The Rake's Progress

Mozart’s allegorical fairy tale has charmed audiences and inspired artists, for more than 200 years. A few weeks before this telecast, the Met unveiled a new production of the opera featuring the colorful designs of acclaimed artist David Hockney. His bold colors and vivid images enchanted audiences and seemed to inspire the striking cast, led by James Levine’s affectionate conducting. Francisco Araiza is the young prince Tamino, who finds himself in a strange land, forced to undergo mysterious tests so he can rescue, then marry, the woman he loves, Pamina, played by Kathleen Battle. Kurt Moll is the compassionate Sarastro and Luciana Serra is the Queen of the Night.

With its hilarious hijinks and vocal virtuosity, Rossini’s madcap comedy always proves a delightful treat. For this 1988 telecast, the Met assembled a cast capable of tackling both the musical and physical challenges of this bel canto farce, seen here in a whimsical production by John Cox. From the moment he takes the stage with Figaro’s iconic aria “Largo al factotum,” Leo Nucci combines winning charm with a robust baritone. Soprano Kathleen Battle tosses off one glittering vocal display after another as the feisty Rosina, while tenor Rowell Blake makes for an ardent Count Almaviva. Ralf Weikert conducts the lively performance, which also includes the comic duo of Enzo Dara as Dr. Bartolo and Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Basilio.

Richard Strauss' Intermezzo is an autobiographical piece - a domestic comedy of marital strife, told in fourteen scenes. John Cox's stylish production is set in the 1920s and stars Felicity Lott as the volatile Christine Storch. The splended art nouveau settings by Martin Batters by evoke perfectly the luxurious lifestyle of Strauss' Vienna.

In a world gone mad with languid ladies and affected gentlemen, the lovesick maidens of Castle Bunthorne forsake their handsome soldier suitors to pursue poet aesthete - and fake - Reginald Bunthorne. But he loves the village milkmaid, Patience, who doesn't like poetry or understand love. When Patience finally learns what love is, it's Reginald's rival she falls for.

Renée Fleming is Countess Madeleine, the beautiful, enigmatic woman at the center of Strauss’s sophisticated “Conversation Piece for Music.” She is being courted by two men: Joseph Kaiser sings the composer, Flamand, and Russell Braun is Olivier, the poet. The stellar cast also includes Peter Rose as the theater director La Roche, Sarah Connolly as the actress Clairon, and Morten Frank Larsen as the Countess’s brother. John Cox’s elegant production places the action in the 1920s. Andrew Davis conducts.

La Cenerentola is Gioachino Rossini's version of the popular Cinderella story, an exciting mixture of comedy, pathos, coloratura fireworks and masquerade. This Glyndebourne production by John Cox captures perfectly the fairy-tale spirit of the piece, matched by Allen Charles Klein's imaginative scenery, distorted like three-dimensional cut-outs in an old-fashioned story book.

After the Viennese premiere, the Fledermaus (the bat) conquered the world. It is one of the few operettas that are regularly performed at the major opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, the Scala Milan, the Vienna State Opera and the Royal Opera House Convent Garden in London. John Cox directed this lavishly equipped production by Julia Trevelyan Oman initially in London in 1977. On New Year's Eve 1990, this staging offered the luxurious ambiance for the farewell to Joan Sutherland from her London audience. The singer had admired them since her first great success at this prestigious opera house in the fifties. The rushing feast in the second act reached its climax with its stormy cheered performance and the commitment of her friends and colleagues Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne, with whom she often stood together on the stage.

Live from Glyndebourne 1981

For many people, one’s wedding day might feel dramatic. For Mozart’s Figaro, it is quite literally an opera! The action covers one day in the castle and grounds of Aguas Frescas, near Seville. Stellar performances in John Cox’s production of this Mozart opera, featuring an unforgettable Figaro by Joshua Bloom

When the most voluptuous, sought-after courtesan in the world meets an ascetic monk whose life is devoted to God, you know erotic sparks are going to fly. And when the clash takes place in a glorious, but rarely performed, opera by Massenet, it’s a delight to the ear just as much as to the eye. Renée Fleming is every inch the glamorous Thaïs, swathed in elegant gowns designed by Christian Lacroix. Thomas Hampson is Athanaël, the tortured man of God. This production by John Cox, which premiered in December 2008, brilliantly sets the stage for a confrontation as old as civilization itself.