Forbidden love, wrongdoings and anguish: the Opernhaus Zürich ventures into late 19th-century French romanticism with “Werther“ by French composer Jules Massenet. A loose adaptation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epistolary novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, the opera is conducted by Germany’s Cornelius Meister. It tells the story of the impossible union of poet Werther to Charlotte, a woman of duty already promised to a wealthy businessman.Goethe’s drama is echoed in Massenet’s score by emotionally wide-ranging vocal parts written on a grand scale.

A loose adaptation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epistolary novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, composed by Jules Massenet. 

Werther

Don Giovanni is the second of Mozart’s landmark collaborations with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (after The Marriage of Figaro and before Così fan tutte). In it, they created a work that has beguiled and entranced in equal measure since its premiere in 1787. Perfectly situated, as no other opera, between tragedy and comedy, this potent drama combines glorious music with a seductive central character who is endlessly fascinating in his complexity. Kasper Holten’s 2014 production for The Royal Opera casts Don Giovanni as an artist who thrives on an audience enticed by his creative gifts. The visually spectacular set by award-winning designer Es Devlin features ingenious video designs by Luke Halls which provide an insight into the characters’ thoughts and emotions. But at the production’s heart are the beauty and invention of Mozart’s dazzling score.

Kasper Holten’s 2014 production for The Royal Opera House casts Don Giovanni as an artist who thrives on an audience enticed by his creative gifts.

Don Giovanni

Victory makes Radamès a hero, but tangles his Ethiopian lover Aida in a dangerous royal love triangle and a very personal war.

Aida

“Falstaff” is the only comic opera, as well as the last opera, of Verdi’s production. At 1893 “Falstaff” made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala accompanied by a great success. “Falstaff’s” score abounds in musical experimentation like the pseudo-symphonic sonata-form that opens the first act, the fugue buffa that closes the opera. “Falstaff” is the work of an amusing and amused Verdi. After all, as the final theme reads: “Everything in the world is a joke. Man was born a joker”. In this way John Eliot Gardiner together with stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf are congenial to this witty opera after Shakespeare.

“Falstaff” is the only comic opera, as well as the last opera, of Verdi’s production.

Verdi: Falstaff

The Royal Opera House stages one of Verdi’s - and opera’s - most beloved productions, La Traviata.

The timeless tale follows the tragic love story of a courtesan, Violetta, who is prepared to sacrifice everything for the man she loves, Alfredo. Torn apart by society and class, Verdi’s dramatic masterpiece has been the inspiration behind modern Hollywood classics including Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge. 

Experience Verdi’s La Traviata, the inspiration behind Moulin Rouge, lovingly staged at London’s Royal Opera House.

La Traviata

Described by Tchaikovsky as ‘lyric scenes’, Eugene Onegin receives a spectacular reinterpretation from the Norwegian director Stefan Herheim. His productions create controversy and excitement around Europe, and here he takes Pushkin’s story of illusion, disaffection and frustrated love and places the protagonists – world-weary Onegin and naïve, passionate Tatyana – in a triple temporal perspective, referencing the theatrical present, the period of the work’s composition and the pageant of Russia’s history.  Mariss Jansons, renowned for his mastery of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, conducts this performance from Amsterdam’s Muziektheater.

Stefan Herheim delivers a spectacular reinterpretation of Pushkin’s story, with Bo Stovhus and Krassimira Stoyanova leading the cast.

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin

Riccardo Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini is a four-act opera set during the Renaissance period. The plot concerns an arranged marriage between Francesca and Giovanni, also known as Gianciotto, who is impersonated by his handsome brother Paolo, and with whom Francesca falls passionately in love. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Italian Tristan’, the opera ends in betrayal and a double murder. The production of this rarely performed opera from the Deutsche Oper Berlin proved to be a huge critical success.

Riccardo Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini is a four-act opera set during the Renaissance period.

Francesca da Rimini

Pinkerton returns to the US and finds a “real” American wife, while Butterfly waits with unshakeable faith for him to return to the house on the harbour.

Pinkerton returns to the US and finds a “real” wife, while Butterfly waits with unshakeable faith for him to return to the house on the harbour.

Madama Butterfly

Teatro Regio's 2013 revival of their highly successful 2006 production of Verdi's Don Carlo celebrates the 40th anniversary of the theatre's 1973 reopening. With traditional staging and lavish costume design, the production garnered high acclaim in the national and international press. Shown here in the four-act version, Don Carlo is the fascinating tale of father-son power struggles, adultery and love that borders on incest. The cast under the powerful baton of Gianandrea Noseda is headed by renowned Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas, and also features Ludovic Tézier, who has been hailed as one of the best Verdian singers of our time.

Don Carlo is the fascinating tale of father-son power struggles, adultery and love that borders on incest.

Verdi: Don Carlo

The ‘sheer visual sophistication’ of Annabel Arden’s Barbiere serves ‘a triumphant celebration of Rossini’s musical genius’, featuring de Niese’s ‘powerfully sung’ Rosina, Bürger’s ‘gale-force’ Figaro and Stayton’s ‘pure and mellifluous’ Almaviva – a leading trio ‘musically and dramatically beyond compare’ ( The Independent). Contributing to the ‘ensemble precision’, the rest of the cast includes a ‘scene-stealing’ Berta in Kelly, a ‘suavely unctuous’ Basilio from Stamboglis andCorbelli’s Bartolo, ‘an object lesson in comic understatement’ (The Guardian). With Enrique Mazzola at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, ‘the score bubbles along on a Puckish current of merry mischief’ (The Telegraph).

The ‘sheer visual sophistication’ of Annabel Arden’s Barbiere serves ‘a triumphant celebration of Rossini’s musical genius

The Barber of Seville

Mozart’s masterpiece conducted by Giovanni Antonini on stage at La Scala with Michael Hampe’s staging.

Così Fan Tutte

Glyndebourne’s wartime history as a home for evacuee children is the ingenious context for a new production of this unclassifiable entertainment in which low comedy and high tragedy compete for our attention, ‘borne aloft by Strauss’s divine music and Hofmannsthal’s visionary poetry’. At the centre of this production from Katharina Thoma is the noble, tragic figure of the abandoned Ariadne herself, in a haunting performance from Soile Isokoski, ‘with brilliant support from the pit’ (The Independent).

Glyndebourne’s wartime history as a home for evacuee children is the ingenious context for a new production of this unclassifiable tale.

Carmen

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