Das Rheingold is the prologue to Wagner's Ring cycle, and opens up the rich world of gods, dwarves, giants, dragons and humans that the story inhabits. With beautiful orchestration and an unerring sense of the dramatic, the first opera explains how…

The Berlin Philharmonics conducted by Simon Rattle in an unrivaled new Fidelio production, stage directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff from the Salzburg Easter Festival 2003 with Thomas Quasthoff (Don Fernando), Alan Held (Don Pizarro), Jon Villars…

The impressive and breathtaking scenery of the wild-romantic Roman quarry of St. Margarethen provides the perfect and unique backdrop for these live-recording of a colourful open-air staging of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida. These staging of Verdi's most…

The Great Mass is the spiritual keystone of a choreographic undertaking in which Uwe Scholz absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass. He adds to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's unfinished Great Mass in C minor other works by the same composer, such…

Celebrate a double premier at the Leipzig Opera on November 2005. Riccardo Chailly directs Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” for the first time in his function as General Music Director of the Leipzig Opera. “Un Ballo in Maschera” is as exciting as a…

Bizet’s Carmen is reputed to be the most famous opera in the world. Maestro Daniel Barenboim presents his musical view on this classic opera. Marina Domashenko's rich mezzo-soprano voice makes her ideal for the title role in Carmen. After the…

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…

João Gilberto is winner of two Grammy awards and nominee for six, he is one of the most important figures in Brazilian music and the grandmaster of bossa nova. His first and only approved live video was taped in November 2006 at the age of 75 in…

This exciting open-air staging of Nabucco was one of the classical highlights in summer 2007. The vast production of the Verdi masterpiece at St. Margarethen took place amidst the intoxicating scenery of a rustically romantic Roman quarry, which…

Welcome to Mahagonny, where sin is “in” and love is always on sale. This Old West boomtown rises from the desert to become a razzle-dazzle mecca for lust, liberty, and the pursuit of pleasure. Cash is king, poverty is punishable by death, and…