La Traviata

Considered by some to be the greatest opera ever written, Don Giovanni was the second product of an incredibly fruitful collaboration between two geniuses: the legendary W.A. Mozart and the talented Italian librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. Based on Molière's Don Juan, the two-act dramma giocoso premiered in October 1787 at Prague's state theater to rave reviews. The 2017 Festival d'Aix-en-Provence brought Mozart's fabulously devious work to the stage once more in a production by stage director Jean-François Sivadie. Starring Philippe Sly (Don Giovanni), Nahuel di Pierro (Leporello), and Eleonora Buratto (Donna Anna), the excellent performance featured the acclaimed maestro Jérémie Rhorer at the head of the period instrument ensemble Le Cercle de l'Harmonie.

This 1991 production by the Lyon National Opera presents a welcome opportunity to revel in a uniquely Gallic confection rarely seen outside France. It's also a chance to enjoy one of Offenbach's most inventive, melodic scores in which the starring musical role and many of the best tunes go to the orchestra, here conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce. This is no accident: the operetta was originally created for a company of actors who relied on pastiche and the composer's help to get them through their "numbers". Not so these singers, of course. As Metella, the languorous courtesan who is responsible for the unravelling debacle, Helene Delavault is in meltingly good voice for her show-stopping rondeau, "A minuit sonnant commence la fete". Her sparring suitors Gardefeu (Jean-Francois Sivadier) and, particularly, Bobinet (Jacques Verzier) combine marvellous visual comedy with fluid singing and there is some dazzling vocal work from the supporting cast. It's a long piece, but hugely enjoyable.

Natalie Dessay made her first European appearances as Violetta in La traviata in a new production by the French director Jean-François Sivadier at the 2011 Aix-en-Provence Festival. This DVD captures her intense performance in the company of American tenor Charles Castronovo as Alfredo and French baritone Ludovic Tézier as his father, Giorgio Germont.

In the shadow of an enormous hydraulic dam, the lives of the residents of a small French town are changed to their core when hundreds of previously dead relatives all return home on the same day.

Jonas, a 40 something Parisian, is still desperately in love with his ex-girlfriend Léa. When he knocks on her door to confess his feelings and she turns him down, he ends up at the café downstairs. Inspiration strikes and he sits down to write her a long love letter, dodging everything he was supposed to do that day. What begins as a last attempt to get her back surprisingly turns into a vivid musing on the state of his life. Over the course of a day, helped by a wisecracking bartender and an array of patrons from the neighborhood, Jonas has to face his past relationships, his uncertain future and, most of all, himself.

A CEO for a television channel finds his life torn apart after he wakes up from coma.

One Roman emperor is not enough for conductor Emmanuelle Haïm. After Julius Caesar in Handel’s opera –recorded for Virgin Classics DVD at Paris’ Palais Garnier with Lawrence Zazzo as Giulio Cesare and Natalie Dessay as Cleopatra – she now brings a ruler of less illustrious reputation: Nero (Nerone) in Monteverdi’s sensuous and cruel story of love, ambition and politics, L’incoronazione di Poppea. Source: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8030376--monteverdi-lincoronazione-di-poppea

After his victory over the Ottomans, Othello, the Moorish general of the Venetian armies, secretly married an aristocrat, Desdemona. As for Iago, Othello's loyal officer, he is disappointed at not having received the promotion he had hoped for. His revenge takes the form of treacherous plots that lead Othello to believe Desdemona is unfaithful. Othello then literally descends into madness, precipitating the protagonists towards a tragic and bloody end.