Radiant mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and dashing Italian tenor Marcello Giordani are unlucky lovers in La Damnation de Faust, Hector Berlioz’s classic take on dancing with the devil.
Ça Ira (French for "It'll be fine", subtitled "There is Hope") is an opera in three acts by Roger Waters based on the French libretto co-written by Étienne and Nadine Roda-Gil on the historical subject of the early French Revolution. Ça Ira was released 26 September 2005, as a double CD album...
This vivid film of Wagner's romatic opera succeeds in conveying what has famously been called "the wind that blows out at you whenever you open the score", including Daland's boat anchoring against the Sandwike cliffs, the red-sailed phantom ship, and the ghost crew rising from the dead. "Scenes...
Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Staatsoper Berlin 2016)
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Bellezza (Beauty) admires herself in the mirror, but knows that her beauty will one day pass. Piacere (Pleasure) tries to cheer her up, promising her eternal beauty if she remains only faithful to pleasure. Bellezza promises never to leave her, or else to accept severe punishment. Piacere warns of...
Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball) is an 1859 opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The text, by Antonio Somma, was based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué. The plot concerns the assassination in 1792 of King Gustav III of Sweden...
During his thirty-year career, Walter Hus, a Belgian composer and pianist, has taken a thousand musical faces. While he wanted to compose a new work, a crisis blocked his creation. During an exchange with his therapist, he comes to an existential question: "Who am I musically? » Through the...
This thought-provoking, modern-day interpretation of Rossini's 'Mosè in Egitto' sets the scene for superior music-making at the prestigious Rossini Festival in Pesaro. For conductor Roberto Abbado, the transposition of the action to the present day releases the energy of Rossini's music. At his...
John Constable, a writer, falls prey to the designs of scheming widow Margaret Alloway to the dismay of his young wife Kitty. Feigning interest in John's work, the widow offers to collaborate on his new book, Women's Struggles , but when she convinces him to dine with her on Kitty's birthday, the...
This rare 1935 film (the title translated means "do not forget me") features Beniamino Gigli as, of course, an Italian singer who warbles his way through a touching love story. Features musical selections from "Il Trovatore" and "Rigoletto" as well as a lullaby and some Neapolitan songs, including...
One of Modest Mussorgsky's great talents was his unique ability to transpose words, psychological states, and even physical movements, into music. Kent Nagano rises magnificently to the challenges presented by this score. And Dmitri Tcherniakov's fascinating production emphasizes the timeless...
La Rondine (The Swallow) is possibly the least performed of Giacomo Puccinis later operas, but is still just as much a masterwork as its more performed counterparts. Originally conceived as the composers first operetta, the work is an artful blend of opera and operetta, with a lighter mood than...
The hero Siegfried reforges his father’s shattered sword, embarking on a quest for the greatest prize of all – the love of the valkyrie Brünnhilde, who lies trapped in a ring of fire. Siegfried is the third opera in Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Wagner broke...
The sequel to the 2013 short, August sings Carmen 'Habanera'. After Elfie and her nerdy son August successfully proved themselves on their home webcam in MeTube 1, the odd pair venture onto the street to present the biggest, boldest, and sexiest operatic flash mob the internet has ever witnessed!