Nicolas Rivenq

Director Robert Carsen and his creative team flood the stage with summer blossoms, drifts of autumn leaves, winter snows and thunderous spring storms. The cast of 140 are attired in elegant costumes inspired by late 1940s Dior. This mythical tale of a young queen, Alphise, determined to abdicate rather than contemplate an enforced marriage to a descendant of Boreas, is nothing less than highly-charged.

William Christie conducts Atys by Lully at the Opéra Comique

Time stands still whenever Giuditta starts to sing. Regarded as a bird of paradise, many a man has tried to enclose her in a golden cage and trap her in chains of diamonds disguised as necklaces. To no avail: the beautiful Giuditta is as protective of her freedom as her secrets. No one truly knows from whence she came, not the bird-catcher who one day found her on the shore and married her no questions asked, or the handsome Captain Octavio with whom she ran away to North Africa…

No synopsis available yet.

Mozart's genius in setting to music da Ponte's comic play of love, infidelity and forgiveness marks COSI FAN TUTTE as one of the great works of art from the Age of Enlightenment. Nicholas Hytner's beautiful new production, with its sure touch and theatrical know-how, lives up to its promise to be "shockingly traditional" as Iván Fischer teases artful performances from an outstanding international cast of convincing young lovers.

Les Arts Florissants, led by William Christie in performance and masterclasses of two masterpieces from their repertoire, Actéon by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and Dido & Aeneas by Henry Purcell

No synopsis available yet.

Pierre is a womanizing photographer, with a slight mean streak. For whatever reason, Camille, an artist in her own right, finds him entrancing and easily succumbs to his devious efforts to get her into bed. Soon she is trying to hold him to her with her oh-so submissive love, and he is playing some games with her head by pretending (usually) to have been playing around with others. Eventually, he encounters another woman who is not so sticky and tells her to buzz off. When they meet some time later, it becomes clear that the relationship meant different things to each of them.

"William Christie and Les Arts Florissants propel this exuberant production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's second opera to great heights. Andrei Serban's extravagant, highly baroque staging presents the four exotic love stories vibrantly. In 'Le Turc généreux' Osman sets free his captive, Emilie, whom he loves, so that she may be reunited with her former lover, Valère; 'Les Incas de Pérou' is all about the rivalry of the Inca Huascar and the Spaniard Don Carlos, both in pursuit of Princess Phani; 'Les Fleurs' offers a Persian love intrigue, as the Sultana Fatime tries to detect whether her husband Tacmas has his eye on the lovely Atalide; and 'Les Sauvages' takes us to North America, where a Spaniard and a Frenchman compete for the love of Zima, daughter of a native chief, who prefers one of her own people." — from the DVD cover

La traviata in Paris is a film-opera of Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata filmed live on television and worldwide, directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, conceived and produced by Andrea Andermann in 2000. A Traviata that takes place live, with a television reporter who, amid the events of the day that took place in France on June 3, 2000, connects live to the scene of the action but at the time exactly a century earlier, in the Paris of June 3, 1900 (the setting of the opera is thus postdated from the original, which was conceived for the 1850s).

Live peformance from the Sferisterio Opera Festival, August 2004. Our edition has an Italian cast of exceptional quality, in which stand out the amazing voice of Desirée Rancatore, the extraordinary artistry of Ruggiero Raimondi and the fascinating direction of Pier Luigi Pizzi, one of today's most creative directors. Interesting overview here: http://www.operatoday.com/content/2006/08/offenbach_les_c.php