The Metropolitan Opera: Turandot (2016)

The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca

Extraordinary soprano Lise Davidsen stars as the volatile diva Floria Tosca for the first time at the Met. David McVicar’s thrilling production also features tenor Freddie De Tommaso in his eagerly anticipated company debut as Tosca’s revolutionary lover, Cavaradossi, and powerhouse baritone Quinn Kelsey as the sadistic chief of police Scarpia. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the electrifying score, which features some of Puccini’s most memorable melodies. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to movie theaters across the globe.

Return

After reading an article about hypnotic regression, a woman whose maternal grandfather died when she was only three years old contacts the hypnotic subject named in the article believing that he is the reincarnation of her grandfather, and hoping that she can learn the truth about how he died.

Return

"Behind every strong man is a strong woman!", Mumine shouts as her husband is arrested. She has 4 children, she's in her mid-30s, and she's the wife of a Crimean Tatar political prisoner. Muslim Crimean Tatars have been oppressed for a long time. They were deported under Stalin, allowed to return under Gorbachev, and since the occupation of Crimea in 2014 under Putin, they are being persecuted again. "Return" is a portrait of Mumine and Maye, two strong women struggling with the consequences of oppression. Their traditional understanding of their role as women does not stand in the way of their dedication. They possess strength, beauty and dignity. Only in their most intimate moments, they are overwhelmed by desperate helplessness.

Donten: Laughing Under the Clouds - Gaiden: Chapter 3 - Conspiracy of the Military

The three brothers discover that the human experiment banned after destroying the "Orochi", is still going on to secretly revive the evil snake. They also find out that some ex-members of the Yamainu (the Japanese military unit formed to kill the snake) are behind this conspiracy. The brothers fight together again in a battle against the military.

Janma Bhoomi

Janma Bhoomi is a compelling Nepali film that celebrates culture, family, and the triumph of good over greed. Arjun and Krishna, two brothers unaware of their bond, face Kuber Agarwal, a wealthy businessman set on destroying Naya Basti village to build a factory, ignoring the villagers’ heritage. Agarwal’s daughter Sirjana falls in love with Arjun and marries him against her father’s wishes.Chameli secretly loves Arjun but remains silent, while Krishna falls for Gita. With the villagers’ support, Arjun and Krishna resist Agarwal’s plans. The story takes a tragic turn as Agarwal and Chameli die, but the brothers succeed in protecting the village. Sirjana’s decision to leave her father highlights that love and integrity triumph over greed. Directed and written by Mohan Nirula and produced by Chabi Ojha, Janma Bhoomi showcases Nepal’s cultural roots and the power of unity.

Boys On Film 15: Time & Tied

Embark on a magical journey through time with Boys On Film 15: Time & Tied — featuring a brand new selection of sensational gay British short films that showcase some of the UK's best emerging talent. This compilation features nine complete films: Lloyd Eyre-Morgan's "Closets" starring Tommy Knight and Ceallach Spellman; Brian Fairbairn & Karl Eccleston's "Putting On The Dish" starring Steve Wickenden and Neil Chinneck; Mitchell Marion's "G O'Clock" starring Marc Rovira Cenar and Phillip Weddell; Charlie Parham's "Nightstand" starring Nicholas Gleaves and Amrou Al-Kadhi; Simon Anderson's "Morning Is Broken" starring Matthew Tennyson, Nigel Allen and Jack Hawkins; Tom Frederic's "Sauna The Dead: A Fairy Tale" starring himself and Kumar Muniandy; Leon Lopez's "CrossRoad" starring Marc Rovira Cenar, Ashley Campbell, and Calum Ewan Cameron; Jake Graf's "Dawn" starring Nicole Gibson and Harry Rundle; and Kristen Bjorn's "Trouser Bar" starring Denholm Spurr, Scott Hunter, and Zac Renfree.

Return

RETURN tells the story of a retired Green Beret who embarks on a healing journey from Montana to Vietnam. There he retraces his steps, shares his wartime experiences with his son, treats his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and seeks out the mountain tribespeople he once lived with and fought alongside as a Special Forces officer.

