Rigoletto tells the story of the crippled court jester Rigoletto and his adored daughter Gilda, whom he desperately tries to protect from the advances of the pleasure-loving Duke of Mantua. While Gilda naïvely gives credence to the Duke’s amorous advances, he is concerned only with constantly cha...

Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini, from Opera Zurich, 2001. Directed by Felix Breisach, conductor Nello Santi. Starring Vesselina Kasarova, Manuel Lanza, Reinaldo Macias, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Carlos Chausson, Valeri Murga, Peter Kalmán. Performed in Italian.

"Mozart’s masterpiece is presented in a version shortened to 60 minutes for the youngest (from 5 years), young and also adult audiences, thus providing children with their first insight into the fascinating world of opera.

Papageno is the presenter, who accompanies the audience through the pie...

Fidelio by L. V. Beethoven, from Zurich Opera, 2004. Directed by Jürgen Flimm, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, starring Jonas Kaufmann, Alfred Muff, László Polgár, Christoph Strehl, Gabriel Bermúdez, Camillia Nylund, Elizabeth Rae Maguson and Boguslaw Bidzinski. Performed in German and subtitled ...

This opera is supported by a musical variety of great arias, short duets and amazing choir passages that add to the unveiled expression of feelings. As a special guest the Argentinian Tenor José Cura stands out with his fascinating singing and acting performance. Besides him Carlo Guelfi as Tonio...

Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci is set in the small cosmos of a traveling circus troupe. The «Commedia» on stage turns deadly serious. The lines between theater and reality are blurred: on the open stage, Canio the clown stabs his unfaithful wife and her lover.

Fidelio by L.v. Beethoven from Opernhaus Zürich, performed at Opernhaus Zurich, 2008. Directed by Katharina Thalbach, conductor Bernard Haitink. Starring Melanie Diener (Leonore), Roberto Saccà (Florestan), Sandra Trattnigg (Marzelline), Alfred Muff (Rocco), Lucio Gallo (Don Pizarro), Zurich Oper...

Ariadne auf Naxos is one of many beautifully crafted operas created by Richard Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. In the compelling production from the Zurich Opera, recorded on this DVD, Christoph von Dohnányi leads a particularly strong cast of singer-actors in a thrilling interp...

Swan Lake by P. I. Tchaikovsky, from Zurich Opera Ballet, performed at Zurich Opera House, 2009. Conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev, starring Polina Semionova, Rothbart, Stanislav Jermakov, Karin Pellmont, Zurich Opera Ballet & Orchestra, Vladimir Fedoseyev.

"Jealous men and unreliable women: Mozart’s “Opera buffa” Così fan tutte is a masterpiece of its genre. This operatic gem which is part comedy, part tragedy is a wry study in love, manipulation and trust. After having cooperated twice before (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni) Così fan tutte was t...

Aida by Verdi from Zurich Opera, performed at Zurich Opera House, 2006. Directed by Nicolas Joël, conductor Adam Fisher. Starring Nina Stemme (Aida), Salvatore Licitra (Radamès), Luciana d Intino (Amneris), Juan Pons (Amonasro), Laszlo Polgár (Ramphis), Günther Groissböck (Il Re di Egitto), Chris...

A superficial view may regard Offenbach’s lightweight masterpiece, La belle Hélène, as „merely“ an opera buffa. But closer scrutiny of this charming, imaginative firework of intrigue makes one thing clear: the story of the Greek queen who started off the Trojan war is, in this version, a humorous...

Otello by Rossini from Zurich Opera, performed at Paris Opera Bastille, 2012. Directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, conductor Muhai Tang. Starring John Osborn (Otello), Cecilia Bartoli (Desdemone), Peter Kalman (Elmiro), Javier Camarena (Rodrigo), Edgardo Rocha (Jago), Liliana Nikiteanu (...

Cinderella by S. Prokofiev, from Zurich Opera Ballet, performed at Zurich Opera House, 2003. Conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev, starring François, Karine Seneca, Stanislav Jermakov, Marine Castel, Jozef Varga, Nicolas Blanc. Performed in German.

Peer Gynt by E. Grieg, from Zurich Opera Ballet, performed at Zurich Opera House, 2008. Conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen, starring Philipp Schepmann, Arman Grigoryan, Christiane Kohl, Marijn Rademaker, Julie Gardette, Huiling Zhu, Juliet Brunner, Sarah-Jane Brodbeck, Ana Carolina Quaresma, Agnies...

"“Orlando teaches all of us that love is often responsible for our loss of reason,” runs a line from Act 3 of the opera. It is a modest moral, and perhaps one not demanding of the dramatic finesse and musical diversity that Handel serves up in Orlando – for the opera’s complex of problems is rath...

Pelléas et Mélisande by C. Debussy, from Oper Zürich, performed at Zurich Opera House, 2016. Directed by Dimitry Tcherniakov, conductor Alain Altinoglu, starring Jacques Imbrailo, Corinne Winters, Kyle Ketelsen, Brindley Sherratt, Yvonne Naef, Damien Göritz, Charles Dekeyser, Father of Pelléas. P...

Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria by C. Monteverdi, from Zurich Opera, performed at Zurich Opera House, 2002. Directed by Klaus Michael Grüber, conductor Nikolas Harnoncourt, starring Jonas Kaufmann, Thomas Mohr, Vesselina Kasarova, Dietrich Henschel, Martina Janková, Cornelia Kallisch, Isabel Rey, M...

To save the billions belonging to the young and attractive widow Hanna Glawari for his country Pontevedro, Baron Zeta initiates a very special matchmaking: he commands the charming womanizer Count Danilo Danilowitsch to carry out his patriotic duty in marrying the widow. What the baron cannot hav...

"“Procure me the unconditional fulfilment of my every wish for the rest of my life, let me embrace the world – the East and the South, which call out to me –, let me understand completely man’s actions and extend them in unheard-of ways; give me genius, and give me also his suffering, so that I m...

"SCHUMANN’S GENOVEVA – A MODERN-DAY DRAMA OF THE SOUL"

On 25th June 1850, Robert Schumann’s only opera, Genoveva, received its first performance at Leipzig State Theatre. It was a much-awaited event, as Schumann, widely regarded as the leading German instrumental composer, had set his mind to ...

Cello Suites - In den Winden im Nichts by J. S. Bach, from Zurich Opera Ballet, performed at Zurich Opera House, 2004.

Magnificat by J. S. Bach, from Ballet Zürich, performed at Opernhaus Zürich/ Zurich Opera House, 2012. Conductor Marc Minkowski, starring Galina Mikhaylova, Sarah-Jane Brodbeck, Juliet Brunner, Samantha Mednick, She Yun Kim, Melanie Borel, Vahe Martirosyan, Filipe Portugal, Arman Grigoryan and Ol...

Great Arias Paoletta Marrocu - Macbeth: "Vieni! t'affretta" and "La luce langue", by G. Verdi, from Opernhaus Zürich, 2001. Conductor Fritz Weller-Möst, starring Paoletta Marrocu (Lady Macbeth).