Marjorie grew up in Winchelsea in country Victoria, Australia, dreaming of becoming an opera star like Dame Nellie Melba. In 1928 she went to Paris to study opera without knowing a word of French and having never heard of Richard Wagner. In 1941, at the height her success, she was tragically cut...
Salzburg Marionette Theatre: The Tales of Hoffmann
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In Luther's beer-cellar, lusty singing extols the virtues of beer and wine. For this evening, the Muse decides to deflect the poet Hoffmann's attention from amorous escapades, so that he will devote himself entirely to his art. Hoffmann tells of the three unhappy loves of his life: Olympia, Antonia...
King Henry VIII (Enrico VIII) of 16th century England falls in love with his queen's lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour (Giovanna Seymour). The queen, Anne Boleyn (Anna Bolena) has a former lover, Lord Percy, whom Heny recalls from exile in order to tempt the queen into a compromising situation. When...
After the Viennese premiere, the Fledermaus (the bat) conquered the world. It is one of the few operettas that are regularly performed at the major opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, the Scala Milan, the Vienna State Opera and the Royal Opera House Convent Garden in London. John Cox...
Dame Joan Sutherland considered Norma, the lead character of Bellini’s bel canto melodrama, one of her favourite roles. She performed the brilliant and challenging score for Australian audiences for the first time in this 1978 production at the Sydney Opera House, reuniting with her regular...
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.
This telecast offers a rare opportunity to see the legendary Joan Sutherland in the role that first catapulted her to international stardom. She drove audiences wild by the way her opulent voice caressed the music’s long phrases and sprinted effortlessly through the fiendish runs, trills,...
Imbuing the familiar Don Juan myth with a captivating combination of comedy, seductiveness, danger, and damnation, Mozart created an enduring masterpiece that has been a cornerstone of the repertory since its 1787 premiere. An early entry in the Met’s series of PBS telecasts, this 1978...
Turn of the century Paris provides the glittering setting for this light hearted tale of political and amorous intrigue amidst the gaiety of Parisian high society.. First performed in Vienna in 1905 and here performed in the English version by Christopher Hassal.
Joan Sutherland's farewell performance to the operatic stage offsets this story of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and the magnificence of 16th century France.
Discover acclaimed Swedish choreographer Mats Ek’s 1987 reworking of the ballet classic, Giselle, for the Cullberg Ballet. With the sensational Ana Laguna in the title role, Mats Ek’s interpretation of the ballet classic has all the whimsy and imaginative innovation so closely associated with...