Il mio amico Babbo Natale 2

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Johan Falk: De 107 patrioterna

It's a beautiful day in Slottsskogen, Gothenburg idyllic city park, when suddenly the unthinkable happens - gunfire amidst all people. Two gangsters shooting game against each other and a large police operation starts. The conflict grows rapidly to involve several gangs from Gothenburg underworld. GSI switched to try to identify a new thread which proves to be both larger and better armed than any other. The only clue is a tattoo on one of the killed gang members.

Day of Wrath

Dr. Fiedler, in a secret underground laboratory located in the reserve, is working on experiments to create bestial creatures endowed with human intelligence. It would seem that contact with the beasts on an equal footing took place, but devoid of human morality and compassion, beast-like creatures rebelled against their creators. The journalist Battley, who learns about the monstrous rumors from the reserve, decides to conduct his own investigation and goes to the wilderness, where he encounters the products of Fiedler's terrible experiences.

The Corrs: Live in Geneva

The Corrs live in Geneva as part of their 2004 Borrowed Heaven tour. Set-list: 01. Introduction 02. Humdrum 03. Only When I Sleep 04. Dreams (Fleetwood Mac cover) 05. What Can I Do 06. Forgiven, Not Forgotten 07. Angel 08. Runaway 09. Return From Fingal/Trout In a Bath 10. Borrowed Heaven 11. No Frontiers 12. Queen Of Hollywood 13. Long Night 14. Old Town (Phil Lynott cover). 15. Radio. 16. Summer Sunshine. 17. So Young. 18. I Never Loved You Anyway. 19. Goodbye. Encore 20. Breathless. 21. Toss The Feathers 22. Credits Recorded 26 November 2004 at the SEG Geneva Arena in Geneva.

Road

Arvind Chauhan and Lakhsmi are in love with each other. Lakhsmi's dad, a senior police inspector, hates Arvind, and so Arvind and Lakshmi decide to elope

Scooby-Doo! and the Sea Monsters

The scares start in Hawaii, where Scooby-Doo and Shaggy are scarfing down the surf-and-turf menu until a giant serpent tries to swallow them faster than you can say She Sees Sea Monsters by the Seashore. In Uncle Scooby and Antarctica, a friendly penguin invites the Mystery, Inc. crew to visit his polar home, which happens to be haunted by an ice ghost! Then, the gang meets music group Smash Mouth while visiting Australia's Great Barrier Reef to watch Shaggy and Scooby compete in a sand castle contest in Reef Grief! Just when they think it's safe to go back in the water... it isn't.

Red

Red is a local don who possesses a heart of gold. Seeni, another don in the area, is his biggest enemy. Red falls for Gayathri and she too likes him but wants him to give up his life of violence. Meanwhile Rajesh, a reporter, begins to serialize Red's story for Ananda Vikatan and it becomes quite the rage among readers.

Skelter+Heaven

In the distant future, a mysterious floating object appears suddenly in the center of Tokyo. The top secret mission unit Alta Mira Agency or AA is comissioned by the Defense Agency to deal with this mysterious invader. In charge of the robot training is Funagai Otsuya. He trains five special girls to use the Battle Soles to push back the enemy even at the cost of their lives.

Madonna: Ciao, Italia! - Live from Italy

In "Ciao, Italia! Live from Italy" Madonna visits the land of her noble heritage for this high-energy concert video filmed in 1987. It contained footage from a previous TV special of the Who's That Girl World Tour, Madonna in Concerto, broadcast in Europe in 1987, filmed at the Stadio Comunale in Turin, Italy. The video release also contained footage from shows recorded in Florence, Italy and Tokyo, Japan. The tour supported her 1986 third studio album True Blue, as well as the 1987 soundtrack Who's That Girl.

The Terrible People

The ghost of a hanged man returns to fulfill his promise. All of his accusers must die!

Tiny Times 2

Set four years after the first movie, Lin Xiao, Lily, Nan Xiang, and Ruby, confront opportunities and challenges as their school days come to an end.

Alessandra Amoroso: Vivere a colori Tour Forum di Assago a Milano

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Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy

Velma discovers she's inherited her great-great-uncles' cursed castle in Transylvania, Pennsylvania. The team decide to go there on a spooky adventure.

