Platée (Palais Garnier)

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.

L'Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi is the last Opera of the Monteverdi trilogy filmed by the Italian label and producer Dynamic at the Teatro Real, Madrid, May 2010.

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.

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 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.

"The White Horse Inn" is the last Berlin operetta of the interwar period. It is a hybrd work that mixes Tyrolean folklore, Viennese operetta, Berlin cabaret tunes and dance hall numbers. The arrival of eccentric clients from the south of France breaks the serenity of a charming establishment in the Austrian Alps, and the once civilised party becomes a free-for-all.

In Amsterdam, conductor Emmanuelle Haïm and director Calixto Bieito take on Handel’s famous Giulio Cesare.

Priestess Julia watches over the eternal flame of the goddess Vesta. While the Great Vestal condemns to death every virgin who breaks her vow of chastity, Julia is delighted to be reunited with Licinius, who has returned from war as a victorious Roman general. One night, as the two lovers swear their love before the temple altar, the eternal flame goes out…

Meet Mignon , a shy and ingenuous young girl ignorant of her past, who will see her quest for identity upset by a terrible love triangle.

"Irresistible" (Opera News) rising-star mezzo Elina Garanca triumphs as Rossini's Cinderella in this delightful Metropolitan Opera production. "As close to pure joy as you will find in a big-time opera house" (New Yorker), conquering audiences and critics alike, "Garanca has a gorgeous voice that she uses with exceptional skill, melting tenderness; but when the part calls for coloratura fireworks, she unleashes a flawless technique and ringing high notes of impressive power" (Associated Press). Filmed in High Definition Widescreen.

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.

At the Vienna Konzerthaus, the magical Christmas gala brings together Julie Fuchs and Ludovic Tézier to perform traditional carols. The programme includes Adolphe Adam's ‘Minuit chrétien’, ‘Les anges dans nos campagnes’ and ‘Entre le boeuf et l'âne gris’, followed by “Hallelujah” from Handel's ‘Messiah’.

The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 2004 concert was conducted by Simon Rattle and featured Sally Matthews (soprano), Lawrence Brownlee (tenor), Christian Gerhaher (baritone), Rundfunkchor Berlin, Knabenchor des Staats- und Domchores Berlin. On the programme: Ludwig van Beethoven: Leonore - Overture, Carl Orff: Carmina Burana.

Gala concert from Berlin the world famous Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, in Carl Orff's famous Carmina Burana, an intensely dramatic cantata that remains one of the most performed works of the twentieth century. With an extraordinary vocal line-up soprano Sally Matthews, tenor Lawrence Brownlee and baritone Christian Gerhaher. With Rundfunchor Berlin with Chorus Master Simon Halesey as well as the Knabenchor des Staats- und Domchores Berlin.

A young student, Ernesto, who lives with his old bachelor uncle, Don Pasquale, has refused to wed the woman of his uncle’s choosing because he is in love with a young widow, Norina. Pasquale has decided to punish Ernesto by getting married and fathering an heir, thereby cutting off his nephew without a penny. Dr. Malatesta, a friend of Pasquale as well as Ernesto and Norina, has devised a plan to both save Pasquale from his folly and help the young couple.

This comic opera, which made its debut in Paris in 1847, tells the story of a Venetian admiral, Loredan (Bruno Comparetti), his bitter rival Malipieri (Paul Medioni), who knows a secret from Loredan's past, and Haydee (Isabelle Philippe), the Cyprus prince's daughter who loves one but would marry the other to save his reputation.

It is a rare opera indeed that calls for one soprano diva and no fewer than six tenors. Mary Zimmerman’s fanciful production of Rossini’s drama, designed by Richard Hudson and with choreography by Graciela Daniele, provides the perfect setting for superstar Renée Fleming’s captivating performance of the title role. A beautiful but evil sorceress in the times of the Crusades, Armida sets out to regain the love of the Frankish knight Rinaldo (Lawrence Brownlee) by putting her magical spells on him. She at first succeeds to draw him into her web of sorcery, but ultimately divine intervention—and his fellow soldiers—free Rinaldo from his enchantment—much to the vengeful fury of Armida and her demons.

The French have occupied Sicily, and Hélène is held hostage by Montfort, the French governor, who has had her brother executed. She turns to the partisan Jean Procida and the rebellious patriot Henri in her bid for vengeance. Les Vêpres siciliennes is one of Verdi’s lesser-known mature operas, but was vital to his development as a composer. It was created for the Paris Opéra in 1855, providing Verdi with an opportunity to embrace the elaborate style and traditions of French grand opera. First seen at the Royal Opera House in 2013, this staging of Verdi's rarely-performed opera Les Vêpres siciliennes – directed by Stefan Herheim and conducted by The Royal Opera’s Music Director, Verdi specialist Sir Antonio Pappano – went on to win the prestigious Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production.

This Blu-ray is a splendid record of a creative production with terrific voices and direction, as good as the Met's videos any day. It also tends to be creepy and atmospheric, with music as good as anything Gounod wrote for his FAUST. Recommended to lovers of horror and opera!

