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Just the operas, not ballets or other movies (The Hours?!).
items not necessarily in stock, not even on that date.
Just the operas, not ballets or other movies (The Hours?!).
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- DirectorJonathan HaswellStarsErwin SchrottRoberto TagliaviniPetros MagoulasKasper Holten's visually striking production accentuates the beauty and invention of Mozart's dazzling tragicomedy.
- 1971– TV-G8.4 (16)TV Episode
- StarsKevin ConnersKatarina DalaymanBarbara HanniganThe Snow Queen is Hans Abrahamsen's first opera, composed to a self-penned libretto, based on Hans Christian Andersen's eponymous fairy tale. Following an in-depth study of the topic of snow and a life-long obsession with Andersen's fairy tales, Abrahamsen composed the opera between 2014 and 2018. Hans Abrahamsen's music, with it's smooth transitions and subtly modified repeats, lends the lyrics both depth and lightness. He is keen to point out the range of avenues for interpretation available. " It's possible to read the fairy tale in a variety of ways. It contains many mysteries which are open to numerous interpretations." Accompanying Barbara Hannigan is a top-class ensemble of singers, including Peter Rose, Katarinya Dalayman and Rachael Wilson. Cornelius Meister is the musical director, currently general music director at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. Director Andreas Kriegenburg's production of The Snow Queen is a touching story by adults, for an adult audience, offering a journey into the innermost regions of the human soul. Recorded during the premiere run in the presence of the composer and in close collaboration with him, this release captures an important work of new musical theatre.
- DirectorAgnes MéthStarsGabriel BermúdezAlbert DohmenAdrian Eröd
- DirectorFrançois RoussillonStarsBernard RichterStéphanie d'OustracEmmanuelle de NégriAtys is a 'tragédie en musique' in a prelude and five acts. It was premiered at the royal court in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, January 10, 1676. Although this opera was met with indifference by the Parisian audience, it became known as "the king's opera" because of King Louis XIV's love for it.
- DirectorPaul LandsmannPeter LandsmannStarsWolfgang KochKurt StreitFranz GrundheberSet during the turbulence of the German Peasants revolt in the early 16th century, the focus is on artistic freedom of expression and human isolation during a time of plague, repression and violence.
- 2006– 3h 39mNot Rated8.0 (38)TV Episode
- DirectorMichael BeyerStarsNicholas BrownleeChristof FischesserChristian GerhaherAndreas Homoki realized this production in the middle of the pandemic, and its extraordinary premiere was celebrated with only 50 audience members in attendance and a huge television audience watching on Arte from their homes. Homoki created fleshed-out characters, as well as a clear and suspense-filled narrative arc. In order to facilitate the opera's multiple time periods, his production allowed for imaginary spaces of memory. Production title: Simon Boccanegra - Opernhaus Zürich (2021). Creation date: 06/12/2020. Work - Composer: Simon Boccanegra - Giuseppe Verdi. Opera house: Opernhaus Zürich.
- 2006– Not Rated8.7 (92)TV EpisodeDirectorGary HalvorsonStarsKaren KamensekJoyce DiDonatoZachary JamesPharaoh Akhnaten introduces monotheism before his people - and the priests - are ready.
- DirectorJack O'BrienStarsKevin BurdetteAnthony Roth CostanzoJoyce DiDonatoGreat Scott is set in a large American city that has a respected but struggling opera company and a thriving professional football team. International opera star Arden Scott has returned to her hometown to save American Opera, the company that launched her career, but the opening night performance of the long-lost opera she discovered (Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei) falls on the same night as the home football team's first national championship (Go Grizzlies!). The fate of the company hangs in the balance as Arden is forced to consider the sacrifices she has made and discovers that true greatness is a matter of heart.
- 2006– 3h 52mNot Rated7.8 (52)TV EpisodeDirectorBarbara Willis SweeteStarsDante AnzoliniEric OwensRichard CroftBased on the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi.
- DirectorJonathan HaswellStarsCharles CastronovoAndrei FilonczykPeter KellnerA contemporary 90-minute Puccini's La Bohème outdoor production performed by Charlottesville Opera at the Ting Pavillion in Charlottesville, Virginia - June 24, 2021.
- DirectorCarlo GallucciStarsAndrii GanchukGoran JuricLeigh Melrose
- DirectorJulian NapierStarsChristine RiceBryan HymelAris ArgirisAn astounding live performance of Bizet's opera masterpiece.
