La Rondine (The Swallow) is possibly the least performed of Giacomo Puccinis later operas, but is still just as much a masterwork as its more performed counterparts. Originally conceived as the composers first operetta, the work is an artful blend of opera and operetta, with a lighter mood than Puccinis other works. This live production filmed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin stars Dinara Alieva and Charles Castronovo in the lead roles. Renowned stage director Rolando Villazon sets this rendition, and the Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin is conducted here by acclaimed Maestro Roberto Rizzi Brignoli.

A tragic tale in which love and filial sentiment battle in a political intrigue around the fascinating character of Simon, a privateer become doge: Simon Boccanegra is one of Verdi’s greatest operas, over which floats the shadow of his admiration for Shakespeare. For this captivating and moving score, the Dijon Bourgogne Orchestra has called upon one of the great Verdi specialists, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, whose Traviata in 2011 demonstrated his intimate and precise knowledge of the Italian master’s style, and the German stage director Philipp Himmelmann, a regular at Unter den Linden in Berlin and the great European stages.

Madama Butterfly marked a new phase in Puccini’s development, in which he enriched his musical palette with the exoticism of the Far East. The fact that his direct emotionality contains a universal dimension is clear from the lasting worldwide popularity of this work. Hotel Pro Forma, known to us for their performance of Rachmaninov Troika in 2015, brings East and West together in a theatrical ritual for our time. Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, a master of the Italian repertoire, makes his La Monnaie debute.