David and Goliath

At the crossroads of two great ancient empires, a simple shepherd named David transforms into a powerful warrior and takes on a terrifying giant. One of history's most legendary battles is retold in a stylistic, bloody tale of courage and faith.

Three Heroes on Distant Shores

This time, Alyosha Popovich Dobrinya and Ilya Muromets, thanks insidious wiles of Baba Yaga, are the seven seas on the island where the natives live and terrible Gomuma. In their absence, the merchant Kolyvan decide together with Baba-Yaga take the kingdom, and the power to take away from the prince of Kiev. To help the hapless governor comes horse Julius and wife heroes and their extended family. In short, the heroes and the audience for adventures on distant shores, ordinary and extraordinary.

Amadeus

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Abesalom and Eteri

Prince Abesalom runs into an orphaned Eteri while hunting, falls for her and brings the woman to his palace as his fiancé. The Prince’s aid Murman loses his self-control at Eteri’s beauty and gives her a spelled necklace as a wedding gift. Eteri contracts a mysterious disease that only Murman is capable to heal.

The Metropolitan Opera: Norma

Deep in a forest where druids and warriors seek revenge against the conquering Romans, Norma is scorned by the Roman proconsul Pollione, with whom she has two children. Her kindness turns to fury when she discovers that Pollione has taken Adalgisa, a novice priestess, as his new lover. When Pollione loses his high rank in the army and is offered as a sacrifice, Norma promises him freedom under one condition.

The Metropolitan Opera: The Exterminating Angel

After the acclaimed Met premiere of Thomas Adès's "The Tempest" in 2012, the composer returned with another masterpiece, this time inspired by filmmaker Luis Buñuel's seminal surrealist classic "El Ángel Exterminador", during the 2017–18 season. As the opera opens, a group of elegant socialites gather for a lavish dinner party, but when it is time to leave for the night, no one is able to escape. Soon, their behavior becomes increasingly erratic and savage. The large ensemble cast tackles both the vocal and dramatic demands of Adès's opera with one riveting performance after another. Tom Cairns, who also penned the work's libretto, directs an engrossing and inventive production, using a towering wooden archway to trap the characters onstage. And Adès himself takes the podium to conduct the frenzied score, which features a host of unconventional instruments, including the eerie electronic ondes Martenot.

Farinelli

The life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time.

Birth

It took Anna 10 years to recover from the death of her husband, Sean, but now she's on the verge of marrying her boyfriend, Joseph, and finally moving on. However, on the night of her engagement party, a young boy named Sean turns up, saying he is her dead husband reincarnated. At first she ignores the child, but his knowledge of her former husband's life is uncanny, leading her to believe that he might be telling the truth.

The Metropolitan Opera: Roméo et Juliette

Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo are opera’s classic lovers in Gounod’s lush Shakespeare adaptation. Director Bartlett Sher’s “brilliant and inspired new production … is a revelation” (Huffington Post), and has already won acclaim for its vivid 18th-century milieu and stunning costumes during runs at Salzburg and La Scala. Emmanuel Villaume conducts the sumptuous score.

Verdi: Nabucco

The legendary Plácido Domingo brings another new baritone role to the Met under the baton of his longtime collaborator James Levine. Liudmyla Monastyrska is Abigaille, the warrior woman determined to rule empires, and Jamie Barton is the heroic Fenena. Dmitri Belosselskiy is the stentorian voice of the oppressed Hebrew people.

Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!

During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.

Tosca

Non-musical account of Puccini's opera: Tosca and Cavaradossi are in love, but the tyrant Scarpia desires Tosca and oppresses Cavaradossi who is fighting for freedom.

The Paris Opera

A behind-the-scenes look at the of how the Paris Opera is run under the direction of Stephane Lissner.

The Phantom of the Opera

The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.

Arena di Verona: Il Trovatore

It's an event that draws many thousands of music lovers to one of the most beautiful cities in the world every summer: the opera season at the ancient Arena di Verona. The 2,000-year-old roman amphiteatre with its gigantic stage dimensions is one of the largest and best preserved Roman construction of its kind, and with over 22,000 seats it is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular open-air venues of the world! The revered master of opera Franco Zeffirelli, who died shortly before the premiere of Il Trovatore, created a legendary scenery with groups of giant sized armoured knights, a fortress turning into a luminous cathedral, an enormous choir, horses, breathtaking fights: “his perhaps best arena production” (Opernglas). It brings Anna Netrebko to the Arena of Verona where she is giving her much-anticipated debut in one of Giuseppe Verdi’s most popular operas.

