Celebrating 450 years since the birth of Monteverdi, Pinchgut Opera performed one of the greatest operas of all time, Coronation of Poppea. Pinchgut Opera's performance of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea, recorded live at City Recital Hall, Sydney, December 2017.

…Meredith Hall, eine bildhübsche kanadische Sopranistin mit herrlicher Stimme und ausserordentlicher Bühnenpräsenz, war eine Partenope, wie sie im Buche steht. Ihr nahm man jede Äusserung und jede Aktion ab, sei es als furchtlose Regentin, als ständig umworbene, aber stets treu zu ihrem Liebhaber stehende Frau, oder als von Arsace arglistig getäuschte Geliebte.

With L’Amore innamorato – ‘Love in love’ – Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata return to their own first great love, Italian music of the 17th century, and specifically to composer Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676). A luminary of the glamorous and innovative world of Venetian opera, Cavalli was a protégé of Claudio Monteverdi – the composer around whom L’Arpeggiata built Il teatro d’amore, the ensemble’s first Warner Classics album, which was released in early 2009. “Cavalli’s music excites my passions”, says Christina Pluhar. He composed some 40 operas, some of which have achieved new currency since the 1960s, such as La Calisto, Il Giasone, L’Egisto and L’Ormindo and La Didone. Arias and instrumental numbers from six of his operas feature in L’Amore innamorato. The instrumentalists of L’Arpeggiata are joined for the album – which also includes pieces by two of Cavalli’s contemporaries, Girolamo Kapsperger and Andrea Falconieri – by two sopranos, the Catalan Núria Rial and the Czech Hana Blažíková.

For the festivities marking the Pergolesi’s tercentenary in his native Jesi, Ignacio García created a new staging of the imperial drama Adriano in Siria. His staging in Jesi’s exquisite 18th-century Teatro Comunale Pergolesi includes the delightful comic intermezzo Livietta e Tracollo, thus following the precedent set at the premiere in 1734. A fine Italian cast and the distinguished Accademia Bizantina are led by the Accademia’s director, Ottavio Dantone.

Based on the well-know mythological story narrated by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, this is a classical tale of jealousy and love. The giant Polyphemus tries to force his attention on the fair sea-nymph Galatatea, who is in love with shepard Aci. When mad jealousy drives Polyphemus to kill his rival, Galatea, asks her father Nereus to turn Aci’s bood into a river so that, flowing into the sea, he will join her forevermore. It appears this serenade was composed for a marriage in the Neapolitan nobility to celebrate this wedding, Handel wrote this serenade for his new patrons. This is undoubtedly one of Handel’s masterpieces.

«Les six quatuors de Bartok représentent non seulement un sommet dans le genre du quatuor à cordes, mais aussi un panorama extraordinaire de l'évolution politique et artistique de la 1ère moitié du 20ème siècle. Un sommet du genre par la qualité de ses quatuors, qui ont complètement renouvelé le genre, inventant nombre de nouveaux procédés d'écriture (le pizzicato "Bartok"), repensant totalement le type de dialogues des quatre instruments, lui imposant de nouvelles règles; cette intégrale dialogue avec l'autre géant de l'histoire du quatuor à cordes, Beethoven. Pour une formation comme le quatuor Diotima, engagé dans la création, ce corpus unique et magnifique est une sorte de "bible", de référence de tous les instants.

„It can be truly said of Adelaide di Borgogna that, like a rose, it bloomed but a day - l’espace d’un matin.” First performed in Rome on the 27th December 1817, it enjoyed very few revivals. In 2011 the Rossini Festival in Pesaro presented the second staged performance of Adelaide di Borgogna since 1825.

Celebrated vocal group VOCES8 take listeners on a glorious journey through the musical landscape of Britain with their brand new album ‘Enchanted Isle’, released on Decca Classics. The recording features a broad range of music from John Tavener and Thomas Adès to Radiohead and Enya, interspersed with folk tunes, world premiere recordings and music from hit TV shows Game of Thrones and Harry’s Game.

Dame Felicity Lott stars in a rollicking performance of Offenbach's operetta "La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein." The stage production was filmed in December 2004 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. The result is a kaleidoscope of artistry and comedy that should not be missed! This production goes back to the original version which had been adjusted and censored after it's premiere at the Theatre des Varietes in 1867.