- DirectorTiziano Mancini
- DirectorAndy SommerStarsMeike DrosteAnett FritschRobin Johannsen
- DirectorFelix BreisachStarsSarah AristidouGiulia PeriAndrè Schuen
- DirectorFrançois RoussillonWilly DeckerStarsJohn DaszakLeigh MelroseTomasz BorczykFilmed on December 17 and 19, 2014 at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain. A co-production by the Teatro Real and François Roussillon et Associés with the participation of France Télévisions and NHK with the support of the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) considered turning Thomas Mann's 1912 novella Death in Venice into an opera for some time before the first notes were written. A decisive step was taken in September 1970 when he requested a libretto from Myfanwy Piper. She had already supplied the texts for two of the composer's previous operas, which were both based on Henry James novellas: The Turn of the Screw (1954) and Owen Wingrave (1970). Britten became aware that at the time he began work on his musico-theatrical treatment of Death in Venice, the director Luchino Visconti was in the process of adapting Mann's short story for the screen. Visconti's film, which uses the music of Gustav Mahler, was released in 1971 and garnered widespread publicity. Britten was always careful to point out, however, that he had been planning to adapt the same story as an operatic project for five or six years before the release of a film he never saw. During the next couple of years, at a time of deteriorating health, the composer took on a heavy workload, including several recording and performing commitments as well as creative projects. He managed to complete the score of Death in Venice before undergoing open-heart surgery in hospital in May 1973. The opera, which turned out to be Britten's last contribution to the medium made its debut on 16 June 1973 at The Maltings Concert Hall, Snape as part of the 28th Aldeburgh Festival. On account of the composer's delicate state of his health, there was no possibility of his attending the premiere, though he was able to listen to the live broadcast of the second performance six days later. Britten was anxious that the narrative should adhere closely to the original source and secured the support of Golo Mann, son of the author, for his project. The outline of the story is starkly simple. Gustav von Aschenbach, a famous, middle-aged novelist who is having a creative block, travels to Venice to restore his failing powers. While he is staying there, he becomes infatuated with the beauty of a young Polish boy, Tadzio, who is also visiting with his family. Aschenbach's increasing obsession coincides with a cholera epidemic in the city which the authorities attempt to conceal. As the Polish family are preparing to depart, Aschenbach sits on a beach, where, after witnessing the boy being humiliated in a rough game, he dies. One of the reasons Britten was so determined to complete Death in Venice was his desire to write a substantial leading role for his long-term personal and professional partner, the tenor Peter Pears (1910-1986), to whom the opera is dedicated. Pears had taken supporting parts rather than the lead in all Britten's major operatic works since Billy Budd (1951) but now he was presented with arguably his greatest role and one which tested fully his musical and interpretative powers. Aschenbach is a dominating presence throughout and his vocal contributions range from arias to declamatory recitatives. Mostly accompanied (or rather punctuated) by piano, these recitatives are conceived as interior monologues which allow the character to ruminate and soliloquise. Providing continuity between the opera's many short scenes, they are written in the free notation Britten had developed in his church parables Curlew River (1964), The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966) and The Prodigal Son (1968). The one exception to this is the opening soliloquy when Aschenbach declares he has come to a creative halt-'My mind beats on and no words come': in this instance, the notation is measured and the accompaniment orchestral. The other main part in the opera is the disquieting, mysterious Traveller encountered by Aschenbach in a Munich graveyard and who persuades the writer to go to Venice. This menacing figure turns out to be the master of Aschenbach's fate and recurs in various other guises, all of whom contribute to Aschenbach's downfall: the Elderly Fop, the Old Gondolier, the Hotel Manager, the Hotel Barber, the Leader of the Players and the Voice of Dionysus. This versatile role, a sort of malign variant on Alec Guinness's celebrated turn as multiple family members in the dark 1949 Ealing comedy film Kind Hearts and Coronets, was created for the bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk, a singer Britten greatly admired for his acting prowess as well as his voice. Tadzio never speaks or sings, but the character and his family and friends all communicate through the medium of dance (choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton for the initial performances). This suggests their remoteness to the tonguetied Aschenbach and also creates some youthful energy and movement in the opera as a counterpoint to the ailing writer's generally languid and introspective contributions. Chief among the shorter singing parts, the role of Apollo, who appears in Aschenbach's dreams, was created for countertenor James Bowman. There is also a chorus, who portray gondoliers, beggars, street vendors and tourists, and from which certain minor solo parts are taken, such as the Strawberry Seller and the Hotel Waiter. Britten's score has a chamber-like precision and clarity with some of the richer orchestral passages reserved for evocations of Venice