Pinkerton returns to the US and finds a “real” American wife, while Butterfly waits with unshakeable faith for him to return to the house on the harbour.

Pinkerton returns to the US and finds a “real” wife, while Butterfly waits with unshakeable faith for him to return to the house on the harbour.

Madama Butterfly

Don Giovanni is the second of Mozart’s landmark collaborations with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (after The Marriage of Figaro and before Così fan tutte). In it, they created a work that has beguiled and entranced in equal measure since its premiere in 1787. Perfectly situated, as no other opera, between tragedy and comedy, this potent drama combines glorious music with a seductive central character who is endlessly fascinating in his complexity. Kasper Holten’s 2014 production for The Royal Opera casts Don Giovanni as an artist who thrives on an audience enticed by his creative gifts. The visually spectacular set by award-winning designer Es Devlin features ingenious video designs by Luke Halls which provide an insight into the characters’ thoughts and emotions. But at the production’s heart are the beauty and invention of Mozart’s dazzling score.

Kasper Holten’s 2014 production for The Royal Opera House casts Don Giovanni as an artist who thrives on an audience enticed by his creative gifts.

Don Giovanni

The Royal Opera of Versailles presents a meticulous revival of Bizet’s “Carmen” 150 years after the composer’s death—restoring the raw passion that scandalized audiences at its 1875 premiere.

Christian Lacroix’s lavish period costumes and sets transport us to sun-drenched Seville, where the fearless Carmen (Adèle Charvet, a captivating force of nature) ensnares the dutiful Don José (Julien Behr, tormented by duty and consumed by desire). He sacrifices everything—his military career and innocent fiancée—for her love. But when the dashing toreador Escamillo (Alexandre Duhamel, exuding swagger) captures her heart, passion turns to jealousy, and fate takes a deadly turn.

Under the baton of Hervé Niquet, the Royal Opera Orchestra infuses Bizet’s score with electrifying intensity—from the sultry “Habanera” to the triumphant “Toreador Song”—all performed on authentic period instruments. Experience "Carmen" as it first shocked, seduced, and conquered the world.

Danger lurks in every note of this breathtaking revival of Bizet's scandalous 1875 opera, “Carmen.”

Carmen, Bizet - 150th Anniversary in Versailles

Teatro Regio's 2013 revival of their highly successful 2006 production of Verdi's Don Carlo celebrates the 40th anniversary of the theatre's 1973 reopening. With traditional staging and lavish costume design, the production garnered high acclaim in the national and international press. Shown here in the four-act version, Don Carlo is the fascinating tale of father-son power struggles, adultery and love that borders on incest. The cast under the powerful baton of Gianandrea Noseda is headed by renowned Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas, and also features Ludovic Tézier, who has been hailed as one of the best Verdian singers of our time.

Don Carlo is the fascinating tale of father-son power struggles, adultery and love that borders on incest.

Verdi: Don Carlo

“Falstaff” is the only comic opera, as well as the last opera, of Verdi’s production. At 1893 “Falstaff” made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala accompanied by a great success. “Falstaff’s” score abounds in musical experimentation like the pseudo-symphonic sonata-form that opens the first act, the fugue buffa that closes the opera. “Falstaff” is the work of an amusing and amused Verdi. After all, as the final theme reads: “Everything in the world is a joke. Man was born a joker”. In this way John Eliot Gardiner together with stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf are congenial to this witty opera after Shakespeare.

“Falstaff” is the only comic opera, as well as the last opera, of Verdi’s production.

Verdi: Falstaff

Victory makes Radamès a hero, but tangles his Ethiopian lover Aida in a dangerous royal love triangle and a very personal war.

Aida

The Royal Opera House stages one of Verdi’s - and opera’s - most beloved productions, La Traviata.

The timeless tale follows the tragic love story of a courtesan, Violetta, who is prepared to sacrifice everything for the man she loves, Alfredo. Torn apart by society and class, Verdi’s dramatic masterpiece has been the inspiration behind modern Hollywood classics including Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge. 

Experience Verdi’s La Traviata, the inspiration behind Moulin Rouge, lovingly staged at London’s Royal Opera House.

La Traviata

The ‘sheer visual sophistication’ of Annabel Arden’s Barbiere serves ‘a triumphant celebration of Rossini’s musical genius’, featuring de Niese’s ‘powerfully sung’ Rosina, Bürger’s ‘gale-force’ Figaro and Stayton’s ‘pure and mellifluous’ Almaviva – a leading trio ‘musically and dramatically beyond compare’ ( The Independent). Contributing to the ‘ensemble precision’, the rest of the cast includes a ‘scene-stealing’ Berta in Kelly, a ‘suavely unctuous’ Basilio from Stamboglis andCorbelli’s Bartolo, ‘an object lesson in comic understatement’ (The Guardian). With Enrique Mazzola at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, ‘the score bubbles along on a Puckish current of merry mischief’ (The Telegraph).

The ‘sheer visual sophistication’ of Annabel Arden’s Barbiere serves ‘a triumphant celebration of Rossini’s musical genius

The Barber of Seville

Mozart’s masterpiece conducted by Giovanni Antonini on stage at La Scala with Michael Hampe’s staging.

Così Fan Tutte

Glyndebourne’s wartime history as a home for evacuee children is the ingenious context for a new production of this unclassifiable entertainment in which low comedy and high tragedy compete for our attention, ‘borne aloft by Strauss’s divine music and Hofmannsthal’s visionary poetry’. At the centre of this production from Katharina Thoma is the noble, tragic figure of the abandoned Ariadne herself, in a haunting performance from Soile Isokoski, ‘with brilliant support from the pit’ (The Independent).

Glyndebourne’s wartime history as a home for evacuee children is the ingenious context for a new production of this unclassifiable tale.

Carmen

Opera Australia

Subscribe now to watch

Cast & Crew

You may also like