Daniele Abbado explores themes of identity, exile and religion in this powerful staging of Verdi's epic opera with Plácido Domingo as Nabucco.`

Daniele Abbado explores themes of identity, exile and religion in this powerful staging of Verdi's epic opera with Plácido Domingo as Nabucco.

Nabucco

The opera-dilemma of maternal love and filial love is presented in the classical staging production directed by Hugo De Ana

Il Trovatore

The story of Shakespeare’s star crossed lovers has been adapted and retold by composers, librettists, playwrights, and choreographers for centuries. Since the Renaissance, everyone seems to have put their own spin on the story.Vincenzo Bellini’s frequently overlooked gem “I Capuleti e i Montecchi,” is unique in that it is not simply a retelling of Shakespeare’s story set to music. Rather, the opera tells the account of the last 24 hours in Romeo and Juliet’s lives. Desperation and melancholy draw to a tragic cataclysm as the young lovers choose to end their lives. This production, directed by Christof Loy and conducted by Fabio Luisi, originates in Zurich, and was wonderfully received by both audiences and critics. Joyce DiDonato dazzles in the role of Romeo alongside Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska, who plays Giulietta.

Vincenzo Bellini’s frequently overlooked gem “I Capuleti e i Montecchi,” tells the account of the last 24 hours in Romeo and Juliet’s lives.

I Capuleti e i Montecchi

Daniel Barenboim conducts Fidelio, a moral title associated with the ideals of liberty of the French Enlightenment.

Fidelio

Winner of the 2017 International Classical Music Award and BBC's Music Magazine Award. Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck” depicts the everyday life of soldiers and the townspeople of a rural German-speaking town and is an indispensable work in the repertoire of any opera house. In Zurich, critics and audience celebrated director Andreas Homoki, General Music Director Fabio Luisi and baritone Christian Gerhaher for their intriguing interpretation of this masterpiece of operatic history.

Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck” depicts the everyday life of soldiers and the townspeople of a rural German-speaking town.

Wozzeck

The Royal Opera House stages one of Verdi’s - and opera’s - most beloved productions, La Traviata.

The timeless tale follows the tragic love story of a courtesan, Violetta, who is prepared to sacrifice everything for the man she loves, Alfredo. Torn apart by society and class, Verdi’s dramatic masterpiece has been the inspiration behind modern Hollywood classics including Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge. 

Experience Verdi’s La Traviata, the inspiration behind Moulin Rouge, lovingly staged at London’s Royal Opera House.

La Traviata

Glyndebourne has a proud association with the operas of Benjamin Britten, however until 2010 had never staged Billy Budd. The all-male opera with a libretto co-written by E.M. Forster, is based on the battle between pure good and blind evil, and is set on a British man-o'-war ship. Michael Grandage, Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, chose this work to make his long-awaited operatic debut. Sir Mark Elder returned to conduct, marking the 100th opera production in his illustrious career.

The all-male opera is based on the battle between pure good and blind evil, and is set on a British man-o'-war ship.

Billy Budd

The legendary Zubin Mehta conducts Aida, Verdi’s most spectacular and over-the-top opera, in Ferzan Ozpetek’s new production from the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Starring Roberto Tagliavini, Luciana D’Intino and Hui He in the title role.

The legendary Zubin Mehta conducts Aida, Verdi’s most spectacular and over-the-top opera.

Aida

This production from Teatro alla Scala stars opera greats Jonas Kaufmann and Erwin Schrott, with newcomer Anita Rachvelishvili making her wildly successful debut.

This production from La Scala stars opera greats Jonas Kaufmann and Erwin Schrott, with newcomer Anita Rachvelishvili making her successful debut.

Carmen

One of the reasons why Donizetti’s Don Pasquale is regarded as a cornerstone of the Italian comic opera tradition is because its characters are no mere commedia dell’arte stereotypes, but complex, vulnerable human beings. This is brought to the fore in Mariame Clément’s sensitive and perceptive production, which was hailed by the Financial Times as ‘a Glyndebourne classic’. Acclaimed buffo baritone Alessandro Corbelli sings the title role ‘with just the right degree of lugubriousness’, while Danielle de Niese, one of today’s most sought-after sopranos, is an ‘engaging’ and ‘irresistible’ Norina (The Telegraph). Bel canto specialist Enrique Mazzola conducts with flair and panache.

The bachelor Don Pasquale plans to marry to punish his rebellious nephew, Ernesto, who is in love with the young widow Norina.

Don Pasquale

Through the eye of French director Laurent Pelly this expression of Berlioz's undying admiration for the Bard - his adaptation of Much Ado about Nothing as an opera comique - becomes 'an elegant treatise on love and music designed in shades of grey with 50's-era costumes' (Sunday Express). Housed by designer Barbara de Limburg in a series of oversized boxes, it's 'terribly chic, terribly pretty' (The Spectator). Soaring over the 'warmly graceful playing of the London Philharmonic', Paul Appleby sings 'attractively' as Benedict and Stephanie d'Oustrac 'makes a marvellously wiry and fiery Beatrice, singing with charm and acting with gusto' (The Telegraph).

Laurent Pelly's expression of Berlioz's adaptation of Much Ado about Nothing as an opera comique becomes ''an elegant treatise on love and music".

Beatrice and Benedict

Forbidden love, wrongdoings and anguish: the Opernhaus Zürich ventures into late 19th-century French romanticism with “Werther“ by French composer Jules Massenet. A loose adaptation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epistolary novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, the opera is conducted by Germany’s Cornelius Meister. It tells the story of the impossible union of poet Werther to Charlotte, a woman of duty already promised to a wealthy businessman.Goethe’s drama is echoed in Massenet’s score by emotionally wide-ranging vocal parts written on a grand scale.

A loose adaptation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epistolary novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, composed by Jules Massenet. 

Werther

The ‘sheer visual sophistication’ of Annabel Arden’s Barbiere serves ‘a triumphant celebration of Rossini’s musical genius’, featuring de Niese’s ‘powerfully sung’ Rosina, Bürger’s ‘gale-force’ Figaro and Stayton’s ‘pure and mellifluous’ Almaviva – a leading trio ‘musically and dramatically beyond compare’ ( The Independent). Contributing to the ‘ensemble precision’, the rest of the cast includes a ‘scene-stealing’ Berta in Kelly, a ‘suavely unctuous’ Basilio from Stamboglis andCorbelli’s Bartolo, ‘an object lesson in comic understatement’ (The Guardian). With Enrique Mazzola at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, ‘the score bubbles along on a Puckish current of merry mischief’ (The Telegraph).

The ‘sheer visual sophistication’ of Annabel Arden’s Barbiere serves ‘a triumphant celebration of Rossini’s musical genius

The Barber of Seville

A deeply moving production of the traditional double-bill Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana is shown here at Milan's Teatro alla Scala.

Cavalleria Rusticana

Recommendations

Va pensiero sull’ali dorate – the famous prisoners’ chorus from Nabucco is considered the centrepiece of the entire opera.

Under the direction of Andreas Homoki, this new production of Nabucco features a first-class cast.

Nabucco

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