Aida

Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffmann (Bregenz Festival)

July 2015 •French

Bregenzs Tales of Hoffmann is different from everything you saw before. The New York Times praised the thoughtfulness and creativity of Stefan Herheims new production, devised by the director as a search for ones own self in a sparkling drag show. A shining-toned (NYT) Hoffmann is embodied by tenor Daniel Johansson in the title role. He is supported by a fantastic cast: Rachel Frenkel is positively ideal as Muse and Niklausse (Kurier), Kerstin Avemo as Olympia is endowed with brilliant, cheekily extemporized coloraturas (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), Michael Volle sings the parts of Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr. Miracle and Dappertutto, the works four villains, with warmth and intensity (NYT) and Mandy Fredrich is a finelyphrased Antonia (Kurier).

Amadeus

September 1984 •English

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The Phantom of the Opera

September 1925 •English

The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.

Vivaldi Orlando Furioso

May 2001 •English

For those with any interest in Vivaldi's operas Orlando Furioso is essential viewing, being a 1989 San Francisco Opera revival by Pier Luigi Pizzi of his own 1979 production which was largely responsible for beginning modern interest in Vivaldi's stage work. The composer first premiered Orlando finto pazzo in 1714, but the Orlando Furioso finalised in 1727 was so heavily reworked as to be virtually an entirely new opera, and so successful Handel set the same epic poem by Aristo under the title Alcina in 1735.

Strictly Dishonorable

July 1951 •English

A womanizing opera star is smitten by a young music student.

A Night at the Opera

November 1935 •English

The Marx Brothers take on high society and the opera world to bring two lovers together. A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.

1984

May 2008 •English

Inspired by one of the twentieth century's greatest novels, composer Lorin Maazel evokes Orwell's totalitarian nightmare, where "Big Brother" is always watching, and those guilty of "thoughtcrime" are condemned to face their worst fears in the infamous "Room 101". Filmed during world premiere performances of Robert Lepage's spectacular and psychologically gripping Royal Opera production and conducted by the composer, an international cast brings George Orwell's dark vision to shattering operatic life.

Rossini La cambiale di matrimonio

Invalid date •English

La cambiale di matrimonio, farsa comica in two acts to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi, was first produced at the Teatro San Moisè, Venice, on 3 novembre 1810. The singers at the first performances were Domenico Remolini (Norton), Clementina Lanari (Clarina), Luigi Raffanelli (Tobia Mill), Tommaso Ricci (Edoardo), Rosa Morandi (Fanny), Nicola de Grecis (Slook).

The Metropolitan Opera: Die Walküre

May 2011 •English

Robert Lepage’s landmark staging of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, unveiled over the course of the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons, was the first new Met production of the complete cycle in more than 20 years. Combining state-of-the-art technology with traditional storytelling, it brings Wagner’s vision into the 21st century. With Die Walküre, the story of the Ring enters the world of human beings. Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek are Siegmund and Sieglinde, the twin children of Wotan, sung by Bryn Terfel. Deborah Voigt stars in the title role of the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, Wotan’s favorite daughter. James Levine conducts.

Bizet: The Pearl Fishers

January 2016 •French

Bizet’s rarely heard opera returned to the Met for the first time in a century on New Year’s Eve 2015, in Penny Woolcock’s acclaimed new production. Star soprano Diana Damrau sings Leïla, the virgin priestess at the center of the story. Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien are Nadir and Zurga, rivals for Leïla’s love who have sworn to renounce her to protect their friendship—and who get to sing one of opera’s most celebrated duets, “Au fond du temple saint.” Nicolas Testé is the high priest Nourabad and Gianandrea Noseda conducts Bizet’s supremely romantic score.

Che Si Può Fare?

January 2021 •English

Explores the Opera music genre in the world of cinema.

River of Fundament

February 2014 •English

Visionary artist Matthew Barney returns to cinema with this 3-part epic, a radical reinvention of Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings. In collaboration with composer Jonathan Bepler, Barney combines traditional modes of narrative cinema with filmed elements of performance, sculpture, and opera, reconstructing Mailer’s hypersexual story of Egyptian gods and the seven stages of reincarnation, alongside the rise and fall of the American car industry.

Dardanus

January 2015 •French

At the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, Raphaël Pichon conducts a new production of Rameau's opera Dardanus, with the ensemble Pygmalion, in a staging by Michel Fau and a choreography by Christopher Williams.

Rusalka

September 1978 •Czech

Three arias from Antonín Dvořák´s fairytale opera Rusalka turned in to a movie, sung by Gabriela Beňačková (Rusalka), Libuše Márová (Witch), René Tuček (Hunter).

The Scorpion King

April 2002 •English

In ancient Egypt, peasant Mathayus is hired to exact revenge on the powerful Memnon and the sorceress Cassandra, who are ready to overtake Balthazar's village. Amid betrayals, thieves, abductions and more, Mathayus strives to bring justice to his complicated world.

Macbeth

January 2016 •English

Amahl and the Night Visitors

December 1955 •English

A destitute, crippled child and his mother are visited late one night by three traveling strangers who claim to be following a star so that they may bring gifts to a newborn king. The yearly live telecasts of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors were a cherished Christmas tradition throughout the 1950s. In addition, since its premiere in 1951, Amahl has been performed regularly by community groups and small opera companies throughout the US, making it the single most popular American opera. This production, staged by the composer himself and originally telecast on Christmas Day, 1955, is a testament to the work’s enduring power to move the heart and stir the soul. Starring Rosemary Kuhlmann as the Mother and Bill McIver as Amahl. Members of the Symphony of the Air are under the direction of Thomas Schippers.

Così fan tutte

June 2013 •Italian

Who loves whom in Così fan tutte, Mozart’s and Da Ponte’s cruelly comic reflection on desire, fidelity and betrayal? Or have the confusions to which the main characters subject one another ensured that in spite of the heartfelt love duets and superficially fleetfooted comedy nothing will work any longer and that a sense of emotional erosion has replaced true feelings? Così fan tutte is a timeless work full of questions that affect us all. The Academy Award-winning director Michael Haneke once said that he was merely being precise and did not want to distort reality. In only his second opera production after Don Giovanni in 2006, he presents what ARTE described as a “disillusioned vision of love in an ice-cold, realistic interpretation”.

Carmen

March 1984 •French

A film version of the famous Bizet opera, where a soldier (Don Jose) falls in love with a beautiful factory worker (Carmen), but she does not reciprocate his feelings.

Die Walküre

May 2006 •German

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), WWV 86B, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner with a German libretto by the composer. It is the second of the four operas that form Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). The story of the opera is based on the Norse mythology told in the Volsunga Saga and the Poetic Edda.[1][2] In Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one in a group of female figures who decide which soldiers die in battle and which live. Die Walküre's best-known excerpt is the "Ride of the Valkyries". DVD release June 2009.