German composer Richard Wagner was notoriously anti-Semitic, and his writings on Jews were later embraced by Hitler and the Nazis. But there is another, lesser-known side to this story. For years, many of Wagner‘s closest associates were Jews - young…

In 1995, the French director Frédéric Mitterrand adapted Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly for cinema. This documentary follows the most significant and spectacular stages of the making of Madame Butterfly: the American conductor James Conlon working…

George Kentros and Mattias Petersson in a live performance of their recomposition of Vivaldi’s "Four Seasons" for violin and live electronics. Originally the album was released 2008 and the biggest Swedish daily paper Dagens Nyheter named this…

Based on the story by H. C. Andersen, “The Nightingale” was transposed for opera by Igor Stravinsky who both composed the music and wrote the lyrics. This new adaptation using computer animation transposes the opera into a world ruled by the power of…

Iolanta and Perséphone - A double bill consisting of two stage works that “represent an ideal of beauty, poetry and hope” forms this new production in Madrid from the Teatro Real. In both works the progression from darkness to light acts as an…

In this pilot to a new series about the European musical heritage, soul musician Joy Denalane embarks on a journey to Austria to encounter the world of folk music. For centuries, this musical genre has provided a vital space for love and romanticism…

In 1994, 54-year old José Van Dam undertook to play the role of Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca for the first time, a part that he had refused repeatedly in the past. In April 1995 in Liège, the singer met again with stage director Nicolas Joel for the…

The three Sonatinas Opus 137 were written in 1816, one of Schubert’s happiest and most prolific years. He modelled them on the Sonatas of Mozart, but they are full of unmistakable Schubertian lyricism which was much admired by Brahms. The arpeggione…

This one-hour film shows how Mozart successfully elevated 'opera seria', or courtly opera, to a compelling spectacle, where the beauty and richness of musical invention go hand in hand with the arousal of a particular emotion, both intense and…

"The Tales of Hoffmann" (Les Contes d'Hoffmann) was first performed on February 10, 1881, at Paris's Opéra Comique. Offenbach had labored over his great work for almost a decade, but died on October 5, 1880, just months before its première. Over the…