Among DVDs of "Hoffmann" currently available, this is the only one that even begins to stand comparison with the superlative Powell and Pressburger film (whose ideas it occasionally borrows). Olivier Py's baroque imagination, which sometimes leads him into self-indulgence and incoherence, is well suited to bringing out this opera's darkness and he does an excellent job

Sophie left her homeland, the United States, after a secret tragedy. In Paris, she divides her time between an opera house, where she is the dresser for a great Swedish singer, and amateur theater. David, her director, pushes her to her limits: she cannot refuse, so stubbornly, to live and love again. Little by little, Sophie lets herself be disturbed by her speech, and moved by the amorous games and the sensual atmosphere of the opera on which she is working, "Le Chevalier a la rose" by Richard Strauss. After each performance, Sophie sees a silent young man, Valentin. She is convinced that he is coming for the beautiful singer. But one day, he speaks to her, and Sophie finally becomes an actress of her own story.

"William Christie and Les Arts Florissants propel this exuberant production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's second opera to great heights. Andrei Serban's extravagant, highly baroque staging presents the four exotic love stories vibrantly. In 'Le Turc généreux' Osman sets free his captive, Emilie, whom he loves, so that she may be reunited with her former lover, Valère; 'Les Incas de Pérou' is all about the rivalry of the Inca Huascar and the Spaniard Don Carlos, both in pursuit of Princess Phani; 'Les Fleurs' offers a Persian love intrigue, as the Sultana Fatime tries to detect whether her husband Tacmas has his eye on the lovely Atalide; and 'Les Sauvages' takes us to North America, where a Spaniard and a Frenchman compete for the love of Zima, daughter of a native chief, who prefers one of her own people." — from the DVD cover

Lightning streaks through the skies as Dalila declares her love to Samson in one of the finest arias of romantic opera. “My heart awakens to your voice like a flower to the kiss of dawn.” An enchanting yet treacherous beauty… When the thunder at last rumbles, Dalila betrays Samson and offers him up to his enemies: “Come up, for this time he has shown me all his heart”, she whispers to them in the night (The Old Testament, Book of Judges). Based on a violent and erotic biblical story, Saint-Saëns’s opera – composed in 1877, much to Liszt’s insistence – would not be performed at the Palais Garnier until fifteen years later. This first Parisian performance in 1892 included the hitherto unperformed “Dance Of The Priestesses”. Nevertheless, it became one of the most performed French operas in the world, together with Faust and Carmen. Conducted by Philippe Jordan, this new production brings back a repertoire masterpiece that has not been performed at the Paris Opera for twenty-five years.

Gaetano Donizetti's tragic masterwork Lucie de Lammermoor (French version) is performed at the Lyon Opera House in 2002. Natalie Dessay sings the title role of the opera staged by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser, and conducted by Evelino Pido.

Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti.

About the Director: John Eliot Gardiner is one of the most versatile conductors of our time. Acknowledged as a key figure in the early music revival, he is the founder and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. The extent of his repertoire is illustrated in over 250 recordings which have received numerous international awards. Over the years Gardiner has won more Gramophone awards than any other artist. Probably the most francophile of English conductors, John Eliot Gardiner returned to the Opéra Comique, Paris for a much aclaimed production of Carmen last year. On June 25th it was broadcast live to 50 theatres in France and Switzerland and also recorded for TV. This followed an exciting collaboration that began in December 2007 with Chabrier s Opera bouffe L'Etoile, which had opened the new theatre at Opera Comique in December 2007.

A decade before the French Revolution, in a country riven with bitter polemics, Gluck throws the history of opera into confusion by raising it to an unheard-of peak of tragic intensity. Experiencing his two Iphigenias in a single evening goes beyond the norms of operatic life: it is to enter the very heart of the curse on the family of King Atreus of Mycenae, to follow a logical destiny through a cycle of endless violence. How does the victim of Aulis become the murderess of Tauris? That is the burning question that Dmitri Tcherniakov must adress, plunging the spectator into the midst of a household haunted by the dead and setting in train an implacable process of dehumanization, with parallels to our world today. Conducting Le Concert d’Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm drives this dual tragedy to the summit of its expressive power, leaving humanity to be translated through arias of the utmost poignancy.

Louis Langrée, Guillaume Gallienne and Clairemarie Osta combine performing arts to honour these two masterpieces, inspired by the gallant XVIIIth century, in a show that celebrates comic spirit’s fruitfulness and freedom in genre.