This version of Mozart's Magic Flute, which was performed for the first time at the Herrenchiemsee Festival in 2010 under the direction of Enoch zu Guttenberg, draws on a common 19th-century practice: in aristocratic families, putting on classic German theatre works in extravagant amateur performances was a ritual designed to show off a good education. Ludwig II of Bavaria also stood in this tradition of aristocratic passion for the theatre. However, the scenario as presented here is fictitious. The role of the 'real' Papageno is played by the actor Gerd Anthoff. Simultaneously involved in the plot and yet detached from it, he recounts to the audience the 'true' story of the Magic Flute, making comments and corrections, all while entering into fantastical collaborations with his singer double.

Placing one of the world's most famous piano superstars, Lang Lang, in one of the most spectacular locations, the Palace of Versailles’s Hall of Mirrors, this live recital Blu-Ray/DVD looks as good as it sounds. Performing popular works in the Romantic piano repertoire, the intimate splendour of Chopin and Tchaikovsky's solo piano music are perfectly served by Lang Lang's display interpretative ability and renowned technical command.

inaugurated Cecilia Bartoli’s first season as Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in 2012. “Bartoli’s Dream Start with Dream Voices” wrote the Vienna Kurier of this uproarious Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier in which Bartoli heads a hand-picked cast including Andreas Scholl, Philippe Jaroussky and Anne Sofie Von Otter with Il Giardino Armonico conducted by Giovanni Antonini. “[Andreas Scholl’s] coloratura is note perfect, he phrases recitatives with as much musicianship as arias, and the steadiness and purity of his voice are remarkable.” The Financial Times

Recorded during the 2018 Donizetti Festival, Il Castello di Kenilworth was first staged at Naples’ San Carlo in 1829. Drawn from a novel by Sir Walter Scott and adapted by librettist Leone Tottola, this rare opera was unjustly long neglected. This recording features the original version, with the role of Warney entrusted to a tenor (which the composer changed into a baritone in the 1836 revision of the score).Il Castello di Kenilworth is the first of the several successful works to follow that Donizetti based on British history, introducing the character of Queen Elizabeth I, torn by the inner struggle between a monarch’s duty and a woman’s feelings. The fundamental pivot of the drama is the antagonism between the two female characters who both dwell and suffer in their loneliness, in a male-dominated world.

Recorded live at the Saarbrücken State Theatre in 2008, this spectacular new production of Handel's Agrippina has received critical recognition, with reviewer Frank Herkommer of opernnetz.de commenting: "Producer Peter Lund with his celebrated production of Agrippina demonstrates his love with detail, focused on directing the characters, with exuberant fantasy and creativity the Berlin director sparks brilliant Handel fireworks! He succeeds in unleashing an effervescent joy of playing, which puts an irresistible spell on the viewer". Featuring a cast of renowned baroque specialists under the direction of Konrad Junghänel, one of the leading conductors in the array of early music.

Nobody is better suited to undertake such a challenge than Valery Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra. Over a period of a year all 15 Symphonies and 6 Concertos have been recorded at Salle Pleyel in Paris. What an adventure for the artists and the big production team! Never before in the history of television has something like this been undertaken including the very first “Ring” for television at Bayreuth.

Known for her idiosyncratic performances of baroque repertoire and eccentric personal style, the German coloratura soprano Simone Kermes trained in her native Leipzig, with early successes including the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. Bach has not, however, figured prominently in her career since then – Kermes gravitated towards Vivaldi, Handel and the Neapolitan composers who wrote for the great castrati, such as Riccardo Broschi, Alessandro Scarlatti and Porpora. (She has recorded several solo albums of such repertoire for Sony, including Dramma, and Colori d’Amore – reviewing the latter, BBC Music Magazine described her as ‘a remarkable artist, charming, fascinating and boldly risk-taking by turns’).

