Andrea Chenier

Set in Paris immediately before and during the French Revolution, Andrea Chénier is Umberto Giordano’s passionate and most successful opera. Placido Domingo stars in the title role as the idealistic poet of the French Revolution, and Maddalena, the object of Chénier’s adoration, is portrayed by the Bulgarian soprano Anna Tomowa-Sintow. A servant-turned-revolutionary, Gérard, also loves Maddalena, and when he is elevated to the revolutionary court he wreaks his revenge against Chénier who is condemned to death. Maddalena joins Chénier in his cell and they go to the guillotine together. Gérard, torn between political and amorous loyalties, is the Italian baritone Giorgio Zancanaro. “Triumphantly successful” THE SUNDAY TIMES

Macbeth

Giuseppe Verdi’s powerful opera “Macbeth” received a fulminant staging at the newly reopened Staatsoper Unter den Linden by legendary stage director Harry Kupfer. In this new production superstars Plácido Domingo and Anna Netrebko were singing the title roles. Maestro Daniel Barenboim led the Staatskapelle Berlin portraying the many-layered motives of the opera’s characters “at their very best” (NZZ). This “magical moment of opera” (NZZ) was an “exhilarating success” (SZ). While Domingo “still fascinates the audience after decades” (rbb24), Netrebko performed “perhaps the best role of her life” yet (rbb24). Kwangchul Youn and Fabio Sartori shone as Banquo and Macduff. With monumental choral scenes, the Staatsopernchor did not only sing, but also play ist acting role brilliantly. With ist black marble halls and ist larger-than-life-projections, the stage design by Hans Schavernoch was striking. “A lot of cheering for this evening of legends.” (BR Klassik)

La Traviata

Verdi’s La traviata at the Chorégies d’Orange Festival on the open air stage of the ancient Roman Théâtre has all ingredients for a big success: a popular title, renowned artists with luxury voices, a tasteful staging and a great show in a stunning ambience – and it lived up to the expectations: “We have seen many La traviatas, and heard, but this one will rest in our memories” echoed the press after the first night. Placido Domingo in the role of Giorgio Germont is celebrating a triumphal return to the Festival after nearly four decades of absence. Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho, immediately elevated to “the queen of the Chorégies”, is a stunning Violetta at eye level with the great interpreters of this role, tenor Francesco Meli as a vibrant Alfredo completes the supreme cast.

La Fanciulla del West

Puccini’s penultimate opera, based on the play by David Belasco, and which marked a new stylish departure for him, is set at the height of the notorious Californian Gold Rush. The orchestration and musical colour of this opera represent a major advance on Puccini’s previous work, especially in the careful interweaving of Western elements into an altogether larger canvas than anything he had tackled before. In this recording Piero Faggioni’s highly detailed staging is matched by Ken Adam’s superbly atmospheric sets. Carol Neblett sings the role of Minnie – ‘The Girl of the Golden West’ – Placido Domingo is as ignitable as ever in the role of Dick Johnson, alias the bandit Ramirez, and Silvano Carroli is the sinister Sheriff, Jack Rance.

Manon Lescaut

Manon Lescaut is one of the world’s great love stories. It is a tragic tale of a beguiling young woman, torn between true love and a desire for wealth, who discovers she can’t have both. A young student, Des Grieux, meets the beautiful, but capricious, Manon. They fall in love and he saves her from abduction by a rich old roué. But Manon cannot resist the lure of wealth and later allows herself to be seduced by the old man. Before long, however, she is bored, and when Des Grieux appears, her love is reignited. When the old man catches them together, Manon is arrested and deported to Louisiana. The compassionate ship’s captain allows Des Grieux to go with her, and she dies in his arms in the desert.

I due Foscari

Acclaim for La Scala’s new Foscari: “Plácido Domingo is the definitive Francesco of recent times” (Financial Times).” Here is Plácido Domingo’s latest conquest: the leading baritone role of Francesco Foscari in Verdi’s darkly atmospheric, melodically generous early opera, based on Lord Byron’s play. Set in 15th-century Venice, I due Foscari is the forerunner of Simon Boccanegra, and Domingo’s triumph as the Doge set the seal on this critically lauded new production from Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the ultimate Verdi shrine. Declaring the legendary singer “the definitive Francesco of recent times”, the Financial Times’s reviewer also had high praise for the rest of La Scala’s superb cast, from “Andrea Concetti’s solid Loredano, to the immaculate Francesco Meli in a perfect match for Jacopo. Anna Pirozzi makes a triumphant house debut as Lucrezia. She wins hearts and minds through fearsome dramatisation and thrilling vocal power. But the revelation of the night is [conductor] Michele Mariotti.”

Madama Butterfly

Director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (1932-1988) has been called “a weaver of magic, a curator of the sublime, a master choreographer, a footlose farceur” (The Wall Street Journal). One of the most imaginative director- designers of our times, Ponnelle was also the first significant opera director to have a large portion of his work preserved on film. In his chilling and poignant account of “Madama Butterfly”, he tried to use all the typical resources of film such as flashbacks, slow motion and “inner monologues”, where the singers do not move their lips to sing. Under the direction of Herbert von Karajan, the stellar cast includes Mirella Freni, Placido Domingo and Christa Ludwig.

Tosca

Filmed in the authentic Roman locations specified in the score, this “Tosca” absolutely pulsates with tension and excitement. The first act was shot in the splendid Baroque church of Sant’Andrea della Valle. The second act was filmed in papal apartments in the Castel Sant’Angelo resembling those in the Palazzo Farnese, which is now the French Embassy and off- limits to film teams. The final act was filmed on the banks of the Tiber and on the ramparts of the ancient Castel Sant’Angelo. Raina Kabaivanska is a memorable Tosca, restless, jealously provocative and powerfully determined. With Plácido Domingo’s heroically passionate portrayal of Cavaradossi and Sherrill Milnes’ ruthless and eruptively sensual Scarpia, this “Tosca” is a winner.