From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden 1991 Bizet’s much-loved opera, a fateful story of jealousy and passion, was staged at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in a quintessentially Spanish production by the eminent director Nuria Espert, with designs by Gerardo Vera and costumes by Franca Squarciapino. Zubin Mehta conducts an outstanding cast, with Luis Lima as Don José, Gino Quilico as Escamillo, Leontina Vaduva as Micaela and starring the sensational Maria Ewing, aloof and magnetic, in the title role she has made her own. (Sung in French)
Les Contes d’Hoffmann
This production from the Chorégies d’Orange Festival, one of the festivals with the longest and richest traditions in France, is directed by the French conductor Michel Plasson, whose interpretation of the operatic works by Offenbach, Gounod and Massenet were considered to be the most excellent of our time. Performing is baritone José van Dam, one of today’s most famous and sought after interpreters of the bass-baritone repertoire.