One of Puccini’s most popular works, Madama Butterfly contains some of the composer’s loveliest music. Its themes of love and heartbreak are common in almost every human experience and its plethora of beautiful melodies make it immediately attractive to audiences everywhere. This superb Verona production is memorable both visually and musically, and brilliantly evokes the opera’s Japanese setting. Raina Kabaivanska as the tragic heroine and Nazzareno Antinori as her American husband Pinkerton, who deserts her, give performances that capture the profound but elegant drama of the work.
Mefistofele
From the San Francisco Opera 1989: Samuel Ramey’s powerful bass voice and compelling stage presence make him unforgettable in the demonic title role of Boito’s version of the Faust legend, a jewel of the nineteenth-century repertoire. Robert Carsen’s sumptuous production, steeped in a vivid and timeless symbolism, “breathes a sensitivity to the music and to Boito’s intentions that is rare on the operatic stage” (New York Times). Dennis O’Neill sings Faust, with Gabriela Benacková as Margherita. (Sung in Italian)
L’africaine
Plácido Domingo, as Vasco da Gama, and Shirley Verrett, as the African queen whom he has enslaved, star in Meyerbeer’s spectacular grand opera, in a colourfully exotic production by Lotfi Mansouri, under the sensitive musical direction of Maurizio Arena. The visual splendour of Wolfram Skalicki’s designs matches the vocal distinction of the cast: “Domingo was the honeyed, ringing Gama of everyone’s expectations, Verrett as lustrous and inward a Sélika as ever, Ruth Ann Swenson a gem-like Inès” (Opera Magazine).
Highlights from Arena di Verona
Some of the opera world’s greatest artists are featured in extracts from works by Verdi and Puccini, performed at Italy’s spectacular Arena di Verona. Extracts from Tosca, Otello, Il Trovatore, Turandot