Social & External
The people behind it
Takesa Meshé Kizart
Mimì
Taryn Fiebig
Musetta
José Carbó
Marcello
Based on real events and drawing on Georg Büchner's revolutionary play, Alban Berg's Wozzeck turns a grimly tragic narrative of violence and murder into one of the most powerful and original operas of the 20th century. Berg's uncompromising portrayal of brutality and madness generated much controversy, but the significance of Wozzeck was soon recognised; its compelling lyrical expansiveness, large-scale dramatic gestures and remarkable musical structures producing music of overwhelming emotional intensity. The Financial Times declared this to be 'a beautiful, moving, engrossing production… this is a consummate Wozzeck, blending clarity, lyricism, compassion and crushing force.'
The soldier Wozzeck (Christian Gerhaher) flits through a world that he is unable to decipher. The doctor torments him with absurd medical experiments; the captain humiliates and ridicules him. And Wozzeck’s lover, Marie (Gun-Brit Barkmin), with whom he has a child, cuckolds him with the drum major. Wozzeck becomes a murderer, stabbing Marie to death. Georg Büchner’s drama fragment, on which Alban Berg based his first opera, is an unflinching case study of social injustice and human suffering. But it is also a grotesque piece that thrives on exaggeration – and in which only a fine line separates the unfathomable from the ridiculous. Accordingly, director Andreas Homoki forgoes all realism.
A version of Benjamin Britten's opera based on the Melville story. Will the virtuous young sailor Billy Budd be hanged for murder?
Opera at La Scala Milan
On the eve of the 1990 World Cup final, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti sang together for the first time. A look behind the scenes at a musical event whose phenomenal success lasted for more than a decade.
Pietro Mascagni's opera recorded in 2009. Conductor Stefano Ranzani leads the orchestra and chorus of the Zurich Opera House, with performances by Argentinian tenor Jose Cura and soprano Pauletta Marrocu.
Drama lyrique in five acts, after the play by Maruice Maeterlink
Running through Bartók’s disenchanted tale, whose haunting music was initially condemned as unplayable, and the expression of despair in Poulenc’s monologue, the director Krzysztof Warlikowski perceives a shared dramatic thread, a shared feminine consciousness and a shared sense of imprisonment and suffocation: for the woman who penetrates the confines of Bluebeard’s castle and Elle, the woman who clings to a telephone conversation with a man as the only thing worth living for, are condemned to share the same fate. And this man she speaks to, does he really exist? Unless the director has interpreted Cocteau’s words to the letter and the telephone has become a “terrifying weapon that leaves no trace, makes no noise”…
"Yenufa" is an outstanding phenomenon in the music of the 20th century. Drawing on Moravian folklore, Janáček faithfully and deeply conveyed the drama of a peasant girl. The composer followed the path of Mussorgsky, revealing the spiritual life of people through the recreation of intonations of living speech. The libretto is based on a drama written in a naturalistic manner. Free from naturalism, Janáček's music has powerful emotional strength and psychological truth. It was written during a difficult period in the composer's life (illness and death of his daughter).
Set in a nightmarish Bardo, a place between death and rebirth, a tormented writer faces down demons of his own making. Forced to confront the darkest moment in his life, he mines fractured and repressed memories for a way out. A woman is at the center of all the writer’s afterlife encounters. She is the subject of his life’s greatest regret, and she materializes everywhere in this Otherworld. The writer cannot detach any thoughts of his life from her.
A concert performance of the most famous parts of Dvořák's opera Rusalka in the park of Liteň Castle, directed by the Caban brothers with multimedia elements and original choreography... The year 2021 marks an important milestone in the history of Dvořák's opera Rusalka, which premiered in 1901, 120 years ago. At the same time, the non-profit organization Liteň Castle and the Jarmila Novotná Festival are celebrating ten years of activity. Its mission is to popularize the name of the legendary diva, actress, patriot, and important personality Jarmila Novotná and to care for the cultural monuments on the grounds of Liteň Castle—and on the occasion of both anniversaries, it did so with an extraordinary performance of the opera Rusalka in the picturesque surroundings and magical summer atmosphere of Liteň Castle.
The last thing Damian and Pippa want, is to fall in love. Yet when they first look into each other's eyes, love is exactly what happens. So much so that it makes them, and everyone else in the park burst out in song and dance.
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.
