Performed at the Théâtre Graslin in Nantes in 2013. Francis Poulenc (1899-1963): Dialogues des Carmélites, opera in 3 acts and 12 scenes from a libretto by Emmet Lavery.

Alexandre Tarta's production of Berlioz's opera, recorded live at the Salzburg Festival in 2000. Sylvain Cambreling conducts, with performances by Jon Villars, Russell Braun and Tigran Martirossian.

This release captures a performance of the Leoš Janáček opera Katia Kabanova recorded at the Salzburg Festival in 1998.

Berlioz’s whimsical and nostalgic take on Shakespeare’s great comedy Much Ado About Nothing graces the stage of Glyndebourne in Laurent Pelly’s astute 2016 production. Italian maestro Antonello Manacorda leads the London Philharmonic in Berlioz’s brilliant score.

Opera in four acts Libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and Hippolyte-Louis-Florent Bis

A huge success when it premiered at the Opéra-Comique in 1900, Gustave Charpentier’s (1860-1956) “musical novel in four acts and five scenes” was panned by the critics, who considered its depiction of female desire and its heroine’s rebellion against her family to be scandalous. In this new reading, Christof Loy (Salomé) – famous for his meticulous productions, precise direction and refined aesthetic – has detected beneath the innovative theme of female emancipation an unspoken aspect of Charpentier’s libretto: the toxic family relationship in which Louise finds herself trapped, and the hold that her possessive – even abusive – father exerts over her with the complicity of her mother. Keen to tell the story without judging the characters, the director draws the audience into Louise’s subconscious, highlighting the darker side of a society that, far from emancipating its daughters, only offers them cheap romance as a deflection from the frustrations of their limited prospects.

In the sumptuous Art Deco setting of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Orchestre national de France performs one of the masterpieces of French Romanticism with a stellar vocal cast: Stéphanie d'Oustrac, John Irvin, Paul Gay, and Frédéric Caton.