The Anonymous Lover — LA Opera

‘La course à l’abîme’ is a depiction of the final ride into hell from ‘La Damnation de Faust’ (1846) by Hector Berlioz.

This ever-popular opera is given a fresh point of view in Barrie Kosky’s highly physical production, originally created for Frankfurt Opera. The Australian director is one of the world’s most sought-after opera directors, whose Royal Opera debut with Shostakovich’s The Nose in 2016 was greeted with delight. For Carmen he has devised a far-from-traditional version, incorporating music written by Bizet for the score but not usually heard, and giving a new voice to the opera’s endlessly fascinating central character.

Members of an opera company performing Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" find their lives parallel those of the characters.

From the gorgeous scene deep in the river Rhine that opens the opera, up to the magic Rainbow Bridge that appears at the end, leading to a glistening Valhalla, Otto Schenk’s production captures the scenic world of Wagner’s Ring as brilliantly as James Levine and the Met orchestra capture the musical world. The cast is incomporable: an astounding James Morris as the young god Wotan, the great Christa Ludwig as his wife Fricka, incandescent Siegfried Jerusalem as Loge, the wily god of fire, and Ekkehard Wlaschiha as a complex Alberich.

Janáček's three-act opera Katya Kabanova, staged by Barrie Kosky and staged at the Felsenreitschule by Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša with an international cast of soloists, was performed on August 7 at the 2022 Salzburg Festival. The story takes place in Kalinovo on the banks of the Volga in the 1860s. In an orchard, the young teacher Kudrjáš admires the view of the countryside and the river. The idyll is disturbed by the angry rise of the merchant Dikoy and his nephew Boris. His unhappiness is compounded by his hopeless love for a married woman - Katerina Kabanova. Katja is also not happy in her marriage, because she lives with her weak husband Tikhon and her despotic mother-in-law Kabanicha. The latter commands her son,

A 120-participant tableau vivant by Sarah Small.

Joan Sutherland's farewell performance to the operatic stage offsets this story of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and the magnificence of 16th century France.

Opera superstar Cecilia Bartoli offers her first operatic release on DVD in 12 years, and also her first opera in English. Bartoli stars as Semele (a role usually taken by a soprano) in Handel s late opera, which features such well-known arias as Endless pleasure, endless love, Myself I shall adore, and Oh sleep, why dost though leave me? Robert Carsen s stylish modern dress production hints at parallels with the problematic relationship between the late Princess Diana and the British Royal Family. Recorded live at the Zurich Opera House in January, 2007.

This performance, taped for TV in 1967, has many of the most famous singers in the German orbit of the time, mostly in prime form, in roles that suit them, a great conductor in his prime, and is a well thought out production. Don Carlos is given in German, in the four act version with the usual cuts of that era and some extra cuts (the royal procession in the first scene is gone, the middle of the garden scene is gone, cuts are made in all the ensembles in the auto da fe scene, there is a snip - not the biggest I've heard - in the final Carlos/Elisabetta duet - and finally the very end is rewritten by unknown hands - the Grand Inquisitor grasps Carlos, Elisabetta faints (so no Friar, identification of the Friar as Charles V, and no final B flat.)

This film takes us behind the scenes of the magical events of the world famous Vienna State Opera. These one-of-a-kind scenes and fast-paced, brilliant moments are intense, vivid, full of passion and captivating music.

An orphan (Eight-year-old boy soprano Bobby Breen) gets a chance to sing opera in New York.