The Magic Flute from Glyndebourne

In this strikingly modern 2016 production from the Zurich Opera House, Tcherniakov transposes the opera’s intrigue from forest and castle to living room and psychiatric office. The love story of the original work remains riveting, but Tcherniakov brings an unexpected psychological element to his mise en scène, with Prince Golaud as a psychiatrist and Mélisande as a young woman suffering from PTSD. You’ve never seen Pelléas like this!

Kristine Opolais is the young woman whose conflicting desires for love and luxury lead to her tragic end, and Roberto Alagna plays the man who falls for her in Puccini’s early hit. Richard Eyre’s elegant production, which sets the action in 1940s occupied France, was one of the highlights of the Met’s 2015–16 season. Massimo Cavalletti as Manon’s brother and Brindley Sherratt as her aging admirer co-star, and Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium.

For years, *The Magic Flute* has been one of the most frequently performed operas at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. After an eight-year absence, Mozart’s work is now back on the programme. Clément Cogitore interprets the plot as a modern coming-of-age story: Tamino and Pamina leave the world of childhood behind and enter a reality in which beauty is fragile and truth is uncertain.

Figaro uses every trick he can muster to outwit Dr Bartolo and ensure his master wins his chosen bride. He meets his match in the would-be-bride Rosina, who has schemes of her own. Glyndebourne favourite Danielle de Niese adds the crafty Rosina to her growing list of bel canto heroines. Directed by Annabel Arden with playful energy springing from Rossini’s joyous music, this new production heralds the welcome return of a masterpiece not seen at Glyndebourne Festival since 1982.

After the acclaimed Met premiere of Thomas Adès's "The Tempest" in 2012, the composer returned with another masterpiece, this time inspired by filmmaker Luis Buñuel's seminal surrealist classic "El Ángel Exterminador", during the 2017–18 season. As the opera opens, a group of elegant socialites gather for a lavish dinner party, but when it is time to leave for the night, no one is able to escape. Soon, their behavior becomes increasingly erratic and savage. The large ensemble cast tackles both the vocal and dramatic demands of Adès's opera with one riveting performance after another. Tom Cairns, who also penned the work's libretto, directs an engrossing and inventive production, using a towering wooden archway to trap the characters onstage. And Adès himself takes the podium to conduct the frenzied score, which features a host of unconventional instruments, including the eerie electronic ondes Martenot.

The premiere of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd in Madrid is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Teatro Real's bicentennial celebrations. Its magnificent libretto, based on the novel of the same name by Herman Melville, tells the story of the sailor Billy Budd: a handsome, loyal, generous, strong, naive, and kind young man whose beauty and personality drive the ship's master-at-arms mad. Unable to control the situation, the master crucifies the naive young man without mercy. This new production by the Teatro Real is being presented for the first time in Madrid, in co-production with the Opéra national de Paris, under the direction of Deborah Warner, one of the great names in stage direction today.

A nunnery or love? Love or money? Money or death? – On her way to the monastery, the young Manon is wooed by men. When Chevalier Des Grieux turns up, they fall in love and decide to escape. They live in Paris, money is scarce, family honour injured. And so Manon agrees to have Des Grieux abducted at his father's command, and begins a new life with a rich man. While she lives in the lap of luxury, in his pain Des Grieux decides to take holy orders. Manon learns of this and is able to change his mind. Again they live together: their love is enormous, money is scarce, and luxury and the casino beckon. Accused of cheating at cards, they are arrested; Des Grieux is released, but Manon is sentenced to a women's prison. Money is supposed to save her, but already she is too weak ... Recording of the premiere on January 24, 2021 from the State Opera Hamburg.

Aufführung vom 11.05.2019 in der Metropolitan Oper. Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the classic John Dexter production of Poulenc’s devastating story of faith and martyrdom. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard sings the touching role of Blanche and soprano Karita Mattila, a legend in her own time, returns to the Met as the Prioress.

Mozart's "Idomeneo" is a work about love, hate, jealousy, war and destruction. It shows in a disturbing way the musical genius of the Salzburg composer. Each figure is characterized individually without losing sight of the musical whole. In a way, "Idomeneo" anticipates Wagnerian techniques in composition. The direction of this production at Madrid's Teatro Real was in the proven hands of Robert Carsen, who brings the work to the stage in a contemporary, modern and very disturbing way. Under the sovereign direction of Ivor Bolton, Eric Cutler, David Portillo, Anett Fritsch and Eleonora Buratto are among the singers.

Recorded at Bayerische Staatsoper on March 3-9, 2016.

Rigoletto, court jester to the libertine Duke of Mantua, is cursed by the father of one of the Duke’s victims for his irreverent laughter. When the Duke seduces Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda, it seems the curse is taking effect… Rigoletto arranges to have the Duke assassinated. But Gilda still loves the womanizing Duke and sacrifices herself in his place. Rigoletto eagerly uncovers the corpse only to find instead his fatally wounded daughter, who dies in his arms.

New production. Recorded live at Royal Opera House, July, 05, 2015.

François Girard, whose revelatory 2013 take on Parsifal set the recent Met standard for Wagner stagings, now unveils a spellbinding new vision of the composer's tale of a cursed sea captain doomed to sail the open ocean for eternity. With sweeping sets by John Macfarlane, Girard’s new production turns the Met stage into a rich, layered tableau reminiscent of a vast oil painting. Valery Gergiev conducts a brilliant cast led by bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin as the Dutchman, with German soprano Anja Kampe making her anticipated Met debut as the devoted Senta, whose selfless love is what the Dutchman seeks. Bass Franz-Josef Selig is her father, Daland, and tenor Sergey Skorokhodov is her deserted former lover, Erik. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to more than 2,200 theaters in more than 70 countries worldwide.

