Bellini - i Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona

Live performance at Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, June 2004. Original stage production by Operhaus Zurich. DVD: Dynamic, live recording Cat: 33465. Nabucco (short for Nabucodonosor, English Nebuchadnezzar) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue. It is VerdiÕs third opera and the one which is considered to have permanently established his reputation as a composer. Nabucco follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco (in English, Nebuchadnezzar). The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot.

Live performance, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, July 2006. 'L'italiana in Algeri' (English: 'The Italian Girl in Algiers') is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca. It premiered at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice on 22 May 1813. The music is characteristic of Rossini's style, remarkable for its fusion of sustained, manic energy with elegant, pristine melodies.

The first of the triumvirate of Mozart’s last three superlative operas – Cosi fan Tutte (1790) and Die Zauberflöte (1791) being the others – Don Giovanni (1787) tells the tale of this legendary womanizer, already a cautionary tale of considerable merit, with the added power and weight of a brilliant musical setting by one of mankind’s greatest musical geniuses and a stunningly effective libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. This tragicomedy of the highest order cries out for the finest musical forces, voices and staging to be truly overwhelming and meaningful. The cast for this production includes Ildebrando D´Arcangelo and Carmela Remigio. With direction from Riccardo Frizza and one of Italy’s finest stage and set designers on hand in veteran Pier Luigi Pizzi, the course is set for a staggering night at the opera.

Every morning at dawn, in the Lammermuir hills in Southern Scotland, the beautiful Lucia meets Edgardo of Ravenswood, a mysterious young man with whom she is in love. However, just as in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the lovers are the progeny of two feuding families and do not have the right to love each other. Lucia, a magnificent flower shattered by the violence of a society of men, is embodied by South Africa’s Pretty Yende, a rising star of the opera stage, in this production by Andrei Serban, conducted by Riccardo Frizza.

Mariella Devia, one of the greatest bel canto singers of 20th century, chooses Venice’s La Fenice as the stage for her last Norma.

It is a rare opera indeed that calls for one soprano diva and no fewer than six tenors. Mary Zimmerman’s fanciful production of Rossini’s drama, designed by Richard Hudson and with choreography by Graciela Daniele, provides the perfect setting for superstar Renée Fleming’s captivating performance of the title role. A beautiful but evil sorceress in the times of the Crusades, Armida sets out to regain the love of the Frankish knight Rinaldo (Lawrence Brownlee) by putting her magical spells on him. She at first succeeds to draw him into her web of sorcery, but ultimately divine intervention—and his fellow soldiers—free Rinaldo from his enchantment—much to the vengeful fury of Armida and her demons.