within-an-opera, opposite the passionate Bacchus of the great James King. Kathleen Battle delivers the coloratura fireworks of Zerbinetta, the leader of a commedia dell’arte troupe that finds itself stranded on Ariadne’s island. Tatiana Troyanos and Franz Ferdinand Nentwig star as the young Composer and the Music Master in the opera’s prologue. James Levine brings out all the color and charm of Strauss’s brilliant chamber-sized score with its equal amounts of pathos and humor. Bodo Igesz’s production features sets by esteemed designer Oliver Messel.

Aging opera singer Joachim Dallayrac retires from the stage and retreats to the countryside to school two young singers. Although the rigorous training takes its toll on both teacher and students, there is plenty of time for relationships to develop between the three.

Autumn season at the opera opens with Covid fan tutte, starring leading Finnish soloists The first opera in the autumn repertoire will be Covid fan tutte, featuring for example soprano Karita Mattila and conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Hannu Lintu. The new libretto to the score of Mozart’s Così fan tutte will be written by Minna Lindgren. The premiere of Covid fan tutte will take place at the end of August. Directed by Jussi Nikkilä, the opera will be sung by Finland’s most prominent soloists, including Karita Mattila, Miina-Liisa Värelä, Tommi Hakala, Johanna Rusanen, Tuomas Katajala, and Waltteri Torikka. Minna Lindgren will write a topical libretto to the score of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, combining elements of satire and reality shows.

The famous nobleman Don Giovanni travels from town to town conquering women’s hearts, until the troubles he has created return to his own doorstep.

Headlined by Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Willard White and orchestrated by the Berlin German Symphony Orchestra, this Nativity oratorio from composer John Adams tells the magical story of the birth of Christ. Conducted by renowned maestro Kent Nagano, this moving experience draws on both Old World and New World sources to re-create this influential story, highlighted by Adams’s trademark minimalism and melody.

An opera in English by French composer Pascal Dusapin, inspired by Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.

Set in a scorching Brussels, Babel Opera blends documentary and fiction during the intense rehearsals of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. As an international cast struggles to bring the opera to life, four fictional characters appear around the set. Their real-life conflicts, infidelities, and passions begin to mirror the seductions of the opera itself, completely blurring the lines between art and reality as the grand premiere approaches.

Late 19th-century Paris, home to Louise, her traditional working-class parents and her bohemian artist lover Julien. An opera about the tension between Louise's responsibility to her parents and her opportunity to break free with Julien.

Benjamin Millepied and the L.A. Dance Project join forces with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris to celebrate Pierre Boulez through dance. A performance to mark the composer's centenary, followed by works by Stravinsky and Bartók.

This unique document from the 1978 Salzburg Festival has fortunately been released on DVD and is a magical interpretation, prodigiously realized with a sublime fusion of timbres, a cohesion and ultimately, a simplicity that are truly unequalled. Listen as this great conductor produces musical nuisances that are unique to his art and how he accompanies the soloists with understanding and rapport. I have no hesitation in claiming this is one of the great recordings of the century.

This is the 2004 version of Kaija Saariaho's opera performed by the Finnish National Opera and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Musical adaptation of Carl Jonas Love Almqvist's own compositions tied together by a loose story inspired by his prose writing.

ARTE pays tribute to bass-baritone José van Dam, who passed away on February 17, 2026, and who will remain one of Belgium's most iconic voices. In May 2010, the “maestro” bid farewell to the stage at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, in one of his favorite roles, Jules Massenet's “Don Quichotte.” A moment out of time.

Running through Bartók’s disenchanted tale, whose haunting music was initially condemned as unplayable, and the expression of despair in Poulenc’s monologue, the director Krzysztof Warlikowski perceives a shared dramatic thread, a shared feminine consciousness and a shared sense of imprisonment and suffocation: for the woman who penetrates the confines of Bluebeard’s castle and Elle, the woman who clings to a telephone conversation with a man as the only thing worth living for, are condemned to share the same fate. And this man she speaks to, does he really exist? Unless the director has interpreted Cocteau’s words to the letter and the telephone has become a “terrifying weapon that leaves no trace, makes no noise”…

The most famous Scenes and Arias from French operas

This recording of the opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue by Paul Dukas was staged at the Liceu in Barcelona in 2011, with Claus Guth as director, Stéphane Denève as conductor and José van Dam and Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet in the leading roles.

The Rake's Progress is an English-language opera from 1951 in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings A Rake's Progress (1733–1735) of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on 2 May 1947, in a Chicago exhibition. Filmed in Aix-en-Provence, 1992.

Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner.

A biopic of 20-year-old Francis Ouimet who defeated his golfing idol and 1900 US Open Champion, Harry Vardon.

In Buenos Aires, 17-year-old Bennie seeks out his estranged brother Tetro, a once-promising writer haunted by their family’s past. As Bennie uncovers Tetro’s hidden manuscript, old secrets and rivalries resurface, forcing both men to confront the truth about their father and the tangled legacy that tore their family apart.

The idyllic and secluded Finnish archipelago. The pandemic soars across the world. Elli’s world trembles as her husband’s old friend arrives at the island.

This live performance is set in a virtual midsummer forest. Under the shadow of gathering clouds at dusk, lit by the glimmer of fireflies, Puck acts as the guide. Audiences are invited to explore the forest from the canopy of the trees to the roots, meet the sprites, Cobweb, Mustardseed, Peaseblossom and Moth, and take an extraordinary journey into the eye of a cataclysmic storm. Together with Puck they must regrow the forest before the dawn. When day breaks, the spell breaks.

L'Opéra National de Paris' production of L'Amour des trois oranges must certainly be one of the most elaborate operatic presentations. It has a cast of gazillions, characters who fly, jugglers, fire-eaters, remarkably elaborate costumes, amazingly realistic props (those five-foot oranges are convincingly juicy and edible looking), a huge set, fireworks, and so on. In fact, at times, it looks more like a Cirque de Soleil show than something you'd see in an opera house. Director Gilbert Deflo's conception and William Orlandi's costumes and sets are rooted in commedia dell'arte, but the production is thoroughly eclectic, with allusions to a wonderfully weird assortment of styles and periods.