Deidamia

Here is a rare and exceptional example in which the director and costume designer amuse themselves with `silly' costumes, but it actually works. I usually loath the stupid concept of 'clever' producers' of dressing opera singers in an motley set of `modern' and bizarre costumes (mostly tasteless) to help the `stupid' spectators to understand the universality of the opera across time and place. However, in this particular production I enjoyed every moment of it. All my reservations withstanding, I found that the costumes have actually helped ...

Rodelinda

Live from Munich 2004

Semiramide - Bayerische Staatsoper

Queen Semiramide is haunted by the ghosts of her past. Together with her lover Assur, she once murdered her husband King Nino; a deed which ever since has weighed heavily upon her. With her marriage to Arsace, she hopes her soul will at last find solace. Her love, however, is misplaced. Arsace not only loves another, he is also, as is later revealed, the son Semiramide and Nino believed to be dead. He is faced with a decision: should he avenge the death of his father – and thus become his mother's killer?

Winterreise

Combining a concert film with a making-of documentary, this presentation provides a dramatization of Franz Schubert's famed song cycle along with a unique look at the collaborative process in bringing the production to the screen. Tenor Ian Bostridge vocalizes the part of the wanderer from Wilhelm Müller's poems (on which the cycle is based), with Julius Drake accompanying him on piano and David Alden directing.