Movies: Opera

All the throbbing eroticism—and ultimate heartbreak—of Puccini’s youthful score is unleashed by James Levine and his top-flight cast. Plácido Domingo is Des Grieux, the handsome, headstrong young aristocrat who falls head over heels for the enticing,...

The plans of a publicity agent to put on a charity concert are nearly wrecked by a lawyer who wants to take over a restaurant, but the situation is saved by local co-operation....

Nicholas Hytner's enchanting production, sung in the original Czech, is conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, a master of the best Janacek style. Through myriad shifts of scene, the episodic story is presented in brightly-colored sets and costumes of b...

This is an excerpt from the 60-minute film commissioned for Conrad Cummings's opera of the same title, which was produced by Ridge Theater and staged at La Mama, NYC, in June, 1992....

Few singers have plumbed the depths of the role of Violetta as did she incomparable soprano Renata Scotto. Her interpretation surprises with fresh insights at every turn, illuminating aspects of the character that are latent in the libretto and the s...

Rigoletto, hunchbacked jester, plans to take revenge on his master, the Duke of Mantua. Teatro de la Zarzuela 1989...

Benjamin Britten's opera as performed by the English National Opera, with Philip Langridge in the title role....

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Originally set in the 15th century, Tchaikovsky's "The Enchantress" is updated to the present day in this innovative production. The charismatic, emancipated Nastasya, who rejects the advances of the devious Mamïrov, duly faces the implacable forces ...

Live performance from Salzburg Festival Opera, August 2007. The story tells of Cellini's love for Teresa, daughter of the Papal Treasurer Balducci. His rival, the Papal Sculptor Fieramosca, overhears Cellini plotting to run away with Teresa during t...

Tristan, King Marke’s most loyal vassal, takes the Irish princess Isolde to Cornwall to be married off to his master. During the journey, Isolde uses a deadly poison in an attempt to extinguish the intense but unspoken love between her and Tristan th...

A womanizing opera star is smitten by a young music student....

One of the lesser known works by Giuseppe Verdi, Simon Boccanegra is regarded by most opera lovers as one of his finest. The action takes place in the 14th century and deals with the political and personal rivalry between the corsair Simon Boccanegra...

A village hires a priestess to pray for the safety of their pearl fishermen, but long lost love gets in the way....

Performed at Madrid's historic Teatro Real in 2018, Ivor Bolton conducts Benjamin Britten's opera based on Lytton Strachey's 1928 Elizabeth and Essex: A Tragic History. In her repeated clashes with the Earl of Essex-a longtime favorite of the queen ...

Lively scenes of Paris, all narrated by Maurice Chevalier, link together four dramatic ballet choreographies by Roland Petit: La Croqueuse de diamants (The Gold Digger), Cyrano de Bergerac, Deuil en 24 heures (A Merry Mourning), and Carmen....

Violetta, a courtesan much wooed by Parisian society, organizes a grand party that is attended, amongst others, by the young Alfredo Germont. He confesses his feelings to Violetta, who is already suffering from consumption. She vacillates between gen...

Opera student Annette Monard meets composer Jonathan Street, and in a buoyant, alcohol-fueled evening, the couple marries. Sincerely falling in love, Jonathan encourages the talented Annette to sing — yet when his own attempt at an opera fails, Jonat...

A biopic of Italian operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who broadened the audience for opera and became a global pop culture icon....

This DVD of a live 2005 performance from the Zürich Opera under the musical direction of Franz Welser-Möst has many things to recommend it -- the young tenor Piotr Beczala as Alfredo, the marvelous Thomas Hampson as Giorgio Germont, the playing of th...