Requiem de Mozart

Gaetano Donizetti and his librettist Felice Romani kept the focus of their opera ANNA BOLENA on the personal rather than the political in this fictionalized Tudor tale: Henry VIII of England wants to get rid of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, so that he can marry her lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. He brings Lord Richard Percy, Anne's first love, back from exile so that he can find an excuse to accuse her of adultery. With the unwitting aid of Smeaton, a court musician, and Lord Rochefort, Anne's brother, the trap is easily sprung. This 2011 live recording from the Wiener Staatsoper showcases Anna Netrebko as she "scored a personal triumph" in her debut as the hapless Tudor Queen, while her stage partners - notably Elīna Garanča as Jane Seymour and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Henry VIII - were likewise showered with critical acclaim.

Experience Claudio Monteverdi's three-act opera in the environment it was meant to be seen with this release of a filmed performance captured live during a 2000 production staged at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in France. Mireille Delunsch, Anne Sofie Von Otter, and Sylvie Brunet star, and conductor Marc Minkowski leads the Les Musiciens du Louvre, Grenoble. Klaus Michael Grüber directs for stage.

This 2013 Salzburg Festival performance of Falstaff, Giuseppe Verdis late masterwork and crowning achievement, features conductor Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic. The staging thought up by Italian director Damiano Michieletto moves the action from a fictitious London to that special care home, the Casa Verdi, a place rich in memories of great days past and impressions of a real-time present. Ambrogio Maestri seems a tailor-made Falstaff. His physique is just right for the part, as are his powerful voice, flair for drama and feeling for the Verdi style. (New York Times)

The Queen of the Night enlists a handsome prince named Tamino to rescue her beautiful kidnapped daughter, Princess Pamina. 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. The Pierre Audi production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte was recorded live at the 2006 Salzburger Festpiele.

Don Giovanni was commissioned by the Prague Opera immediately after the success of The Marriage of Figaro: Mozart and Da Ponte wanted to build on their success and chose a subject that had triumphed just a few weeks earlier in Venice, a Don Giovanni composed by Giuseppe Gazzaniga. Revisiting the theme of the Seville Cheat – a prevalent subject in theatre since the mid-17th century, especially through Molière’s powerful incarnation, and in a ballet by Gluck in Vienna in 1761 – Da Ponte focused the work on the libertine character of Don Juan, no doubt drawing inspiration from his friend Casanova (who in fact helped make changes to Act 2, Scene 9, and attended the Prague première).

Before the Trojan War, Agamemnon gathered the Greek armies at the port of Aulis. The goddess Diane sent unfavorable winds to prevent the Greeks from sailing. Her oracle set a condition for Agamemnon: to earn the right to sail forth and destroy an innocent country, he would have to sacrifice his own daughter. Agamemnon accepted these terms and killed his young daughter Iphigénie on the altar. In his play Iphigenia in Tauris Euripides imagines that Diane plucked Iphigénie from that altar and delivered her to a temple in distant Tauride, where Iphigénie began to serve the enemy Scythians as Diane’s high priestess—all the while Iphigénie’s family believing her dead.

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…

The Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro Alla Scala conducted by Marc Minikowski; Teatro alla Scala, Milan, March 2015

The prologue sets the stage for the action: Thespis, Momus and Thalie announce the subject of the play. It is a comedy mocking the folly of man...and the story of a trap set by Jupiter to cure Juno of her jealousy. The trap? It consists in convincing the water nymph Platée that Jupiter is in love with her. Mercury officially declares Jupiter’s love to Platée. When the god appears before her – first as a donkey, then an owl - the nymph calls on the birds of the marshes, but they scare Jupiter away. Luckily he quickly returns and declares his love for Platée. He even wants to marry her. La Folie comes to sing for the fiancée during an absolutely chaotic scene. However, as the couple prepares for the wedding, Juno arrives. Furious, she puts an end to the farce and ascends to the heavens with Jupiter. Humiliated, Platée understands she has been duped. She swims off into the marshes, as the chorus sings an ironic song in her honour.

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.

