On Wednesday, October 16th, Dmitri Hvorostovsky's birthday, the Festival officially opens with a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Messa da Requiem.

Compelling love duets, escalating conflicts and arias bursting with virtuosity and emotion. In his three Tudor Queens operas, bel canto master Gaetano Donizetti composed at the top of his game. In this concert, an international cast takes you on an…

The composer of Hansel and Gretel, Engelbert Humperdinck, was born in Germany in 1854. In the 1890s, his sister, Adelheid Wette, had written a libretto based on the Grimm fairy tale, and asked her brother to set it to music as a Christmas…

This live recording, from the Munich Philharmonie, features a programme of orchestral works and operatic arias by composers including Beethoven, Berg, Prokofiev, Giordano, Rossini and Verdi. Gustav Kuhn conducts the European Community Youth Orchestra…

Franz Lehár’s “Die Lustige Witwe” is reputed to be one of the most famous operettes in the world. Under the direction of the French Jerome Savary's the “Merry Widow” sparkles. At the first staging of this production at the Opera-Comique in Paris…

On the eve of its 300th birthday, St. Petersburg, Russia's fabled "window to Europe", celebrates this anniversary presenting a gala of distinguished musical art featuring Anna Netrebko, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Mischa Maisky and many others. Yuri…

Be it Andalusian flamenco, which arose in exchange with Moorish traditions, passions unleashed in close contact to the Provence in France, or Latin America’s musical life, which flourishes at the other end of the Atlantic Ocean: the Berliner…

In 2001, during the Verdi commemorative year, some of the finest singers of our time assembled in Parma to honour the maestro’s memory in a gala of distinguished singing art. From the start, Verdi had the opera composer’s most necessary gift, the…

Orchestras once played Bach as well as Bruckner. Only specialised ensembles showed that note and performance signs have changed their meaning quite a bit over the centuries. So far, so theoretical: in practice, Handel's "Il Trionfo" awaits us, a…

Stravinsky found the inspiration for his work in sources ranging from Greek Orthodox liturgy to his beloved Verdi.