Vera Nemirova’s challenging production of Berg’s operatic masterpiece Lulu won critical acclaim when first seen at the Salzburg Festival in 2010. It was successfully repeated in 2011, when the production was filmed for DVD. Supporting Nemirova’s…

Alban Berg is recasting Büchner’s fragmentary drama in the form of three self-contained acts by drawing on existing musical genres and traditional styles, by quoting various types of songs and dance forms and, by reverting to earlier compositional…

This magnificent DVD-Box includes 3 incredible American works for the lyric stage from San Francisco Opera: Moby Dick, Show Boat and Porgy and Bess. Moby Dick: Herman Melville’s epic tale of a fierce, obsessive whaling-boat captain who descends into…

Tchaikowsky’s “Merchant of Venice” offers proof of David Pountney’s eye for buried gems of the opera literature. The tried and trusted team behind Keith Warner and an elite cast make the posthumous premiere at 2013’s Bregenz Festival “a restitution…

Antonín Dvorák’s next to last opera draws its substance from the underwater wonderland of little mermaids, Undines and Melusines: Rusalka, a water nymph, wishes to become human in order to be loved by the young prince. Despite being warned against it…

Thunderous applause and loud cries of “bravo” greeted the première of Beethoven’s Fidelio at the inaugural performance of the first opera season in Valencia’s new Palau de les Arts. With this spectacular production directed by Pierluigi Pier’Alli,…

Bizet’s passionate tale of the self-willed gypsy woman Carmen is certainly one of the most popular works in the history of opera. It shows how a cigar factory worker in Seville enchants and bewitches the men around her. Melodies like Carmen’s…

In this live recording from 2009, Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila − a story of doomed love set against the backdrop of cultural conflict between Hebrews and Philistines − is reinterpreted to relate with the conflicts in today’s Middle East. ‘In our…

When Korean composer Unsuk Chin’s opera was first performed by the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, it caused a sensation among music critics worldwide. Based on Lewis Carroll’s famous and fascinatingly enigmatic novel Alice in Wonderland, it is a…

In the Gluck-Year 2014 the Teatro Real in Madrid celebrated the outstanding success of the esteemed director Krysztof Warlikowski’s newly produced staging of „Alceste“, under the musical baton of Ivor Bolton. (Premiers on the 7th of February 2014). A…