Mussorgsky was inspired to compose his masterpiece Boris Godunov after reading Pushkin’s Shakespeare-inspired play of the same name. It features one of the most dramatically rewarding bass-baritone roles: a noble ruler who loves his children and his people, but whose thirst for power has led him...
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 kingdom?
“Kaufmann is performing the title role for the first time, and it’s hard to imagine him bettered. His striking looks make him very much the Romantic and romanticised outsider of Giordano’s vision. His voice, with its dark, liquid tone, soars through the music with refined ease and intensity:...
In Giuseppe Verdi's little-known early tragedy, a despairing father is torn between love for his family and his duty to a corrupt city. Jacopo Foscari, son of a 15th-century Doge of Venice, is convicted of murder and treason on a trumped-up charge. His wife Lucrezia is sure of his innocence. But...
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...
Puccini’s passionate opera is conducted by Antonio Pappano and stars a superb young cast including Nicole Car, Michael Fabiano and Mariusz Kwiecień, in a new production by Richard Jones.
Manon Lescaut's production was updated and it worked. Highly professional production with two of the best performances I've ever witnessed in any opera. By the end of the third act I was crying and by the end of the fourth act I could not stop the tears. These two can not only sing up a storm they...
Antonio Pappano takes an in-depth look at one of the most famous and dramatic of all operas - Puccini's Tosca. This documentary goes behind the scenes of the recent production of Tosca by the Royal Opera House, conducted by Pappano and starring some of the hottest names on the opera stage today -...
This staging of Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Minotaur features John Tomlinson, Johann Reuter, Christine Rice, and Andrew Watts in the main roles. Stephen Langridge directed the production for the stage, and Antonio Pappano conducted the orchestra.
The Italian Character: The Story of a Great Italian Orchestra
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The Italian Character: a film within music and about music. The Italian character is the story of one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, enriched by archive material of the last thirty years about the great conductors who have been performing on the most famous rostrum in Rome.
Werther loves Charlotte, but she promised her mother on her deathbed that she would marry Albert. After the marriage Charlotte suggests that Werther should travel – but not forget her. Benoît Jacquot’s production of Massenet’s tragic opera explores the conflict between duty and our most...
Portrait of an exceptional musical talent and one of opera’s biggest stars, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli. With interviews from her illustrious friends and colleagues from the world of classical music: Daniel Barenboim, Antonio Pappano, Gustavo Dudamel and more.
Sir Antonio Pappano explores the great roles and the greatest singers of the last 100 years through the prism of the main classical voice types - soprano, tenor, mezzo-soprano, baritone and bass.
Love and duty collide and nations clash in Verdi's political drama, starring Elena Stikhina and Angel Blue and conducted by Antonio Pappano and Mark Elder.
Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, explores the greatest arias in the genre through a mix of workshops and archive footage. Nothing pulls harder at the heartstrings than an opera aria – that pivotal moment when the action stops and the character draws us...
