Don Carlo

Finding the right librettos was not easy, but one month after the end of the First World War, his triptych – the grim tragedy Il tabarro, the lyrical and sensitive Suor Angelica, and the comedy Gianni Schicchi – premiered in New York. Three different eras, three different settings, three different ‘colours’; though for Puccini, it is through the contrasts between them that the unity of the work is revealed. For his second time directing at La Monnaie, Tobias Kratzer preserves the original order of the pieces, while weaving them together to form a narrative whole, like a circle with no end. With a cast of artists from the extended La Monnaie family, Alain Altinoglu is the ideal conductor to meet the daunting challenges posed by this triptych.

In the second part of this magnificent concert celebrating music from across Europe, Lukas Sternath, Martha Argerich, Bruce Liu and Hayato Sumino perform the finest piano concertos by Beethoven, Schumann, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

If in ‘Das Rheingold’ the curtain fell with the hegemony of the gods in Valhalla, the second part of ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ opens with a mortal who, alone on Earth, faces a raging storm. Siegmund is called the hunted warrior, and when he briefly finds peace in a concealed hut, he meets the beautiful but equally hapless Sieglinde. An ardent and natural passion blossoms, but at the same time a hidden past surfaces that will seal their fate.

The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra performs Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8. The extraordinary gravity of the Eighth marks a new high in conductor Alain Altinoglu undertaking of the complete discography.

Hayato Sumino performs Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor at the Wiesbaden Kurhaus in Germany with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alain Altinoglu as part of Europiano.

Sergey Khachatryan and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Alain Altinoglu, perform Aram Khatchatourian's Violin Concerto. Also on the programme, Igor Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'.

The latest edition of the Festival International de Colmar opens with an exceptional performance from the Orchestre Symphonique du Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie de Bruxelles, conducted by Alain Altinoglu. After Wagner's Prelude to Lohengrin, baritone Stéphane Degout sings Mahler's Songs of a Wandering Companion. The evening at Saint-Matthieu church closes with César Franck's Symphony in D minor, a jewel from the repertoire of the late 19th century.