Mozart was not yet seventeen when Lucio Silla was created in Milan one December evening of 1772, yet we can still identify some of the elements that established the exceptionally-gifted child musician as the greatest composer of all times. Indeed, with Lucio Silla, although a neoclassical 'opera seria' in every way, it seems that Mozart was already learning to deconstruct and to free the traditional forms of musical drama from archaic conventions. The opera is centered around the love that Roman dictator Lucio Silla bears for his enemy's daughter Giunia, who favours the exiled senator Cecilio. After many twists and turns, the lovers are united in marriage and Silla renounces his crown. Tenor Kurt Streit is Lucio Silla, and soprano Patricia Petibon is Giunia for the last time, after having gained international recognition thanks to her numerous performances in this role, while mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro Santafe is the ardent Cecilio. In this monumental production, Claus Guth finds a way to respect both the classical setting and the formal innovations that make the opera so interesting. Ivor Bolton conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real.

Here, for the first time the two versions of this delightful opera which Donizetti wrote for Naples. Betrayed by her fiancée and abandoned by her father, Emilia has turned her back on the world. In a most operatic coincidence, her fiancée appears on the same day as her father returns to England.
'The work has charm and wild improbability in equal proportion' - John Higgins, The Times

Originally composed to celebrate Pushkin’s centenary, the full title of the work - The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan - is indicative of the fantastical content of the opera. It is an old-fashioned Russian treat for the eyes and the ears from the country’s most long-standing musical institution. Filled with colourful music that is typical of Rimsky-Korsakov’s style, it is the origin of the instantly recognisable Flight of the Bumblebee, which arrives when the magic Swan-Princess changes Prince Gvidon Saltanovich into an insect.

Opera Rara chose this most obscure of Donizetti’s operas on the strength of its many beautiful and intricate ensembles. A convoluted plot culminates in the magnificent poison scene, conceived as a vehicle for the talents of the great singing actress Giuditta Pasta. Della Jones, Janet Price, Eiddwen Harrhy and Yvonne Kenny make their recording debuts for the first of Opera Rara’s Donizetti revivals.

After Tristan und Isolde (2016), Parsifal (2017) and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (2018) this is the fourth installment of the exclusive, multiyear partnership between Deutsche Grammophon and the Bayreuth Festival, in which the Yellow Label is the exclusive audiovisual partner of the mythical Wagner festival, releasing each edition's new production on Blu-ray.

Bianca e Falliero has enough fine music to get the blood boiling, the toes tapping, and the hands clapping. It is strong in rhythmically exciting pieces and showy, virtuosic singing, both of which are in ample supply in this performance. Jennifer Larmore gets through Falliero's music with incredible aplomb and a truly handsome tone. Majella Cullagh's Bianca is just as technically fine as Larmore's Falliero, and she, too, pays close attention to expressing her predicament. Contareno, Bianca's cruel father, is sung by the exciting, accomplished tenor Barry Banks, who seems to understand that Rossini occasionally uses high notes and difficult roulades as expressive weapons. The others in the cast don't let us down. David Parry conducts with an inner tension that keeps the listener riveted. (Robert Levine)

The plot of Gounods opera La Nonne sanglante (The Bleeding Nun) is drawn from Matthew Lewiss once famous 1796 novel The Monk. The subject is a Gothic melodrama featuring warring families, two lovers, and the vengeful spectre of the Nun, to which Gounod responds with music that fuses Romanticism with the supernatural on the grandest scale. This ground-breaking production features memorable set pieces enhanced by the stark drama of the stage setting and brilliant cinematic lighting effects.

Maybe you’ve come across this plot before: a damsel-in-distress is saved by a knight in shining armour. This is the standard ‘fairy tale’ we all learned as children. Yet the surprising thing about Adelaide di Borgogna is that the story is true. Oh yes: in an important but rarely remembered piece of Italian history, Otto II, emperor of Germany, came to the rescue of Adelaide, widow of Lotario, king of Italy. And what did Rossini do with this? He covered it, as always, with the most beautiful music, writing arias, duets, quartets and finales to melt your hearts. This is virtually guaranteed to happen when Jennifer Larmore and Majella Cullagh bring their amazing voices together in one of those moments that recording producers pray for. But the joys in this recording are not confined to the contributions of those talented ladies. Bruce Ford, once again the bad guy, is at his virile best with his father, Mirco Palazzi, at one elbow and Rebecca Bottone, as his mother, at the other. This trio of malcontents doesn’t have much chance against Cullagh, who has a formidable aria just before the end of the evening. But Larmore, as Ottone, puts the seal of triumph on the whole evening with a rondo finale of outstanding verve and panache.