What a strange idea Mondonville had! Based on a cruel fable by La Fontaine with a tragic ending, he wrote a charming opera libretto with a happy ending, and composed a delightful pastoral. In the prologue, Dame Clémence Isaure, the mythical founder…

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…

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…

Witness a concert experience of magical dimensions, when the Danish National Symphony Orchestra opens the door to a wealth of fantasy universes where dragons and dwarfs, trumpet players and violinists cross blades and sounds in a world of flames and…

With an introduction by Sir John Gielgud, this first-rate performance took place at the Winchester Cathedral.

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.

Herbert Blomstedt appears with the Gewandhaus Orchestra for the last time as the Gewandhaus Music Director in this recording. After seven successful years in Leipzig, the maestro performs a work in the Thomas Church that is especially dear to him…

A hand-picked ensemble of soloists join together with the Gächinger Kantorei and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart under the direction of Helmuth Rilling to give a truly definitive performance of this pre-eminent masterwork.