The embittered widow, Kostelnicka, drowns her infant grandson to save her beloved stepdaughter Jenufa from the shame and hardship of raising an illegitimate child.

A young peasant wants to marry, but the despotic sovereign chooses the bride for one night on the basis of the "ius primae noctis" and declares her fair game. In despair, the young woman turns away from God and towards a Satanic cult. After returning from a campaign, the tyrant pursues her at the insistence of the fanatical village priest. She is confronted and murdered. This act shakes up the peasants; they rise up against the lords.

Richard Strauss's opera, from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Staging directors Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser infuse German composer Engelbert Humperdinck's fairy-tale opera with more than a dollop of black humor in this 2008 London performance that's both enchanting and menacing. Angelika Kirchschlager and Diana Damrau play Hansel and Gretel, respectively, and beloved British baritone Thomas Allen portrays their father in an outstanding production led by maestro Colin Davis.

Based on a true story, the "Dialogues des Carmelites" sets the life of the Carmelites nuns at the dawn of the French Revolution. “Robert Carsen's production is effective in its simplicity, allowing the drama to speak for itself. Dagmar Schellenberger compellingly conveys Blanche's journey from distress to acceptance… Anja Silja's portrayal of the old Prioress is outstanding, with its disturbing transformation from serene wisdom to terrified, blasphemous, near-madness as death approaches. ...Riccardo Muti and the La Scala orchestra in magnificent form, captured in magnificent sound. Ultimately, it is the final scene, with its multiple executions, that makes or breaks a production of Dialogues. Carsen's allegorical solution is both elegant and deeply moving.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2007

Recorded at Britain's Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Leos Janacek's opera follows the exploits of Emilia Marty (Anja Silja), a sexually irresistible prima donna who experiences everything imaginable in her long life, which lasts longer than 300 years. Directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff and conducted by Andrew Davis, this psychological opera blends comedy and personal tragedy to examine the perplexing mystery of human existence.

In the late 1960s Rolf Liebermann, the legendary intendant of the Hamburg State Opera, had the visionary idea of presenting a number of operas in filmed versions, among the first ever done in color, to be shown on German television. This is the historic recording of a 1968 production by the Hamburg State Opera.