Rossini: La Scala Di Seta

Donna Leonora, daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava, is about to flee secretly with her lover Don Alvaro (son of the Viceroy of Mexico and an Inca princess). The Marquis bursts in unexpectedly. Alvaro hesitates to raise his weapon against his lover’s father and throws his pistol. As it falls, the pistol goes off and the Marquis is mortally wounded. As he lies dying, he curses his daughter. Don Carlo di Vargas, Leonora’s brother, resolves to avenge his sister and her fiancé for their father’s death. In the turmoil of the chase, Leonora and Alvaro lose track of one another... ‘La forza del destino’ is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, adapted from the play ‘Don Álvaro o la fuerza del destino’ (Spain, 1835) by Ángel de Saavedra, the Duke of Rivas. Premiered on 10 November 1862 at the Imperial Theatre in Saint Petersburg. From the box set of 27 Verdi operas “Tutto Verdi”. Recorded live at the Teatro Regio in Parma on 2 and 5 February 2011.

A collaboration between award-winning American filmmaker Sofia Coppola and Italia haute couture king Valentino comes in the form of a revival of Giuseppe Verdi's classic opera, La Traviata. Captured live from the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.

Rediscover a monumental moment in Verdi's oeuvre: the immortal Rigoletto! In this eye-catching production staged by Claus Guth at Paris's Opéra Bastille, soloists Quinn Kelsey (Rigoletto), Olga Peretyatko (Gilda), Michael Fabiano (the Duke of Mantua), and Rafal Siwek (Sparafucile) put their incredible talents to captivating use. To revisit this well-known opera, Guth recounts the story from the point of view of an aged Rigoletto, a clown past his prime, who watches his memories pass before his eyes as he looks back on his life. The set design by Christian Schmidt and Olaf Winter's careful lighting create an imposing, chilly, and implacable ambiance, perfect for the melodrama unfolding onstage. The Choir and Orchestra of the Paris Opera, under the baton of Nicola Luisotti, offer up a powerful interpretation of this timeless work.

Royal Opera favourite Bryn Terfel heads the cast for this new production of Donizetti’s comedy of domestic drama across two generations. The witty story of a middle-aged man whose supposed young wife runs rings around him – with her own ulterior romantic purpose in mind – has long delighted and surprised audiences, not least as presented with the sparkle of its music and the virtuoso skill of its performers. Damiano Michieletto’s exhilarating production shows how contemporary the characters still are and how immediate and touching the story remains.

The argument is based on an historical case. In the suburbs of Moscow, reigned around 1571 Tsar Ivan IV, 'the Terrible'. Widowed, he is looking for a new wife for the third time. He chooses the young Marfa; she loves another man but bends to the will of the Tsar and renounces her love. From this starting plot, the Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov retains only the frame. A live competition is organised for a virtual monarch like in a reality show called «Joe Millionaire » where competitors attempt to marry a rich man. Here, the characters become the various players of the audiovisual industry bringing an acerbic criticism of contemporary TV. Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin, with Olga Peretyatko, Anita Rachvelishvili and Johannes Martin Kränzle. Recorded at Staatsoper, Im Schiller Theater Berlin, in October 2013.

The King Who Raved was created by Ramos Carrión, Vital Aza and Chapí in 1891; it is a milestone in the history of lyric theatre and on the stage of the Teatro de la Zarzuela. For few kings, not even the most popular kings of history, nor those most loved by their people, will have been so acclaimed, so applauded, or so hoorayed as our King in this kingdom of La Zarzuela.

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.

The libretto is by Mussorgsky himself and takes the eponymous “romantic tragedy” by the celebrated Russian poet Alexander Pushkin as its starting point. Boris Godunov is Mussorgsky’s masterpiece and his only complete opera. It’s a vast sprawling tapestry of Russian life, which centres on the Russian people – represented in the opera by a large and powerful chorus – rather than on the title figure. The staging was produced at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and is based on the original version of the score.

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

Juan Diego Flórez takes on the lead role in this performance of Rossini's opera at the 2012 Pesaro Festival. Corradino (Flórez), a paranoid, misogynistic lord, is in the care of Aliprando (Nicola Alaimo), a doctor who is concerned that the poor spirits of his employer will damage his health. He duly attempts to make Corradino fall in love with the beautiful and self-willed Matilde (Olga Peretyatko). Will the plan succeed?

The prestigious Gran Teatre del Liceu from Barcelona presents Mozart's beloved opera in an elegant, dramatic twist with a sparkling cast of world-class stars, led by coloratura soprano Diana Damrau as Constance and rising star Olga Peretyatko as Blonda. Director Christophe Loy has created a thought-provoking and surprisingly original script in which both Constance and Blonda feel respect, admiration and even deep love for their captors. As a result of this tantalizing, torturous approach, traditional norms and concepts of good and evil were turned upside down.

Inspired by Beaumarchais' comedy, Rossini retains all the passion to create this bubbling opera buffa. A native of Venice, the cradle of the commedia dell’arte, Damiano Michieletto is sensitive to the burlesque vein of Rossinian music. He transposes the action of this "unnecessary precaution" into a contemporary Seville inspired by the cinema of Almodóvar. Bartolo’s monumental building, in which Figaro swirls in free electron, allows the director to give free rein to his crazy imagination.

"This is Vienna State Opera live at home". March 2015

LA PIETRA DEL PARAGONE (The Touchstone) concerns the Count Asdrubale who is wealthy and therefore of great interest to many women – notably Aspasia, Fulvia, and Clarice. Only Clarice, however, loves him for something other than his riches. There are also male hangers-on: the corrupt journalist Macrobio, the poetaster Pacuvio, and Giocondo, who is Asdrubale's true friend, but who has his own eyes on Clarice. To test his friends and would-be fiancées, Asdrubale pretends that he has been bankrupted. Sure enough, only Clarice and Giocondo stand by him, and when his fortune is "miraculously" saved, the three have the last laugh on everyone else... or do they? This production is set in what looks like the early 1960s. But the real innovation is the use of blue screen technology: using tiny cameras and sets, along gigantic screens hanging over the stage, a kind of video mixing makes the singers appear to inhabit any number of fanciful settings and perform a myriad of improbable actions.

A drama based on the life of 18th century Italian lyricist Lorenzo da Ponte, who collaborated with Mozart on his "Don Giovanni" opera.

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.

2012 production

Weary of tragic subjects, for the final part of Il Trittico Puccini composed a grand confidence trick orchestrated by a falsifier willing to do anything to gain wealth. Including bringing back the dead!