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Giuseppe Verdi - La Forza del Destino

December 2024 •English

Riccardo Chailly inaugurates the 2024-2025 Opera Season with a new production of La forza del destino, conducting his ninth Verdi title at La Scala. Leo Muscato will direct yet another cast of extraordinary prestige. A complex opera in terms of dramaturgy, first performed in St. Petersburg in 1862 and debuting in its final form at La Scala in 1869 with the creation of the famous overture, La forza del destino offers some of the most memorable Verdi melodies. It has been absent from the programme since the Verdi centennial in 2001, when it was brought to La Scala by the artists of the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg; the La Scala Orchestra and Choir have not performed it since 1999.

Lupe Q and the Galactic Earworms

Invalid date •English

Lupe, head of a Latinx punk rock band, discovers only her piercing musical scream can stop an alien invasion. She and her bandmates become the target of two warring alien races hellbent on destroying each other, and taking planet Earth down with them. With the help of Lupe’s sweet, shotgun-toting Abuela, Pachi, and her high-powered, socialite mother Karen, the gang of misfits do all they can to save the world.

Edge of Tomorrow

May 2014 •English

Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again... and again - as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.

La Bohème

March 1979 •English

Performance of La Bohème in Teatro alla Scala, 1979.

Feeders 2: Slay Bells

February 1998 •English

Aliens invade Earth over the Christmas holidays, and it's up to Santa Claus and his elves to save the world.

Monsters: Dark Continent

October 2014 •English

Seven years on from the events of Monsters, and the ‘Infected Zones’ have spread worldwide. Humans have been knocked off the top of the food chain, with disparate communities struggling for survival. American soldiers are being sent abroad to protect US interests from the Monsters, but the war is far from being won.

The Phantom of the Operetta

December 1960 •Spanish

Aldo and his girlfriend Lucy reopen an abandoned opera house, but find out that the place is inhabited by a group of Phantoms wearing the Claude Rains 1943 Phantom of the Opera costume.

The Marriage of Figaro

February 2006 •Italian

David McVicar's spellbinding production of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO is set in 1830s post-revolution France, where the inexorable unravelling of an old order has produced acute feelings of loss. In the relationship between Finley's suave, dashingly self-absorbed Count and Röschmann's passionately dignified Countess, which lies at the tragic heart of the opera, the sexy ease between a feisty Figaro (Erwin Schrott) and a sassy Susanna (Miah Persson) is starkly absent, the tenacious spark between Marcellina (Graciela Araya) and Bartolo (Jonathan Veira) suggesting what might be rekindled. The production is superbly complemented by the beauty of Paule Constable's lighting and Tanya McCallin's evocative sets. Antonio Pappano conducts (and accompanies the recitatives) with invigorating wit and emotional depth.

Halka

December 1937 •Polish

Halka lives with her godmother in a modest cottage in a small highland village. One day, young Janusz arrives in the village to take possession of his ancestral estate. Halka falls madly in love with Janusz, who promises her eternal love and marriage. Soon, Janusz's mother arrives at the estate to inform him that they are ruined. The only salvation is to marry the daughter of a wealthy steward. Janusz leaves with his mother, promising Halka that he will return. Halka, who is pregnant, eagerly awaits the return of her beloved. The whole village turns its back on her, and she is supported only by Jontek, whose feelings she once rejected. Unable to wait for Janusz's return, she decides to go to the city, accompanied by her faithful Jontek. There she learns of Janusz's engagement to the steward's daughter, Zofia. Heartbroken, she returns to the village. There, she suffers another blow...

Giulio Cesare in Egitto

September 2022 •Italian

Triumphantly premiered in 1724 at the King's Theatre in London, George Frideric Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto masterfully combines human emotions: Triumph with sorrow, despair with happiness and love with profound melancholy in the face of the transience of all earthly life. Star director Keith Warner creates a production that imaginatively blends silent film and baroque opera, delightfully echoing Mankiewicz's legendary Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton. An excellent cast of singers is led by two of the world's leading countertenors: Bejun Mehta and Christophe Dumaux. Louise Alder shines as the seductive Cleopatra. Patricia Bardon, Simon Bailey and Jake Arditti are further highlights in this extraordinary group of singers, while Ivor Bolton provides the appropriate soundtrack on the podium of the Concentus Musicus Wien.