Puccini: Turandot

Franco Zeffirelli's magnificient staging of Puccini's final opera - a fairy tale set in a mythical China - is one of the most popular in the Met repertory. In this Live in HD production, Maria Guleghina takes on the title role and Marcello Giordani is Calaf, the unknown prince. Marina Poplavskaya and Samuel Ramey co-star, and Andris Nelsons conducts in his Met debut.

Moonstruck

37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Johnny, even though she doesn't love him. When she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, an emotional and passionate man, she finds herself drawn to him. She tries to resist, but Ronny, who blames his brother for the loss of his hand, has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls for Ronny, she learns that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.

Confession of the Vanished

The film follows the staging of the opera Olimpiade while at the same time exploring the dramatic life of its composer Josef Mysliveček, a friend and teacher of W. A. Mozart.

Cavalleria rusticana

Franco Zeffirelli directs these two legendary La Scala productions telling tragic tales of jealousy. Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana features performances by Elena Obraztsova, Plácido Domingo, and Renato Bruson. Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci stars Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, and Juan Pons. Both are conducted by George Pretre. This production of Pagliacci earned director Franco Zeffirelli the coveted Emmy as Best Director in the category of Classical Music Programming.

Die Walküre

The gorgeous and evocative Otto Schenk/Günther Schneider-Siemssen production continues with this second opera in Wagner’s Ring cycle. Hildegard Behrens brings deep empathy to Brünnhilde, the favorite daughter of the god Wotan (James Morris) who nevertheless defies him. Morris’s portrayal of Wotan is deservedly legendary, as is Christa Ludwig, as Fricka. Jessye Norman and Gary Lakes are Sieglinde and Siegmund, and Kurt Moll is the threatening Hunding. James Levine and the Met orchestra provide astonishing color and drama. (Performed April 8, 1989)

Siegfried

Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner.

Strangler vs Strangler

When it comes to crime, Belgrade is same as any other modern metropolis, except for having its own serial killers. That blank is filled when a flower salesman begins strangling women. A popular, but very disturbed rock star soon becomes telepathically connected with the killer.

Phantom of the Opera

Following a tragic accident that leaves him disfigured, crazed composer Erique Claudin transformed into a masked phantom who schemes to make beautiful young soprano Christine Dubois the star of the opera and wreak revenge on those who stole his music.

Puccini: La bohème

"La Bohème" is one of Giacomo Puccini's most popular and timeless works and the second-most performed opera at New York's Metropolitan Opera. This production, directed by the legendary Franco Zeffirelli, features José Carreras, Teresa Stratas, Renata Scotto and Richard Stilwell. The opera is replete with extraordinary visual beauty as it presents the tragic story of young bohemians struggling to make it in the world.

Der Rosenkavalier

In his new production, Robert Carsen places the action at the end of the Habsburg Empire, underscoring the opera’s subtext of class and conflict against a rich backdrop of gilt and red damask

Operette

A musician is offered a job in Vienna as stage director, but his disagreements with the aristocratic opera manager end in abrupt firing in spite of a mutual attraction. He's quickly engaged by another theatre and becomes famous for his lavish stage productions and fine acting, which begins their golden age with Suppé and Strauss.

Così fan tutte

Who loves whom in Così fan tutte, Mozart’s and Da Ponte’s cruelly comic reflection on desire, fidelity and betrayal? Or have the confusions to which the main characters subject one another ensured that in spite of the heartfelt love duets and superficially fleetfooted comedy nothing will work any longer and that a sense of emotional erosion has replaced true feelings? Così fan tutte is a timeless work full of questions that affect us all. The Academy Award-winning director Michael Haneke once said that he was merely being precise and did not want to distort reality. In only his second opera production after Don Giovanni in 2006, he presents what ARTE described as a “disillusioned vision of love in an ice-cold, realistic interpretation”.