In the role of Eurydice, Natalie Dessay begins at once with a display of vocal and verbal pyrotechnics, which are then taken up by Yann Beuron as Orpheus. Together they give us an idea of the developments to follow. Dancers and singers melt into a unit. The stage setting and an unconventional choreography sparkle with inventiveness. When Pluto, for example, arrives on skis from the underworld onto Mt. Olympus and Offenbach quotes the famous can-can right in the middle of Pluto’s aria, it seems to be a parody of his own work. The production offers a wealth of material for modern interpretations of this operetta full to the brim with ironic sideswipes at morality and immorality. Thus we see a bored Eurydice lying on the sofa in her apartment as she zaps her way through the TV channels, constantly looking for diversion, showing us how timeless an opera buffa can really be. Sometimes she sings upside down, sometimes hopping around – a vocal masterpiece. Laurent Naouri also captivates in the role of Jupiter and, costumed as a fly, demonstrates his vocal and acting talent with Jacques Offenbach’s “Buzz” aria.

Pergolesi’s comic opera Lo frate ’nnamorato (The Brother in Love) from 1732 was his ticket to the Royal Chapel in Naples. Its huge success was due to the beautiful score, showing Pergolesi’s talent for opera compositions, and the exquisite Libretto by Gennarantonio Federico. Lo frate ‘nnamorato especially owes its wit and exuberance to the comic resources of improvisational theatre, which is refl ected in the narrative structure and relationships between the dramatis personae. Love triangles, marriage plans that come to nothing, intrigues and more lead the opera along to the unsuspected outcome.

In his autobiography Opera Years Rolf Liebermann wrote: “Of all the film versions of operas in which I was involved, my favourite has always been Wozzeck, mainly because the interpreters and location were so convincingly authentic.” And truly, this film adoption of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, recorded in 1970, fascinated with its constantly developing tension from the first tone to the last accord. Indeed the cast could not has been any better than in this production: Toni Blankenheim as Wozzeck and Sena Jurinac as Marie. Clearly and precisely in picture and speech, this film can truly be considered a classic and is now available on DVD for the first time.

Giovanni Paisiello (1741-1816) was famous for his comic operas. This production of Paisiello’s rarely heard opera L’Osteria di Marechiaro was taped live at the Teatro Vincenzo Bellini in Naples in 2001. The cast of young singers brings this frothy operatic entertainment vividly to life. The libretto is by Francesco Cerlone and revised by Roberto De Simone.

This finely-focused and witty production of Jacques Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers with sets, costumes and lighting by the director Herbert Wernicke, is a visual and musical delight. The burlesque – conducted by Patrick Davin – is situated in a famous fin de siècle café and with a stupendous coup de théâtre the ensemble makes its entry into hell in a steam locomotive, which crashes through the ceiling. Elizabeth Vidal and Alexandru Badea in the main roles are supported energetically by the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and Offenbach’s famous “can-can” is, as ever, an intoxicating highlight. In Offenbach’s light and elegant comedy based on the Greek legend of Orpheus – a veiled satire on Napoleon III’s régime – a dissolute bunch of gods, bored with the cushioned confines of Mount Olympus, are in a rebellious mood. They are delighted to go slumming in Hell with the duplicitous Jupiter, who agrees personally to return Eurydice (now Pluto’s lover) to her reluctant (and unfaithful) husband, hoping that, in the process, she will succumb to his charms.

800 litres of water, two sails, thirty pulleys, sixty hammocks: for the Bicentenary of the Teatro Real of Madrid, Deborah Warner coined a colossal production of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd. A critically-acclaimed performance, praised for its depth and intelligence. Baritone Jacques Imbrailo delivers a stunning rendition of the young sailor's part, while British singers Toby Spence and Brindley Sherratt provide solid interpretations of Captain 'Starry' Vere and of John Claggart. In the pit, Ivor Bolton masterfully deploys, along with the Orchestra of the Teatro Real, all the energy and power of Britten's fifth opera. A now iconic production, co-produced by the Opera of Rome and the Royal Opera House.