Verdi’s opera is set at the time of the first Crusade and tells of the rivalry between two brothers, Arvino and Pagano, for the love of Viclinda. Pagano, in an attempt to abduct Viclinda and kill his brother, in error murders his father. He is exiled to the Holy Land to live as a hermit. Giselda, Arvino’s daughter, has gone with her father on the Crusade, but is captured by Acciano, tyrant of Antioch. She falls in love with his son Oronte. They escape, but Oronte is wounded and dies. The hermit leads the attack on Jerusalem and then reveals his identity to Arvino, dying forgiven in his brother’s arms.
Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
Matthew Bourne’s triumphant modern re-interpretation of Swan Lake, with its cast of male swans, has turned tradition upside down and taken the ballet fraternity by storm. Never has such a contemporary re-working of a traditional ballet thrilled both ardent critics and modern dance enthusiasts in such equal measure. “Matthew Bourne has turned Swan Lake on its head, he has given it a sex change and catapulted it into another universe … some of the best performances you will ever see on a ballet stage. It will be a great big hit” The Times
The Makropulos Case
Based on a play by Karel Capek, The Makropulos Case focuses on the issue of longevity – the pros and cons of living for 337 years, as happens to the mysterious Emilia Marty, the sexually irresistible prima donna who’s seen it all and done it all. Part grotesque human comedy, part profound personal tragedy, Janácek’s opera examines the eternal mystery of human existence with uniquely life-enhancing vision. “Anja Silja’s Emilia Marty in Makropulos at Glyndebourne is a nonpareil triumph… This is a near-perfect production by Nikolaus Lehnhoff” Wall Street Journal
Bolshoi Ballet – Live in the Park
Bolshoi is Russian for great, an often over-worked adjective, but in the case of the Bolshoi Ballet, it is a worthy description of the world’s most famous ballet company. On this tour to the UK, the Bolshoi proved that it is a company of absolutes, in flamboyance and daring, brilliance and technical execution; and these triumphant qualities are captured for posterity in a divertissement programme which shows off the Bolshoi’s top ranking soloists at their bravura best.
La Fille mal gardée
Frederick Ashton’s delightful ballet has proved irresistible to audiences of all ages and The Royal Ballet’s production has immediate appeal for newcomers to ballet as well as for those who return time and again to enjoy its lyrical comedy. It is a ballet set in the English countryside, telling how Lise manages to win the hand of the man she loves – the young farmer, Colas – despite her mother’s determination to marry her off to the dim-witted son of a wealthy vineyard owner. This is one of the great masterpieces of The Royal Ballet’s repertory, created by Frederick Ashton, set amid the witty designs of Osbert Lancaster, with Hérold’s delightful melodies to inspire the performances by some of the Company’s leading artists.
Solti conducts Haydn: The Creation
Haydn’s oratorio Die Schöpfung (The Creation) is one of the enduring miracles of classical music: a work of visionary scope and life-affirming freshness, created by a composer approaching his 70th birthday. Sir Georg Solti was nearing the end of his long and extraordinary career when he made this unique recording under studio conditions in the Herkulessaal, Munich – and in the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, he could hardly have had more inspirational collaborators. With a trio of handpicked soloists, the result is a performance with an unforgettable atmosphere: a deeply moving meeting of two of music’s most irrepressible spirits.
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny
It took 68 years for [Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt] Mahagonny to come to the Salzburg Festival, but it arrived in style. In Peter Zadek’s bold 1998 production the denizens of Brecht and Weill’s sin city crowd the vast stage of the Grosses Festspielhaus, and conductor Dennis Russell Davies brings an uncompromising zest and grit to the playing of the Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. But Weill was always adamant that Mahagonny is an “epic opera”, and Salzburg never stints on that score. Catherine Malfitano and Jerry Hadley head a cast that stars Dame Gywyneth Jones as Widow Begbick: performances exactly as outsized, and as gripping, as Weill demanded.
Iphigenie en Tauride
The goddess Diana has spared Iphigenia from a cruel fate – but now, in a remote and savage land, the young princess faces an even more terrible choice. Gluck is 18th-century opera’s forgotten revolutionary, and with its uncompromising emotions and dramatic power his 1779 tragedy Iphigénie en Tauride inspired composers from Mozart to Berlioz. In 2001, for the Zurich Opera, director Claus Guth and 18th-century music specialist William Christie stripped it back to its timeless, mythic essentials. Juliette Galstian and Rodney Gilfry head a hand-picked cast in a period-inspired staging charged with ritual, grandeur and unchained passion.
Nina
Crazy in love: Mozart was a fan of the operas of Giovanni Paisiello and in the years after its premiere in 1789, Nina took Europe by storm. Its blend of melody, playfulness and pathos is just as potent today, and in 2002 this stylish new staging by Cesare Lievi for the Zurich Opera brought Paisiello a new generation of admirers. Conductor Adam Fischer brings out all its freshness and emotion, and with a cast that includes Cecilia Bartoli at the height of her powers as the lovelorn Nina, as well a young Jonas Kaufmann, Paisiello has never sounded more compelling.
Il Turco in Italia
A romantic poet, a gypsy girl, a spirited young wife and an Ottoman pasha: throw them together under the blue skies of Naples and the result is an opera buffa that’s precisely as fizzy and as farcical as you’d imagine from Rossini at the absolute top of his game. Il Turco in Italia is exuberant (and distinctly spicy) fun in the sun and Cesare Lievi’s delightful, candy-coloured 2002 staging from the Zurich Opera House has a cast to die for: with Cecilia Bartoli, no less, as the capricious Fiorilla and the veteran Ruggiero Raimondi exuding charisma and warmth as the Turk Selim.