"La Bohème" is one of Giacomo Puccini's most popular and timeless works and the second-most performed opera at New York's Metropolitan Opera. This production, directed by the legendary Franco Zeffirelli, features José Carreras, Teresa Stratas, Renata Scotto and Richard Stilwell. The opera is replete with extraordinary visual beauty as it presents the tragic story of young bohemians struggling to make it in the world.
Westminster Choir College presents their yearly holiday music concert in WESTMINSTER CHOIR COLLEGE: AN EVENING OF READINGS AND CAROLS. Recorded in the Princeton University Chapel, the program features more than 400 musicians in five different choirs. The musical numbers performed in the hour-long special encompass a variety of styles, including traditional Christmas carols with audience participation, beloved choral works, a diverse array of holiday standards, and contemporary arrangements that both surprise and delight. Together with a number of secular readings, the evening brings beauty and comfort to viewers at this special time of year.
Recorded at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1995, this acclaimed presentation of composer Gioachino Rossini's epic opus ERMIONE is based on Jean Racine's play "Andromache." Set in Troy after the city fell to the Greeks, the production recounts the rancorous battle between widow Andromache and Helen of Troy's green-eyed daughter, Ermione for the love of Pyrrhus
In Benjamin Britten's operatic adaptation of Henry James' masterwork, a naive governess (Helen Field) arrives at a country manor and soon discovers that it holds a murky secret involving her charges and two ghostly servants who wield a sinister influence on them. The taut, atmospheric production also stars Sam Linay, Machiko Obata, Menai Davies and Phyllis Cannan, with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra providing accompaniment.
Tulio is forced by Sr. Manguera to put on a Christmas show, so he and the rest of the team put one together in record time. While Tulio discovers the true wrerwriwro of Christmas, Bodoque is in charge of going to look for the gifts, avoiding being tempted by Tío Pelado to bet on horse races.
Vivaldi's opera L'incoronazione di Dario staged by Teatro Regio di Torino, conducted by Ottavio Dantone
An anthology of four abbreviated operas: "William Tell" by Rossini, "The Marriage of Figaro" by Mozart, "Don Pasquale" by Donizetti, and "Carmen" by Bizet. Filmed in Italy with major opera stars, and accompanied by English narration.
Kevin, Nick, and Joe Jonas face a series of escalating obstacles as they struggle to make it from London to New York in time to spend Christmas with their families.
As celebrated conductor Lydia Tár starts rehearsals for a career-defining symphony, the consequences of her past choices begin to echo in the present.
Street dancer Skyler comes out of the shadow of her trained dancer sister, Tosha, & joins a dance competition with the Honey dance studio; the prize is a college scholarship.
A retelling of the classic Dickens tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, miser extraordinaire. He is held accountable for his dastardly ways during nighttime visitations by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
Kat is an aspiring singer-songwriter who dreams of making it big. However, her dreams are stalled by her reality: a conniving and cruel stepfamily and a demoralizing job working as a singing elf at billionaire Terrence Wintergarden’s Santa Land.
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.
Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity and life.
Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles and an impish emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force.
A pair of star-crossed dancers in New York find themselves at the center of a bitter rivalry between their brothers' underground dance clubs.
A melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer.
The Marx Brothers help young Broadway hopefuls when they get mixed up with gangsters due to a tin of sardines containing Romanoff diamonds.
The wild West Berlin of the 1980s became the creative melting pot of pop subcultures: music, art and chaos. Before the Iron Curtain fell, anything and everything seemed possible.
A rich and nasty woman returns to her hometown to evict everyone but discovers the true meaning of Christmas thanks to the local townsfolk – and an actual angel. Features 14 original songs with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton!
Three angels bestow the gift of song to a young girl, who must follow a series of rules in order hold on to it during her rise to fame and fortune.
A talented singer leaves the Atlanta music scene and starts over in small-town Tennessee, where she finds love and new purpose but can't escape the past.
The cast of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” delivers an abundance of feel-good holiday cheer as they perform their favorite Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s songs and share their fondest holiday memories.
All self-taught dancer Kate Parker has ever wanted to do was perform with the American Academy of Ballet. But when she doesnt make it after auditioning, she learns that it takes more than precision and perfection to succeed in the dance world.
In the years before World War II, a tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children and brings a new love of life and music into the home.
An imaginary world comes to life in a holiday tale of an eccentric toymaker, his adventurous granddaughter, and a magical invention that has the power to change their lives forever.
The troubled fraternal relationship between songwriters Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman, the Oscar and Grammy-winning Sherman Brothers, famous for the iconic hits they wrote for Disney.
