David Pittman-Jennings

The libretto is by Mussorgsky himself and takes the eponymous “romantic tragedy” by the celebrated Russian poet Alexander Pushkin as its starting point. Boris Godunov is Mussorgsky’s masterpiece and his only complete opera. It’s a vast sprawling tapestry of Russian life, which centres on the Russian people – represented in the opera by a large and powerful chorus – rather than on the title figure. The staging was produced at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and is based on the original version of the score.

Among the greatest operas in Richard Strauss's oeuvre, "Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of the Rose)" spins the tale of the Marschallin (Elizabeth Whitehouse), a dowager struggling with old age. Making the transition more difficult is Octavian (Ildiko Komlosi), a lover many years her junior. This 1997 Palermo production, under the baton of maestro Pier Luigi Pizzi, co-stars Daniel Lewis Williams as Baron Ochs, the Marschallin's obnoxious cousin.