itself, which emerges as grand and imposing and at the same time shadowy and sinister. The forces required are modest and traditional (double woodwind and brass, tuba, timpani, harp, piano and a reduced string section) with the exception of the percussion department which demands five players. Their pitched and non-pitched instruments form a unique version of gamelan music that is a development of Britten's earlier exploration of oriental material in his ballet The Prince of the Pagodas (1956). Here, the percussion is used to suggest the 'other' as represented by the exotic and inaccessible world of Tadzio and his family as seen through the eyes of Aschenbach. The most commonly used instrument to portray the young boy is the vibraphone and its enigmatic, equivocal quality seems entirely apt. Conventional instruments are also used in a highly personal way. Serpentine woodwind and baleful tuba are the principal conduits of disease and infestation. In contrast, the strings are often bright and invigorating, depicting Aschenbach's desire to travel to the South and conveying the illimitable vistas of the open sea and sky on his journey. Structurally, Death in Venice is built on a series of intricate motivic interrelationships and thematic cross-references. Britten generates intensity and a growing sense of unease and obsession by constantly refashioning a number of carefully selected ideas. The tiny motif originally encountered in Act I, Scene 1, in the first line of the Traveller's solo, 'Marvels unfold', as he seductively persuades Aschenbach to journey to the South, sows a seed that will gradually infest and undermine the whole score. The motif becomes associated with the plague, most often heard on the tuba and it can even be traced in the outline of the writer's impassioned outburst of 'I love you' at the end of Act I. The Republic's title 'La Serenissima' also haunts the opera as a leitmotif. It is first encountered in brazen form sung by youths who, with an Elderly Fop repugnant to Aschenbach, are the writer's fellow-travellers on the voyage to Venice. It forms the substance of the picturesque Overture which is placed after the prologue and is then transfigured into a barcarolle accompanying Aschenbach's frequent gondola journeys. The opera concludes with an orchestral epilogue consisting of a poignant dialogue between Tadzio's dispassionate tuned percussion theme and an eloquent melody on strings representing Aschenbach. This is the only time these two distinct musics have been heard together in the score, a long-delayed unison which comes too late for the main protagonist. While they remain separate and unmixed, they glimmer into silence together. These closing moments of the opera have undeniable dramatic power yet one of the most significant musical episodes takes place slightly earlier when the writer sings the Hymn to Beauty based on Socrates's dialogue with Phaedrus: 'But this is beauty, Phaedrus, discovered through the senses, and senses lead to passion, Phaedrus, and passion to the abyss.' This, the last of many great lyrical ariosos which Britten wrote for Pears, is perhaps the expressive peak of this deft and elusive masterpiece.
- DirectorPhilipp StölzlFelix BreisachStarsStephen CostelloVladimir StoyanovMélissa PetitGiuseppe Verdi's masterpiece compelling blood-curdling and beautiful, will delight audiences with a powerhouse combination of entertainment and emotional intensity from the spectacular shore of Lake Constance, Bregenz.
- DirectorMisjel VermeirenStarsRodolphe BriandPaul GayErmonela Jaho
- 2006– 1h 55mNot Rated8.4 (69)TV EpisodeDirectorGary HalvorsonStarsJames LevineKatie CouricMatthew PolenzaniPrince Tamino and Papageno are sent by the Queen of Night to save her daughter Pamina from the clutches of the evil lord Sarastro.
- 1977– 2h 37mNot Rated9.0 (15)TV EpisodeDirectorBrian LargeStarsMarilyn HorneDouglas AhlstedtAllan MonkA typical rescue opera involves a kidnapped young woman who faces torture or death - until her heroic lover shows up. But in this one, the roles are reversed: it's a man in desperate trouble, and his clever girlfriend gets him out of it.
- 2006– Not Rated7.0 (36)TV EpisodeDirectorGary HalvorsonStarsThomas AdèsSusan GrahamJoseph Kaiser
- DirectorGary HalvorsonStarsCarlo RizziSusanna PhillipsMatthew RoseTwo Druid priestesses fall for a fickle Roman proconsul, with tragic results.
- DirectorBrian LargeStarsPlácido DomingoRenée FlemingJames MorrisThe Moorish general Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his lieutenant Michael Cassio when in reality it is all part of the scheme of a bitter ensign named Iago.
- 2006– Not Rated8.3 (39)TV Episode
- 2006– 3h 21mNot Rated7.8 (26)TV Episode
- 2006– 2h 41mNot Rated8.9 (31)TV EpisodeDirectorGary HalvorsonStarsMaurizio BeniniDeborah VoigtElza van den HeeverAccusations and hostilities are hurled back and forth between Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth.
- DirectorTiziano ManciniStarsChristina BockAnja HarterosAnja Kampe
- DirectorMargaret WilliamsStarsChristopher PurvesBarbara HanniganBejun MehtaAngels tell of a 12th Century French lord who hires a Boy to create an illuminated manuscript. When Agnès, the Proctector's wife, sleeps with the Boy, he exacts revenge.
- DirectorFrançois RoussillonStarsJohn Mark AinsleyMichael WallaceJohn-Owen Miley-ReadBilly Budd is an innocent, naïve seaman in the British Navy in 1797. When the ship's sadistic master-at-arms is murdered, Billy is accused and tried.
- DirectorJérémie CuvillierJohn FulljamesStarsPatricia RacettePaulo SzotMary BevanA musical version of Elmer Rice's play in which twenty-four hours elapse on the stoop of a Hell's Kitchen tenement as a microcosm of the American melting pot interacts with each other during a summer heatwave.