In “Die ersten Menschen” (The first humans), the Bible story of the fratricide of Kajin (Cain) and Chabel (Abel) is presented from a different perspective. In the context of the first family on earth, Adahm (Adam) is concerned with cultivating the…

What if our minds could live forever? Recent advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience mean that we will soon be able to map our memories and experiences, and to use these data to build a digital consciousness identical with our own. These…

A founding text of German operatic Romanticism and an absolute masterpiece of musical theatre, Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber has not been performed at La Scala since 1998, when it was conducted by Donald Runnicles, but it is worthwhile…

For the Easter Festival 2017 in Baden-Baden, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker draw their inspiration from Tosca, the most well-known and also most brilliant of all the Puccini operas. And that is deservedly so, since Tosca is not…

A rococo beauty who ultimately drags everything into the abyss, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut is never fully satisfied. She becomes addicted to the admiring glances she receives from others, and the luxury and diamonds in which she bathes don’t warm her…

Filmed in June 2013 during three extraordinary performances that took place during the Aldeburgh Festival, "Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach" takes place in the heart of the town that inspired it and is the film interpretation of Britten’s Peter…

At the age of 75, one of the leading figures on the 20th century music, Philip Glass, is composing a new work for the Teatro Real. "The Perfect American", imagining the final months of the life of Walt Disney - the person who has, more than any other…

Antonín Dvořák’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…

Requiring huge forces, Die Frau ohne Schatten boasts perhaps Strauss's most sumptuous score, poignantly illuminating the magic, mystery and earthy warmth of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's characters. Led by Valery Gergiev, this epic production from St…

Prokofiev flows in the veins of the Mariinsky Theatre’s musicians, and has moreover done so for a long time; and the fact that, under Gergiev’s baton, the orchestra and the opera company performed all of Sergei Prokofiev’s symphonies, all of his…