Benjamin Britten’s opera Gloriana was written in 1953 for celebrations around the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, to whom the opera is dedicated. It had its first performance at the Royal Opera House on 8 June 1953, in the presence of The Queen then just 6 days into her reign. The centenary in 2013 of Britten’s birth prompted this new Royal Opera production, in which director Richard Jones uses the setting of a celebratory pageant in 1953 to explore the work’s alternating splendour and intimacy. This theatrical, inventive and colourful staging has at its core the symbolic reflections between the Tudor Elizabethan and the New Elizabethan ages that characterize the opera. The juxtaposition of the modern and the archaic in William Plomer’s libretto is wonderfully amplified in music that artfully fuses the sounds and manners of Tudor England – from lute songs to courtly dances – with Britten’s own distinctive style.

Mozart's second collaboration with the mercurial librettist Lorenzo da Ponte is among the very blackest of black comedies. Glyndebourne welcomes back the winning team of director Jonathan Kent and designer Paul Brown, while the music is conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. In the title role, the bass-baritone Gerald Finley, joined by Luca Pisaroni, Kate Royal and the young Russian soprano Anna Samuil.

Breaking the Waves tells the story of Bess McNeill, a religious young woman with a deep love for her husband Jan, a handsome oil rig worker. When Jan becomes paralyzed in an off-shore accident, Bess’s marital vows are put to the test as he encourages her to seek other lovers and return to his bedside to tell him of her sexual activities.

Strange creatures roam the woods near Athens at night, and different worlds exist there without ever crossing paths. The Lovers are unaware of the existence of the Rustics. Neither the Rustics nor the Lovers know that they are surrounded by fairies. And only the ingenious Puck can travel from one world to another. Illogical, you might say? Of course, since it's a dream! But rest assured: Shakespeare's artistry, masterfully adapted by Benjamin Britten, transforms this confusion into a magical comedy of love.

The plot is almost identical to Donizetti’s Don Pasquale except that the “old man” is not a fool here and his relationship with his nephew, Henry, is loving. It is more human and tender but still has bite. All the old man, Sir Morosus, wants is silence. Richard Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau was first presented in 1935; Hitler and Goebbels refused to attend because Stefan Zweig, the librettist, was a Jew and Strauss refused to remove his name from the program after the Nazis had insisted it be excised. It was a great success but was withdrawn for just that political reason after only three performances. Presented here is the complete, with some minor tweeks, uncensored version.

Meyerbeer is telling at once a small, intimate story – Fidès’s, Jean, and Berthe’s relationship – and an epic drama about tyranny, revolution, and religion; politics, mob violence, and fanaticism.

For Theodora, a princess who has converted to Christianity, earthly existence means nothing compared to the promise of eternal salvation. She disobeys the command issued by the Roman Emperor to worship Jupiter, preferring instead to die in the name of freedom of religion. The globally celebrated countertenor and Handel specialist Bejun Mehta debuts as a conductor at MusikTheater an der Wien with the La Folia Barockorchester.

A young man ignorant of everything, including his own name, arrives at the Kingdom of the Holy Grail. Is he the ‘pure fool, enlightened by compassion’, who, it has been prophesied, will purify the realm? OperaVision is live from Bergen for a concert staging of Parsifal, Richard Wagner’s final music drama which is unlike anything that went before or has come since. It can feel more like a ritual ceremony than an opera – grand yet intimate, somehow occupying its own space and time. At the heart of Parsifal is a curious, magical treatment of the symphony orchestra that appears to give the voices above it all the space and autonomy they need.

Rigoletto is the sharp-tongued jester of the Duke of Mantua, himself a notorious womanizer. As the Duke begins to seduce Rigoletto's daughter Gilda, the jester must realize that it is not within his power to protect her. What follows is an epic story of betrayal, revenge, and above all, love. Director Oliver Mears turns Verdi's masterpiece into a modern drama about morality, where in a decadent world full of corruption and depravity, power stands against innocence. Antonio Pappano conducts a stunning ensemble featuring a fascinating Carlos Álvarez in the title role, Lisette Oropesa as the incomparable Gilda, and tenor Liparit Avetisyan as the Duke of Mantua.

Strauss’s elegant romance brings the glamour and enchantment of 19th-century Vienna to cinemas worldwide in a sumptuous production by legendary director Otto Schenk that “is as beautiful as one could hope” (The New York Times). Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen stars as the title heroine, a young noblewoman in search of love on her own terms. Radiant soprano Louise Alder is her sister, Zdenka, and bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is the dashing count who sweeps Arabella off her feet.

The great storyteller Hoffmann is losing himself to drink. His rival in love, Councillor Lindorf, claims that Hoffmann knows nothing of the heart, and so goads Hoffmann into telling the tales of his three great loves – each destroyed by a villain who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lindorf… First Hoffmann tells of his infatuation for the mechanical doll, Olympia – who is destroyed by the inventor Coppélius. Next comes the courtesan Giulietta, who throws over his adoration in favour of jewels from the magician Dappertutto. Finally, the gentle Antonia is forced to sing to her death by the wicked Doctor Miracle. His stories finished, Hoffmann rouses from his drunken stupor to find Lindorf has made off with Stella, Hoffmann’s latest love – but the Muse compels him to transform his heartache into art.

Royal Opera House Live Cinema Season 2016/17: Les Contes d'Hoffmann (2016)

There are more than 300 Bach choirs and Bach ensembles worldwide, most of which are made up of amateurs. For many, their lives are inextricably linked with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. What do people seek and find in his music? What connects them across continents? What fascination lies in the music of the famous German composer, which manages to transcend borders, cultures, religions and centuries? The film embarks on a journey through six continents to meet amateur musicians and singers who have made Bach their "centerpiece".