The highlight of the 2013 Salzburg Festival in Giuseppe Verdi’s bicentennial year, Don Carlo is conducted by Antonio Pappano and stars Jonas Kaufmann in the title role. “With Antonio Pappano in the pit, Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros brought to their interpretations of the leading role rapturous arcs of phrasing and tone that we have not heard for a generation. Verdi's music can weather mediocrity and still provide audiences with enjoyment … but here he was truly honoured as he would have wished.” (The Telegraph)

LA Opera's latest production of Verdi s Macbeth (2016) features Plácido Domingo in the title role and Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk as Lady Macbeth. The opera is staged by Darko Tresnjak, who won a Tony Award for his direction of the Broadway musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder.

The Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg is one of the most prestigious opera and ballet venues in the world. Built in 1860 and named in honour of Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse-Darmstadt, wife of Czar Alexander II, it is home to the famous Mariinsky Ballet as well as numerous international stars and ensembles. After the turn of the millennium it was painstakingly restored; and since 2013, St. Petersburg's Theatre Square has been crowned with the "Mariinsky II" an imposing new arts and performance venue. At its inauguration on May 2, 2013, the highly gifted conductor Valery Gergiev led a veritable who's who of the classical music world.