Luciano Pavarotti heads an exceptional cast in this spectacular live recording from La Scala, Milan, with Ghena Dimitrova, Maria Chiara, Nicolai Ghiaurov and Juan Pons, all in peak form. Luca Ronconi’s magnificent production of Verdi’s much-loved masterpiece was a triumphant success, with Mauro Pagano’s monumental settings capturing perfectly the imposing grandeur of the land of the Pharaohs and the ochre hues of the desert. Lorin Maazel conducts.
I Pagliacci
“Pagliacci” is often celebrated as one of the finest examples of verismo, or realist opera. It is even based on a true story: Leoncavallo’s father, a judge, once presided over the trial of an actor who, in a fit of jealousy, murdered his wife immediately following a performance. “Pagliacci” is frequently performed along with Mascagni’s one-acter “Cavalleria Rusticana”. Both works are strongly linked with the name of Franco Zeffirelli, the great stage and film director who has been infusing the operatic repertoire with grace, elegance and poignancy. Both his Emmy Award-winning production of “Pagliacci” and his “Cavalleria” feature international star tenor Placido Domingo.
The Aida File
This film chronicles the life and times of Verdi and the history of one of his best-loved operas. It includes extensive extracts from the triumphant La Scala production starring Pavarotti, archive film of notable Aida productions from the past, and contributions from some of the great singers who have a special affection for this work – Pavarotti, Carlo Bergonzi, Grace Bumbry and Eva Turner among them.
Aida
From the ancient Teatro Greco in Taormina, the ‘pearl of the Ionian Sea’, comes this visually and vocally impressive open-air production of Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘Aida’. Evoking a’Spielberg film’ (Quotidiano.net), stage and video director Enrico Castiglione projects video images upon the columns and ruins of the 3rd-century B.C. amphitheater, creating a breathtaking virtual backdrop of Egyptian pillars and palms that opens onto the ‘Nile’, in this case, the Ionian Sea.
La fanciulla del West
Like “Madama Butterfly,” Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La fanciulla del west” was based on a stage play by the American author David Belasco. At its triumphal world premiere in 1910 in New York, Enrico Caruso sang the part of Johnson.
Puccini: Il tabarro (Kerstmatinee 1998)
From the main hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam: Riccardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra perfoming Puccini’s opera in one act, ‘Il tabarro’. Joining them is a great cast of high-class singers. Amongst them star tenor José Cura.