The Brain Leeches

January 1978 •English

Invading aliens are taking over the brains of folks in a small town. The head leech is a wad of black tinfoil with a couple of white thumbtacks for eyes. Others are spidery-like rubber things pulled along by strings.

Bluebeard's Castle

December 1963 •German

Based on the Béla Bartók opera, Duke Bluebeard reluctantly and gradually uncovers the secrets of his psyche to his fourth wife, Judit, opening the seven doors of his castle to ultimately reveal his still living previous wives, among whom Judit must take her place.

The Merry Widow

January 2005 •German

Zurich Opera House production of Franz Léhar's operetta, with Dagmar Schellenberger, Rodney Gilfry, and Ute Gfrerer in lead roles. Baron Zeta is desperate that the fabulously wealthy widow Hanna Glavari marry a Pontevedrian man so that her fortune remains in the country. He attempts to match her and his handsome attaché, Danilo. It turns out that Danilo and Hanna had had a love affair in years past. Nevertheless, Danilo now refuses to love her because he doesn't want to appear like he is only interested in her money...

The Death of Klinghoffer

January 2003 •English

An adaptation from the controversial John Adams opera about the true life incident that took place in the mid 80s. The liner "Achille Lauro" is on a 12-day cruise in the Mediterranean. While the ship is docked in Alexandria, a maid discovers that four of the passengers are actually members of the Palestine Liberation Organization traveling incognito. Startled by their discovery, the PLO cadre is forced to act. They take the passengers on board hostage and demand the release of 50 Palestinian activists held in Israeli jails. As Egyptian, American, Italian, and Palestinian authorities bicker over the best way to handle the situation (and who would negotiate with the terrorists), the kidnappers find themselves dealing with rebellion among their captives, and an argument between the four PLO members and Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish-American confined to a wheelchair, eventually escalates into violence.

Detonator Orgun

August 1991 •Japanese

Fleeing from his own race, Orgun—an alien being with superhuman abilities and unearthly weapons—travels to Earth to find an answer to his origin. There, he bonds with a young man named Tomoru to defend Earth against the Evoluders, who seek nothing but destruction of other civilizations.

Tosca

April 1976 •Italian

Opera is an inherently theatrical medium that does not lend itself readily to the realism of film treatment. The shining exception is Puccini's Tosca, an action-packed melodrama that unfolds in three taut and gripping acts like the meatiest of Hollywood films noir. And unlike most operas, these three acts are set in three very specific Roman locales. Thus this 1976 film takes place in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle (Act 1), the Palazzo Farnese (Act 2), and the Castel Sant'Angelo (Act 3).

Porgy and Bess

October 1993 •English

The story of a disabled beggar in Charleston,S.C. who falls in love with a prostitute, this is the first filmed version of Gershwin's opera which uses Gershwin's own orchestrations and practically all of the music, with only one major cut.

Aria Diva

December 2007 •Polish

Basia has already settled down in her life. She is a housewife and has a loving family. It seems as though she does not miss anything to be happy. Until a moment when an opera diva moves into an apartment upstairs. Basia is enchanted and seduced with her voice. A peculiar relationship is born between them. It develops into a feeling which is not particularly comfortable for either of the two women.

Dominion

September 2015 •English

Earth's position in the universe has become of vital strategic importance to those who have, until now, only studied us from the far reaches of space. Knowing our weaknesses, they have planned their attack, and now, in just 5 days, life on Earth will change forever. Robert Casey, a retired US Intelligence agent turned UFO investigator, races to discover the truth about the Dominion and what it has in store for the human race. Time is running out...

Svět na Měsíci

July 1978 •Czech