The ROH Live: Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci

An esoteric fairy-tale, a mystical-dreamlike tale, and a symbolic-Masonic course: No matter which perspective you consider it from, The Magic Flute will always be one of Mozart’s undisputed masterpieces. Amidst exotic, fanciful settings and cruel trials to conquer knowledge, amidst musical enchantment and threatening hostile forces, is the final victory of good over evil and love over hate. Singspiel in two acts to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, the Zauberflöte is one of the Salzburg genius’ last masterpieces, which he probably began composing in May 1791, not even six months before his death. The opera had its debut in Vienna on 30 September 1791, conducted by the composer himself and with Schikaneder as Papageno.

The composer's opera buffa transcends the spirit of Beaumarchais’ comedy and combines the absurd with a touch of satirical realism in a score where rhythm and virtuosity place the comic effects in an ongoing dramatic narration. As a result, the characters – Rosina in particular – gain a new degree of realism and break with the usual archetypes. Damiano Michieletto’s giddying production embraces this perpetual motion and carries in its wake the happy couple formed by Lawrence Brownlee and Pretty Yende.

Lucia di Lammermoor, dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848). Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, after Walter Scott's 'The Bride of Lammermoor'. First performance in Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 26 September 1835 Recording: December 23 2015 - Gran Teatre del Liceu | Barcelona Director: Fabrice Castanier Conductor: Marco Armiliato Orchestra & Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu

First performed in Paris in 1843, at the turning point of several eras, Don Pasquale, a composite and varied work, is the apotheosis of opera buffa. Performed for the first time at the Paris Opera, the production has been entrusted to the Italian director, Damiano Michieletto, who transports us directly to the sincerity and dramatic splendour at the heart of an apparently light‑hearted work.

The rigid morals of a village community put a young woman under pressure: Jenůfa is pregnant by her lover Števa, but he rejects her and retracts his offer of marriage. Once the child is born, Jenůfa’s stepmother, the village sextoness, is worried about the young woman’s reputation as well as her own future. When Laca, another marriage suitor, offers Jenůfa his hand in marriage, the sextoness thinks that life would be better for all of them without the child …

This 2013 Salzburg Festival performance of Falstaff, Giuseppe Verdis late masterwork and crowning achievement, features conductor Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic. The staging thought up by Italian director Damiano Michieletto moves the action from a fictitious London to that special care home, the Casa Verdi, a place rich in memories of great days past and impressions of a real-time present. Ambrogio Maestri seems a tailor-made Falstaff. His physique is just right for the part, as are his powerful voice, flair for drama and feeling for the Verdi style. (New York Times)

The Marschallin is relishing time with her young lover, when her cousin’s sudden arrival ignites a comic chain of events. With honour at risk, social status bartered and happiness illusive, the Marschallin accepts time cannot be stopped and she must set young love free. After opening the 2022-23 season in Brussels with Pikovaya Dama, La Monnaie / De Munt now streams Der Rosenkavalier live on OperaVision. The mystery of time resonates throughout Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s highly spiritual and nostalgic libretto, for which Richard Strauss took a step back in time to eighteenth-century Vienna. Waltzing in neoclassical style, with sublime lyricism and a refined orchestral palette, the opera looks back to the past, faded beauty, lost loves.

Live performance of Puccini's opera at the Salzburg Festival in Austria. Piotr Beczala stars as Rodolfo with Anna Netrebko as Mimi, Massimo Cavalletti as Marcello and Nino Machaidze as Musetta. Daniele Gatti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna State Opera Chorus and the Salzburg Festival and Theatre Children's Choir.