Lo schiavo was conceived as a politically engaged work. However, the issue was rather volatile and the composer had to change the contemporary time setting to a more distant one. In Brazil the opera was a triumph, but elsewhere it failed to gain popularity and soon fell into oblivion. This recording of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari’s production documents the opera’s first performance in modern times and reveals Gomes’ flamboyant richness of melodic creativity, his sound grasp of construction, and a technical mastery of the theatrical mechanisms that are always of the highest level.

Roberto Alagna stars in this Arena di Verona production of the Leoncavallo opera.

In Domrémy, in 1429, Charles VII (Carlo) informed the King of England of his intention to abdicate or to cease fighting, as the Virgin Mary had appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to lay down his arms in a wood. When the king recounted this dream, he was told of a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary situated in that very wood. He decided to go there and lay down his arms. In the same forest, there was also a small sheepfold where Jacques (Giacomo) and his daughter Jeanne (Giovanna) lived. Jeanne returns from the little chapel of the Virgin Mary, disheartened at being unable to fight for France, which is increasingly under English rule. Good spirits visit Jeanne and tell her that her greatest wish is about to come true: she will finally be able to fight, but must not succumb to any worldly love. Premiered on 3 November 1844. From the box set ‘Tutto Verdi’ featuring 27 of Verdi’s operas. Recorded live at the Teatro Regio in Parma on 7 and 17 October 2008.

Around 1850, in Paris. At a soirée, Alfredo Germont, a young man from a respectable Provençal family, falls in love with Violetta Valéry, a courtesan. Deeply in love, Violetta gives up her profession and devotes herself entirely to Alfredo. However, Mr Germont senior, in the name of bourgeois respectability, persuades her to break up with his son. Violetta then writes a letter of separation to Alfredo without revealing the real reason for her decision. The fatal illness from which she was already suffering then flares up once more. A month later, Alfredo learns from his father that Violetta never stopped loving him... ‘La traviata’ is a 3 act opera by Giuseppe Verdi, with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on the novel ‘The Lady of the Camellias’ by Alexandre Dumas, fils (1848) and its stage adaptation (1852). Premiered on 6 March 1853 at La Fenice in Venice. From the 27-opera Verdi box set “Tutto Verdi”. Recorded live at the Teatro Regio in Parma on 4 April 2012.

In England, at Windsor during the reign of Henry IV of England (1399–1413). Sir John Falstaff, also known as ‘Il Pancione’ (the Potbelly), has two identical love letters sent out, one to Meg Page and the other to Alice Ford, then delivers a sarcastic lecture on honour to his servants Bardolfo and Pistola. In Ford’s garden, his wife Alice and her friend Meg notice the similarity between Falstaff’s letters and decide to take revenge on him by pretending that Alice is receiving him at home whilst Ford is away. ‘Falstaff’ is a three-act opera buffa by Giuseppe Verdi, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare’s ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ and ‘Henry IV’, Parts I and II. It premiered on 9 February 1893 at La Scala in Milan and on 18 April 1894 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. It was the last opera composed by the composer, then aged 80. Taken from the 27-opera Verdi box set “Tutto Verdi”. Recorded live at the Teatro Regio in Parma on 10, 12, 15, 22 and 25 October 2011.

Stage director Jean-Louis Grinda and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo present Verdi’s early smash hit opera Ernani. Ramon Vargas heads up an incredible cast in the heroic title role and maestro Daniele Callegari leads the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra in the sumptuous melodies of Verdi’s score.

Tosca comes alive in the open air of Israel’s Negev Desert, staged at the foot of the towering fortress of Masada. Starring Svetla Vassileva as the title heroine, Gustavo Porta as her beloved Cavaradossi, and Sergey Murzaev as the evil police chief, former Paris Opera Director Nicolas Joel’s 2015 production—captured here in 4K (ultra HD)!—reimagined Puccini’s resplendent opera on a breathtaking scale.