The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual summer concert at the Waldbühne in Berlin is legendary. The Millennium concert, recorded live on 25 June 2000, gathered more than 22.000 people in one of the most appealing outdoor amphitheaters in Europe for one of the most popular classical music concerts in the world. Kent Nagano named his program of popular and rather unusual music from the 20th century “Rhythm and Dance”. It turned out to be an inspiring combination of classical pieces, show tunes, pops, and Far Eastern music, all brought together in a tasty musical stew and rightly labelled as one of the most exciting programmes ever performed at the Waldbühne. It featured Gershwin classics with an outstanding performance by the American mezzo soprano Susan Graham, music by Ravel and the soundtrack to the successful Chinese film “Farewell My Concubine.”

17-year-old Lisa feels certain that she inadvertently played a role in causing a traffic accident that claimed a woman's life. In her attempts to set things right, she meets with opposition at every step. Torn apart with frustration, she begins emotionally brutalizing her family, her friends, her teachers, and, most of all, herself. She has been confronted quite unexpectedly with a basic truth: that her youthful ideals are on a collision course with the realities and compromises of the adult world.

American composer Jake Heggie’s compelling masterpiece, the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years, arrives in cinemas in a haunting new production by Ivo van Hove. Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir about her fight for the soul of a condemned murderer, Dead Man Walking matches the high drama of its subject with Heggie’s beautiful and poignant music and a brilliant libretto by Tony and Emmy Award–winner Terrence McNally. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium, with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato starring as Sister Helen. The outstanding cast also features bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as the death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher, soprano Latonia Moore as Sister Rose, and legendary mezzo-soprano Susan Graham—who sang Helen Prejean in the opera’s 2000 premiere—as De Rocher’s mother.

A retelling of the story of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette - from her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at fifteen to her reign as queen at nineteen and ultimately the fall of Versailles.

This epic opera follows Virgil, beginning as the Greeks appear to have ceded the field after ten years of the Trojan War. Cassandra tries to warn of the terrible fate to come, but fate is set and Troy falls. The first two acts cover this tragic end, then the flight of survivors to Carthage and events at Carthage continue in acts 3 - 5, culminating in the further voyage for Italy and Rome. This is Virgil's classic epic, in operatic form, in about a three and a half hour performance from French Opera.

Directed by Ursel Hermann, this 2005 production of Mozart's last opera stars a remarkable cast with Susan Graham in the role of Sesto, Christoph Prégardien giving life to Tito and Catherine Naglestad embodying the ambitious Vitellia. Premiered in September 1791 for the coronation of Leopold II, King of Bohemia, La Clemenza di Tito celebrates the figure of the merciful sovereign

Radiant mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and dashing Italian tenor Marcello Giordani are unlucky lovers in La Damnation de Faust, Hector Berlioz’s classic take on dancing with the devil.

Berlioz’s epic masterpiece retells the magnificent saga of the aftermath of the Trojan War and the exploits of Aeneas. Rising tenor Bryan Hymel, in his Met debut, stars as the hero charged by the gods with the founding of the city of Rome. Susan Graham is Dido, Queen of Carthage, who becomes Aeneas’s lover, and Deborah Voigt sings Cassandra, the Trojan princess whose warnings about the impending destruction of Troy go unheeded. Francesca Zambello’s atmospheric production, featuring choreography by Doug Varone, is led by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi.

Gluck’s gripping adaptation of the ancient Greek myth is vividly brought to life by a stellar cast in Stephen Wadsworth’s atmospheric production. Oreste is driven by the Furies to atone for killing his mother Clytemnestre. When he and his companion Pylade are shipwrecked on the island of Tauride, the king Thoas demands they be sacrificed. At the center of the drama is Iphigénie, Oreste’s long-lost sister. Forced to live among her enemies, she holds the lives of the captives in her hands—unaware that one of them is her brother. (Iphigénie en Tauride is performed in an adaptation of the 1779 Paris version edited by Gerhard Croll, by arrangement with Bärenreiter.)

William Kentridge’s multi-layered production of Berg’s masterpiece stars charismatic soprano Marlis Petersen in the title role—the enigmatic and alluring woman who is equal parts femme fatale, innocent girl, and abused victim. The men around her, whose lives she forever alters, are Johan Reuter as newspaper publisher Dr. Schön; Daniel Brenna as his composer son, Alwa; Paul Groves as the Painter; and Franz Grundheber as Schigolch. Susan Graham sings Countess Geschwitz, and Lothar Koenigs conducts Berg’s landmark score.