Live performance by Les Arts Florissants at the Théâtre de Caen, recorded on 18 Octorber 2011. "One of the earliest operas deserving of the name, Didone is our first surviving musical version of the famous episode in Virgil's Aeneid where the Trojan Hero loves and then cruelly leaves the noble Dido." — from the DVD back cover

Here is an irreverent take on the tragic story of the lovers Orpheus and Eurydice. With his librettists Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy, Jacques Offenbach creates a wonderful array of characters from the heavens who find themselves caught up in domestic antics. In this enchanting production from the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence from 2009 with a young cast from the European Academy of Music, director Yves Beaunesne transposes the action to the 1940s and spreads it over the four floors of a bourgeois residence. From the kitchen (Orpheus' home) to the attic (the Underworld), via the dining room (Olympus) and the bedroom (Pluto's boudoir), he succeeds in teasing out all the humour and elegance of Offenbach’s satirical masterpiece.

A youthful cast brings Rossini’s immortal comedy to sparkling life, led by Christopher Maltman as Figaro, the resourceful barber and man-about-town of the title. The lovely Isabel Leonard is Rosina, the clever young woman at the center of the story, and Lawrence Brownlee sings Count Almaviva, the man who loves her and—with Figaro’s help—rescues her from the house of her elderly and smitten guardian, Bartolo, played by Maurizio Muraro. Paata Burchuladze is the bumbling music master Basilio, and rising conductor and bel canto specialist Michele Mariotti leads the Met’s musical forces in Bartlett Sher’s lively production.

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.

Rossinis penultimate opera, premiered in 1828 at the Opéra National de Paris, is a musical comedy about a love triangle set during the Crusades. At the Opéra Comique its plot is transported to the time of the works creation with Frances military expeditions to Algeria. It is staged by a first-rate creative team: Stage director Denis Podalydès and costume designer Christian Lacroix provide stunning visuals, whilst conductor Louis Langrée leads the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Chur Les éléments and a stellar cast of soloists in this delightful fools game. Mezzo-soprano Gaëlle Arquez shines with her superlative technique (Le Monde) and Julie Fuchss Adèle performance elicits more than just admiration, namely enthusiasm in the etymological sense of the word: inspired by the divine (Le Monde). A masterpiece! (Télérama), Pure pleasure! (Les Échos). Le Comte Ory at the Opéra Comique is a true musical and theatrical celebration where everything sparkles! (Bachtrack)

In a kingdom where day is night and noon chills the blood, a prince suspects his mysterious wife to be in love with his half-brother. But where does Mélisande come from? And what do we really know about the two heroes' silent love? A single opera was all it took for Debussy to transform the history of music forever. Opéra de Lille presents us with a Mélisande full of vitality and determination, far from the familiar ethereal figure. In the pit, François-Xavier Roth and his internationally renowned ensemble Les Siècles, playing on period instruments, lend new colours to a score which we thought we knew.

The composer's opera buffa transcends the spirit of Beaumarchais’ comedy and combines the absurd with a touch of satirical realism in a score where rhythm and virtuosity place the comic effects in an ongoing dramatic narration. As a result, the characters – Rosina in particular – gain a new degree of realism and break with the usual archetypes. Damiano Michieletto’s giddying production embraces this perpetual motion and carries in its wake the happy couple formed by Lawrence Brownlee and Pretty Yende.

When it comes to beautiful melodies, captivating coloratura and virtuoso vocal fireworks, few operas can match Bellini's I puritani. The action takes place in England during the civil war between Royalists and Puritans. At its heart is the tragic love story between Elvira and Arturo, whose happiness is destroyed by the conflict between love and political duty.

In Wajdi Mouawad's "brilliantly involving" new Paris Opera production of Debussy's only opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, French soprano Sabine Devieilhe is "as near to perfection as one might wish for: a voice of exquisite beauty and sung as if the role [of Mélisande] had been written especially for her" (Opera Today) and Huw Montague Rendall, as Pelléas, projects a "faultless French phrasing, endowing [Pelléas] with the perfect blend of freshness and candor" (Bachtrack). Based on the classic symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck that the composer found to contain "far more humanity" than realism, Pelléas et Mélisande sets a tragic love triangle against some of Debussy's most soaringly dramatic music, all its Wagnerian flourishes brought out by Antonello Manacorda and the Paris Opera Orchestra.

When Rosina falls in love with mysterious young suitor Lindoro, she must use all her cunning – and a little help from her local barber – to outwit her calculating guardian Dr Bartolo. Expect heart-melting serenades, ridiculous disguises and a fairytale ending waiting just out of reach. From the barber’s opening number ‘Largo al factotum,’ with its cry of ‘Figaro!,’ to Rosina’s feisty aria ‘Una voce poco fa,’ Gioachino Rossini’s comic opera is a riotously entertaining affair. Rafael Payare makes his House debut, and joins Christopher Willis in conducting a cast that includes Andrzej Filończyk, Aigul Akhmetshina, Laurence Brownlee, Konu Kim and Bryn Terfel.