Based on Hogarth's series of prints, "The Rake's Progress" combines the eighteenth century with the twentieth. The highly individualized set of this production, designed by David Hockney, reflects perfectly the "spikiness" of the music, combined with…

The Czech composer based his libretto on the play "Le Voyage de Thésée" by his friend and trusted source of inspiration, Georges Neveux. Martinu is said to have written the opera for Maria Callas. In this production, the role is sung by the…

The dissolute knight, Sir John Falstaff, unable to pay his bills at the Garter Inn, decides to exert his charms on Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, wives of wealthy merchants. The two women, aided by Mistress Quickly, devise a plot to outwit him. But…

Recorded during the "Schwetzinger Festspiele" 1989 in the cathedral of Speyer.

This film is a perfomance of the work recorded in Tokyo during the Deutsche Oper Berlin's 1993 Japan tour in Götz Friedrich's highly respected, much-discussed staging.

Deliberate confusion in 18th-century Seville which is entangled with three marriages blessed by the monks of the monastery. After performances at the famous 'Stars of the White Nights'Festival held in St. Petersburg and the 1991 - 92 festival…

A magnificent Christmas concert, with music ranging from motets to popular Christmas standards, performed by Leipzig's world famous boys' choir. A fascinating half-hour documentary examines the history of the choir from its foundation in the early…

Sir Peter Hall's outstanding Glyndebourne Festival Opera production of "Fidelio" remains remarkably faithful to the way Beethoven intended the opera to be. He managed to inject fresh excitement and suspense into "Fidelio", providing a perfect…

Rossini's popular work - which was first performed in 1816 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome - contains some of opera's most tuneful and recognizable music - from its lively overture to Figaro's Largo al factotum to Rosina's Una voce poco fa. Based on…

The principal conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle, performs music by J. S. Bach. Together with the marvelous Berlin orchestra, the conductor takes on Bach's splendid St John's Passion. The solo voice parts are sung by the…