The stout Sir John Falstaff has financial problems, which he attempts to solve by having affairs with Alice Ford and Meg Page, two very wealthy, very married women. Having received identical love letters, the two women decide to have some fun at Falstaff’s expense.

The stout Sir John Falstaff has financial problems, which he attempts to solve by having affairs with two very wealthy, very married women.

Falstaff

With its combination of enchanting love story and broad, burlesque comedy, Cendrillon is one of the great operatic fairy tales – a Cinderella that looks back to Charles Perrault’s original story in all its richness and ambiguity. Massenet’s sensuous Belle Epoque fairy tale is gilded with lavish orchestral textures and glittering vocal writing, drawing on everything from baroque dances to Wagner-inspired chromaticism to bring its story to colourful life, conjuring a world of infinite musical and emotional variety.

With its combination of enchanting love story and broad, burlesque comedy, Cendrillon is one of the great operatic fairy tales.

Cendrillon

“Falstaff” is the only comic opera, as well as the last opera, of Verdi’s production. At 1893 “Falstaff” made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala accompanied by a great success. “Falstaff’s” score abounds in musical experimentation like the pseudo-symphonic sonata-form that opens the first act, the fugue buffa that closes the opera. “Falstaff” is the work of an amusing and amused Verdi. After all, as the final theme reads: “Everything in the world is a joke. Man was born a joker”. In this way John Eliot Gardiner together with stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf are congenial to this witty opera after Shakespeare.

“Falstaff” is the only comic opera, as well as the last opera, of Verdi’s production.

Verdi: Falstaff

Official Selection Venice Film Festival, Benoît Jacquot’s acclaimed 2002 film of Puccini’s opera stars Angela Gheorghiu in the title role with Roberto Alagna, Ruggero Raimondi and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under Sir Antonio Pappano.

Acte I - The painter Mario Cavaradossi, who is working in Sant'Andrea della Valle Church, helps a political prisoner who has taken refuge there. He conceals the fact to Tosca a famous prima donna and his jealous mistress, who has come to meet him. Then he takes the prisoner to his villa just before the arrival of the head-policeman Scarpia. The latter, suspicious about Mario, makes Tosca believe that her lover is unfaithful, and Tosca is followed when she rushes to Mario's villa.

Acte II - Scarpia has dinner at Palazzo Farnese, where there is a celebration in which Tosca sings. Spoletta, Scarpia's right-hand man, arrives with Mario who has been arrested. The latter is tortured. Tosca, summoned by Scarpia, can't stand the torturing and reveals where the fugitive is hidden. Mario has deserved the death sentence, but Scarpia promises Tosca his life will be spared (his execution will only be simulated) provided she gives herself to him. Tosca pretends to consent but, when Scarpia comes near her, she stabs him.

Acte III - At down, Mario is waiting for his execution on the terrace-roof of Castel Sant'Angelo. Tosca arrives and tells him she killed Scarpia. His execution will be shammed, but he'll have to simulate death as best he can. The firing squad arrives and shoots at him, Mario falls down, the squad withdraws. Tosca runs to her lover: she realizes in horror he has been actually shot death! Spoletta comes up to arrest her, and Tosca hurls herself into empty space.

Benoît Jacquot’s acclaimed film of Puccini’s opera stars Angela Gheorghiu in the title role with Roberto Alagna and Ruggero Raimondi.

Tosca

Scottish Opera presents a groundbreaking new digital opera about a fiery family feud. 

A simple phone call triggers a fierce feud between brothers Angus and Kai, co-owners of The Narcissistic Fish restaurant. Amidst their heated exchange, Belle, an underpaid yet talented chef, has a profound revelation. 

This short, thought-provoking, work offers a unique opera experience. Filmed on an immersive set, composer Samuel Bordoli's evocative music intertwines seamlessly with Jenni Fagan's provocative libretto, unraveling a visceral saga that delves into the intersections of class, gender, and workplace pressures in 21st-century Scotland. 

Scottish Opera presents a groundbreaking new digital opera about a fiery family feud at The Narcissistic Fish restaurant.

The Narcissistic Fish

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

The debut feature film of leading opera director Kasper Holten (Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), DON GIOVANNI (JUAN) retells Mozart's classical masterpiece as a story of the modern man's escape from himself and his demons.

Juan (Christopher Maltman) is a famous artist and notorious playboy, thanks to his ability to become just what any woman dreams of. He turns his own life into a megalomanic work of art, playing the game of seduction like no other, driven by a manic restlessness that pushes him forward through an endless stream of conquests, betrayals, sex and eventually murder, with death lurking as the only possible outcome.

Every scene and detail has been adapted to make full use of the visual vocabulary of modern cinema, following such unorthodox inspirational sources as The Bourne Trilogy and Traffic, while at the same time maintaining the exceptional live experience of opera, since the actors really sing on set.

Don Giovanni (Juan) retells Mozart's classical masterpiece as a story of the modern man's escape from himself and his demons.

Don Giovanni (Juan)

Esteemed director Christof Loy presents a stunning new production of Strauss' intimate psychological opera, Arabella.

Loy's innovative staging highlights the dark side of Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal's comic opera with unnerving tact. Arabella's family is facing financial ruin, her own sister, Zdenka, has been raised as a boy to save the family the extravagant cost of introducing two daughters into society. Their only hope is to marry Arabella off to a wealthy man, but what she longs for is true love, and sometimes love can be blinding.  

With minimalistic staging and sleek elegant sets, Loy turns focus to Arabella's complicated cast of characters. Soprano Jacquelyn Wagner brings a haunting believability to the charming Arabella, most notably in her Act 1 aria Mein Elemer, and mezzo Sarah Defrise shines as the tragic Zdenka. 

Esteemed director Christof Loy presents a stunning new production of Strauss' intimate psychological opera, Arabella.

Arabella

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

Mozart’s masterpiece conducted by Giovanni Antonini on stage at La Scala with Michael Hampe’s staging.

Così Fan Tutte

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

The Barber of Seville

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