In 2009, Frédéric Mistral’s tale of love and loss in Provence came to the Opéra de Paris with a new production of Gounod’s 1864 opera Mireille. Nicolas Joel’s naturalistic staging frames the accomplished performances of Albanian soprano Inva Mula as Mireille and American tenor Charles Castronovo as her ardent country lover Vincent.

From Milan's Teatro alla Scala, the traditional Christmas Concert. The program includes Francis Poulenc's “Les Animaux modèles” suite for orchestra and Charles Gounod's “Messe solennelle de Sainte-Cécile” for soloists, choir, orchestra, and obbligato organ.

La Scala in Milan presents its prestigious Christmas concert with Charles Gounod's “Messe solennelle de Sainte-Cécile” (1855), one of the world's most popular sacred compositions.

“To be, or not to be..." You probably know the question, but perhaps not Cyril Teste's answer! A stage director famed for his fascinating fusion of theater and film, he stages the opera Hamlet for the first time in this production starring a brilliant group of soloists led by Stéphane Degout, Sabine Devieilhe, Laurent Alvaro, and Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo.

Following the first instalment from this series Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 will continue the release of the complete Gustav Mahler symphony cycle with Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. The performances also feature the outstanding soloists Waltraud Meier and Genia Kühmeier. Bonus material includes introductions to both symphonies, given by Paavo Järvi.

With this performance of the Missa solemnis Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Honorary Guest Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, once more attained the status of a living legend, due mostly to his wide-ranging expertise of music from the Baroque and Classical era. The highly acclaimed soloists are Marlis Petersen (Soprano), twice the singer of the year by the renowned Opernwelt magazine, Elisabeth Kulman (Alto), Werner Güra (Tenor), winner of the BBC Music Magazine Award for the best vocal performance, and Gerald Finley (Bass), Grammy-Awardwinner for the best opera recording. They are accompanied by the famous Netherlands Radio Choir.

St. Margarethen is a magnificent structure and a grand setting for Nabucco. This venue, along with the gorgeous costumes, spectacular lighting, lasers and pyrotechnics made for one grand, five star production! This is reason enough to see it and it must be an advantage to view it on DVD.--It would probably be harder to digest the whole spectacle if you were actually sitting in the audience, as there is so much to take in. The whole cast was in great form, both in singing and acting. Simon Yang as Zaccaria and Igor Morosow as Nabucco were excellent. Gabriella Morigi was a convincing Abigail who got better and better. Bruno Ribeiro as Ismaele and Elisabeth Kulman as Fenena were great, too.

Don Giovanni prides itself in being a dramma giocoso. Not an easy expression to translate, given how starkly contradictory the terms would appear to be. But dig below the surface and you are plunged into a delightful swirl of ambiguities. Nothing here is set in stone: the libertinage is passionate, but couples meet and part. Fate plays tricks with masks, right up until the final challenge.

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.

Aribert Reimann is one of the worlds most important living composers. His works are performed regularly all over the world. Now comes his latest opera - Medea. Roughly 30 authors have written works based on this ancient myth but it was the play by Franz Grillparzer which inspired Reimann most: »In no other version is it made so brutally clear that Medea is an outsider. () Right from the start of act one my mind was flooded by musical ideas and by the end of the second act I really thought my head would burst. Vienna State Opera succeeded in recruiting Marco Arturo Marelli a man with a world-wide reputation, especially for global premieres as director and scenographer for this performance. Unusually for a world premiere, the first series of performances of the opera were a huge success amongst audiences and press alike. The public stormed the box office and ticket sales by far exceeded availability. A Sold Out notice had to be put up for virtually every performance!

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.

From the Queen of the Night's vocal pyrotechnics to Papageno's chirpy birdsongs, The Magic Flute is one of Mozart's most charming and engaging operas. However, its fairytale surface conceals the mysteries of an initiation ritual and a multi-layered plot, packed with allegories to fire up the imagination. This celebrated production by artist William Kentridge joyfully bursts onto the stage of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, featuring the dazzling Russian coloratura Albina Shagimuratova as the Queen of the Night, and Italian bass Alex Esposito as Papageno, one of the most sought-after artists of his generation.