Hannah and Her Sisters

Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.

The Metropolitan Opera: Don Giovanni

Simon Keenlyside smolders dangerously in the title role of Mozart’s version of the legend of Don Juan, creating a vivid portrait of a man who is a law unto himself, and all the more dangerous for his eternally seductive allure. Adam Plachetka is his occasionally unruly servant Leporello. It’s when Giovanni tangles with Donna Anna (Hibla Gerzmava) that things start to unravel, aided by the reappearance of Donna Elvira (Malin Byström), who is determined not to let her seducer go. With Paul Appleby as Don Ottavio, Donna Anna’s eternally steadfast fiancé. Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads the Met Orchestra and Chorus.

Silentium

A man who accused a catholic bishop of abusing him when he was a child dies in the Austrian city Salzburg. Everyone except his widow and the eccentrical detective Simon Brenner keeps silent and believes that the man killed himself.

The ROH Live: The Queen of Spades

The dark world of Tchaikovsky’s penultimate operatic masterpiece Queen of Spades hinges on obsession, greed, and a secret in winning at cards… In 2005, the Opéra Bastille mounted a compelling production featuring Vladimir Galouzine as the mad lover Hermann, Hasmik Papian as the doomed Lisa, and Irina Bogatcheva as the mysterious Comtesse.

Charlie Chan at the Opera

A dangerous amnesiac escapes from an asylum, hides in the opera house, and is suspected of getting revenge on those who tried to murder him 13 years ago.

Berg: Wozzeck

Based on real events and drawing on Georg Büchner's revolutionary play, Alban Berg's Wozzeck turns a grimly tragic narrative of violence and murder into one of the most powerful and original operas of the 20th century. Berg's uncompromising portrayal of brutality and madness generated much controversy, but the significance of Wozzeck was soon recognised; its compelling lyrical expansiveness, large-scale dramatic gestures and remarkable musical structures producing music of overwhelming emotional intensity. The Financial Times declared this to be 'a beautiful, moving, engrossing production… this is a consummate Wozzeck, blending clarity, lyricism, compassion and crushing force.'

Alban Berg - Wozzeck

The soldier Wozzeck (Christian Gerhaher) flits through a world that he is unable to decipher. The doctor torments him with absurd medical experiments; the captain humiliates and ridicules him. And Wozzeck’s lover, Marie (Gun-Brit Barkmin), with whom he has a child, cuckolds him with the drum major. Wozzeck becomes a murderer, stabbing Marie to death. Georg Büchner’s drama fragment, on which Alban Berg based his first opera, is an unflinching case study of social injustice and human suffering. But it is also a grotesque piece that thrives on exaggeration – and in which only a fine line separates the unfathomable from the ridiculous. Accordingly, director Andreas Homoki forgoes all realism.

The Metropolitan Opera: La Fille du Régiment

Madcap physical comedy and impeccable coloratura come together for Natalie Dessay’s indelible portrayal of the feisty tomboy raised by a regiment of French soldiers. Juan Diego Flórez is the young Swiss villager who conquers her heart—and a slew of high Cs. Also featuring uproarious performances by Felicity Palmer and Alessandro Corbelli, as well as a cameo by Tony Award winner Marian Seldes, this laugh-out-loud production was a runaway hit that left audiences exhilarated.

Wagner: Siegfried

In Siegfried, the “Second Day” or third evening of the Ring Cycle, we meet the pivotal hero of the epic tale. The energetic drive from Die Walküre is pursued here while Siegfried finally recaptures the mighty ring from Fafner the Dragon and awakens Brünnhilde from her penal sleep on the great rock. Lance Ryan, having interpreted this role on the greatest stages of the world including the Bayreuth Festival, portrays the naïve hero. His antagonists are Peter Bronder, great and agile as Mime, Terje Stensvold, an experienced Wanderer and Johannes Martin Kränzle, who continues his mean and deceitful depiction of Alberich. The leading ladies are Nina Stemme, once again unrivalled as Brünnhilde and Anna Larsson, moving as the God-mother Erda.

The Climax

Dr. Hohner, theatre physician at the Vienna Royal Theatre, murders his mistress, the star soprano when his jealousy drives him to the point of mad obsession. Ten years later, another young singer reminds Hohner of the late diva and his old mania kicks in. Hohner wants to prevent her from singing for anyone but him, even if it means silencing her forever.

Così fan tutte

Mozart's genius in setting to music da Ponte's comic play of love, infidelity and forgiveness marks COSI FAN TUTTE as one of the great works of art from the Age of Enlightenment. Nicholas Hytner's beautiful new production, with its sure touch and theatrical know-how, lives up to its promise to be "shockingly traditional" as Iván Fischer teases artful performances from an outstanding international cast of convincing young lovers.

Wagner: Die Walküre

Richard Wagner called Die Walküre the “first evening” of the Ring of the Nibelung; he called Das Rheingold the prologue or Vorabend. Musically and dramatically, we are introduced to a radically new and different world when the opening bars of Die Walküre resound. A fully developed orchestral palette of Leitmotivs paints a wild storm scene, and the curtain rises on a modest dwelling: a fully human scene that has nothing to do with the gods, dwarves and nymphs of Das Rheingold. At the same time, however, the way Die Walküre portrays radical beginnings reveals some telling reminiscences of the unfolding of Das Rheingold. Die Walküre is exciting and deeply feeling drama.

A Night at the Opera

The Marx Brothers take on high society and the opera world to bring two lovers together. A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.

The Right to Live

A man with a broken back dies after his wife has an affair with his brother.

The Magic Flute

During World War I, in an unnamed country, a soldier named Tamino is sent by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina from the clutches of the supposedly evil Sarastro. But all is not as it seems.

The Metropolitan Opera: The Marriage of Figaro

Richard Eyre’s elegant production, which opened the Met’s 2014–15 season, sets the action of Mozart’s timeless social comedy in a manor house in 1930s Seville. Ildar Abdrazakov leads the cast as the resourceful Figaro set on outwitting his master, the philandering Count Almaviva, played by Peter Mattei. Marlis Petersen sings Susanna, the object of the Count’s affection and Figaro’s bride-to-be, Amanda Majeski is the Countess, and Isabel Leonard gives a standout performance as the pageboy Cherubino. Music Director James Levine on the podium brings out all the humor, drama, and humanity of Mozart’s score.

Puccini: Madama Butterfly

Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese bride of dashing American officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, finds her romantic idyll shattered when he deserts her shortly after their marriage. She lives in hope that one day he will return. Three years later, Cio-Cio-San and her little son see Pinkerton’s ship in the harbour. She excitedly expects his visit – but Pinkerton and his American wife Kate have come only to take the boy away, to raise him in America. Cio-Cio-San bids her son farewell and then takes her own life.

Bellini: Norma

The priestess Norma loves Pollione, leader of the occupying force suppressing her people, and has borne two children by him. But Pollione’s love has withered, and he now loves Norma’s fellow priestess Adalgisa. Meanwhile, the people urgently look to Norma to lead their rebellion. Norma discovers the love between Pollione and Adalgisa. Furiously she gives the signal for war. Pollione is captured, attempting to steal away with Adalgisa. Norma, called upon to announce a sacrificial victim to consecrate the uprising, declares it shall be a guilty priestess: herself.

Cosi Fan Tutte

An excellent performance of this delightful opera. The principals are superb, especially the sisters. Bruscantini as Don Alfonso is past his prime, but he knows and understands the role inside out, so one does not even notice his vocal limitations. Araiza is in top form as Ferrando, and Morris makes virile Guglielmo. The only disappointment is Battle as Despina. Unlike her partners, she does not have feel for the Mozart ensemble, and her vocal mannerisms are totally unbecoming. How the producers allowed that to happen is a mystery. Muti's conducting is terrific, much better than on his La Scala video, where he is uninvolved.

Chabrier: The Star

L’Étoile did much to establish Chabrier as a major force on the Parisian stage and his contemporary Henri Duparc praised him specifically for creating a French comic genre, both funny and musical – described as something of a French Die Meistersinger. The fanciful story is set in an imaginary kingdom and all, naturally, ends well. However, despite the slight plot line L’Étoile is something of a pivotal work, a unique example of French 19th-century light opera, orchestrated with great sophistication and flooded with gossamer wit.